Just a curious suggestion...

Game companies seem to be embracing the compressed group file thing. PK3 files are really just zipfiles and the GRO files of Serious Sam are practically the same.

One thing I wanted to ask was why hasn't a Doom source port come around that uses .wd3 files?

It would greatly reduce the size of a grand collection of files, hell, a small utility could be released to convert all existing wads into the wd3 format.

Another bonus would be that you could just manually edit your wads yourself with any zip program you have.

I dunno, maybe I'm just a dick for suggesting it. If anyone does it then there needs to be a file in the Lumps directory called 'Version', so the executables will be able to discern versions and iwads without going on checksums.

Then all the utilities we have now (wintex, deutex, countless level editors, etc) would become useless or have to updated.

Besides, .wad files compress nicely for distribution as is. Or maybe I missed the point?

Those wad editors WOULD become useless... they're cryptic and often difficult navigation and operation would be replaced by simple folder use. Level editors would need to be able to save in a raw format too.

Of course, you can do it the old way and convert it if you wanted.

Wad files aren't compressed, not at all! Zip ANY of your wads and look at the file size difference.

deadnail said:

Wad files aren't compressed, not at all! Zip ANY of your wads and look at the file size difference.

icd-ddf.wad (unzipped) = 4.86 MB
icd-ddf.wad (winzip, Max) = 1.82 MB

Looks compressed to me. Wad files as .wad don't use any compression (if that's what you thought I meant).

I think a good explorer style wad editor would be great, if there isn't one already.

Yeah that is what I thought you meant, wads are just raw data clumped together. =)

An explorer style wad editor really would kick.

But then again, if ZDoom was the only one that supported this format then you could easily tell ZDoom specific wads just by the extension! =)

Yes

IMO it would be better to make the ports work with .zip files. I wonder why no port has support for them...

What I meant was that .wad files are stored in .zip files, but the ports can read them without unzipping (to disk).

Now there's an idea ... zip files are much smaller than the WAD file itself usually ...

This probabl wouldnt be so nice for win/dos users (but zip isn't nice for nix users). gzipping files would compress it even further.

Well, use any packing program (except lzip ;), everything is better than no compressed.

c-d-w said:

Yes

Cory, is that you?

Gah, I thought you were cool. What's with the moronia here?

He's saying that .wad files aren't compressed for usage. (though, actually, I thought they had some form of compression - that's irrelevant) You proved exactly what he was saying.

He wasn't saying that .wad files DON'T compress.

Complete misunderstanding on my part.

The way I worded my original statement:

"...wad files compress nicely for distribution..."

Should have said:

".. wad files compress nicely WHEN ZIPPED for distribution.."

Sorry.

Actually I think Tarin's Idea would be better than a whole new wad format, since no utilities would require restructuring.

Katarhyne said:

Cory, is that you?

Gah, I thought you were cool. What's with the moronia here?

He's saying that .wad files aren't compressed for usage. (though, actually, I thought they had some form of compression - that's irrelevant) You proved exactly what he was saying.

He wasn't saying that .wad files DON'T compress.

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