------------------------------------------ Getting Started Customizing Shadow Warrior Written By Keith Schuler (c) 1997 3D Realms Entertainment ------------------------------------------ This file briefly explains how to get the Shadow Warrior utilities installed and running on your computer. These utilities include BUILD (an editor for creating your own levels), EDITART (allows you to put your own artwork into the game), and SLABSPRI (a utility for creating Shadow Warrior's 3D sprites.) Refer to these documents in the \GOODIES\DOC directory on your Shadow Warrior CD for other important information: ADVANCED.TXT - Brief explanations of room-over-room, sector objects, and other advanced Shadow Warrior mapping topics. EDITART.TXT - Instructions and reference for using the EDITART program. EXAMPLE.TXT - Documentation to accompany EXAMPLE.MAP, which includes demonstrations of almost all of Shadow Warrior's map functionality. SLABSPRI.TXT - Instructions and reference for using the SLABSPRI program. SWSOUNDS.TXT - An index of the sound effects and ambient sounds. SPRITAGS.TXT - Sprite tagging reference. Your guide to all the special sprites in Shadow Warrior and how to use them. SWBUILD.TXT - A tutorial and reference guide to using the BUILD editor. WALLTAGS.TXT - Wall and sector tagging reference. These are all the wall and sector tags used in Shadow Warrior. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- Contents: --------- Where To Look On The CD 1 How To Create A Working Directory 2 Why A Working Directory? 2.1 For Experienced Users Only 2.2 Creating The Directory 2.3 Using KEXTRACT 2.3.1 Using KGROUP 2.3.2 Installing BUILD 3 BUILD.EXE 3.1 TILES000.ART - TILES021.ART 3.2 SWVOXFIL.TXT 3.3 *.KVX 3.4 PALETTE.DAT 3.5 SETUP.DAT 3.6 BSETUP.EXE 3.7 TABLES.DAT 3.8 *.MAP 3.9 Installing EDITART 4 EDITART.EXE 4.1 TILES000.ART - TILES021.ART 4.2 PALETTE.DAT 4.3 TABLES.DAT 4.4 Installing SLABSPRI 5 SLABSPRI.EXE 5.1 PALETTE.DAT 5.2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------- 1. Where To Look On The CD ------------------------------- BUILD, EDITART, and SLABSPRI can all be found on the CD in the \GOODIES\TOOLS directory. RTSMAKER, the utility for creating your own RTS taunt files, can be found in the \GOODIES\RTS directory. ----------------------------------------- 2. How To Create A Working Directory ----------------------------------------- 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � This information is provided as is. It is very possible to corrupt � � your copy of Shadow Warrior, so make backups!!! 3D Realms & Apogee � � cannot and will not support the use of this program. If you choose � � to use it, you do so on your own. We cannot help with questions � � about this program or its use. � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 2.1 Why A Working Directory? You should do all of your customizations to Shadow Warrior from a "working directory." This is another directory containing the Shadow Warrior game, plus the utilities and files you plan to use or need. Since you're going to be modifying the actual Shadow Warrior game, its best to modify the working version rather than your "clean" version. There are a three chief reasons for this: 1. If you change your game data, you probably won't be able to play a multiplayer game with somebody else, unless they've got the same modifications. It's good to have a clean version to play versus their clean version. 2. You may accidentally corrupt the game data, in which case you may no longer be able to to play the game at all, even in solo mode. If this happens, it's nice to not have to re-install from the CD. 3. Even if you don't corrupt the game, you may want to start a new modification from scratch, in which case again, its easier to recopy the clean version rather than re-install from the CD. 2.2 For Experienced Users Only Another warning at this point: modifying Shadow Warrior files is best left to experienced MS-DOS users, and probably not a good idea for novices. If you find the task of using simple MS-DOS commands to be daunting, then you may want to spend a little time learning DOS before you go about tackling these Shadow Warrior utilities. None of them will run properly under Windows 95, and they are anything but user friendly. 