A completed wad for Heretic... mostly...

[netnomad312]

Hello... I have a question. I have a Heretic wad which is just about ready to send out on the 'net. But I want to include music in this one. I can't find a single program on the net which can embed a .mus file into my Heretic wad. I have a program which works for Doom and one for Doom II. But no Heretic one. It's driving me nuts because I can't find any such program, and as far as I know all their creators made them so long ago they probably won't know what the heck I'm talking about if I try to ask them to make one.

I don't want one of those complex programs with script editing or new entry making and all that junk, because I doubt that I'll ever understand it. I tried downloading Wintex from this site, but I can't make heads or tails of it. Frankly, I was lucky to ever find a level editor I could understand (WadAuthor).

Could anyone please tell me an easyway to put music in my level? Some simple dos-based program which I only need a couple of parameters to run? Something like DMMUSIC? Or else, could someone tell me exactly what to do with Wintex? If so, please describe it in detail as if I were a complete idiot. Because I pretty much am.

I apoligize if I'm sounding slightly hysterical, I've just been searching all night with no freakin' luck..

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Is it one of the original Heretic tunes, if so, which one?

[NiGHTMARE]

1) Load Wintex

2) Open heretic.wad and your own .wad.

3) Select the heretic.wad window.

4) Click the 'select music' icon (the one that looks like musical notes).

5) Click MUS_E1M1.

6) Open the 'edit' menu.

7) Select 'copy entries'.

8) Select your .wad's window.

9) Select the top entry in the list of resources in your wad.

10) Open the 'edit' menu again.

11) Select 'paste' entries.

You now have a music entry in your wad. Now to change this entry so that it's your music:

12) Select 'MUS_E1M1' in your .wad #

13) Open the 'edit' menu.

14) Select 'load entry from file'.

15) In the 'file selection' window which appears, go to the directory your music file is in.

16) If your music is a .mid file, select it from the list. If it's a .mus file, you'll need to type the full filename (e.g. mymus.mus) in to the box above the list of filenames.

Now it should be done! However, if your music is going to be in a level other than E1M1, you'll need to rename it:

17) Make sure your .wad is the one currently being viewed.

18) Open the 'guru only' menu.

19) Select 'rename entry'.

20) Type in the appropriate name (e.g. MUS_E2M5 for E2M5, MUS_E3M2 for E3M2, etc).

[The Ultimate DooMer]

NiGHTMARE said:

20) Type in the appropriate name (e.g. MUS_E2M5 for E2M5, MUS_E3M2 for E3M2, etc).

Heretic works slightly different to DooM. A tune that is repeated later on in the game does not have it's own lump - it uses the same lump as the level which the tune first appears on. E2M5 uses MUS_E1M4 (as the E1M4 tune plays there).

The valid ones are: MUS_E1M1-9, MUS_E2M1-9 (except for E2M5), MUS_E3M2 and MUS_E3M3.

[NiGHTMARE]

Oops, I was sure E2M5 was a valid one.

[netnomad312]

NiGHTMARE said:

5) Click MUS_E1M1.

This is where I first had a problem. There are no entries there. I tried to "create" one using that guru menu, but nothing happened. Then by my famous brand of stupid luck I found a pre-made entry that I could somehow put into the wad by using "load entries from a file." I found the .mus I had made earlier and chose that...

It works now, but the music is slightly, weird. I can't say it's the fault of Wintex, though. I'm going to have to try it on a computer with a decent MIDI system before I can say that (this computer's MIDI system is screwed up).

Thanks for your help anyway. I still didn't get half of what you said, but at least now I know what buttons to press... :-D Now if I can somehow figure out graphics and sound... but that's good enough for this wad! :-)

[The Ultimate DooMer]

If there are no entries of that type in a wad, then clicking 'new entry' will appear to do nothing. But highlight the top line (invisible) in the entry list and click 'load entry from file'. Type MUS_E1M1 and select your file.

[netnomad312]

You know, that's exactly what I did. But now I'm really pissed off because somehow, it screwed up the music! The instruments aren't at all what they're supposed to be. And the funny thing is, I tried using this technique with one of my Doom 2 wads, and the music came out perfectly.

