Should the WadAuthor source code be released?

myk said:

Should? No. If the author wanted to release it, fine, but he doesn't owe the source code to anybody.

boris said:

View -> Select Map

I was being sarcastic. :)

You use WadAuthor? Damn, that editor is god-awful to use sometimes, isn't it? I've had so many problems mapping with that editor...

I have been in contact with John Williston and he is planning on an update for wadauthor. he feels that he has gottan hopes up for WA users only to let them down by not getting his update done which is why he does not report on the progress of his update anymore. Here is a list of what is done.

All or most of the bugs reported above are fixed.
A much better texture browser.
Much better zooming.
Grid to 1 unit.
Much more area to work with if doing a very large map.
Limits fixed if doing very large maps (somewhere around 28000 sidedefs).

I think a few other features are in the works. I talked with him about full zdoom support but i would not expect to see it but i don't know. I also would not expect to see an update on par with doombuilder or deepsea as far as features go.

I'm a long time WA user and really like it. It's what worked for me back in the mid and late 90's and i have just stuck with it. Yes, i have run into some of the bugs and lost hours of work but the bugs imo are very easy to avoid when you know what causes them.

I also have Doombuilder and Deepsea but WA is still my choice. Doombuilder is awesome but being in the late stages of my wad building career i just don't have the motivation to change editors. Deepsea i know is great also but for some reason i just have too many problems with it which i think is more my fault than the editor.

The big question is if and when the update for WA happens.

Chris

one thing that always bugged me about WA is that I could never get it to support custom flats, that is totally new flats, not just modifications of the originals. I would always have to manually insert the name and deal with the error checker always saying it was an error. If it doesnt have new flat support, it should be added.

MasterOFDeath said:

one thing that always bugged me about WA is that I could never get it to support custom flats, that is totally new flats, not just modifications of the originals. I would always have to manually insert the name and deal with the error checker always saying it was an error. If it doesnt have new flat support, it should be added.

The problems with that is, I believe if wad author does not find both the F_START and FF_START markers for flats in a wad, in which case you can just add whichever in that's missing.

I've found that renaming F_START to FF_START gets WA to recognize them.

As well as renaming F_END to FF_END (which is what you do if you use Wintex).

I love WA and have the utmost respect for Dr. John Williston. When I started trying to map, WA was the only program intuitive enough for me to use.

I downloaded all the so-called beginner editors for Windows: DoomBuilder, DeePsea, and WadAuthor and only WA could I get working. DB is free, and I use it to do many things, but not build wads from a blank grid! DeePsea is a great program and does so many things it is terribly confusing to a beginner. I told Deepteam I would have paid $40 for their program instead of $20 for WadAuthor if I was able to understand it.

I have been teased because I actually bought the program, but any questions I have had, (and I still had many) Dr. Williston answered promptly and showed me how to use his program. He didn't design it for everyone, but for some of us it is perfect. So, no, I don't think the source code should be made free.

As he says, it was made with Visual C++. If one wanted to, I would imagine the code could be easily cracked into anyway.

psyren said:

I have been teased because I actually bought the program

heh don't feel too bad, I paid for my copy of WA too.