Block Rocking Bytes

Block Rocking Bytes was a project released on April 24, 2018, in order to give source port authors a WAD to test blockmap handling on, and to show tool makers what kinds of blockmaps can be made.

Project text file

A simple test WAD designed to test compatibility in ports with regard to blockmap-related hacks, compression, special effects and optimizations.

These are all designed for Doom II version 1.9, DOS or the latest Chocolate Doom.

The current version is zokblok1.wad; the next version will be zokblok2.wad, etc. Once all the numbers are used up, letters will be used. If more than 32 maps are created, the next map set will be zokbloc1.wad

This is not a map set designed to be played, it contains some very basic architecture in order to test the tweaked blockmaps quickly and reliably.

As time passes and more research is done, more maps will be added with different tweaks.

The maps have mostly been created with anotak's Doom Builder X fork and then built with ZokumBSP. Some of them have then been opened in SLADE, had the blockmap exported and reworked by hand in a hex editor before being re-imported. One of the goals of this project is also to add support for these algorithms and tweaks in upcoming releases of ZokumBSP.

Maps

• MAP01: Zero headered plus size. Uses a blockmap larger than 65536 bytes. It is 65622 bytes, 86 bytes larger than the conventional maximum size. The area with the overhanging block list is the complex stair like area.
• MAP02: Zero header removed.
• MAP03: Separate render and collision geometry simplification. The affected wall is the one with alternating silver textures.
• MAP04: "oversized map", which is a term for type of maps that would generate a blockmap that is too big with conventional techniques.

External links

• Original release at Doomworld forums
• Version 1.2 update at Doomworld forums