How to create a ginormous wad

[GreyGhost]

This is a reply of sorts to buttspit's question (currently residing in Post Hell) "How does one pull off getting a 1 GB WAD file (and a small text file on the side) down to fit into a ~1 MB zip file?"

To recap -

Gez said:

Unless the bulk of the wad's size is caused by a text lump containing nothing but the letter "A" repeated a billion times, I do not think you will be able to achieve such an impressive compression rate.

Agreed, that's pretty much the situation.

Quast said:

Why on earth do you have a 1 gig wad file to begin with?

Courtesy of "Cheeky Wilson" - who I suspect is actually Terry.

The Green Herring said:

I believe he's talking about this WAD.

So do I. Having way too much time on my hands today I decided to take another look at that abomination and try to replicate it. I think I've cracked it, so without any further ado may I present...


GreyGhost's Short Guide to Creating Drive-chokingly Large Wad Files

The tools you'll need are a wad editor, a hex editor and an archiving utility. You'll also need two maps (for the purpose of this exercise I'm using my "Maps From Memory" submission and an Entryway clone I made using the WadC editor) and a massive file full of null bytes - which I created in the hex editor.

• Create a "maps" folder, copy one wad into it and zip the folder to create a valid .pk3 file.
• Open the other wad in an editor and load the .pk3 into it as a raw lump (screenshot 1).
• Create a bunch of markers (screenshot 2) then save and close the wad. You now have a wad with an embedded .pk3 file.
• Open the null bytes file in a hex editor and import your modified wad to the start of the file.

This is where it gets interesting and some knowledge of the wad directory structure comes in handy.

• Locate the wad directory, rename the first entry (MAPS in screenshot 3) as PADDING, edit the lump link to point to the start of the file and the lump size to that of the null bytes file.
• Copy/paste those edits to the other PADDING entries (screenshot 4). You've now concealed the .pk3 lump and the result (after saving) should look like screenshot 5.
• Rename the wad as a .pk3, zip and upload where some sucker can stumble upon it.

Open the fake .pk3 in an archiver like 7-Zip and it'll obligingly read the embedded .zip lump while ignoring everything else, use XWE or G/ZDoom and you'll see the other map - sneaky or what!



(1340x800 - 41k)


(1340x800 - 51k)


(1095x736 - 40k)


(1095x736 - 39k)


(1340x800 - 49k)

Here's my test wad, this example unpacks to a modest 10Meg.


@buttspit - now you know how it's done, here's one last word of wisdom...

Spoiler

DON'T DO IT!!! Gags like this get old very quickly.

[darkreaver]

idgames will be spammed by 1gb pieces of shit wads now. thanks.

[dew]

darkreaver said:

idgames will be spammed by 1gb pieces of shit wads now. thanks.

but they will take just 1MB of server space per piece, woo!

[TimeOfDeath666]

So this is what the blueberry girl in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory felt like.

[deathbringer]

You can alternatively create a huge wad file by throwing in a copy of the whole Iwad, each one with just one sprite/sound or map changed, for everything you want to change. Oh and don't forget mp3's of the complete Offspring discography and a broken skybox. Some people might not like it, but if you read a Zdoom tutorial and put in a door that opens sideways your friends will lap it up and call you "the ultimate doom hacker", so it doesn't matter!

[esselfortium]

deathbringer said:

You can alternatively create a huge wad file by throwing in a copy of the whole Iwad, each one with just one sprite/sound or map changed, for everything you want to change. Oh and don't forget mp3's of the complete Offspring discography and a broken skybox. Some people might not like it, but if you read a Zdoom tutorial and put in a door that opens sideways your friends will lap it up and call you "the ultimate doom hacker", so it doesn't matter!

Of course, but that won't compress down to a tiny size.

[The_MártonJános]

This reminds of me once deciding to make a GigaWAD consisting of 100 original and 8 bonus levels, even the concept was already done:

MAP01: Was intended to be a HUB, but later the idea was cancelled. Only an office that sends you to prevent the volcanic eruption.
Maps 02-15: City-themed maps
Maps 16-29: Fields or something like those
Maps 30-43: Following down a river which takes you to the seashore
Maps 44-57: Shipping adventures on the sea
Maps 58-71: On ground again - various worldwide memes seen everywhere
Maps 72-85: Going underground until a magma chamber
Maps 86-99: Getting out of the volcano itself and into the base called VEPO (Volcanic Eruption Preventing Operation) to do the job instead of the prehistorically murdered operators
MAP100: Battle against the arch-nemesis (much resembling the KDiZD one in my imagination) who is now furious by sabotaging his project in it's final state (which is, to be honest, is shamelessly ripped off the one which is used in Austin Powers: to get something into Earth's core which makes all of the volcanos over and around the world erupt).

Good old times, when impossible was nothing for Cell himself! :D

[GreyGhost]

darkreaver said:

idgames will be spammed by 1gb pieces of shit wads now. thanks.

Could happen, though unlikely in my opinion. Practical jokes like this work best when used sparingly. Then again, there's nothing wrong with being prepared for such a scenario - so here's another short guide...


Radical Liposuction for Morbidly Obese Wads - Case Study #1: Infected Base

The tools you'll need are XWE (Slade tends to crash) and an archiving utility - I recommend 7-Zip.

• Open infebase.pk3 in XWE and save the lumps SNDINFO through to ENDMAP. That's the playable map extracted, close XWE.
• Open infebase.pk3 in your archiving utility and extract the /maps folder, with it's unplayable second map (map01.wad).
• Open map01.wad in XWE, rename the map marker (something other than MAP01) then load the playable maps' lumps (see screenshot) and close the wad.
• Rename the file infebase.wad and decide if it's worth keeping.

(1340x800 - 16k)

[betabox]

GreyGhost said:

This is a reply of sorts to buttspit's question (currently residing in Post Hell) "How does one pull off getting a 1 GB WAD file (and a small text file on the side) down to fit into a ~1 MB zip file?"

...

@buttspit - now you know how it's done, here's one last word of wisdom...

Spoiler

DON'T DO IT!!! Gags like this get old very quickly.

I'm... I'm all choked up. You made a topic dedicated my original question (which is now in Post Hell) :P

And as a thanks, if I may provide you with an interesting concept in response to your word of wisdom:

Spoiler

REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY
Nah just kiddin'