Load extra WAD in Doom Builder for extra textures/flats

[boris]

I'm posting this for gherkin, since nobody (well, no normal users) is allowed to start polls here. So here we go:

I (gherkin) am not really familiar with making big TC's and stuff, so here a question for the public, what would be more convenient.

- Option 1
Giving the user a box for the extra WAD file from the "Map options" and "Load map" dialogs. Advantage is that you can switch frome extra WAD very easily and quickly, but, the editor forgets what extra WAD you used when you close it and come back later (it will not by default load the extra WAD).

- Option 2
Giving the user a box for the extra WAD file in the "Configuration" dialog. Advantage is that when you are editing on a specific project, you dont need to bother about selecting the extra WAD every time you load your map. But the disadvantage is that you cannot change it easily when loading some other map.

Make your vote, discuss it below. Do it quick, I hate waiting :P

[Gherkin]

 
Thanks boris ;)
 
Vote bitches!
 

[chilvence]

How about Option 2, but further enhanced by the ability to load all wads in a directory tree? This gives the ability to easily load lots of wads at once, should there be a reason to. Obviously its impossible to load more than one texture1/2 lump, but it might be useful to seperate wads full of patches and flats into clumps that can be individually edited in XWE for example.

[Gherkin]

by the ability to load all wads in a directory tree?

Definitely not.

Obviously its impossible to load more than one texture1/2 lump

I know only one PNAMES lump can be used by doom (from the last WAD added to the game that has it), but I didnt think it would work that way for TEXTURE# lumps, does it? (I thought everything in the TEXTURE# lumps was added to the other TEXTURE# lumps from other wads)

[Reisal]

Add the one that gets the most votes, or the one Gherkin prefers more ;)

[Fredrik]

How about switching between what could be called 'projects'? Define info about IWAD, engine, PWADs, etc on a per-project basis in simple text files. Convenient and powerful.

[Fletcher`]

Oh bugger. Just do it the DCK way. :P Have a separate menu for external textures. It would remember the wads you loaded even after you exit or switch games. And it wouldn't be difficult to add them because you can browse for them.

Actually, instead of a separate menue, just put it in with map options. :)

[chilvence]

Well, I could have been speaking out of my arse there, I dunno. I just assume that if you add a texture1 lump in a pwad, it totally replaces the original lump in the iwad rather than them being spliced together.

Why are you against loading multiple wads at once? Or is it just that you dont want to search and add wads from a tree winamp style?

Personally I think this offers a lot of security; being able to seperate different parts of a TC during development means that (even though it should never happen) if the editor (or the user) happens to trash one of them, at least the others will be ok. You will be able to reload a backup of just one small part, rather than the whole lot.

[Doom_Dude]

I voted for option 1. I don't mind telling it what xtra wad to load everytime I boot up Doom Builder.

[Fletcher`]

chilvence said:

Personally I think this offers a lot of security; being able to seperate different parts of a TC during development means that (even though it should never happen) if the editor (or the user) happens to trash one of them, at least the others will be ok. You will be able to reload a backup of just one small part, rather than the whole lot.

It also loads faster too. :)

[chilvence]

It does?

[Fletcher`]

Well, in Dos at least. :P

[Sphagne]

It does not matter where we define them as long as they stick in and reload everytime we run the editor, until we tell the editor to stop loading them at startup.

[Gherkin]

I could do Option 1, plus, adding an entry in the configuration files. When you do a project, copy the config of the engine and modify that entry with the default extra WAD file. When you select that configuration, the box with the extra WAD file is automatically set to that (but you can change it ofcourse). That way you have a config for your project, you can also apply other details like Thing sizes to it in case you're doing dehacked stuff too.

