How do I get custom wads to work on PrBoom?

[jimmy711]

How do I get custom wads to work on PrBoom? I am using windows vista and PrBoom 2.4.7. I got Doom 1 and 2 to work on it. When I try to load a custom wad it will say IdentifyVersion: IWAD not found.

[fraggle]

Do one of these, depending on which game the custom WAD is for:

prboom -iwad doom.wad -file custom.wad
prboom -iwad doom2.wad -file custom.wad

[jimmy711]

fraggle said:

Do one of these, depending on which game the custom WAD is for:

code:
prboom -iwad doom.wad -file custom.wad
prboom -iwad doom2.wad -file custom.wad

Where do I type this in? On the custom.wad file name or somewhere else?

[Maes]

*sigh* this is gonna be long...

You're probably better off using a frontend such as ZDL, or else learn the arcane concept of the command line. It's an easy choice, if you ask me.

[Jodwin]

Maes said:

*sigh* this is gonna be long...

You're probably better off using a frontend such as ZDL

C#4rp Doom Launcher is much better (requires .NET).

[chungy]

Jodwin said:

C#4rp Doom Launcher is much better (requires .NET).

Heh, that's interesting. Is there source code for that (mainly interested in getting it cross-platform... but it's not too hard to write one from scratch anyway)?

[Dgon92]

I'm more used to using the "Run" command from the Start menu. That's how I get all the wads to work anyway. It seems to be a bit hard to work out of the box, but you should copy and paste this to the "Run" box:

c:\Doom\prboom -iwad game -file wadfile

Just replace the text "game" with the wad file of your choice and "wadfile" with the game of your choice, like DOOM.WAD, DOOM2.WAD, PLUTONIA.WAD, TNT.WAD, and so forth. It should work, I tried it.

[Jodwin]

MikeRS said:

Heh, that's interesting. Is there source code for that (mainly interested in getting it cross-platform... but it's not too hard to write one from scratch anyway)?

Well it's nothing too special really so I guess I can release it. Don't expect anything glamorous though as I had put it together in one night when I was annoyed by the state of Doom launchers.

http://www.akinomori.com/stuff/programs/CDLsource.zip
(note: The project files are for SharpDevelop, not some flavor of Visual Studio)

[jimmy711]

I figured out how to play the custom wad files. I just had to type the name of the custom.wad file in the prboom.cfg

[Patrick]

Create a batch file!

[Grazza]

jimmy711 said:

I figured out how to play the custom wad files. I just had to type the name of the custom.wad file in the prboom.cfg

Holy crap.

If you can't handle a command line (though you realy should get to grips with this - it isn't complicated and is very powerful), then there are two dead simple ways to do this:

Drag and drop the pwad onto the exe

or

Associate wads with the exe: click on a wad, ask Windows to open it, and then when it asks you what it should open it with, tell Windows where the exe is.

Also, you can use prboom-plus (highly recommended in any case as it is an enhanced version of prboom), which has a built-in launcher.

[Maes]

Again, I'm surprised that with all that port evolution, there are hardly ports with a decent built-in launcher, and, compared to the DOS era, there are fewer launcher alternatives as well. The fact that this question pops up every once in a while proves that launching and integration is still counterintuitive and incomplete.

[DeumReaper]

Patrick Pineda said:
Create a batch file!

Yes! This is what I always do for custom wads.
Create a text file in the directory and put:

prboom -iwad doom.wad -file deum.wad

simply replace "doom.wad" with doom2.wad for doom2 levels, and "deum.wad" with the name of the wad.
Rename the text file to whatever (I use the wad name) make sure its extention (change windows to show them if you havent already) to .bat instead of .txt.

[myk]

jimmy711 said:
I figured out how to play the custom wad files. I just had to type the name of the custom.wad file in the prboom.cfg

That works, and it's good to see you found a solution, but there are ways to avoid having to type the file name in there.

By the problem you were getting, I'm guessing you're dragging the IWADs (main DOOM and DOOM II WAD files) from other folders onto the PrBoom executable, or, separately, any PWADs (custom WAD files) onto the executable. In the latter case, none of the two main files were being read.

You can place the IWADs in the same folder as PrBoom. Then, just drag the PWAD you want to use onto the executable. The DOOM II IWAD will be read along with it.

To play DOOM or custom DOOM WADs, create a shortcut of the PrBoom executable, right click it and choose "properties". In the properties box, look for "target"; you'll see something ending with prboom.exe in there. Place your cursor at the end of that (after \prboom.exe) hit space and type the following: -iwad doom

It will say (some folder path)\prboom.exe -iwad doom in the "target" field, so you can hit OK.

