Copyright: Vb DeuTex (c) 1994 Olivier Montanuy


Contents of help files
Vb DeuTex Help Contents

Guys, I know that file is lame. First time I ever try to compile a Help file!

It could be worse. there could be no help file, or it could be written in ancient Greek!

You'd better have a look at the DeuTex manual by HevKev, if you intend to use DeuTex. This file is only a very limited source of information for the moment.

Remember, Freeware tools means no money which in turns means no time.

Installation of VbDeuTex

Set up of VbDeuTex

List of external Tools

Using Level Editors with VbDeuTex

Command lines for external tools, in vbdeutex.ini

Using Vb DeuTex

General hints, tricks and assumptions

Editing ressources

Lumps (general purpose data)

Craphics (menus, screens, faces)

Sprites(monsters, player, objects, weapons)

Sounds and Music (horrible screams and senseless techno)

Levels (levels, reject, blockmap, nodes)

Textures (the walls)

Patches (texture components)

Flats (floors and ceilings)

Using DeuTex commands  (not implemented yet)

How to get info on WAD contents?

How to extract of entries from WAD?

How to make a new WAD?

How to merge two WADs?

Select only the entry types you want

Choose the format for entries


Setup of DeuTex
Vb DeuTex SETUP

Check you have vbrun300.dll in your windows/system directory. vbrun300.dll is available on all serious ftp sites and BBS. If you ever used another Visual Basic tool, chances are that you already have it on your system.

Make a new directory where you will put vbdeutex.exe, threed.vbx, deutex.exe and all your DOOM/HERETIC tools and all the associated  *.pif files.

I request you make a special directory, because strange things will happen there.

Files like errors.txt, output.txt, windeu.ini will be created there. Yes! I use damned TEXT files for inter-process communication! That's what computing looks like in the windoze age!

Note:

If the tools you intend to use are somewhare in your path, like c:\dos or c:\windows, chances are that vbdeutex can find them and use them.


External tools for DeuTex
Vb DeuTex External Tools

Supported tools to date:

DeuTex 	deutex31.zip	(no versions less than 3.1 will work here)

WinDEU	(not stabilised, to date)

DEU	deu521.zip	(and after)

DoomCAD	dmcad50.zip	(and after)

WadTools	wt2.zip	(and after)

NewWadTools	nwt102.zip	(by TiC)

RejectMapBuilder	rmb11.zip	(and after)

BinarySpacePartition	bsp11.zip	(and after)

Text Editor	ted.zip	for viewing end screens.

Midi2Mus	midi2mus.exe	(released by -DDT->)

Mus2Midi	mus2midi.exe	(by just_joe)

Others?

Anything that eats a (pervert) command line! see DEUTEX.INI File

Lame windoze tools supported by default

Media Player	Get a real midi sequencer!

Paintbrush	Get a real bitmap editor

Notepad	Ouch! Get a text editor that supports files above 32k!

Tools not supported

ID's B.S.P.	idbsp.zip	Sorry, dunno how to call it in one command.

It might be feasible, though.


Contents of initialisation file
Vb DeuTex Initialisation file

The VbDeuTex .INI file, vbdeutex.ini (big surprise) should be located in your windows directory. If it isn't first run VbDeuTex once, and it will appear by magic!

Command lines structure:

All command lines are located in the [EXTERN] section. There is one command line per tool type, and that command line is just like any plain DOS command line, except that it contains stuff like  %FILE% %WAD%. These are variables, of course. When VbDeuTex invoques the command line, it substitute those variables by the relevant file name. If I chose to name them %FILE% or %WAD%, it's only to denotate their type.

%FILE% represent a .txt or .bmp file (depends on what the tool is for)

%OLD% represents a old wad file (with .old extension) that's a base for reject and nodes.

%DOOM% represents the name of the main IWAD with full path.

%DATA% represents an additional texture/flat file, used when editing a level

%WAD% represents the.wad file the tool shall use or generate.

