How do I make/ explore a PK3 file?

Just have a question for anyone to answer and enlighten me. I noticed lately that a lot of modders have been creating PK3 file format wads and I was curious how to make one my own and/or explore a PK3 file. If anyone can tell me, I would really appreciate it.

-Alando1

It is just another name for a *.zip file.

PK3/ZIP is usually done to dump multiple wads and other files related to the project into one package for convenience. I've seen some mods have like 30+ wads inside the archive.

That's not 'usually' done. Yes, there have been a few but it's very, very bad practice to distribute something in that form.

alando1 said:

I was curious how to make one my own and/or explore a PK3 file.

There are a few options - a dedicated editor like SlumpEd is probably your best bet (you'll have to Google for MSVCP71.DLL & MSVCR71.DLL and drop them in your Windows/System directory), 7-Zip will open PK3 files and extract the contents - or (as Hawkwind mentioned) rename them as ZIP files and use any file manager which supports that format. Add this page to your list of required reading if you haven't already seen it.

BTW - SlumpEd's website is back online.

Thank you very much. I'll take a look at these. I really appreciate your help.

-Alando1

Just out of curiosity, how is it bad practice to use pk3? A lot of mods use the format such as KDiZD, GVH, Ultimate TNT, Delta Invasion, etc, etc.

Compare KDiZD with TUTNT. KDiZD is good practice, TUTNT is bad practice. ;)

Yeah, it's not bad practice to use a PK3, it's bad practice to use a PK3 badly. Using the intended directory structure within a PK3 is good. Simply dumping a bunch of WADs into a PK3 is bad and very much not what was intended.