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Hugo
Newbie

Posts: 6
Registered: 08-08

Hey Doom fans,

Last weekend I decided that I wanted to gain some skills in reading/writing wad files. Because I
wanted to do some work on ports (mainly port RR to xbox360). To gain skills I did some experiments/test projects.
However, It evolved in something bigger; WadZip.

WadZip is like winzip. But for wad files. You can read multiple types of wad files
(currently IWAD,PWAD,GRP,PAK files more will follow). I'm working on getting a viewer
ready for the files and a code editor for scripts. I also hope to make wadzip ‘cross-wad’ as in,
you can drag a doom texture into a build engine wad (including conversion of the pal/colors).

However, I didn’t know that XWE exists. It seems like it has a lot of the same features.
However, I also noted that the program is no longer updated and pretty buggy. Especially under Windows Vista.
That’s why I decided to let you guys know of wadzip anyway. Since wadzip will be made in the .NET environment,
it will run nicely under Vista. Combine this with a steady release schema, and I think wadZip can replace XWE.
I’m also planning on making it open-source. I think a lot of people will benefit from it :)

NOTE: WadZip still has an awefull long way to go before it’s going to be the perfect tool we all long for.
I started working on this since last Friday. I plan to work on it in the weekends (So at least 16 hours a week).
I wanted to get you guys involved early on. Because I love to program, and I love doom. But I’m not an editor,
so the best advice and ideas are probably going to come from you guys!

I will release the source once I have a stable foundation from which we can build.

Until that time, here’s a screenshot :
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/...ppreviewwt2.png

08-25-08 23:08 #

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EarthQuake
9.5 on the Richter!

Posts: 2824
Registered: 05-03

I like where this is going. Something new and fresh to use.
However, I really think it needs a pane where you can preview the lump. I find that feature of XWE to be invaluable, especially when you're sifting through hundreds of graphics. It would also be nice to view maps (which is a bit harder to do at the code level), edit TEXTURE1 and PNAMES, edit palettes, and various other Doom-related stuff.

I see though, that you're going for a tool that extends past just Doom editing, but if you are directing your focus towards the Doom community at all, those are some pretty vital tools.

Good job though, keep at it. I'll definitely give this a try when you release it.

08-26-08 00:04 #

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alien8
Mini-Member

Posts: 96
Registered: 05-08

I love the idea of a Vista-friendly editing tool. Nice work!

08-26-08 00:30 #

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Mancubus II
Purple is not a breakfast color

Posts: 1844
Registered: 02-03

Given that the name has zip in it, I hope you consider actually outputting zip files since zdoom and gzdoom support them (named pk3 ala quake 3). Reading those of course would be good too.

08-26-08 01:59 #

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Hugo
Newbie

Posts: 6
Registered: 08-08

EarthQuake said:
I like where this is going. Something new and fresh to use.
However, I really think it needs a pane where you can preview the lump. I find that feature of XWE to be invaluable, especially when you're sifting through hundreds of graphics. It would also be nice to view maps (which is a bit harder to do at the code level), edit TEXTURE1 and PNAMES, edit palettes, and various other Doom-related stuff.

I see though, that you're going for a tool that extends past just Doom editing, but if you are directing your focus towards the Doom community at all, those are some pretty vital tools.

Good job though, keep at it. I'll definitely give this a try when you release it.

Like I said. There will most definily going to be a viewer for files.
I have made a graphics viewer for doom already, and I will put it in wadZip next weekend.

The only thing i'm worried about are the map files. To make it 'complete' I would like to have a 2D overview AND a 3D view.
But that's probably going to costs me a few hours do to so :)

I'm also working on a code/script editor with at least syntax highlighting and line numbering. And hopefully a debugger too!

Yes, I aim at more then just Doom. However, I don't want to make
a half-ass baked tool for all those games.I want to make it
the best tool for the job, for every game I support.

I will look into all those specific doom features that are
needed. Also, because I'm going to make this an opensource project
I hope other doom programmers join in and add specific doom code :)

08-26-08 08:33 #

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Infurnus
Junior Member

Posts: 200
Registered: 08-03

Brilliant idea. Seconding pk3 support.

08-26-08 14:51 #

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Patrick
someone employed to clean and maintain a building

Posts: 2005
Registered: 02-07

In terms of ZDoom support, making it recognize ZDoom/Skulltag/ZDaemon/GZDoom specific lumps like xwe would be absolutely amazing.

Examples of GZDoom/ZDoom Lumps.

EDIT: ACS compiler would be nice. Decorate lets you use other files in the PK3/Wad as well using the #include mydecorate.txt in DECORATE. making it so that it recognizes those files as well would be awesome.

