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Lutz

Editor Question: Copy & Paste

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Another stupid question I could answer with a few hours of playing around: is there an editor that lets you copy and paste between maps? Meaning, if you build separate halves of a level in different .WAD files, is there a way to copy the sectors of onehalf into the other half with no ill effects?

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I've never used DeepSea, mostly because I LOVE WinDEU 5.2; also, don't you have to pay to use DeepSea (something about only being able to save levels of a certain size)? The reason I am going to be copying and pasting between levels is because the one I'm working on now is enormous, so I need to be able to save large levels.

Of course, I could be wrong -- how close am I?

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Ah. Well: Dammit. If you've read the recent Chaos Crew update, you'll know that I am looking for a job, and have absolutely no money (as Ned Flanders would say, "It's going to be an Imagination Christmas!").

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Interesting...I may take you up on that. Of course, none of this is terribly necessary -- I'm just at that point (~12,000 vertices) where the BSP nodebuilder starts doing something that causes a seg. fault when starting Doom.

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Lutz said:

Another stupid question I could answer with a few hours of playing around: is there an editor that lets you copy and paste between maps? Meaning, if you build separate halves of a level in different .WAD files, is there a way to copy the sectors of onehalf into the other half with no ill effects?


You can also use Wad author... :)

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Hiya.

Yes, WadAuthor can do it...and it doesnt' even have to be the same game. :) You could grab a "hall with pillars, a dias, an exit hall with a door leading to stairs down" from a Hexen map, copy it, and paste it into your DOOM map. Of course, you have to retexture it, and if there are any things you have to change them to DOOM ones. Sector floor/ceiling is easy to change; just use the "++" or "--" 'macro' to move the sectors up or down to fit where you want it.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

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Or you could use a good nodebuilder, like BSP or Zennode. ;)

DCK let you cut and paste between maps aswell.

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DCK also has level size limits... it's a little over 8000 sidedefs for 3.62 (which is rediculous). I know for Gothic99, Matt Dixon built his levels separately in DCK and then merged them in Wadauthor afterward. I'm doing the same for some Crucified Dreams maps. Really, all you have to do is make sure linedef/sector tags don't interfere between the maps and copy & pasting will work fine.

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Afterglow said:

Really, all you have to do is make sure linedef/sector tags don't interfere between the maps and copy & pasting will work fine.


When you paste with DeePsea, it renumbers tags so that they don't interfere with those in the existing level.

At pasting time, DeePsea also allows you to type in a "correction" value for altering the heights of the sectors being pasted so they match up with what you need in your level.

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Enjay: sounds nice, but most editors have a "raise floor/ceiling with xxx" feature anyways. The cut and paste is the only feat I think Deth is missing to be perfect. Although people disagree with me on that.

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While we're on the subject of size limits, I'm running into trouble with WadAuthor's scripting limit on a couple of maps. I know WA has a relatively low scripting limit (ie. less space for scripts) compared to other editors, so can anyone recommend an editor which has more space for scripts, and compiles similarly to WA? (ie. one that does not create SCRIPT1, SCRIPT2 lumps etc. but just the SCRIPTS lump and the BEHAVIOUR lump)

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Hiya.

What errors are you getting? Do you have something like five gazillion-billion-ilionmilbazilmillion scripts or something? I can't ever remember getting an "error" because of any sort of limit. I've gotten errors because I was ignorant of how scripting worked (not having common.acs or zcommon.zcs or whatever in the right place), but never any sort of "ERROR: Script Size Limit Reached" sort of thing (I made that error up, btw).

Maybe you were just doing something wrong? Or something got corrupted maybe?

^_^

Paul L. Ming

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Sounds like you'll have to edit the scripts with Notepad or DOS Edit, then run the file straight through acc.exe, then use your favorite tool to import the behavior lump......

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Ultimate DooMer said:

What happens is that when I reach the size limit, it won't let me put any more text in. (and yes, I do have a load of scripts in there)

The dialog used has a 64kb limit in Win9x/Me - if you use XP, I think it goes away:) You can also use "include yourfile" in the WA dialog script and then edit on the OUTSIDE and still compile in WA. Of course your script is not where it normally is.