Once you have this shortcut you can do the following:

• Play DOOM II by double-clicking the PrBoom executable.
  
• Play a custom WAD for DOOM II by dragging it onto the executable.
  
• Play DOOM by double-clicking the shortcut.
  
• Play a custom WAD for DOOM by dragging it onto the shortcut.

[esselfortium]

Maes said:

Again, I'm surprised that with all that port evolution, there are hardly ports with a decent built-in launcher, and, compared to the DOS era, there are fewer launcher alternatives as well. The fact that this question pops up every once in a while proves that launching and integration is still counterintuitive and incomplete.

Is drag and drop really that counterintuitive? :S

[Maes]

esselfortium said:

Is drag and drop really that counterintuitive? :S

Don't you need a -file parameter for that, at least with certain ports (plain drag and drop doesn't work on e.g. chocolate doom)? Plus setting explicit parameters about IWADs or for demo playback/recording?

Unless you like keeping all of your iwads in a directory with all of your ports and manage NOT to get filename clashes, you really need a sort of manager. I also hate keeping multiple copies of the IWADS in every source port directory.

[Deeforce]

@jimmy711:
You may want to do it like Myk already said it. I do it like Patrick Pineda and DeumReaper. If you are interested in creating a batch file and still don’t know how to do this, read further on :-P!

DeumReaper said:

Yes! [Creating a batch file] is what I always do for custom wads.
Create a text file in the directory and put:

prboom -iwad doom.wad -file deum.wad

simply replace "doom.wad" with doom2.wad for doom2 levels, and "deum.wad" with the name of the wad.
Rename the text file to whatever (I use the wad name) make sure its extention (change windows to show them if you havent already) to .bat instead of .txt.

@jimmy711: Just in case you don’t know about how to create a txt file:
1.) …what DeumReaper said: make sure that you can see the extentions (go into the windows explorer and then in the status bar go to “extras/folder options/display/” and make sure that “fade out extensions” is not marked with a checkmark and click “ok”)

2.) Now, you can just rename a file (doesn't matter which one) to ".txt" at the end of the file name. Open this file, delete everything that is into this file and type in what DeumReaper said.

After it: rename the file to “.bat” at the end of the file name and copy all needed files (PRboom, custom wad file) and the “[…].bat” file in the folder where doom2.wad or doom.wad is located (depending on the custom wad, whether it is for Doom 2 or Doom 1) and double click on the “[…].bat” file.

If you want to know how to do this for other source ports: it is similar to the procedure described above. Just the content of the “[…].bat” file is different…

Files that need Doom.wad:

for ZDoom: zdoom -file […].WAD
for doom legacy: start Legacy.exe -file […].wad -nocd -mb 511
for GZDoom: gzdoom -file […].WAD
for Skulltag: skulltag -file […].wad

Files that need Doom2.wad:

for ZDoom: zdoom doom2 -file […].WAD
for doom legacy: start Legacy.exe -file […].wad -nocd -mb 511
for GZDoom: gzdoom doom2 -file […].WAD
for Skulltag: skulltag doom2 -file […].WAD

… batch files are the best :-P !

[kristus]

Maes said:

Don't you need a -file parameter for that, at least with certain ports (plain drag and drop doesn't work on e.g. chocolate doom)? Plus setting explicit parameters about IWADs or for demo playback/recording?

Yes, when you drag and drop you need to telepathically think -file or the port supporing it will not catch on.

Maes said:

Unless you like keeping all of your iwads in a directory with all of your ports and manage NOT to get filename clashes, you really need a sort of manager. I also hate keeping multiple copies of the IWADS in every source port directory.

You don't have to do that. But if you're a person that know so little that you totally rely on drag and drop. I doubt you use different ports, keep the ports you do use in separate directories or even consider the possibilities of a proper setup.

Most (All) ports support some way of IWAD direction. There's plenty of launchers out there. But I've never come across any that I actually found any useful myself. So I just make windows shortcuts to any wad I plan to revisit.

[Maes]

kristus said:

Yes, when you drag and drop you need to telepathically think -file or the port supporing it will not catch on.

I tried that with chocolate doom v0.14 and it just didn't work. Even if more recent versions do support it, it still upholds my point that not all ports automagically behave as if -file was implied.

Anyway, I can't believe that the most widespread way to play a PWAD is (still) making an ad-hoc batch file, using the command-line/run dialog, or dragging and dropping (for those ports that support it).

[kristus]

Why shouldn't it be? It's still the best way to do it. If someone made a launcher that wasn't totally retarded. I'd reconsider. But I have yet to find anyone that isn't.