Last edited by Patrick on 08-26-08 at 15:51

08-26-08 15:17 #

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Chu
Member

Posts: 566
Registered: 10-02

Excellent. I'm finally happy there will be a Vista-friendly application. =)

XWE does piss me off at times -- especially with loading sfx lumps (too many gives a crash)...but yeah, I'll definitely give this one a go. Might solve that nightmare. ^^

__________________
3DGE source port

08-26-08 16:33 #

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Spleen
Member

Posts: 497
Registered: 08-08

A function to export/import the palette into some form readable by a freely available sprite editor program would be awesome, since it would make both sprite editing and palette editing much easier.

08-26-08 23:45 #

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Hugo
Newbie

Posts: 6
Registered: 08-08

I ported everything today over to the .NET environment (since the experimental program was created in Visual Basic 6).
It was quite a hassle to get the binary reading/writing correct. It can probably still be done better, but it works!
It looks pretty fancy and sexy under vista :)

Please note that I will think about all things you guys suggest. However, I first want to get the ‘basic’ stuff working
(such as the viewer). Things like making it recognize ZDoom/Skulltag/ZDaemon/GZDoom lumps would be pretty easy to do.
Other ideas such as support for pk3 files might take some time to get it in there. But it’s on my list :)

08-27-08 00:25 #

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Gez
Why don't I have a custom title by now?!

Posts: 9148
Registered: 07-07

There's also SLumpEd which works without problems in Vista and is open source. Doesn't support drag'n'drop, though; and its image handling is flawed (interprets as transparent certain pixels which aren't in Heretic.wad and Hexen.wad, sometimes mistakenly interpret graphic lumps as some weird image format).

08-27-08 00:57 #

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funduke
Member

Posts: 328
Registered: 02-04

Good idea.
Please keep working on it.
But before releasing the program, make sure, to change the icons to free ones. The Winzip company would not like to see their commercial art stolen.

Greetings
Funduke

08-28-08 18:35 #

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Fisk
Forum Regular

Posts: 879
Registered: 02-07

1. Put files in the appropriate named .zip folders (Music/, Sounds/, Maps/, etc.)
2. Ctrl-left-click all these folders and anything such as DECORATE.txt, etc you have in the root and any extra wadfiles to load with the zip
3. Right-click -> Send to -> Compressed (Zipped) Folder
4. When you need to replace something, delete the folder it's in and reimport it by drag-n'-drop
5. When done with the entire mod, rename it to .pk3 and distrib

I don't see why everyone finds this concept difficult to grasp.

08-28-08 20:07 #

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myk

Posts: 14807
Registered: 04-02

Hugo said:
(currently IWAD,PWAD,GRP,PAK files more will follow).

I recommend adding lumps (the formats usually found in the IWADs). Otherwise one is forced to place them in a WAD to read them.

08-28-08 22:22 #

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GreyGhost
a ghost... only grey

Posts: 6863
Registered: 01-08

Fisk said:
5. When done with the entire mod, rename it to .pk3 and distrib

I don't see why everyone finds this concept difficult to grasp.

That's fine if your preferred port supports PK3 files - some people aren't so lucky.

08-29-08 07:12 #

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myk

Posts: 14807
Registered: 04-02

I think he means that supporting ZIPs isn't that important because they already "support" themselves. In fact, by adding individual lump support like I suggested, the support becomes almost complete... except maybe the application could be made to associate files and folders. For example, linking TEXTURE1 and PNAMES to lumps placed in a folder or the like.

08-29-08 14:37 #

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Fisk
Forum Regular

Posts: 879
Registered: 02-07

Exactly. Adding support for ZIPs and PK3s is something that I can't really imagine should be high on the priority list, because you can just do your editing natively in XP and above or with any ZIP-supporting compression tool. In the case of a PK3 all you need to do is rename the .zip to .pk3. I guess it would be cool and all to have yet another tool with that capability, but it's just not necessary.

08-29-08 18:33 #

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Hugo
Newbie

Posts: 6
Registered: 08-08

Gez said:
There's also SLumpEd which works without problems in Vista and is open source. Doesn't support drag'n'drop, though; and its image handling is flawed (interprets as transparent certain pixels which aren't in Heretic.wad and Hexen.wad, sometimes mistakenly interpret graphic lumps as some weird image format).

Might be the case, but it only works for doom wads ?

funduke said:
Good idea.
Please keep working on it.
But before releasing the program, make sure, to change the icons to free ones. The Winzip company would not like to see their commercial art stolen.

Greetings
Funduke

I will. When I first started it was a small project. And I used the icons for fun :) but now that it becomes bigger, I will changes them. Expect
them to be changed before the release!

I've spend some reasonable hours working on wadZip.After my daytime job. And it's coming along well.
Hopefully I can surprise you guys with a few screenshots in a few days (and a stable release in the near future).

