How Do I Change A Doom WAD To ZDoom (Doom in Hexen format) Without Restarting?

I started making this Doom 2 WAD. And I saw a YouTube video on how to make 3d floors. It said to change the configuration to ZDoom (Doom in Hexen format), but when I tried to do it, it wouldn't let me. I'm using Doom Builder 2. Here's the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rsLrwFlhME

ZWadConv is part of this set of Editing Utilities.

What Empyre linked is likely to be far more useful, but just for the sake of curiosity, you can go into 'linedefs mode', select the entire map, copy it, and paste it in a new wad that's in Hexen format. You'll have to re-tag all your tagged sectors and give every line fresh actions, but it's far better than starting from scratch.

Definitely try the one Empyre linked before falling back on that plan, though. I've been down this annoying road before!

And of course, to be safe, make a copy of your wad first.

Hiya!

Just a tip here... In GZDoombuilder (the one I use), you can select "Sector" mode, the select all your map. Then switch to "Things" mode, Shift-Select all your things. NOW hit Copy. Start a new map with ZDOOM, then hit Paste. It will/should paste in all your sectors as well as things. Just make sure to 'move' your pasted map so that it 'snaps' to the grid...or you may get some odd results and totally messed up flat alignments.

BONUS TIP: You can also, believe it or not, use this method to copy a DOOM map, then paste it into a new Heretic, Hexen, etc map. :) You loose all your textures, but the names are there...so it's easy enough to go into "3D Edit Mode" and mass-change textures to whatever game you are using. Your Things are also all different...obviously...but at least you have things in the right places. Easy enough to just replace them with whatever is appropriate. :) I did this with DOOM II's MAP01 and 'converted' it into Heretic, iirc. It was kinda fun to do!

Thanks! I'll try those things out and see if they work.

Is there a version of ZWadConv that runs on Windows 8? Because it won't run on my computer.

Just to make sure: Have you launched it from a command line with manually set parameters describing the input and output wad files (that's what you should have done), or have you just double-clicked the executable and wondered why nothing happened (obviously, because that's not how to use command line based programs)?

I just double-clicked it.

How do I launch it from a command line on Windows 8?

Da Eediot said:

How do I launch it from a command line on Windows 8?

The easiest, safest way is to use a batch file.
See:

https://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/807987

Kappes Buur said:

The easiest, safest way is to use a batch file.
See:

https://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/807987

How do I get the batch file?

You write a batch file as a normal text file, give it a .bat suffix, and execute it by double-clicking.

You don't really need a batch file, you can just manually open CMD in the directory where ZWadConv is, type "zwadconv " followed by appropriate parameters (see ZWadConv reference), press enter and the program will be launched with those parameters. In case of a batch file, you'd write exactly that text into the batch file, then execute the file.

Thanks. I'll see if the batch file gets it to work.

What do I type in the batch file? I typed in this: Usage: zdwadconv <source.wad> <output.wad> (With my actual WAD name) and it just opened up the text file.

Type:

zwadconv source.wad output.wad

In the code above, replace "source" with your wad's name, and possibly replace "output" with some other name.

Change the file's suffix to .bat, then execute it. If it wouldn't execute by just double clicking it, try to find an option to do so through context menu (after right-click on the file), or forget about the batch file and use CMD directly.

The batch file still won't work. But I think I got to ZwadConv. I went to command prompt and typed in: start "zwadconv". What do I do from there?

Da Eediot said:

I went to command prompt and typed in:

Instead of what you typed there, type what I told you above.

I don't think it worked. Does it matter if the source.wad and the output.wad are the same thing? Because I'm typing in the name of the same WAD for both.

Try different names for source and output, and absolute file paths instead of relative ones (and enclose each one in quotes if it contains any spaces). And of course, expect that the program will only open for a fraction of a second and then immediately terminate itself (after doing its job), that's the correct behavior.

It keeps saying "zwadconv is not recognized as an internal or external compound, operable program or batch file." I typed in: zwadconv LIFEORDEATH.wad LIFEORDEATH1.wad. And what do you mean by "absolute file paths"?

Make sure that the command prompt's working directory is the same directory where zwadconv and your wad are located. Absolute file paths are full paths, for example "C:\\Doom\\something\\file", instead of just "file".

It didn't find the "zwadconv" file. I typed in "dir Documents Doom WAD Conversion Tools zwadconv" and it said "File Not Found".

In the command window, type CD and a folder name until you get to the folder that has zwadconv and your wad in it. CD means Change Directory. Back in the DOS days, folders were called directories.

Okay, thanks. I'll see if that works.

THANK YOU!!! It FINALLY worked! :D