%MUS% represents a .mus file. MUS format (ID's music format)

%MIDI% represents a .mid files. MIDI format (a very common music format)

%LEVEL% represents strings like E2M3 or MAP04, (only for Reject, Nodes and Editor)

Note:  All variables names are not supported for each commands. It depends. Imitate, don't take personal initiatives.

Tool	Usage	Allowed variables

Nodes	Node builder	%OLD% %WAD% %LEVEL%

Reject	Reject builder	%OLD% %WAD% %LEVEL%

Editor	Level editor	%WAD% %LEVEL% %DOOM% %DATA%

DeuTex	DeuTex	none

EditText	Text editor	%FILE%

EditTed	DOOM end text	%LUMP%

Mus2Midi	MUS to MIDI	%MUS% %MIDI%

PlayMidi	Play MIDI file	%MIDI%

EditBmp	Bitmap Editor	%FILE%

NewWadTool	WAD browser++	%WAD%

WadTool	WAD browser+	%WAD%

WinDEU	WinDEU directory, file windeu.exe had better be here.

DoomCAD	DoomCAD directory, with files doomwad.exe and doomwad.ini

Debug: Fear the typo that creeps, the bug that crashes. If VbDeuTex just refuses to execute your command, or replace it with a default command, then you forgot a crucial variable, and VbDeuTex just can't believe you meant what you wrote. So the bastard discards it.


Using level editors
Using level editors with VbDeuTex

DeuTex is a tool to help you build completely customised DOOM and Heretic conversion.

It will help you build PWADs with custom textures, patches and flats. Of course, you might wish to use those custom textures and flats in your level editor...

First step, build your external texture and flat PWAD, using VbDeuTex for instance.

When you have finished building that PWAD, logicaly it should be deisgnated as the Target PWAD (hey, you've just built it with DeuTex, haven't you?)

Then comes the hard part, which depends on your editor.

1/ your level editors allows external texture and flat WAD

(DEU and WinDEU, for instance.)

When you go under the Edit Levelswindows, and you click on Custom Editor, then your editor will be called with the command line as specified in  Command lines with variables set that way:

%DOOM%	will be the main IWAD (doom2.wad, heretic.wad...)

%WAD%	will be the level file you want to edit

%DATA%	will be the current target PWAD file (your custom textures/flats)

%LEVEL%	will be set to ExMy or MAPxx

Hence, provided you configured the command line properly, you should be able to edit your level with your own textures and flats.

If the current target WAD doesn't exist, %DATA% will be blank.

Warning:

If you are using new flats, you might first need to complete those flats with all DOOM or HERETIC flats, before you feed them to your level editor. Anyhow, you will need to complete the flats, before you use DOOM or HERETIC on the file, else it will lockup during the boot-up sequence. The DeuTex append command is used for sprite and flat completion.

DEU Warning:

 Don't put your textures and flats in a file DEU will save into, else they will be destroyed. That's why I have added the %DATA% stuff. How does it work? simple:  deu -file %DATA% %WAD% so deu reads %DATA%, then your level %WAD%.

2/ your level editor doesn't allow external texture and flat WAD

(DoomCAD, for instance.)

Then sorry, there is a solution, but it's a bit dirty: using the deutex merge command (one of the craziest feature of DeuTex), you will merge your pwad with your IWAD.

The you can edit your level. when you have finished, or when you want to modify the texture and flats, first restore the IWAD.

For such level editors, don't use %DATA% on the command line.

See the topic Command lines for tools for information on vbdeutex.ini.

Please if you manage to set up VbDeuTex for your prefered level editor, please report so that I include the information here.


General Assumptions
General assumptions when using VbDeuTex

Entry Identification

The dop boxes, together with the ident commands, are used to identify entries. '#' means an unspecified character. all entries have not been entered yet.

When requesting a new something, the entry name will be taken from the drop box. if it still contains '#' it will be refused. Don't type anything here! type a name that is realy existing in DOOM or HERETIC. use the menu Show - Wad contents to get a list of existing entries.

