Longer text

[Bashe]

Is it possible to make text longer than possible. I mean, DeHackEd only lets you do so much, and there's limits. How do I make it as long as I want?

[Ultraviolet]

DeHacked's text replacement replaces text within the EXE directly. That means it goes to a certain offset within the EXE and starts just replacing characters. There's only so much space to do that, and if you overwrite one character too many you've fucked up your EXE.

Use BOOM or its derivatives or any other non-BOOM source ports that support DeHacked patches.. DeHacked patches applied to BOOM (and derivatives) it don't have as many limits because they don't directly overwrite the EXE. In fact, BOOM has a special patch format...

[Bashe]

So... there's really no way to make infinite text? But I swore I played a few wads with patches with more text.

Like in 10 sectors, the have call map 31:
Level 31: Marle - The Horrible Bitchgoddess. How did they do that?

[Linguica]

Bashe said:

So... there's really no way to make infinite text? But I swore I played a few wads with patches with more text.

Like in 10 sectors, the have call map 31:
Level 31: Marle - The Horrible Bitchgoddess. How did they do that?

Since you played it in Boom. Read the above post again.

[Bashe]

i ArE tEh MorON!!!!111111~~~11~~1!!!

I'm using ZDoom. Duh! I skimmed that post and thought it was Boom only.

[Bashe]

Is there an editor that can eliminate the limit? Even when I use wordpad, it will still have a limit no matter how much I will put. Like:
Super Mega Launcher 4500 The Master
But in the game:
Super Mega Lanucher 45

Why can't it go longer? I'm using ZDoom!

Whacked won't do it either.

[exl]

You have to make .BEX file and put your text strings inside a [STRINGS] header in the following form:

[STRINGS]
HUSTR_E1M1 = Imp Circus
HUSTR_PMAP01 = UR Nutz
etc.

Look for more information inside the Boom dehacked text file. You can also use this version of WhackEd2 for the time being, which supports Boom (select is when creating a new file under the Engine Configuration): http://www.whacked.daniel-carroll.co.uk/temp/whacked2_beta_setup.exe

[Bashe]

Whenever I run Whacked, I will get an error that says:
modConfig.LoadProgramConfig: invalid program configuration file.

[exl]

I assume you uninstalled your old version fo WhackEd2 before installing the one I posted up there. If so, then you should try deleting the whacked2.cfg file in WhackEd's directory. Then run WhackEd again and you should be asked to reconfigure.

[Bashe]

Okay, it's acting all funny. I have started to edit the text around, and most of it is still missing within the game. I mean, this is what I put for the Nightmare skill level:
Are you a stupid jackass?
This skill level is for Jesus
Christ only!

Press y or n.

But the game only displays:
Are you a stupid jackass?

What happened to the rest of it? I picked for it to use Boom and I thought Zdoom would work too since it's kinda like Boom.

Actually, it looks like you can't have those \n things. Why?

[exl]

Those \n things are basically a representation of carriage returns (or linefeeds, cant remember). WhackEd simply displays them because it makes it easier to distinguish returns from normal characters (which also add up to the length of a string!).
That said, could you give me the [STRINGS] section of the created BEX file? If it's a bug I'll have to fix it of course.

[Bashe]

Take a look.
The first string, the nightmare one is not showing up correctly in the game. It will only display the jackass part.
Also, the second string will only display the first line before the \n.

[exl]

I think WhackEd2 indeed buggered out by forgetting to put the /n (escape codes) in the BEX files. I'll investigate it.
In the mean time, you are best off with manually editing your BEX file for its strings. teamtnt.com should still have their Boom 2.02 in the downloads section (or a separate Boom part), which includes a file describing the STRINGS stuff in detail so it should be a breeze editing it by hand.

[netnomad312]

Here's a related question: I know doom2.exe doesn't recognize DEHACKED lumps... but if I were to use ZDoom, adding the patch as well, which would ZDoom listen to, the DEHACKED entry or the patch?

I ask this because I'm thinking I may be able to place longer text in the DEHACKED entry for ZDoom as opposed to other ports...

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Bashe said:

Is there an editor that can eliminate the limit? Even when I use wordpad, it will still have a limit no matter how much I will put. Like:
Super Mega Launcher 4500 The Master
But in the game:
Super Mega Lanucher 45

Why can't it go longer? I'm using ZDoom!

Whacked won't do it either.

If you want infinitely long map names, you can use the mapinfo lump for ZDoom, which is simply a text file imbedded in the wad. A typical entry looks like this:

map MAP01 "entryway"
levelnum 1
next MAP02
sky1 SKY1 0
cluster 5
music D_RUNNIN

This is what Hexen uses, and AFAIK there's no limit on names whatsoever. You can even stick this in a vanilla or Boom-compatible wad, and ZDoom will recognise it while vanilla and other ports will ignore it without crashing.

But of course this only works for map names and intermission text, for other text strings use the bex format.

Net Nomad: I would imagine the external patch would take precedent, as it's added to the command line after the wad.