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Tormentor667

Wad Compiling Tool

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With Wintex I get problems, because it doesn't write more than one SCRIPT lump of ZDoom/Hexen style maps.

XWE always crashes and tells me, the wad header isn't correct.

Does Deepsea work fine with ZDoom/Hexen style maps?

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Csabo, please read this thread on the New DooM forums. Pay special attention to what Jack said about XWE, i.e., "allowing duplicate entries and not merging TEXTUREx/PNAMES at all" and "the XWE command is MERGE....and this will instantly modify your PWAD with no regard for duplicates".

I haven't had a chance to try out the stuff he's talking about in the version you sent me. Have you addressed what Jack is talking about? (I know you've taken care of the automatic file over-write during program exit, which he also mentions.)

I liked the "This last point was finally made by REX, a strong XWE supporter..." Heh. You owe me at least a beer for that one, Csabo.

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Tormentor667 said:

XWE always crashes and tells me, the wad header isn't correct.

Does Deepsea work fine with ZDoom/Hexen style maps?

I'm not sure about what you are merging, since to the best of my knowledge XWE should work too (with caution I noted).

DeePsea works with either stock or HEXEN format levels. Use F7 - Merge tool. This tool merges PWADS or anything else too. IOW, it's specifically geared towards merging data. If you need to fix names in a PWAD, use the F7 - Lump Fixing tool first.

Be sure you use version 11.75 sbsoftware.com since I just put some changes in there for WA SCRIPTS (I prefer SCRIPT01, SCRIPT02, etc, since that also works with Wintex and any other utility that makes an effort to check for duplicates).

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How does this SCRIPT01, 02 thing work? How can I tell my wad, how the map script is called? Is it just enough to rename the SCRIPTS lump to SCRIPT01 for map01 and SCRIPT02 for map02??

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Hexen/ZDoom does not care about the SCRIPTwhatever lump. It just contains the uncomiled script. The compiled script is stored in the BEHAVIOR lump.

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No, every map (should) have an BEHAVIOR lump. When the tool you used to merge the wads into one just put in one BEHAVIOR lump, it simply fucked up.

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Tormentor667 said:

How does this SCRIPT01, 02 thing work? How can I tell my wad, how the map script is called? Is it just enough to rename the SCRIPTS lump to SCRIPT01 for map01 and SCRIPT02 for map02??

You don't have to do anything. The lump names SCRIPTS only matters for WA -that's what I changed in 11.75 - keep the names the same. So long as you do not change the default in F5 options, since that reverts to DeePsea's method of SCRIPT naming (01, 02, etc), the merged levels will each have their SCRIPTS (if they had any to begin with - since they really don't have to be there if one uses other editors).

So nothing to do with BEHAVIOR, just with editing scripts. WA stores the scripts internally in the PWAD (which I disagree with - since if you lose the PWAD you've just lost the script - you can work around this, but most people don't) and DeePsea works with external script files you can -optionally- save with a level. When one uses different editors -these sort of differences become clearer:)

The BEHAVIOR stuff is automatic, no need to do anything there either. Each level will have the compiled script BEHAVIOR lump. All HEXEN format levels have a BEHAVIOR lump - that's how you tell the difference.

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If you want a REALLY simple tool that can compile multiple maps without worrying about duplicate lumps getting erased, I recommend wadcat which is a small program that comes with the old editor waded. What you do is create a blank map (allmaps.wad or something) and then run wadcat. It will ask for the wad to be merged to (allmaps.wad) and then sucessive wads to be stuck into it. After that it'll ask what map number you want to give those successive wads. That's what I used to merge all the maps together in Massmouth since wintex kept overwriting the scripts and behavior lumps. For merging a graphics wad with levels wintex works fine tho, just highlight them both and hit merge wads.

