Dumb dehacked [BEX] question [SOLVED]

I'm just gonna say it, I don't have a clue how dehacked works or what it really is, and so when it came to changing the level names of my Boom megawad I just do what I always do, copy from another wad.

I created a DEHACKED lump in Slumped and pasted this into it

[STRINGS]
HUSTR_1 = level 1: How
HUSTR_2 = level 2: Do
HUSTR_3 = level 3: I
HUSTR_4 = level 4: Change
HUSTR_5 = level 5: The
HUSTR_6 = level 6: Level
HUSTR_7 = level 7: Names
HUSTR_8 = level 8: In
HUSTR_9 = level 9: Boom
HUSTR_10 = level 10: HALP!

...etc

but that hasn't worked, I fear that its something really complicated and so havnt been able to work it out.

I don't know much either, but I think what you have here is to change the names in the automap and that you have to edit graphics manually and individually for level names that you see on the intermission screen - CWILV00 to 31, for Map01 to 32.

Yeah, in theory what I've written above should change the names in the automap in Boom, but it doesn't. It does in Zdoom but not Boom.

Does it have a patch header?

Patch File for DeHackEd v3.0
Doom version = 21
Patch format = 6

Shouldn't affect ZDoom-based ports, but PrBoom is rather picky about how the lump is formatted. Perhaps a missing header is the problem.

Foodles said:

Yeah, in theory what I've written above should change the names in the automap in Boom, but it doesn't. It does in Zdoom but not Boom.

When you say "Boom", do you actually mean Boom? The old DOS program by TeamTNT released in the last millennium?

Then the problem is simply that it does not load embedded DEHACKED lumps. This was an innovation brought by MBF.

If it works with PrBoom+ and Eternity as well as ZDoom, you've covered the Boom-compatible ports used by 99% of the player base. The people who insist on using the old boom.exe will hopefully have enough know-how to extract the lump and load it as an external file.

Foodles said:

[STRINGS]
HUSTR_1 = level 1: How
HUSTR_2 = level 2: Do
HUSTR_3 = level 3: I
HUSTR_4 = level 4: Change
HUSTR_5 = level 5: The
HUSTR_6 = level 6: Level
HUSTR_7 = level 7: Names
HUSTR_8 = level 8: In
HUSTR_9 = level 9: Boom
HUSTR_10 = level 10: HALP!

That's exactly how I did it, and it definitely works in my version of PrBoom/PrBoom+. Odd.

Is your megawad for Doom2?

tempun said:

Is your megawad for Doom2?

Yeah Doom2, but the mapping is in Boom format

Gez said:

When you say "Boom", do you actually mean Boom? The old DOS program by TeamTNT released in the last millennium?

When I say Boom, I actually mean prboom+

I added the header and its still not working, I've been over the DEHACKED patch with a toothcomb looking for silly things like spelling errors but there aren't any. I've tried it with 2 different versions of prboom+ as well

In zdoom you can use "-file" parameter to load *.deh files. In prboom you must use "-deh". Maybe that's the problem?

It's an embedded lump in any case, so PrBoom+ should load it.

Are there any blank lines between [STRINGS] and the first HUSTR ? A blank line is treated as a section terminator. so if there are any blank lines between [STRINGS] and HUSTR_1, the HUSTR_1 will be ignored (in fact considered the start of a new, unknown, section)

Either ignoring blank lines is a ZDoomism, or not ignoring blank lines is a long-standing bug in Boom's DeHackEd parser. I'm not sure which.

Run the game with -dehout blah.txt and see if the contents of blah.txt helps you (or post it here)

For example, flargh.deh

[STRINGS]

HUSTR_1 = This dont work

dehout

Loading DEH from flargh.deh

Line='[STRINGS]'
Processing function [10] for [STRINGS]
Processing extended string substitution
Line='HUSTR_1 = This dont work'
Processing function [17] for 
Unmatched Block: 'HUSTR_1 = This dont work'

flarghfixed.deh

[STRINGS]
HUSTR_1 = This does work

dehout

Loading DEH from flarghfixed.deh

Line='[STRINGS]'
Processing function [10] for [STRINGS]
Processing extended string substitution
Assigned key HUSTR_1 => 'This does work'

Also worth noting, is that you shouldn't have whitespace before any lines of text. Indentations and lining up all equal signs is a no-no. PrBoom with have problems with it. Since we're on the topic and I'm a bit curious, what other difference between Boom's/PrBoom's and ZDoom's DeHackEd parser are there? I like to organize my DEHACKED lump's structure because I manually edit mine often, and it would be nice knowing what you can and can't do.

I've figured it out, as well as the dehacked patch which contained all the level names, there was another lump called dehacked in my wad which contained not text (size 2 bytes). prboom+ must have used that lump instead of the one with all the level names in although I don't remember creating it.

The BOOM DEH/BEX parser is so revolting I would describe it as being flatulent.