Invoking editors

Most of the time, when clicking on a picture or text you will pop up the relevant editor. try for yourself.

selecting entries

When listing PWADs contents, extracting entries from PWADs, merging PWADs, you might no wish to get all the entry types. in that case, go under the menu Select and choose only those entries that you really want to see.

This is especially usefull when you only want to complete a PWAd with either the sprite or the flats from DOOM or HERETIC. By default, all is selected, and you would get all the sprites and flats, which amount to close to 4 meg under DOOM2!


Editing Lumps with VbDeuTex
Editing Lumps under VbDeuTex

Lumps represent various ressources that DOOM and HERETIC need to work, but that you don't usually need to edit.

End text of DOOM and Heretic, boot screen of Heretic

The lumps ENDOOM, ENDTEXT, LOADING are editable under VbDeutex. What happens is that VbDeuTex calls TED in a full screen windows. You better know how to use TED, check the txt file. ATL-X to exit. ATL-W to write your changes (that will overwrite the previous lump, no back file, you've been warned).

Color palette and color maps:

It is most unwise to edit the DOOM or HERETIC palette, PLAYPAL. Beware that if you spoil the first color palette, and put insane values at colors 247 (DOOM) or 255 (HERETIC) then DeuTex won't be able to determine the transparent color, and will refuse to work. Simple enough.

Future extension of VbDeuTex might include a way to modify some colors, for instance to customise the player colors, when playing network games.

The COLORMAP you might wish to recalculate yourself, if you're a brain in picture editing. VbDeuTex won't help you there. see the doom specs.

Gravis Ultra Sound configuration

It's not real optimised, so they say. You might wish to replace that one with a file that is circulating on the net. Though it's text, VbDeuTex can't let you edit it, because it's a Unix text format, not DOS. text editors would miss the newlines (blast them all).

Game demos

Le lumps DEMO1 DEMO2 DEMO3 represent game demos, that you can record yourself with DOOM or HERETIC. See the doom command line reference. must be DOOM -record demo1.lmp or something.

Doom and heretic run lame under windoze, so VbDeuTex doesn't even attempt to call them.

Other lumps

Let me know if there is something else we should care about.


Editing Levels under VbDeuTex

Edit your levels with the relevant editor

Most editors don't build the nodes and reject data themselves, because it's a very specialised job.

It's a good idea to use a dedicated and reliable tool for that.

 RMB, REJECT, BSP and IDBSP are examples of such tools.

Using VbDeuTex, you should be able to always use the latest release of your favourite tools.

However, if your editor supports some kind of reject and node building, like DEU (which was a precursor) then you should use it when testing your WAD. only when you're satisfied with the layout should you use a real good Nodes (and Blockmap) or Reject builder, because those tools are real slow when they do their job correctly.


Editing Graphics under VbDeuTex

Self discovery mode ON.

sorry.


Editing Sprites under VbDeuTex

uh, still pretty much experimental!

The view point stuff will indicate you what kind of viewpoint you sprite is for:

top means front view, down means rear view, center means all views, and when you sprite is valid for two viewpoints only the first is indicated. how lame!

The phase stuff will tell you the phase for your sprite. it's indication are mostly false, because not adapted to the sprite (yet). oh, why bother looking at this?

The good thing is that Offset stuff!  You can set the offset yourself, or choose between normal or weapon. Well, the 'normal' formula is correct, but the 'weapon' formula is only correct X-wise. and it centers your weapon on the screen, which might not be what you want. Y-wise, it's...a pure guess, from the DOOM specs 1.6, and from comparisons. do you have a better formula?


Editing Sounds and Music under VbDeuTex

For sounds

it's easy, provided all you need is WAVE.

Doucle click, and the sound plays! real tough.

For music

Well, dammit, if you double click, nothing will play unless you have used the infamous mus2midi to convert the mus format to MIDI. there is a button MUS to MIDI right for that.

Warning: MUS2MIDI sometime hangs...or so it seems... in fact, it's lost in one helluva loop that won't terminate before you finish your coffee, so go get one. I'm not criticising, because I looked at the code and understood nothing at all, so I can't make it better and would rather shut up.