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Actually Wintex does not always do graphics properly when it comes to merging TEXTUREx and PNAMES. As far as WadCat goes .. see your comments about DOS [I doubt it does TEXTUREx/PNAMES either]. This is a clear example where a GUI easily outshines a command line system:)

There is one other command line utility that is pretty good - the one by Jim Flynn, the last guy that worked on DETH. I think it's MER - don't know it if does HEXEN levels?

http://home.pacbell.net/jflynn/software.html

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nope, wadcat just lumps stuff together in the most basic way, it doesn't merge any textures or pnames if that's what you mean. essentially it just lifts all the lumps from one wad and sticks them at the end of another wad, really just simple file appending. it's not any sort of pain in the ass to use either, it's run from the cl (which I never stated was bad btw, I use the cl every day either in windows or linux) but you don't need to specify any params, and the program asks for everything in a manner that's quite clear. Granted it's not very useful for anything else and the only time I ever use it is when I'm merging multiple hexen format maps *shrug*

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Well, this is strange, there are a lot of multiple ZDoom megawads but nobody can give me an exact and good tool that works :D

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Tormentor667 said:

... there are a lot of multiple ZDoom megawads but nobody can give me an exact and good tool that works

See my post above, but take Wintex off the list. I routinely use XWE to copy lumps from one wad to another, including multiple maps with all relevant lumps. Jack had pointed out an issue about duplicate entries and non-merging of TEXTURE/PNAMES. I imagine that Csabo, the developer of XWE, has either already taken care of the issue or is working on it.

If you're familiar with DeepSea and are comfortable using it you really should have no problems doing what you want in DeepSea.

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Right. The style in DeePsea for PWAD tools is different in that the tools are split by function in a dialog rather than looking it up in a menu.

Press F7 - this is the main PWAD/Texture dialog. Select "Merge-Import Multiple Files into a PWAD..". Like the button says, you can merge any number of files at once. You can either select one file at a time or many all at once in the Open Dialog. For ALL, what you do in the Open Dialog is select ALL the files you want at the same time using either the Shift+cursor method (for consecutive files) or the Ctrl+left mouse for random enties.

Basically you open a "Target" - can be existing or new and then "Add lump files". These files can be PWADs or anything else supported by a port.
------------------

For XWE (as you know, but here for others), on the top File menu, select "MERGE", select the PWAD you want and keep repeating for each file. The MERGE is done right then and there without time to inspect - something that is being changed - since that's not obvious:) I guess you must not have a PWAD since that's how you get the message you mention - but I really don't know since I haven't seen your files.

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Tormentor667 said:

there are a lot of multiple ZDoom megawads

One way to plan new multi-map ZDooM wads that have no additional resources (e.g., textures, flats, sounds, music, etc.) is as follows:

    1. Decide on how your hub is going to work, and prepare a schematic drawing with the hub connections, objectives of each map, etc.
    2. Create your MAPINFO lump, and insert it into the first map you create. (If your other maps are going to be in separate wads you may choose to insert your MAPINFO lump into your other maps too, and then delete them before merging your maps or allow your merging tool to delete duplicate entries.)
    3. You may choose to create additional maps in the same wad as your first map, or you may create them in separate wads. If you opt for the former, and your favorite editor allows the inserting of more than one map into a wad you're pretty much done with the merging portion of your wad creation. (XWE, DeepSea and other tools work with ZDooM/ZDooM-Hexen format wads and can be used to create your additional maps in the same wad).
    4. If you're using editors such as WadAuthor that don't allow the insertion of additional maps into a wad, or wish to work in separate wads, you can either:
    a. Create dummy, single-sector maps in ZDooM/ZD-Hex format, and copy/merge them with your first map wad using a tool such as XWE or DeepSea. Then work on them from a single wad.
    b. Create separate maps, work on them separately, then copy/merge them using the appropriate tool.
If you plan additional resources (graphics, sound, etc.) for your wad, then you can pull it all together in one of several ways:
    1. Create a separate wad for your additional resources, and merge that wad with your maps wad at the end.
    2. Have a master wad that has one or more maps plus your resources, work on additional maps separately, and bring them all together at the end.
    3. Have a single wad that has all your maps and additional resources.
I have used all three methods, but I find that Method 2 works best for me. And Daniel, FYI, I have not had any problems bringing all the elements together in multi-wad ZDooM total and partial conversions.

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Well, as you might already have seen (TNT3 is out) I got the final wad working without any problems after using 3 different editors and 2 hours of work ;)

Thx alot for the help though!

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