Best Wad Editor

[Semper Fi]

What is the best and simplest wad editor. All I want to do is change sprites, sounds, and maybe some weapon behaviours such as speeds and projectile types. I also want it to be Zdaemon compatable.

[EarthQuake]

For modifying the behavior of the game you need WhackEd2 (Windows) or DeHackEd (DOS).
For editing sounds, music, graphics you need XWE.
For editing maps you need Doombuilder, Deepsea, Wadauthor, or some other editor.

WhackEd will let you modify a good portion of the game, and you can save those changes to a dehacked patch (.deh, althought I suggest using the more powerful Boom extensions which are selectable when creating a new patch). You use XWE to add that to your wad under the lump name "dehacked". You can also test these patches in zdaemon by simply dropping the patch onto the zdaemon.exe. Running a wad with a patch already in it will automatically apply the changes to the game. As for how to work with dehacked, that is up to you.

For replacing sounds, graphics, or music, you need to find out what they are named in the doom2.wad. Any lumps in your custom wad with the same name will replace that given lump in the game, without actually hurting your doom2.wad. You can replace almost anything in the game this way by using XWE to load lumps into a wad (which you can create from scratch in XWE, or you can insert stuff into existing wads). An example of having a new pistol sound: insert a wave file into your wad with the name "dspistol" and presto, new pistol sound. Replacing the music to map01? Insert a midi as "d_running".

Google should help you get those programs.

[Semper Fi]

ok thx, im using XWE since weapon behaviours are a lil ahead for a beginner such as myself. first off when i go to edit something how do i insert a sound file? there is nothing there to work with everything int he drop down bars up top are grey and unavailable.

[EarthQuake]

You need to start a new wad file.
Then you may use the Load command in the Entry menu. You can pretty much insert anything this way. If you open a wad, then everything is already available, but after you create a new one, all you have to do is just reopen it.

[Semper Fi]

OK thanks, but i load Doom2.wad and then when i change it it saves, should i make a backup doom2.wad just incase? Also when im replacing a weapon sprite or something do i click load, then find the sprite, then replace it with the cooresponding wepaon sprite?

[EarthQuake]

I never said anything about directly modifying your doom2.wad. You simply use it as a reference to see how different lumps are named. If you did modify it, then XWE is pretty good about automatically making backups.

When I said the term "replace", I meant that a particular piece of the game is overridden by the contents of any custom patch wads (pwads) that are loaded. This is how pwads work, by containing lumps that override the lumps in the doom2.wad under the same name. If you view other people's custom-made pwads, you can see how the contents are named according to the thing that they override in the doom2.wad. That was pretty repetative, but hopefully you'll understand it now :)

For example, in a one-map wad that starts on the first map of Doom II that replaces the sky graphics and the music for that level would contain lumps like the following:

MAP01
SIDEDEFS
LINEDEFS
SECTORS
ETC...
...
RSKY1
D_RUNNIN

If you look into the doom2.wad, you will see those exact lump names. All a patch wad does is tell the engine to use any lumps from YOUR pwad, instead of the ones in the doom2.wad.

[Semper Fi]

so if i was replacing the pistol sprite i could have 2 sprites named PISGA0, (one of them being the original, the other a custom) and have the custom override the originial and take its place?

[EarthQuake]

You only need one, being the modified one and insert that into a pwad. It will automatically override the default sprite (that is in doom2.wad) when you load the patch.

However, in the case of "replacing" sprites, you have to play the wad using a source port like ZDoom, and you might have to use SS_START and S_END markers for some source ports. Don't make me explain all that too :(

EDIT: Heh, I might as well make a tutorial out of this thread.

[Semper Fi]

you should, it would be a lot easier ;)