2.3 Creating The Directory Create a directory ("md swwork", for instance) and copy all of the contents of your Shadow Warrior directory into that directory. Then copy the contents of the \GOODIES\TOOLS directory on the CD into your working directory. You will then need to use KEXTRACT. 2.3.1 Using KEXTRACT KEXTRACT is a utility for extracting files from the SW.GRP file. To use it, the command line format is: KEXTRACT [group file][@file or filespec...] The group file is SW.GRP. @file would be used to specify a list file, while filespec is the name of the actual file or files to extract. Wildcards are accepted. You will probably want to use the following command: KEXTRACT SW.EXE *.MAP *.ART *.DAT *.KVX *.TXT This will extract all of the necessary art and data files, as well as all of Shadow Warrior's level maps. 2.3.2 Using KGROUP KGROUP is the opposite of KEXTRACT. You won't need to use it right now, but you may wish to use it later in order to pack your new data into the SW.GRP group file. The format of KGROUP is: KGROUP [group file][@file or filespec...] Again, wildcards are accepted. An example would be: KGROUP SW.GRP *.MAP This would pack every .MAP file in the directory into the SW.GRP file. ------------------------ 3. Installing BUILD ------------------------ BUILD needs all of the following files in the working directory. These can all be extracted from SW.GRP by using KEXTRACT (see above.) 3.1 BUILD.EXE This is the editor itself. See SWBUILD.TXT for more information about how to use this. 3.2 TILES000.ART - TILES021.ART These are the art files. These contain all of the game's 2D art. If these aren't in the same directory as BUILD.EXE, then you won't be able to see anything in 3D edit mode. 3.3 SWVOXFIL.TXT This is a script file for BUILD and the Shadow Warrior game itself. It tells these programs which sprite picnums are to be replaced by voxels (3D sprites.) If this isn't in the working directory, you won't be able to see the voxels in 3D edit mode. 3.4 *.KVX The .KVX files are the voxel files themselves. The .KVX file is output by SLABSPRI.EXE. 3.5 PALETTE.DAT This is the palette and translucency table for BUILD and the game. Without this, the colors will be wrong, if the program even runs at all. 3.6 SETUP.DAT This is the configuration file for BUILD. It is produced by BSETUP. 3.7 BSETUP.EXE This is a utility for configuring BUILD. Be warned that a -lot- of features in this program are actually not available or configurable. Your best bet is to use the default SETUP.DAT we provided, and never run BSETUP. 3.8 TABLES.DAT This is additional information about the tile set. Required by BUILD and EDITART. 3.9 *.MAP A .MAP file is the level data produced by BUILD. These should be in the same directory with BUILD so you can load them into the editor. BUILD will run without them, but you'll only be able to build a map from scratch. -------------------------- 4. Installing EDITART -------------------------- You may as well keep EDITART in the same directory with BUILD. EDITART is used to import custom 2D art into the Shadow Warrior. You will need the following files in the same directory with EDITART in order to use it: 4.1 EDITART.EXE This is the actual editing program. See EDITART.TXT for more info about how to use this. 4.2 TILES000.ART - TILES021.ART These are the art files. These contain all of the game's 2D art. If these aren't in the same directory as EDITART.EXE, then you'll only be able to start a new set of .ART files from scratch. 4.3 PALETTE.DAT This is the palette and translucency table for BUILD and the game. Without this, the colors will be wrong, if the program even runs at all. 4.4 TABLES.DAT This is additional information about the tile set. Required by BUILD and EDITART. --------------------------- 5. Installing SLABSPRI --------------------------- SLABSPRI is the utility for creating Shadow Warrior's voxels (3D sprites.) You might want to keep SLABSPRI and its accompanying files in a directory separate from BUILD and EDITART, and copy .KVX files over as you create them. 5.1 SLABSPRI.EXE This is the actual voxel editor. See SLABSPRI.TXT for more information about how to use this. 5.2 PALETTE.DAT This actually isn't entirely necessary, but it's not a bad idea to include it in the same directory.