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Catoptromancy

TXT lmps in wad

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I really like zdoom's WADINFO lmp. it allows people to lose .txt files and still be able to find information about wad. WADINFO is also vanilla compatibile.

I would very much like a txt file inside wad as first lmp. It will be the first thing someone sees when opening it with an editor. It permanently gives license and credits info inside a single file.

The VERSION, COPYING, and CREDITS lmps should be merged into a single txt file in that order and placed as very first lmp in wad. The README lmp should be the second, though not as necessary.

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Of course. I always put UPTEMPL in my pwads. An exact copy of the wadname.txt in UPTEMPL format as first lmp.

But there is a vast credits list. So I was thinking of putting the license before authors field. Though going by strict UPTEMPL format would be reasonable as well.

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It would be good to try to fill in as many of the details from the standard template as possible. Obviously some need to be tailored to the different IWADs, and some probably just aren't relevant (release date?). But we ought to be able to fill in a whole bunch of those fields.

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When/if this is done, I suggest avoiding misattribution. If multiple people went into creating or changing an asset, it's best to credit them all and not only the most recent contributor.

An example would be the stimpack/medikit/berserk sprites. I'm (at least on the surface) credited for them, but I only made edits (which themselves were built upon Fredrik's edits), it appears that Julian is the original artist. My fast door sounds are mere edits of existing Freedoom assets, both BAL1 and BAL2 are derived from the original BAL1 (the Freedoom one, of course!).

Other than that, I assure you that I made the following assets from scratch:
KEEN (purely Paint.net)
POL5 (pencil sketch, scanned and digitally edited, revised it recently)
All of my monster sounds are semi-heavily edited clips of my voice. The monster claw scratch sound is edited from recording myself ripping a sheet of paper. The chainsaw is edited from a shitty old gas chainsaw I have. The punch is edited from whacking reeds over a bench.

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The whole general crediting system is a mess. Some maps have been edited many times, a couple drastically. The /status directory is years old, never was complete, and ignored for last couple years. It currently is very incorrect.

Solution: Attic(for reference) the entire /status directory.

We could just use general crediting much like the CREDITS txt. With just the basics. But some people have tons of work in here and probably want each piece credited.

I think a better status/crediting system needs to list every single lmp in the wad into a single text file. A single line in a text file for each lmp. Maps will be divided into 3 sections for each iwad.

TYPE: LMPNAME: Original author: editor #1, editor #2...


Another issue, how much credit for an edit? Does fixing a single misaligned texture count as an edit? Adding a missing player 4 start? I think giving someone specific credit for a small fix is not necessary. But I think it is still important to give them credit for work. In the Credits.txt their name/info should be added as bugfixes.

(this is way off topic and important enough for a new thread.)

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Sodaholic said:

When/if this is done, I suggest avoiding misattribution. If multiple people went into creating or changing an asset, it's best to credit them all and not only the most recent contributor.

I don't think we should go to the level of giving credits for individual resources. A simple list of contributors is enough.

What Catoptromancy says is correct. Certainly the status directory is long out of date and ought to just be discarded outright. Most of the individual files are symlinks that let you identify the authors, eg: "map27.wad -> catoptromancy/map27.wad". However, this isn't reliable or precise either.

For example, suppose that someone made a level, then someone else modified it to fix some bugs etc. In that case at least one of the authors is not credited. Some of the Freedoom committers have in the past handled this by moving the level to a different directory, so it's like the authorship has "changed" to the person who last modified it (I think this is worse, by the way - we should never do this. If we're going to attribute to anyone it should always be to the original author).

Anyway, basically it's all kind of a mess. The project has over 100 contributors now, and an unfortunately incomplete revision history with authorship that hasn't always been recorded in a clear way. At this point in the project, it's just too much work to figure out for certain who made exactly what. I'd rather just list all the contributors than try to give credits which in some cases are probably incorrect.

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I like the idea of having credits for each resource. Some of these took substantial effort and it is reasonable that people want credit for their effort. Someone may want to contact author of a specific resource.

I have started a spreadsheet using a dump of lswad. Will use all possible available credits to fill in the gaps. Also should I use a spreadsheet and convert to csv text? Any better ideas for creating a txt based CREDITS lmp?

Another issue: http://www.doomworld.com/vb/freedoom/46675-musical-plagiarism-in-freedoom/
Without exact credits, we would not know exactly who did what.


This is important for other reasons as well. Spreadsheet will have columns:
LMP, STATUS, DATE, (original)AUTHOR, EDITOR(whoever modifies).
We will be able to see exactly what resources are missing, as well as crediting authors at the same time.

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Catoptromancy said:

I really like zdoom's WADINFO lmp.

What's ZDoom-y about it?

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