What I did with the music I wanted for my heretic level:
1. I extracted it from my favorite megawad, Dimensions of Time, by using a DeePsea trick I figured out (apparently it creates a .mid file called TEMP in the folder when you try to listen to a music entry within the program; I just snagged and renamed this file). I had done this several months ago and it sounds perfect when I open it.
2. I put it into the entry directly. That's it.

What I did with the music in the Doom 2 level:
1. I used MUSTOOL to extract the .mus file from the wad.
2. I used MUS2MIDI to change it into a MIDI file, but Media Player couldn't open the MIDI for some reason.
3. Regardless, I made the entry in my Doom 2 level with this seemingly useless MIDI, and it worked perfectly.

I tried the second technique with the other song, but nothing changed. Still a problem. It makes no sense to me...

On the other hand... I finally figured out that Wintex is my ticket to creating megawads! Muahaha...

[NiGHTMARE]

I believe that music will often sound different in Doom and Heretic, as the two games play some midi instruments differently.

[netnomad312]

That's certainly possible. I began today a scale model of a summer camp I went to once (for Doom 2). It's going to be my first multi-level wad; you'll go into the buildings for entire levels, then come back out again (the "overworld" will be visited several times, with new demons appearing each time). By the second "episode," it'll be night. I'll just have to find a starry sky texture, but that'll be easy. Visiting buildings at night, then finding the light switches... well, there are a lot of possibilities.

But anyway... the overworld theme I added to it sounds perfectly like the MIDI I used. Now, I wonder: other people who made Heretic wads got their music to sound good... how did they do that? As soon as I can figure that out, I can finally post my first Heretic wad.

When you use Wintex to change the sprites, will you have to keep adding the sprites every time you save the level? See, whenever I save, my music entries are mysteriously deleted and I have to put them back again. For now all I want is to change the yellow key to a green key... that shouldn't be too hard.

[Ichor]

Sprites don't work the same as sounds or textures for some reason. You'll need to use DeuSF to merge your wadfile into the heretic iwad in order for you to see the new sprites.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

netnomad312 said:
That's certainly possible. I began today a scale model of a summer camp I went to once (for Doom 2). It's going to be my first multi-level wad; you'll go into the buildings for entire levels, then come back out again (the "overworld" will be visited several times, with new demons appearing each time). By the second "episode," it'll be night. I'll just have to find a starry sky texture, but that'll be easy. Visiting buildings at night, then finding the light switches... well, there are a lot of possibilities.

But anyway... the overworld theme I added to it sounds perfectly like the MIDI I used. Now, I wonder: other people who made Heretic wads got their music to sound good... how did they do that? As soon as I can figure that out, I can finally post my first Heretic wad.

If you copy and paste the tune from the original wad into yours, and rename it to MUS_E1M1 it should be fine. I did that with the E2M6 tune from DooM 1 (the original Heretic-style tune) and it plays fine in Heretic. If you played the tune in Wintex it might sound different in Heretic, depending on your sound card.

If you're using Sound Blaster, some tunes will play differently in DooM 1.9 compared to 1.666 - Heretic plays the tunes in the same way as DooM 1.9, so if you're using DooM 2 1.666 that could be why.

When you use Wintex to change the sprites, will you have to keep adding the sprites every time you save the level? See, whenever I save, my music entries are mysteriously deleted and I have to put them back again. For now all I want is to change the yellow key to a green key... that shouldn't be too hard.

The green key is already in Heretic, it's the red one that's not.

You will need to merge the sprites into the iwad - unless you're using ZDoom, in which case you can just stick the sprites in (with the same name as the ones you're replacing) and it'll be fine.

[netnomad312]

No... I meant in Doom 2, I was hoping for a green key to replace the yellow one.

I just finished creating and adding the green key sprites. I haven't merged them though - maybe that's why my wad crashes without any error message every time I open the room with the new green key in it. Hmm...

My plan now is to simply make a wad that contains only the green key sprites, merge it with Doom 2, and then run any level I have with green keys in it! Yay...