home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
4-Ever Doomed
/
4-everdoomedcypresssoftware1994.iso
/
utils
/
d1_d2
/
edmap
/
builder.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1980-02-11
|
8KB
|
187 lines
This is the README file for IDBSP10.ZIP - a port of id's BSP builder to
DOS. The package consists of two programs, IDBSP.EXE and WAD_DWD.EXE;
source for both is included. Be warned that my source is VERY UGLY. This
was literally a "quick and dirty" port. But, owing to the efficiency of
id's algorithm, the BSP builder is pretty fast!
Programs were compiled by DJGPP v1.11m5; that's "DJs port of GCC to
DOS" version 1.11 maint 5, which means GCC v2.5.7. The programs have the
DOS extender (GO32) prepended to them, so no support files (other than
EMU387 if you need coprocessor emulation) are required.
Send comments, requests, etc. to Ron Rossbach at
ej070@cleveland.freenet.edu
Thanks to:
Tom Neff (tneff@panix.com) for developing the WIF format
Matt Fell (matt.burnett@acebbs.com) for the "Unoffical DOOM specs" v1.3
Colin Reed (DYL@CIX.COMPULINK.CO.UK) and Raphael Quinet for providing
the first BSP builder....BSP11x
DJ Delorie for porting GCC to DOS.
All the WAD authors and level editor authors out there....keep up the
great work!
And of course, John Carmack and the guys at id for releasing the source
to their BSP builder!
Please use the source code in your own levels editors, utilities, etc.
Please credit id and myself if you use the code in your programs. Feel
free to re-distribute this package, as long as you distribute the WHOLE
package, including source and README, and give credit where credit is due.
You may not use these programs or source to create modified levels for the
shareware version of DOOM.
DOOM is a registered trademark of id Software, Inc.
=========
IDBSP.EXE
=========
IDBSP.EXE is a straight port of the NextStep Objective-C source uploaded
to ftp.uwp.edu in April, 1994 by John Carmack of id. The program takes a
DWD file as input and builds a PWAD file which can then be used with the
-file command line parameter for DOOM. A DWD file is basically an "ASCII
WAD" file; it is a text file containing descriptions of the vertices,
linedefs, sidedefs, sectors, and things on a level. IDBSP takes this
information and automatically generates the remaining resources needed for
the level - SEGS, SSECTORS, NODES, REJECT, and BLOCKMAP.
For this port, I've added two extensions to id's original DWD format:
1) A "level:E?M?" (where ? is the episode and level) directive marks the
beginning of each map level. Multiple levels can be included in a
single DWD file.
2) Any other WAD resource (demos, pictures, etc) is "included" into the
DWD file by a directive "resource :size" (note the space between the end
of the resource name and the colon), where "resource" is the resource
name (like DEMO1, CREDIT, ENDOOM, etc) and size is the total size in
bytes the data for the resource will occupy. When IDBSP encounters this
directive, it looks for a file called "resource.lmp" (where resource is
the resource name) in the current directory. It then pulls this file
into the PWAD. No data conversion is performed. The feature is
provided mainly for re-building existing PWADs. Use DMAUD, DMGRAPH, etc.
to perform data conversion.
For more information on the DWD file format, see the WIF spec by Tom Neff
(tneff@panix.com). IDBSP currently supports id's original DWD format,
with the two extensions listed above.
The command format for IDBSP is:
IDBSP dwdfile [wadfile]
where "dwdfile" is the name of the DWD file, and "wadfile" is the name of
the PWAD to be created. If you do not specify "wadfile", TMP.WAD will be
created. If you specify the name of an existing WAD file, IDBSP will ask
if you want to overwrite the file. If you say no, IDBSP will append the
new information to the existing WAD file. This lets you build a single
PWAD from many DWD files.
Since I'm new to the DJGPP environment, I'm not sure I got the math
coprocessor emulation right. The program works with a coprocessor, but I
don't have a machine to test it with the coprocessor emulation library
(EMU387). If you don't have a coprocess on your machine, and want to give
IDBSP a try, you need to set up an envionment variable called "GO32" to
point to the emulation library. The command looks like this:
SET GO32=emu library
where "library" is the path to the EMU387 library. For example, EMU387
is in the C:\GCC\BIN directory on my machine, so I would use the
following:
SET GO32=emu c:\gcc\bin\emu387
I haven't dived completely into the BSP algorithm used by IDBSP, but the
resulting PWAD files are smaller and somewhat faster than those created by
BSP11x. As Matt Fell said in the specs, this is probably due to id's BSP
algorithm being tuned to generate a BSP tree with the fewest splits,
rather than trying to fully balance the BSP tree. Also, IDBSP provides
automatic building of the REJECT resource, which will speed up all those
line of sight calculations the DOOM engine does. BSP11x currently doesn't
do this. Of course, the amount of speed-up provided by REJECT depends on
the level creator using the proper linedef attributes (like "blocks
sound") handle when the monsters are "activated".
===========
WAD_DWD.EXE
===========
WAD_DWD.EXE is a program which takes a WAD file as input and generates a
corresponding DWD file. The DWD file can then be used as input to IDBSP.
WAD_DWD is necessary since no available DOOM editors create DWD files on
their own. For resources other than map levels, WAD_DWD will create a
file called "resource.lmp" where "resource" is the resource name, in the
same directory as the DWD file. All of these files are input for IDBSP.
The command format for WAD_DWD is:
WAD_DWD wadfile [dwdfile]
where "wadfile" is the name of the WAD file, and "dwdfile" is the name of
the DWD file to create. If you do not specify a DWD file, TMP.DWD is
created. All .LMP files are written to the current directory.
WAD_DWD does not do any floating point math. If you have problems running
it on a machine without a coprocessor, see the discussion on the emulation
library and GO32 enivornment variable above.
=======================
USING WAD_DWD and IDBSP
=======================
To use WAD_DWD and IDBSP to build your own PWADs, do the following:
1) Use any level editor to create your level, and save to a WAD. You
don't need to have the editor perform any BSP building.
2) Use WAD_DWD to translate the WAD from the level editor to a DWD file.
3) Use IDBSP to create a new WAD from the DWD file containing all BSP
information.
You can also re-build complete PWADs supplied by others, but see CAVEATS
below.
=======
CAVEATS
=======
There is one limitation to IDBSP and WAD_DWD that I know of:
1) DEMOs recorded on levels built with another BSP utility (like
BSP11x) won't work correctly after the level is re-built by IDBSP. I
think this is due to some BSP information (related to enemy/player
position) being stored in the demo file; obviously this information is
invalidated when a different BSP algorithm is used. This is should only
be an issue when you re-build PWADs supplied by others.
Otherwise, PWADs build with another BSP utility (like BSP11x) re-build
fine with WAD_DWD and IDBSP. If the PWADs don't include DEMOs, there are
no problems.
To quote John Carmack of id, referring to his BSP builder:
"BTW, there IS a bug in here that can cause up to a four pixel wide
column to be drawn out of order, causing a more distant floor and
ceiling plane to stream farther forward than it should. You can
sometimes see this on E1M1 looking towards the imp up on the ledge
at the entrance to the zig zag room. A few pixel wide column of
slime streams down to the right of the walkway. It takes a bit of
fidgeting with the mouse to find the spot. If someone out there
tracks it down, let me know..."
I haven't tracked it down, so the bug has been ported with the rest of the
program. I haven't actually seen the problem on any levels I've built,
though.
Please send me an e-mail if you uncover any other problems. Also, source
is included for those with strong stomachs. :-)
I hope you enjoy these programs....hopefully they will help with
incorporating complete BSP functionality into the level editors.
Happy DOOMing!