.bex information request

[deadnail]

Hiya. Me and Dashiva just put together a deathmatch pack, The Post Mortem Experiment available at:
http://www.deadnail.f2s.com/files/pme.cab (f2s kills zips)

I did all the wad work on my end with WinTEX and NWT. I was able to get the mods in with NWT.

It also includes a deh patch which only changes the level names. Using NWT I made an entry called 'Dehacked', fed it the patch, loaded it up and it worked (good guess on my part on what to name the entry).

Not bad for a first release, eh?

However, I have some questions regarding the .bex format seeing as how I can't find information on it *anywhere* I look. I can't find a web resource of how to make one, not even here on the Doomworld editing Boom-specific pages.

I did browse through this forum for a while and I didn't see a thread that would help.

Now, from what I know about it, a .bex can do everything a .deh can do and more, right? I've opened up both with Notepad and the format seems similar.

I've used Dehacked before on many personal occaisions (back in '96 for a hardcore modem deathmatch -- ultra firing rates) and I can't seem to change the damage caused by Berserk punches.

Sometimes they kill demons with one hit, sometimes it can take up to four. A demon has 150 HP, so does the berserk punch ever peak above 150? Even then, is the damage inflicted a random pick from a set variable (that I can change)?

What I would like to do is make it so that Berserked punches always do 300 or more damage, essentially making them instant kills in multiplay. Of course, in a game as fast paced as Doom letting someone close to you is death anyway (ssg), this just adds a new element... stealth kills.

Changing that, level names, and I have a few more ideas. Just changing the railgun.bex patch that comes with zDoom I think I can replace the BFG with a railgun, so that the Plasma Rifle and the Railgun coexist as separate things.

When (assuming I do) get all of this accomplished, would I just load the bex into the wad under the entry Dehacked for it to autoload?

If anyone can give me the full skinny on BEX patches and how to hand assemble them, I would be very grateful.

[Enjay]

The BEX format can do everything DEH does, and more, but as yet there is no dedicated editor for it. Andreas Back has been working on one for a while now however (see Zdoom forums). You have already used the editor most people use for BEX, ie, notepad.exe

What I, and most people seem to do is edit as much as is possible using DEHACKED and then add bex sections to your file using notepad.

As for information on the format, you would be best to grab the BOOMDEH.TXT file that is distributed with the BOOM source port as the BEX format is actually Boom EXtensions to the deh format. That file should give the details you need. You can also get it with the Zdoom editing package and with other source ports that support the format.

"I can't seem to change the damage caused by Berserk punches."

Correct, you can't with dehacked, or bex. Source modification or perhaps something like EDGE would be needed to make this possible

"...zDoom I think I can replace the BFG with a railgun, so that the Plasma Rifle and the Railgun coexist as separate things."

Yes, you can do that. The damage the railgun does, and the fact it uses 10 cells per shot is hard coded and cannot be changed. I recommend changing the BFG cells per shot to 10 if you do this (F4 misc in dehacked). That should make you change away from the BFG/railgun when you have less than 10 cells. Of course, in Skulltag, the Plasma, BFG and Rail all co-exist anyway.

"would I just load the bex into the wad under the entry Dehacked for it to autoload?"

Yes.

It sounds like you are already beyond what my tutorials on DEH can tell you. There is nothing on BEX at my site (yet), but you may wish to pop over to http://www.btinternet.com/~Enjay001/ and take a look anyway (click on the dehacked link). There may be something there of interest, but a lot of it is not very advanced stuff. I plan to add a bunch of bex stuff when I get round to it.

[deadnail]

"The BEX format can do everything DEH does, and more, but as yet there is no dedicated editor for it."

I suspected as much.

"What I, and most people seem to do is edit as much as is possible using DEHACKED and then add bex sections to your file using notepad."

Yes, but couldn't I just do the whole thing with the BEX format patch anyway? I think that would be more orderly.

"As for information on the format, you would be best to grab the BOOMDEH.TXT file that is distributed with the BOOM source port as the BEX format is actually Boom EXtensions to the deh format"

I did just that and it seems to have as much information as I will need. I would be nice to have it in a pretty HTML format for easy browsing and searching but it's still quite functional. Thank you.

"Correct, you can't with dehacked, or bex. Source modification or perhaps something like EDGE would be needed to make this possible."

Shit. Oh well, I can always make him punch like he's on crystal meth! =)



Thanks for your help.

[Enjay]

"Yes, but couldn't I just do the whole thing with the BEX format patch anyway? I think that would be more orderly."

Yes and no.

Certain sections don't really have a bex equivalent. eg, the things section is the same in both formats, but there are additional mnemonics for the thing's bits that you just add to the appropriate bits line within the thing section.

Other sections, like how the code pointers are handled can be totally replaced with a bex code pointers section.

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[CODEPTR]
Frame 84 = NULL
Frame 85 = A_GunFlash
Frame 86 = A_FireRailgun
Frame 87 = A_RailWait

Frame 84
Sprite subnumber = 1
Duration = 1
Next frame = 85

Frame 85
Sprite subnumber = 1
Duration = 1
Next frame = 86

# S_PLASMA1
Frame 86
Sprite subnumber = 32768
Duration = 3
Next frame = 87

# S_PLASMA2
Frame 87
Sprite subnumber = 1
Duration = 50
Next frame = 81


Why doesn't it keep firing if you hold the button? You have to let go and press fire again... why?

[Guest c-d-w]

I'm not Enjay, but I can help (I think).

Frame 87 (RailWait) replaces the usual plasma-gun's ReFire codepointer. I assume if you remove that line from the bex patch, the plasma-gun will return to automatic fire. To make a noticable delay in the speed of the gun, you'd have to insert another frame into the animation (NULL), since the PG only has two frames to begin with (Fire, and refire).

[deadnail]

The plasma rifle remains untouched in that, and it works perfectly.

I'm replacing the BFG with the railgun. Now, it works, but it doesn't keep firing when you hold down the shoot button. You have to press it again to make it shoot the rail. Why is that?

[Guest c-d-w]

Just comment out the Frame87 codepointer part, and you'll have a rapid fire railgun. (Just tested it.. it works)

[deadnail]

Okay I commented that out and I had a BFG that shot rails like a fucking lunatic. So then I changed the shooting frame delay to 50 and it's fucking perfect!

Thanks man!!