Loading PK3 in Doom Builder 2

Whenever I try to load this pk3 file, I get this error:

Unable to load resources from location "D:\Doom\ZDoom\jokewad\bmonsters.pk3". Please make sure the location
is accessible and not in use by another program. The resources will now be loaded with this location excluded. You may reload the resources to try again.
ZipException when creating data reader: Wrong Local header signature: 0x21726152

I usually make the pk3 file by adding it to a .zip file and changing the extension from zip to pk3.

Idk how can one load a pk3 file in DB2, but i suggest that when you start a WAD, let it stay as a wad but when you are done do the step above, adding the final version of the wad to a pk3.

TheNooBringeR said:

I usually make the pk3 file by adding it to a .zip file and changing the extension from zip to pk3.

Idk how can one load a pk3 file in DB2, but i suggest that when you start a WAD, let it stay as a wad but when you are done do the step above, adding the final version of the wad to a pk3.

It is a bit hard and messy to change between wad and pk3 types. Also, I did exactly the way you did (.zip to .pk3), and it's probably the wrong way since DB2 is unable to load it. It works fine whenever I open other pk3 files (which are all probably compiled correctly).

C30N9 said:

Whenever I try to load this pk3 file, I get this error:

Wrong Local header signature: 0x21726152

Any ideas?

(Also what is the right way to create a .pk3 file?)

That number, when written in little-endian order, gives the ASCII sequence "Rar!".

That's the identifier for a RAR-format archive. Now there are a few things that one needs to keep in mind when dealing with RAR archives:

• RAR is not an open-source format; decompressing RAR archives is allowed but not recompressing them.
  
• This makes RAR support in most open-source programs very limited. Archivers such as 7zip will open them since it's their job, but generally most people would prefer that RAR archives just not be used at all. It's a black sheep like GIF images and MP3 streams.
  
• In particular, RAR is not one of ZDoom's supported archive formats, so this "pk3" will not work.
  
• Not coincidentally, RAR is also not a format supported by Doom Builder 2, which only accepts WADs and ZIPs compressed with either DEFLATE or STORE. (ZDoom supports more types of ZIPs but that's not really important.)

GZDoom Builder supports PK3 resources, and is pretty much the same to use as DB2.