XWE Problem

[djvero]

Hi guys,

I did something incredibly stupid (I think) with XWE. I was looking at this tutorial ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9aWU5g7ynM ) and I was trying some things out with RSKY1, like the guy in that vid said.

I will say exactly what I've done:

- I replaced the original RSKY1 with some other texture (saving it as RSKY1 again)
- I imported this other texture into my custom WAD (in 'patches' I clicked on 'Entry' and then 'Load' and then I clicked on this new texture (RSKY1)
- I played one level where I could see this new sky.
- Then I just wanted the old sky back so I clicked on this texture in 'Patches' and then on something like delete or whatever........

Now I can't play my WAD anymore. The minute I clicked delete I thought I had done something terribly stupid. I tried several things, such as importing the original RSKY1 again, but then it say "Read beyond end of file"

I really hope someone can help me out, because this means I lost all my own maps on which I've been working for so long.....

[EarthQuake]

Do you have any other custom textures in the wad? If not, you can just delete PNAMES and TEXTURE1 and everything will go back to normal. They're only needed in a PWAD for texture modifications or additions. You might also read up on how TEXTURE1 and PNAMES interact with each other and what they really do. Understanding what they are all about might help you recover from any future problems with textures. It sounds to me like you probably even took some unnecessary steps to add the sky in the first place.

Oh, and you've hinted the wad might be corrupt? Isolate your XWE-generated backups (get them out of XWE's directory) and rename them to have a .wad extension. See if you can find a suitable working backup. If there seems to be none, upload the wad. I have a utility that might be able to save the contents.

[djvero]

Thanks man haha! That was some good advice. You just saved my day!!!! Luckily I didn't have any other custom textures, that was the only one. I'm definitely not going through that anymore, so I deleted XWE haha.

I also found some backups. Apparently Doom Builder automatically creates some?

Damn, those were some crazy heart-beating moments. I'll just use the regular textures now :P

[EarthQuake]

XWE is okay if you exercise caution. Primarily you never want to have a file open with it and another program (Doombuilder) at the same time. This is an easy way to corrupt a wad and lose everything.

In your case though, I think it was simply a matter of not knowing how PNAMES and TEXTURE1 worked. Deleting a patch from PNAMES (when it's actually appropriate :P) is not a straightforward task because TEXTURE1 relies on the precise order of the listing in PNAMES to function properly. This is most likely what prevented the wad from running.

[GreyGhost]

One little fact that tutorial didn't mention - assuming it was followed it to the letter - is that with the Patches filter enabled XWE will automatically add new patches to the PNAMES and TEXTURE1 lumps, and create those lumps if they don't exist. If all you're planning to do for now is replace standard IWAD patches with your own, you don't need those two lumps in your wad, in fact they can be a hindrance. Just stick with the All filter and drop your replacement patches between the PP_START/PP_END markers that XWE thoughtfully created.

djvero said:

I also found some backups. Apparently Doom Builder automatically creates some?

Both Doom Builder and XWE create backups.

[djvero]

GreyGhost said:

One little fact that tutorial didn't mention - assuming it was followed it to the letter - is that with the Patches filter enabled XWE will automatically add new patches to the PNAMES and TEXTURE1 lumps, and create those lumps if they don't exist. If all you're planning to do for now is replace standard IWAD patches with your own, you don't need those two lumps in your wad, in fact they can be a hindrance. Just stick with the All filter and drop your replacement patches between the PP_START/PP_END markers that XWE thoughtfully created.

Both Doom Builder and XWE create backups.

Well, I followed the instructions from the tutorial, so I'm gonna take this into account as well. I might install it again and use it only on copies of back-ups of my WADs and as soon as I fully get the hang of it, I might use it for my regular WADs, because I would really like to have Space textures for example.

EarthQuake said:

XWE is okay if you exercise caution. Primarily you never want to have a file open with it and another program (Doombuilder) at the same time. This is an easy way to corrupt a wad and lose everything.

In your case though, I think it was simply a matter of not knowing how PNAMES and TEXTURE1 worked. Deleting a patch from PNAMES (when it's actually appropriate :P) is not a straightforward task because TEXTURE1 relies on the precise order of the listing in PNAMES to function properly. This is most likely what prevented the wad from running.

Yea, that's what the guy said. I didn't use any other program along with XWE, so that's probably the reason why the WAD file wasn't corrupt. And I didn't know how it worked no, so that was kinda stupid. I'm still too much of a noob haha :D

Thanks to both of you though!