[sargebaldy]

it depends on how they're implemented. i voted for #2 just because i always thought it was a pain in deepsea because i'd forget to close wads and stuff. although i like that idea gherkin just mentioned even better :)

[cyber-menace]

I'd say to make a box for it in the configuration. I'm always using the same wad file with my bonus stuff so it would be nice if I could just put it in the configuration box. Unlike WadAuthor where you have to add it to EVERY map or Deepsea where you have to take the trouble of using up 1 out of 5 of your wad files...

[Doom_Dude]

Haahaa it's a tie at 8.

[zark]

Fredrik said:

How about switching between what could be called 'projects'? Define info about IWAD, engine, PWADs, etc on a per-project basis in simple text files. Convenient and powerful.

That sounds like a great idea. File > New Project or something, where you get to define all that stuff.

[chilvence]

Well I suppose people can still make seperate wads for their projects and then make a deutex batch file to combine them together....

[Reisal]

Deutex? It's not 1996 anymore dude, that's what Wintex and XWE are for.

ps: someone break the tie

[Gherkin]

I decided already. Its not gonna be any of these two, it gonna be what I suggested above in this topic. That allows for project configurations where you can add the wad file to load extra textures/flats from.

[cyber-menace]

Excellent! Now I can make my own Cyber-Demon Army project! Oh Yeah!!!

EDIT: It might be a good idea to allow it to add more than one wad file though. And for anyone who uses lumps and DEH files... it would be nice to add txt, deh, etc. files of compatability.

[chilvence]

Mr. Chris said:

Deutex? It's not 1996 anymore dude, that's what Wintex and XWE are for.

ps: someone break the tie

Theres always a use for command line utils. Deutex happens to be a really good one. Theres room for improvement, but like you said, nobody cares about it anymore.

[ukiro]

I would strongly suggest doing it like with Wadauthor. It remembers what external resources WAD I have loaded for each map WAD, so I only have to set it once.

If I create a new map it takes me like three seconds (really, at the most) to tell the editor what resources WAD to load with the map. Those three seconds are not exactly a big part of the time it takes to make a map :-)

I really don't see how the WadAuthor way could be a problem for anyone; if you're making a MegaWAD with 32 maps you'll have to set it for each one of those, but how can that be a hassle? you do it once and then thats it. If you switch between resource WADs (why the hell for?) your main occupation will be replacing textures and not telling the editor which resource WAD to use.


What I would like to see for DoomBuilder regarding external textures are the following:

1) Support for multiple resource WADs. Like one for sprites (THINGS) and one for Textures/Flats. You never know, it could come in handy. If you want to limit it, just set it to 2 and everyone will be happy.

2) A "refresh" button to re-load the texture WAD(s). I keep alternating between Photoshop, WinTex and WadAuthor now, making new textures and adding them to the texture WAD and to the map. But to have them show up in WadAuthor I need to close the map and open it back up. This is indeed a very small time loss, but I just thought it would be the optimal way to work (i.e. not having to close anything down).

[ukiro]

and now that I bothered to read this thread I see that a decision has already been taken. oh well :)

[Cyb]

actually all you need to do to refresh the resource wad in wadauthor is double click on a void area of the map (so the external wad box comes up again) and click okay

I just saved you 2 seconds :D

[myk]

Gherkin said:
I know only one PNAMES lump can be used by doom (from the last WAD added to the game that has it), but I didnt think it would work that way for TEXTURE# lumps, does it?(I thought everything in the TEXTURE# lumps was added to the other TEXTURE# lumps from other wads)

The TEXTURE lumps are handled just like you said PNAMES is. If I'm not mistaken, other than the lumps under each Map marker, lumps are read only once (usually using the last lump loaded with the name in question.) I don't know if any other markers might allow loading lumps with repeated names in other instances, though, (like a patch and a flat with the same name, as long as they are within their respective markers,) but I doubt it.

[chilvence]

Actually, theres one example in Zdoom, where you can load multiple sndinfo lumps. I think they have to be in seperate wads, and I dont know if you can have more than two (main zdoom.wad one and pwad one)