Wad Organizer

I am looking for a way to organinze wads like Doomsday Kickstart does. (With the list of choices to check)

Doomdsay runs really slow and KingDoom was waaay to complicated. Legancy and Doom95 only allow 1 custom wad at a time, and I can't understand any of the zdoom commands.

Are there any source ports that are similar to Doomsday but run as good as Skulltag? (Skulltag is extremely smooth)


Also, this is gonna sound dumb but what does it mean when demos are recorded?

I'll just answer that last bit.

Nitro17 said:

Also, this is gonna sound dumb but what does it mean when demos are recorded?

This means that when launching the game, the player puts "-record xxx" into the command line (or replace "xxx" with any other file name). The engine then records a file called xxx.lmp which is simply a listing of the player's actions gametic by gametic (together with information such as the map number and skill level).

This file is called a demo, and can be played back using "-playdemo xxx". Since it is just a recording of the player's actions (and not a video clip) it will only play back using the same game engine, or one that has been specially designed to have compatibility with it.

Many thousands of demos have been recorded both on the original iwads and on pwads. For more about demos, look in the Demos forum here at Doomworld, DSDA or compet-n.

Nitro17 said:
Legancy and Doom95 only allow 1 custom wad at a time, and I can't understand any of the zdoom commands.

All three engines (Doom95, ZDoom, Doom Legacy) use similar commands; it's the launchers that are limited, at least Doom95's is.

To add a PWAD to the game on any Doom-based engine use the Run prompt on the Start menu and type (supposing you have your game in c:\doom):

c:\doom\Doom -file filename.wad

For Doom 95 add -nodm to bypass the launcher:

c:\doom\Doom95 -file filename.wad -nodm

Some engines do not require the WAD extension; replace Doom with the actual name of the engine you're using (PrBoom, WinDoom, Legacy, etc.) and filename with the wad's name. You need to add the path to the PWAD if its not in the same directory as the engine.

Many engines use -iwad for the main wad if it's not in the same directory as the engine. Similarly, Doom95 uses -game:

c:\doom\Doom95 -file filename.wad -nodm -game c:\iwads\doom2.wad

The basic commands for all Doom-based engines are explained in The Official DOOM FAQ; there are additional commands for the newer engines, with some relatively standardized among the ones in development. Some engines, like ZDoom and Legacy, have their own console-based versions of some or all of the commands they support. Additionally some engines support Windows-type startup features, like loading wads by dragging them onto the engine or its link, if things are set up correctly.

Thanks for replying but I am looking for a less complicated way similar to how Doomsday does it. (Where you add pwads to the list and can select multiple wads if you want) It would be annoying to type C;/program files/Id Games/Doom Ports/Legancy/-file.wad everytime I want a custom pwad.

If I remember correctly, eternity's launcher allows you to select one file after another without replacing any files you already have listed.

Also note that many ports (including eternity and zdoom) allow you to simply drag-and-drop multiple files onto the port's executable file. So you dont have to even bother with a launcher.

Edit:

Nitro17 said:

It would be annoying to type C;/program files/Id Games/Doom Ports/Legancy/-file.wad everytime I want a custom pwad.

Instead of typing commands repeatedly, what you can do is create a shortcut to your favorite port and then add your custom parameters to the "Program" box(or "target" box, depending on the OS) by editing the shortcut's properties. This is assuming that you're using windows.

Another effort-saver is the fact that when you use "Run..." from the Start menu, you can make use of the history list. Clicking on the little downward pointer on the right-hand side brings up a list of the last 25 or so things you've done from there, so there's likely to be some that just need a little editing (e.g. change a wad name, or a port name) to get it to do what you want.

I hope I haven't made that sound complicated; it's really dead simple.

Also, it might make it easier if you have your Doom stuff in a folder with a shorter name. I just shove everything in c:\doom2 unless there is a good reason to put it somewhere else.

As Amaster says though, drag and drop is the simplest option (you can even drag a wad file straight out of winzip and onto the port's exe), and I generally use that except when I am doing something like recording a demo. I've also got it set up so I can right-click on wads (or lmps) and it offers me a selection of things to do with them. That requires some editing of the file types in Windows - nothing complicated, but you need to know what you're doing.

Thanks for the drag and drop tip. With that, once you drag and drop the pwad(s) you want to play to they delete themselves when i start a new game?

I am going to try eternity too.

The pwads remain loaded until you restart the program. Choosing "new game" from the in-game menu does not remove them.

Eternity is a good port. Note that higher resolutions than 640x400 and drag-and-drop are only supported in recent versions. As far as I can tell, drag-and-drop support is limited to one wad at a time, so you'd need to use the command line in that case.

Both ways didn't do for me, and I couldn't figure out eternity at all. if any of you find something like Doomsday anywhere let me know.

Thanks for all your suggestions

To get the most out of Doom, you really need to know how to use a command line. See myk's post and the Doom FAQ to which he links. Study them, and try out the things he (and the FAQ) suggests.

You could get yourself a graphical frontend if you don't want to do commandline stuff.

There are a few frontends floating around but the only one I know the link to is my own ESL (see link in sig)

:)

Here's a zdoom-specific frontend
http://www.martin2k.co.uk/vb6/exes/unleashed.php

screen shot:
http://www.martin2k.co.uk/vb6/exes/unleashed.png

and there's always KDX if you want to go through the trouble of setting it up and learning to use it.