DeePsea uses any editor that suits your style - hence no limits and everything stays inside the IDE, plus ALL typical editing features are available, e.g. find, replace. Scripts are not stored inside the PWAD. That also means one can switch to standalone external compilation without any extra work. One can also easily switch ACC compilers to match the port.

Manually save scripts to your PWAD using the special button for same as a final step. Also, if you want "SCRIPTS" as a name, change the save options:)

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Biffy said:

Sounds like you'll have to edit the scripts with Notepad or DOS Edit, then run the file straight through acc.exe, then use your favorite tool to import the behavior lump......


Will this still produce a scripts lump or just a behavior lump? If so, will it still work (ie. does WA still decompile the behavior lump even though a scripts lump is present?)

deep said:

The dialog used has a 64kb limit in Win9x/Me - if you use XP, I think it goes away:) You can also use "include yourfile" in the WA dialog script and then edit on the OUTSIDE and still compile in WA. Of course your script is not where it normally is.


I assume this is a separate .acs file, so will it still work if I simply import this into my wad, and put the "include myfile.acs" line in the WA dialog?

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Ultimate DooMer said:

Will this still produce a scripts lump or just a behavior lump? If so, will it still work (ie. does WA still decompile the behavior lump even though a scripts lump is present?)

I assume this is a separate .acs file, so will it still work if I simply import this into my wad, and put the "include myfile.acs" line in the WA dialog?

What I suggested will just let you edit and compile scripts as you please, independent of WA. You will need to insert the scripts lump (your *.acs file, or text file) and the behavior lump (acc makes *.o) with a tool like Wintex, XWE, DeePsea.

If you import a scripts lump larger than the limit you've found, and try then to compile it through the WA menu, I suppose part of the scripts might get cut off. I don't know. I think Jack is suggesting that you have a smaller scripts lump in the wad, that scripts lump containing the "include...." statement, and then you can use the WA menu to compile (create behavior and save it into the wad).

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Ok, I tried using the #include "mine.acs" command and this happened: I exported some of the scripts into a separate acs file and then put the include line under the zcommon.acs one. This worked fine - but then I edited the separate acs file in Notepad, saved it, changed one or two scripts in the main script dialog, and tried to compile it - and it keeps saying that everything is an invalid statement. (or any other message meaning 'you can't do this')

It's as if I can only have one of these include commands in any one map, but I'm sure that's not true.

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I think Deep was suggesting to have an "include" statement in your scripts lump, not in zcommon.acs, but I'm unsure. ???

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OK, got it. I copied a large scripts lump from a wad, copied all of the scripts except for the first open script, pasted them into a separate file I named test.acs. Then, using WA, I opened the wad, viewed the original lengthy scripts and deleted all which I had copied into test.acs, leaving only the single open script in the wad. Then, I put this line
#include "test.acs"
at the end of the script and tried to compile. WA error message said that it could not open the file. I tried putting the test.acs file into my WA directory and all was well.

I have several copies of the zcommon.acs, zdefs.acs and so forth on my machine, I guess WA is referencing only those in its own directory. That's where you'll need to keep your large external script file, where WA can find it.

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It's ok, I got it working. There was an error in the separate acs file, so it was saying the first script in the main dialog had an error. (it was carrying over to the main dialog)

PS. do I actually have to include the separate acs file in my pwad? (I don't think I have to, but I'm not sure)

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No, you do not have to include any .acs file at all in your wad to make it work, the behavior lump does the work. It's convenient to have it in the wad if you are using WA, probably the same for DeePsea. I always appreciate it when authors include their scripts acs lumps, that way I can easily look at the scripts without trying to decompile them (which only DeePsea does AFAIK).

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Getting back to my original question: so I downloaded WadAuthor and have used that to cut & paste between levels, but I am running into another problem: namely, WA won't open some of my .WADs. Does WA have a level size limit? Can levels only have so many vertices or sidedefs? (Remember, this level is ENORMOUS -- over 12,000 verts).

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