WadEdit

Dude:

I just checked out one of your most recent versions of WadEdit, and I must say that you've made quite a bit of progress since your original release in January. However, I wanted to point out a couple of things. Using the version I downloaded on March 29, here are some of my observations:

1. The first time I opened up the program and tried to open a wad file, none of the wad entries were listed. The number of items selected was displayed at the bottom of the window, the file name was displayed in the File menu, but no entries were listed. I closed the program, re-opened it, and opened a wad file. This time, and every subsequent time so far, the file opened just fine.

2. When I first opened the program I went into the help file, which worked fine. However, the next time I tried to go into the help file I got an error message telling me that it could not be found, and would I like to manually locate it. This problem did not re-occur after I had closed and re-opened WadEdit.

3. I was somewhat surprised to see that you have removed the graphics display feature. I realize that you intend to expand the graphics editing capability and may have temporarily removed this capability, but not being able to see custom textures, flats, and sprites was somewhat disappointing.

UPDATE: Scratch what I just said about the graphics editing. I re-opened one of the files with custom graphics, and they showed up just fine. In fact, I was browsing through, checking out the features of Texture1, and I really liked the layout. It's really easy to change the size of the texture, and creating tall textures (i.e., taller than 128) appears to be a breeze. Inserting and offsetting patches is also easy. Zooming in and out of the image is great (although I had to experiment to discover how to do it).

On the issues side, I could not figure out how to insert a new texture (short of renaming an existing texture). Also, would it be possible to build in the ability to search for a particular texture or patch? I also could not figure out how to offset a sprite. I tried entering a value into the windows above the image, but when I got out of the image and returned to it I found that the values had reverted to the original. One more thing -- currently if I want to save a graphic entry I can only save it as a .lmp or as "all files". If I want to save it as a bit map, then I need to select "all files" and put the .bmp extension at the end of the file name. This is not a huge issue, but perhaps you could offer the option to save the entry as a .bmp file.

It seems that all the problems I saw occured only the first time I opened the program. Wonder if others have similar problems?

All in all I was very impressed with the program so far. I have not yet used it to create new wads, but just using it to view and manipulate existing files has showed that it is a versatile and powerful utility. Keep up the excellent work.

I checked it on another computer, and you are of course right. The first time things are out of place, it tries to read some settings from the Registry that are not there. I will fix it, thanks.

The help worked fine though, I'm not sure what could be wrong with that. It's not at all final anyway.

You can insert a new texture by clicking Textures|New. Search and sort was one of the things I wanted to add too.

Sprite offsets can be saved, by clicking Image|Apply Alignment. I guess it's not that obvious. Each type of entry has it's own menu, which is only visible when that entry is open.

Saving graphics as .BMP still won't help, it just saves the lump as it is (in it's Doom graphic format). So at the moment there is no image export, only import. I'll be honest, I just take a screenshot and paste the image to my graphic editor when I need one. But I will add this too.

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it. And keep 'em coming :-)

After you pointed it out, I went back and looked at the file again. This time I noted the menu when I selected a different entry, and sure enough the menu options change. This is not intuitive, but once the user knows about it it's natural.

You're right about saving graphics -- it still saves it as a lump. However, if the intention is to copy an image from one wad to another then this is not a problem, as the image can be imported as a lump, which WadEdit then recognizes. If the intention is to have a saved image, then I guess the only way right now is to save as a screenshot.

I was messing with the graphics importing feature, and figured out how to insert a sprite (after creating the S_START and S_END markers). I'm sure the patch, sound, and other lump import features work the same way. However, I still can't figure out how to save the changes, which I though automatically occurred once I exit the program. When I look at the file in Win Explorer I see a .waw file that has the date/time of the file modification, but the .wad file itself appears to be unchanged. When I re-open the file in WadEdit the changes are in there, but when I open the file in another editor the changes are not there. Any thoughts?

My editor does not create a .waw file, WadAuthor does. When you make new entries, or load entries, those changes are immediate and final. They are written straight into the .WAD file, so you should be able to see the changes anywhere.

BTW, I've already fixed those things we talked about, plus some other bugs with the Texture Editor. I'm going to add Find Texure now. Did you receive all those emails I sent you from my Marchmail account?

You are correct about the changes. I was mistakenly looking at a copy of the file that I had changed, but in a different directory than where I thought it was. Thus it looked unchanged, because it *was* unchanged. I did find the changed version, and voila! everything is in as it should be. And yes, the .waw file was created by WadAuthor when I viewed the unchanged version of the file.

I did receive your emails with the cool ideas for a story-driven set of levels, and I replied to you with my thoughts. As I mentioned, I'm in the middle of a project, which I hope to complete in a couple of months. We can then think about ideas for story-lines, themes, etc.

loser said:

I checked it on another computer, and you are of course right. The first time things are out of place, it tries to read some settings from the Registry that are not there. I will fix it, thanks.

The help worked fine though, I'm not sure what could be wrong with that. It's not at all final anyway.

You can insert a new texture by clicking Textures|New. Search and sort was one of the things I wanted to add too.

Sprite offsets can be saved, by clicking Image|Apply Alignment. I guess it's not that obvious. Each type of entry has it's own menu, which is only visible when that entry is open.

Saving graphics as .BMP still won't help, it just saves the lump as it is (in it's Doom graphic format). So at the moment there is no image export, only import. I'll be honest, I just take a screenshot and paste the image to my graphic editor when I need one. But I will add this too.

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it. And keep 'em coming :-)

BLEH!

Oh please oh please oh please DO NOT use the registry!! INI files are what you're looking for ;)