You can import music either as MUS (that you get form other WADs) or as MIDI (then VbDeuTex will use MIDI2MUS, which is fast and somehow reliable).

For PC sounds

Double click for a lovely text file!

What can those numbers possibly mean? Probably a sample of the number of bugs that happen per second in a standard windoze implementation.


Editing Textures under VbDeuTex

Warning: There is a bug in my call to the bit blitter. sometime, a transparent (cyan) part of a patch will stay on the picture. Don't worry: under DOOM or HERETIC, you won't see it.

How to set-up VbDeuTex for texture editing?

This is the boring part. If you want to reuse old patches or to modify old textures, you need to extract ALL THE DAMNED PATCHES of DOOM or HERETIC into your data directory. If you don't do this, then VbDeuTex won't display the old patches, and won't let you select them. sorry guys.

I wanted to improve this, but it's all the fault of those damned windoze DLL.

Extract all the old patches:  Menu Extract - Old Patches

Extract all the old textures: Menu Extract - Old Textures

That will waste around 4 meg on your disk. If you've had enough, delete the subdirectory oldpatch, DeuTex doesn't need it to build your PWAD.it's only needed (temporarily) so that VbDeuTex can display the old patches.

Warning: Don't mix versions of DOOM and HERETIC. DeuTex won't care a lot, but VbDeuTex could be confused, if required entries are not present.

Choose your textures

The only file you can edit is texture1.txt (resp. texture2.txt) because I lack space for file selection!

You can include:

- The content of other texture files, for instance texture file you will have built with NWT

  (Button "Add Textures" and select a file)

- A new texture that you're gonna compose with VbDeuTex

  (Type a texture name in the text box, when you press return it will be added)

- An old texture that you wish to redefine

(Select an old texture in the list, and press Button "Add Old Tex")

Compose the texture

The screen contains (much too many) areas: a texture area, a patch area and a texture content area. the texture area is where the texture is displayed. the patch area deals with patches, and the texture content area is where you can see the names of the patches that compose the texture

Adding a patch

Browse the two patch list at the lower left corner, select the patch you wish, and it appears in the patch editing windows. there, you click on it, and it appears in the texture windows,

where you can move it as you wish. click to drop it, right-click to discard it.

Moving a patch

Select a patch in the texture contents list, and use the Up/Down/Right/Left/Bring Front buttons.

Removing a patch

Select a patch in the texture contents list, and press DELETE.

Note:  If VbDeuTex is too slow for you, or if you lack the disk space, use NWT for texture composition. If you save your textures as text, deutex will be able to read them.

Until I write te windoze DLL, VbDeuTex will be lame for texture composition.

However, VbDeuTex is much easier to program than NWT, expect improvements.


Editing Patches under VbDeuTex

There is no special patch editing windows. There will be...later.

Meanwhile, under the texture composition windows, you can add a new patch to your patch list.

The old patch list cannot be changed.

Should you wish to reuse DOOM or HERETIC sprites in your patches, then just put them in the oldpatch subdirectory with all the others old patches. They may not be patches, but VbDeuTex won't even realise, and DeuTex will know what to do. Don't put them in the patches subdirectory, though.

Sorry, you have to use the file manager for that! the relevant code is not written yet in VbDeuTex.


Editing Flats under VbDeuTex

Warning:

use only 64x64 bitmaps or DeuTex will complain. In fact, heretic also has 64x65 bitmaps for flats, and I still damn wonder why, but don't use that stuff under DOOM.

Animated flats

If you want to redefine an animation with flats, be sure to select (in the identification drop box) one start and one end of animation that exists in your doom.exe or heretic.exe.

Then redefine those start and end with the patches you damn please, and put the intermediary steps IN BETWEEN.

Warning: If you redefine only the start or only the end of animation, you will crash doom or heretic. No warning (so better behave, you perverts.)

F_SKY1

If you redefined that one, go play with Forrest. It is NEVER displayed. It's a see through for sky texture.