WadAuthor Progress Update #3

Well, it's that time again already, and while I can't say I have much to report, I can say this much: I'm changing the way I'm reporting it. I forget sometimes that I have an actual web page devoted to WadAuthor. Progress updates are now available at that location and will be made available there in the future. I shall still continue to announce them here, but the content will be elsewhere.

So here's the big news for this update: CHECK OUT THE KEEN SCREENSHOTS! That's right, I've put some screenshots together to show you how things are evolving. Visit the WadAuthor web page at http://home.zyan.com/~wc/wauthor/index.html and take a look at the third progress update. Enjoy!

Checked out Update#3 photos. Absolutely incredible work. Thanks so much.

Glad you approve! When I get a chance, I'm going to clean up the remaining bugs and start working on either lump-editing features or linedef/vertex-based sector drawing tools.

Whats that great tune in the background from?

You mean the music on the main WadAuthor web page? As is explained on the web page, it is an original composition of my own. I wrote it as music for the first and only real wadfile I ever released publicly. I thought it worked pretty well with the DOOM motif (grin).

Cruised yer Website, studied both Website and SEA of icons on yer Desktop.
Observation:
Let's see now, he's.... inta "Games-Design Study" ... inta "Software Design" ... inta "Repairing Databases Customers Screw Up" ... inta "Music Comp" ... inta "Major WAuthor Rebuild" ... Err, when duz he sleepe? <g>

Sleep? Sleep... Oh yes, that whole lie-down-and-be-inactive thing. Yes, I vaguely remember sleep. Grad school cured me of that (grin). Actually I do have a bit much going on right now with trying to service clients of the business, working on my Ph.D., enhancing WadAuthor, learning 3DS Max, studying commodities trading in the futures market and so forth while trying to maintain my musical chops and sanity. Frankly, I think the sanity is losing. You be the judge.

Good Luck dude, WadAuthor is my favorite editor! :D

Very concise yet descriptive update.

I'll have you know that I was not always a "hard-core precision maven". (I'm assuming you were referring to me.) Sometimes I wish I could revert from being a detail-oriented, Type-A personality to the slob I was in college (and occasionally in grad school). However, the responsibilities of a job and family leave little scope for lounging around in grubby underwear, scratching myself everywhere, and creating imprecise curves or angled lines while editing some arcane game, whose name escapes me at the moment. That leaves me with no choice but to strive for perfection, for what it's worth ;) Therefore, I thank you from the bottom of my tiny heart for not letting something as silly as reason get in the way of accommodating your users.

Regards,

H.C.P. Maven

P.S. The image browser looks cool, your desktop is nicely organized, and the zoomed-in imp was wholly unnecessary. Sheesh, you can practically see down his throat :}

(laughing) Don't ever stop being a detail-oriented Type-A personality. It heightens one's prospects for achievement in my experience. Note well: this doesn't mean one has to stop scratching everywhere; it means only that one must do it in a very clearly defined fashion.

ReX said:

Very concise yet descriptive update.

I'll have you know that I was not always a "hard-core precision maven". (I'm assuming you were referring to me.) Sometimes I wish I could revert from being a detail-oriented, Type-A personality to the slob I was in college (and occasionally in grad school). However, the responsibilities of a job and family leave little scope for lounging around in grubby underwear, scratching myself everywhere, and creating imprecise curves or angled lines while editing some arcane game, whose name escapes me at the moment. That leaves me with no choice but to strive for perfection, for what it's worth ;) Therefore, I thank you from the bottom of my tiny heart for not letting something as silly as reason get in the way of accommodating your users.

Regards,

H.C.P. Maven

P.S. The image browser looks cool, your desktop is nicely organized, and the zoomed-in imp was wholly unnecessary. Sheesh, you can practically see down his throat :}

ReX, don't change -- you have a rare gift.
Your "precision of speech" and "precise descriptions" are a breath of fresh air in a world teeming with sloppy English grammar.
We all know, how sloppy grammar often causes MisUnderstandings.
(giving birth to confusion, conflict, hard feelings etc.).
So don't change.
fragg

Isn't that funny how those things are correlated? That is, precision in language and precision in all other matters? Since going back to grad school it has been interesting to me to observe how often the "level" of one's verbal skills track exactly with one's intellectual prowess.