Many source ports do have launchers. And there's several universal Doom launchers out there for people who are too stupid or uninterested to use a command line, and don't want to drag and drop.
But they all suck. (IMO)

[Jodwin]

kristus said:

Why shouldn't it be? It's still the best way to do it.

Well, drag and drop is a good method as long as you either don't mind keeping your Doom directories "dirty" or bother to spend the time and effort to make it needlessly "elegant" (though I'd still argue that having separate shortcuts for every port/IWAD config or some such isn't very elegant). Any kind of batch files or command lines are needlessly complicated though since you need to be writing the file names, which especially when the wad needs other wads or dehs to run is far from an optimal solution.

But that's just for launching the game, an other important step, IMO, is created by how the files are actually distributed in zips. In an ideal situation since the files already come in a zip you'd keep them in a zip and either feed that zip directly the port or if the port doesn't support it, then extract temporarily while you are playing. But extracting them adds an extra step you need to take to play that a good launcher could avoid for ports that don't support zips.

...which is why with CDL you can select to use zips with any port and if the port hasn't been configured to support zips they will be extracted temporarily and the temp files removed once you're done playing. That way you can keep all your wads (except IWADs) in nice and tidy zips without wasting too much space and, in case you want to keep the readmes, having too many files all over the place.

[myk]

Maes said:
I tried that with chocolate doom v0.14 and it just didn't work.

Which is not surprising, as it explicitly tries to stay faithful to the DOS counterpart, and you can't have drag-and-drop without changing the way the WAD-loading command works. What could be done for Chocolate Doom is expand its server into a general launcher, or add such a program (ChocolateManager?). Doom's DeathManager is a basic launcher that can start single-player games as well as multi-player ones.

I personally don't like launchers much because they generally require input that might not be necessary*, like choosing what IWAD to use. In the command line, possibly supported by drag-and-drop, you only type that stuff when required. Additionally, launchers discourage learning about the command line, which, archaic characteristics notwithstanding, is pretty universal at this point (or any point). When you don't use the command line that much you end up using the console more, anyway, which is pretty similar, unless you resort to menus with tons of options, which can become rather annoying.

* They do make sense with multi-player engines, where you generally have to choose the server to connect to, and where doing so automatically loads other arguments that depend on the server.

[ReFracture]

DeumReaper said:

Yes! This is what I always do for custom wads.
Create a text file in the directory and put:

prboom -iwad doom.wad -file deum.wad

simply replace "doom.wad" with doom2.wad for doom2 levels, and "deum.wad" with the name of the wad.
Rename the text file to whatever (I use the wad name) make sure its extention (change windows to show them if you havent already) to .bat instead of .txt.

All hail the batches!
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/3604/doom.png

[kristus]

SoM made a little simple shortcut creator: http://som.mancubus.net/

[Maes]

I wonder how you forgot dragin' n' droppin' on BAT files themselves. Bring the best of both worlds together!

[Reisal]

Speaking of batch files, how does one specify the IWAD in Skulltag without having to be prompted each time, especially if I want to go back and forth between Doom and Doom2?

Doom1: Skulltag -file megasprt.wad myoblige.deh BigSkies.wad mysnd.wad oblige_doom1.wad stbar03.wad

Doom2: Skulltag doom2 -file megasprt.wad myoblige.deh BigSkies.wad mysnd.wad oblige.wad stbar03.wad

What to add so no prompting occurs and so I don't need to swap back and forth between the two IWADs?

[myk]

Add this to the other parameters:

-iwad doom

If you only type the name of the IWAD without the argument, the equivalent of -file is used by the executable, which loads the WAD as a PWAD. Try it with DOOM.WAD and it'll load, but when you start a game, MAP01 will be loaded instead of E1M1.

That reminds me I was going to correct Deeforce's post but later forgot.

[Reisal]

Thanks myk, that should help...when I loaded up the DEH file in the save game I used before using the batch file, the speed of the weapons were defaulted as opposed to loading it with ZDL (which works fine...but the only annoying thing about ZDL 3 is that the very top WAD file is removed from the file list every time it is closed and loaded)

[myk]

If I understand correctly, the effect of the DeHackEd patch is going away if you load a save game through the menu. This shouldn't be happening unless you're not starting the game with the patch loaded. If it does, you have a Skulltag (or ZDoom) bug to report.

To load both the DeHackEd patch and the saved game directly through a batch file, add -loadgame # to the commandline. The number to use appears in the save game file name, at the end (the first save game is 0, and so on).