08-29-08 22:43 #

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Gez
Why don't I have a custom title by now?!

Posts: 9148
Registered: 07-07

Hugo said:
Might be the case, but it only works for doom wads ?

Wads and pk3s. It supports Doom, Heretic, Hexen and Strife, but for some reason alway crash when trying to view the TEXTURE1/TEXTURE2 lumps from Strife1.wad.

08-30-08 03:05 #

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GreyGhost
a ghost... only grey

Posts: 6863
Registered: 01-08

myk said:
I think he means that supporting ZIPs isn't that important because they already "support" themselves.

My mistake - I misinterpreted Fisk's roundabout way of saying "ZIP/PK3 support isn't necessary" and I agree - it would be cool but not necessary.

08-30-08 06:45 #

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blarg
Junior Member

Posts: 115
Registered: 08-07

I think this is an excellent idea, and I support .pk3 support.

I would also like to see a .wad to .pk3 converter, just to save time one the basics are done.

09-28-08 23:59 #

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swordgrunt
Green Marine

Posts: 44
Registered: 07-08

It looks nice, especially with the features you described. Even though, XWE ain't that bad. If you make it with lump management and editing, including specific source port support, it'll be a great utility for all Doomers. Good luck ;)

09-29-08 00:36 #

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NiGHTMARE
Forum Legend

Posts: 4970
Registered: 05-00

I currently use both SlumpEd and XWE, as there are certain feature in each that I like/dislike, as well as DeePSea for its texture editor (which is much more advanced than SlumpEd and XWE's... for that matter, WinTex's texture editor is superior to SlumpEd and XWE's ;).)

Anyway, it'd be fanatastic to be able to stick with just one editor. As long as you include a quick find box, and the ability to zoom images, you might just succeed :).

09-29-08 13:08 #

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DaniJ
Senior Member

Posts: 1958
Registered: 08-03

blarg said:
I would also like to see a .wad to .pk3 converter, just to save time one the basics are done.

There are numerous inherent problems with that, the main being that each port that implements PK3 support has done so quite differently what with differing naming conventions and virtual file structures. At best there would need to be a series of such converters but to be honest, what is the point? If your WAD already works just stick that in a PK3 and then put any new resources into the PK3 instead (surely all implementing ports support that, right?).

09-29-08 15:53 #

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Gez
Why don't I have a custom title by now?!

Posts: 9148
Registered: 07-07

blarg said:
I think this is an excellent idea, and I support .pk3 support.

I would also like to see a .wad to .pk3 converter, just to save time one the basics are done.

Look here: http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=18804

09-29-08 16:11 #

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Ralphis
IDL Founder

Posts: 8802
Registered: 09-02

Is this still in development? I was looking forward to it.

10-07-08 18:12 #

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kristus
Megablast!

Posts: 10272
Registered: 07-00

NiGHTMARE said:
for that matter, WinTex's texture editor is superior to SlumpEd and XWE's ;).)

I don't agree. But I always hated the Wintex texture editor over any other texture editing program I've tried.

I really quite like XWE's editor. Basically does the work for me.

10-08-08 00:21 #

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Hugo
Newbie

Posts: 6
Registered: 08-08

Ralphis said:
Is this still in development? I was looking forward to it.

Yes, it’s still in development. And development is going decent, I just don’t have as much spare time
at the moment as I would like too. I’ve just started a new game development studio and I’m working
on a NDS and WII title as producer and lead programmer. As you might guess, starting a new
company takes a lot of time :)

But I’m still working on WadZip too. As a matter of fact, I’ve worked on it today for 2 hours.
The tool comes pretty close to what I had in mind for a stable release. As of now you can open GRP
and WAD files. Extract and add files. You can also view some files (such as graphics and scripts)
others still need some work (mainly the map viewer, I think the audio part isn’t going to be too hard).

I guess it will take me a couple of weeks more. By then I’ll setup a nice looking website. And you guys
can download it and try it out :)

10-08-08 18:58 #

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Hugo
Newbie

Posts: 6
Registered: 08-08

Hey guys,

Just a quick update on wadzip! First beta is out now :)
http://www.hugodenkt.nl/wadzip/ (I will create a better webpage soon)

This release is probably not of much value for editors, because the viewers aren’t working.
You can however add/delete and extract files from all Doom/GRP wads. Basically this is to show off
the wadzip code. The wadzip class falls over the other classes like a big layer. And is really nice
too use! For example you can use some basic functions like wadzip.add(file) or wadzip.load(name.wad)
and then wadzip takes care of the rest, so you don’t have to deal with specific wad code (GRP vs WAD)

01-14-09 00:52 #

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