Phileosophos said:

Sleep? Sleep... Oh yes, that whole lie-down-and-be-inactive thing. Yes, I vaguely remember sleep. Grad school cured me of that (grin). Actually I do have a bit much going on right now with trying to service clients of the business, working on my Ph.D., enhancing WadAuthor, learning 3DS Max, studying commodities trading in the futures market and so forth while trying to maintain my musical chops and sanity. Frankly, I think the sanity is losing. You be the judge.

Hiya.

Nice texture chooser! Yummm!!!! :-) One note though, minor quibble, could you make the background color black? Or, better yet, user choice? I find white makes the images harder to see. (must be that whole 'pupil dialating' thing...;-)

ReX said:

Very concise yet descriptive update.

I'll have you know that I was not always a "hard-core precision maven". (I'm assuming you were referring to me.) Sometimes I wish I could revert from being a detail-oriented, Type-A personality to the slob I was in college (and occasionally in grad school). However, the responsibilities of a job and family leave little scope for lounging around in grubby underwear, scratching myself everywhere, and creating imprecise curves or angled lines while editing some arcane game, whose name escapes me at the moment. That leaves me with no choice but to strive for perfection, for what it's worth ;) Therefore, I thank you from the bottom of my tiny heart for not letting something as silly as reason get in the way of accommodating your users.

Regards,

H.C.P. Maven

P.S. The image browser looks cool, your desktop is nicely organized, and the zoomed-in imp was wholly unnecessary. Sheesh, you can practically see down his throat :}

Even though I'm not what you would call a H.C.P. maven, I'm really looking forward to working with an editor with a 1x1 grid. My editing skills aren't quite up to yours Rex, but I still come across the occasional situation where I find I need to adjust the position of a vertex by one unit. Most of the time this is to crop a texture to a specific length or to center a detail texture on an odd length wall. The only way I can do that now is by editing the raw data of the vertex position.

Lets face it, the standards expected of Doom levels today is a lot higher than it was a few years ago. If something's off center, even by one unit, it will be noticed. If the curve of a stairwell isn't just right, it will be noticed. I notice things like that, and I don't consider myself that fussy :) I mean Doom is nearly eight years old. Only hardcore people stick with something that long. The Doom community is a tough crowd to impress.

Phileosophos said:

(laughing) Don't ever stop being a detail-oriented Type-A personality. It heightens one's prospects for achievement in my experience. Note well: this doesn't mean one has to stop scratching everywhere; it means only that one must do it in a very clearly defined fashion.

I just do my scratching where no one can see me. That way it doesn't matter :)

pming said:

Hiya.

Nice texture chooser! Yummm!!!! :-) One note though, minor quibble, could you make the background color black? Or, better yet, user choice? I find white makes the images harder to see. (must be that whole 'pupil dialating' thing...;-)

I can look into it, yes. I'll have to see if the lower-level imaging stuff can support it. That's the kind of code where one must tread lightly if you know what I mean (grin). I don't know what the other editors do, but I build the images directly into memory for sake of speed. Windows doesn't get involved until it's time to display things. My life would have been so much easier back then if DirectX had existed.

I'm very excited by the WA revival. It distinctly makes me think why I still don't return to level-making. Happy coding! WA is the best!

Stphrz said:

Even though I'm not what you would call a H.C.P. maven, I'm really looking forward to working with an editor with a 1x1 grid. My editing skills aren't quite up to yours Rex, but I still come across the occasional situation where I find I need to adjust the position of a vertex by one unit. Most of the time this is to crop a texture to a specific length or to center a detail texture on an odd length wall. The only way I can do that now is by editing the raw data of the vertex position.

Lets face it, the standards expected of Doom levels today is a lot higher than it was a few years ago. If something's off center, even by one unit, it will be noticed. If the curve of a stairwell isn't just right, it will be noticed. I notice things like that, and I don't consider myself that fussy :) I mean Doom is nearly eight years old. Only hardcore people stick with something that long. The Doom community is a tough crowd to impress.

I'm really looking forward to working with an editor with a 1x1 grid.
======================================

DeePsea, DETH, ZETH and WadAuthor (probably ALL editors) have a 1 unit precision with snap turned off. One can drag to 1 unit precision (snap off).

This is not a pixel, but a DOOM unit. They are not the same thing. Sometimes I write pixel, when I mean to write DOOM unit. All vertices are in DOOM unit coordinates. A DOOM unit is normally visually coarser than a pixel, except when zoomed out.

As far as displaying a 1x1 grid, the 1st 3 also have had that for some time - usually one needs at least 8000% mag to make that easily visible. That's useful for a quick visual reference in a tight area - but has nothing to do with permitting 1 unit movements.