Making an iwad with deutex...

So I completely dismantled doom2.wad and would like to reassemble it. Yeah I know most people would say "just make a pwad" but I want to be able to rebuild doom2.wad directly with new resources. deutex should be able to do this, but it errors out on me.

Here is the shell script I wrote to automate the process. I have a similar one for decomposing a wad.

#!/bin/sh
deutex -dir $2 -iwad  $2/wadinfo.txt $1.wad

exit 0

I assume I'm doing something wrong, but I'm not sure just what. There do not appear to be very clear examples of building an iwad with deutex. Anyways, here's the output:

$ ./makeiwad doom2 doomdismantle
DeuTex 4.4.0 Copyright 1994,95 O.Montanuy, Copyright 1999-2000 A.Majorel
  Ported to DOS, Unix, OS/2, Linux, SGiX, DEC Alpha.
  Thanx to M.Mathews, P.Allansson, C.Rossi, J.Bonfield, U.Munk.
  This program is freeware.
Type "deutex --help" to get the list of commands.
Files will be saved in directory doomdismantle.
Build an IWAD file.

Error: Argument "doomdismantle/wadinfo.txt": expected an option

wadinfo.txt is completely untouched; the only change I made at all was switching the original map01.wad with my own map01.wad.

What about

deutex -dir $2 -iwad  -make $2/wadinfo.txt $1.wad

I thought of that as well...but when you specify -make, it assumes pwad even if you specify -iwad.

Then build a PWAD and use some hex editor to make it an IWAD.

Why don't you just open it in Notepad and change the P to an I?

Nixot said:

Why don't you just open it in Notepad and change the P to an I?

Yes, that's a great way to destroy your wad.

Cool, lemme try.

edit: uh oh

The -iwad parameter works for me (Deutex 4.4.0).

I've still had no luck with this. Does anyone have any further suggestions on how to make deutex work to build an IWAD? It seems the arguments are incorrect somehow; I just need to know how to run deutex to build the file properly...

EDIT: Using this page...

http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/man6/deutex.6.html

...I think I have gotten it all figured out. I'll report back when I am sure. :)

What version of Deutex? (Just run it without any parameters)

It's version 4.4.0.

EDIT: I've attempted to reconstruct DOOM2.WAD with its original files, using the information found on that webpage. Odamex fails to load it though, citing 50 errors in R_InitTextures.

EDIT2: Vavoom will load the wad but mentions a number of missing patches. I guess that that's what odamex was complaining about.

DeuTex and DeuSF use the DOOMWADDIR environment variable. If you have it defined and have various IWADs in the base WAD directory, temporarily rename DOOM.WAD to something else. DeuTex might be using it as a base when making the reconstruction because it looks for DOOM first.

Nixot said:

Why don't you just open it in Notepad and change the P to an I?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!


You can do that with a hexadecimal editor. Not with a text editor, and certainly not with one as awful as notepad, or you'll screw up all the binary data.

Gez said:

You can do that with a hexadecimal editor. Not with a text editor, and certainly not with one as awful as notepad, or you'll screw up all the binary data.

It is kind of strange that EDIT.COM from MS-DOS could safely work with binary files, but not Notepad.

May I ask why did you disassembled the original IWAD in the first place?

Mr. Chris said:

May I ask why did you disassembled the original IWAD in the first place?

Sure thing. :) My intention is to create an entirely new game based on the DOOM engine. The game I am working on is beyond the capabilities of the normal engine, but I want to use the existing IWAD system for resources. By attempting to construct an IWAD myself, it will help me learn how the process works. Of course, the best way to do this is to use one that already exists as a base, and experiment with it to get the desired results. I don't want to get too far into engine development without totally understanding the IWAD process, because otherwise it's a wasted effort.

The game I am working on is quite a bit different than other DOOM-type games, though most similar to Heretic (having an inventory, for example). The biggest change is the usage of complex between-level interludes (as opposed to the simple text screens you get in DOOM-likes after an episode), but there are other features, such as a magic shield that can be activated at any time provided you have enough power. There are only six weapons, and all of them are projectile-type which all use the same "ammo" (magic charges). Also, there are only three actual difficulty levels rather than five. One of the items you can pick up is a clone that can be used to distract other monsters (they attack the clone rather than you). As it is inspired mainly by Heretic, I utilized some of the item ideas from there, such as the "chaos device" and the "quartz flask", though they of course are not called that in my game.

This game already exists; it's called Two Lords and I released its original form about a year ago (Windows only, though it does also run through Wine). However, the original game is single-plane raycaster-based, so you can imagine how limited the gameplay feels (kind of like a texture-rich Wolf3D). I want to make it a better game through the use of the DOOM engine.