Sectors

Sectors are a group of lines that define an area. Thus the majority of time sectors are enclosed geometric shapes, which can be connected to other shapes. It is not a strict requirement that sectors are closed, however when they are not closed it can result in graphical glitches. Sectors define the moveable area, lighting, room sizes, and floor/ceiling textures. Additional sector properties can be assigned via flags and specials as defined in the subsequent sections. On the original engine, the minimum number of sectors is 2, while the maximum number of sectors is 32,767 (although blockmap and sidedef limits tend to be reached first).

Sector Flags

Sector flags are settings and properties you can apply to sectors. These tend to affect textures, sounds, and the player. In contrast, sector specials determine lighting effects and instant death for crushers.

Flag Bit Editor Setting Description
0x01 Echo sounds Reverb effect applied to sounds while in sector
0x02 Heavy Echo Sounds Heavy reverb effect applied to sounds while in sector
0x04 Liquid Effect Water effect (floors only). Blends two floor textures together (next texture is selected).
0x08 Sync Specials All flagged sectors sync with unflagged lowest-numbered sector of same special type
0x10 Toggle Fast Scrolling Scrolling floors/ceilings will scroll at twice the speed
0x20 Secret Count as secret when entering this sector
0x40 Damage x5 Damage player x5 (additive with other damage flags)
0x80 Damage x10 Damage player x10 (additive with other damage flags)
0x100 Damage x20 Damage player x20 (additive with other damage flags)
0x200 Hide on Automap Hide sector in automap (hidden in the textured map mode)
0x400 Set Ceiling Scroll Enable ceiling scrolling
0x800 Set Floor Scroll Enable floor scrolling
0x1000 Scroll Left Scroll floor/ceiling west
0x2000 Scroll Right Scroll floor/ceiling east
0x4000 Scroll Up Scroll floor/ceiling north
0x8000 Scroll Down Scroll floor/ceiling south

Sector Specials

Sector specials determine lighting effects and instant death for crushers. In contrast, sector flags are settings and properties that tend to affect textures, sounds, and the player. All light effects are additive to each color channel (greyscale).

Flag Bit Editor Setting Description
0 Normal (default) No special effect
1 Light Blinks (randomly) Light which blinks (dims) randomly
2 Light Strobe (0.5 sec) Light which brightens every half-second
3 Light Strobe (1 sec) Light which brightens every second
8 Light Glows (normal) Light which fades in and out
9 Light Glows (slow) Light which fades in and out slowly
11 Light Glows (randomly) Light which fades in and out randomly
17 Light Flickers (randomly) Random light brightness flicker
202 Bright Light Strobe (0.1 sec) Very bright light flashes every tenth of a second
204 Light Strobe (0.3 sec) Light which brightens every third of a second
205 Sequence Starter Starts a sequence of glowing lights.
206 Light Strobe (3 sec) Light which brightens every three seconds
208 Bright Light Strobe (0.2 sec) Very bright light flashes every fifth of a second
666 Instant Kill Instantly kills any thing which gets crushed
999 Blind To Monsters (BSP64 En.) Monsters are blind to sector with BSP64 Enhanced

Lighting

Sectors define the lighting of Doom 64 in two styles. Each sector has five color values which define the gradient lighting of the sector: ceiling, top half wall, thing, bottom half wall, and floor. Then via the sector special value, additive lighting is defined. The following page describes the sector lighting in more detail.