CD Shareware Magazine 1997 January

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Text File | 1996-06-17 | 28.1 KB | 575 lines

--------------------- New stuff since v3.01 --------------------- Beta 14: -------- * Got the demo code updated to work with the new system of doing things (i.e. dmapedit.ini) Basically, this means you can record demos again, and they should work for a long time to come (hopefully). * New error checks have been added to the error checker. Thanx to Bruce Benko for that. * DMapEdit now uses XPD for startup and spawning. The big reason for this is to get around a little problem that DJGPP has. You shouldn't notice any difference really, on the user end. * Added some INI variables, including 'forced doom 2 CCT', which will let you use the old 'palette.dme' file again, if you are one who liked that better. * Added a little variety to the buttons. There are now check-boxes as well as radio buttons. Radio buttons are used for dependent cases (only one item in the set can be selected at once), while check-boxes operate independently of everything else. The last case would be buttons that you can click on to perform some operation or change a field value. Right now it's a radio button still, but if anyone has a good idea for something else we could use, I'd like to hear from you. Also, feedback on what you think of these check-boxes would be appreciated. I'm not even sure if I really like them yet or not myself actually. * Spawn doom options window is now available, allowing you to specify the conditions to use to test out your map with in Doom. * Probably a lot more stuff, but I can't remember any of it, so too bad.. :) Beta 13: -------- * Added scale, rotate and scretch options in the edit menu. For all those who have been waiting for that, it's finally in. It has a slight problem with leaving garbage on the screen when the mouse crosses one of the 'non-fixed' lines. I can't figure out how to eliminate it. Everything I try seems to get me nowhere. If anyone can figure out how to fix it, let me know, and I'll throw your name in the 'thanx to' section of the docs. Let me know if you'd like me to explain the problem and theory behind the code, and where the problem is. Oh hell, I'll just throw it at the end of this file instead. :) * Fixed the bug that caused DMapEdit to crash if you passed a PWAD to it via the command line. * Fixed the line edit window bug that didn't realize it was supposed to be changing the default line, instead of linedef #-1. :) * Fixed the bug that didn't allow you to have negative values for offsets in the second sidedef in the line edit window. * Fixed a bug in the map data group saving function. It indents the entry now and doesn't duplicate it, like it was before. * Fixed a bug that causes the wall texture names to be screwed up when a map is autoloaded at startup (any time you didn't tell DMapEdit specifically that you want to load a map). * Updated (not completely finished yet though) the description comments in the 'dmapedit.ini' file. Also removed existing slots and data groups, instead of leaving you with configurations I last used. Beta 12: -------- * Revamped the INI reader. It will now handle all the information that state.dme stored, and in plain text, making it easily changable by you the user if you wish to, and also makes it more flexible. It also stores the information for all the map slots instead of just the current slot, so the full map slot state can be restored as well. * Default thing type #'s 1-3 now increment to the next type # when a thing is placed on the map. This makes it simple to add all 4 player start points at once. Simply pick type #1, and click in four different places to set start points there. After the first start point is placed, the default thing type will be 2, etc. * Ability to spawn Doom now. If you want to try your map out in Doom real quick and see if it looks and plays ok or whatever, just select this option from the file menu. It'll generate nodes and stuff if you need them, and then run doom directly for you. Once you quit Doom, it'll come back to DMapEdit again. This is the first time I've messed with spawning programs and such, so I dunno how great a job I did with it all, so let me know if you run into problems. Right now it defaults to level 3 difficulty. I'll put in a selection window so you can pick different options soon, but for now, you have to live without that. :) * There's a new flicker-free mode to the 3D renderer. The 'F' key toggles it. What this does is draw the screen to a buffer and then transfers it all to the screen at once. Kinda nice. I'm using the GRX library directly for my new game, so I'm more used to the GRX type calls, so this is just a little benefit from what I learned there. :) * Put something in to get around DJGPP's little problem of not bothering to pass the 0th argument to DMapEdit (making DMapEdit unable to tell where it is located on your system). Just use the '-d' switch, so like 'dmapedit -d c:\dme'. Best to just throw this in a batch file that is in your path somewhere, and you'll be able to run DMapEdit from anywhere, and not just in it's home directory. * On-the-fly Doom to DMapEdit color converting. Big deal, right? It already displayed Doom textures fine. The reason this is significant is not for Doom, but for adding in support of other games, like Heretic and Hexen. Displaying Heretic textures with the Doom palette doesn't look very pretty. Now that this change is in, the way is clear for adding Heretic support, and Hexen, if anyone has the specs for it yet. * Mark line/vertex moving doesn't do the abnoxious map-redraw every time the mouse moves anymore. * Fixed a bug with the 'doom 2 path =' line in dmapedit.ini. DMapEdit won't crash now if you don't have Doom II. :) * Finally got around to adding default sectordef editing. * Also finally got around to adding the sector blend mode bluebox. * Automatic Linedef flipping to solve errors has been disabled. Everyone is complaining about it, so we'll try it this way. We'll see if Doom refuses to run maps more often from now on or not. * Arrow keys supported in the picklists now, and letter keys work in the floor/ceiling texture picklist now. * Bug in save window fixed. * What else.. Other little things I can't remember right now. One day I'll probably get better organized and keep track of the stuff I do as I do it, but I'm not that organized yet. :) Beta 11: -------- * Actually, I don't remember all that much what I've changed, but I'll list what I can remember. * The DJGPP version now defaults to keeping the old textures in memory. This should speed up the wall texture view again. A lot of people were complaining about it being slow, so maybe this solve that. Let me know. * Unavailable options in the menus are dimed now. * Generate sectors now has a warning message to inform you that it will destroy existing sectors. * Deleting a line doesn't automatically combine the 2 sectors into one anymore. Easy enough just to rebuild the polygon if you want it to be one sector. * Multi-map switching between maps with different wall textures has been fixed. Copy and pasting between Doom 1 and Doom II maps in different slots should work fine now. Did for me. :) Beta 10: -------- * Fixed more bugs! All these bugs are getting pretty ridiculous. Someone wanted me to make finer steps in the zoom routines. Big mistake! I'm still trying to fix everything to work with it now. The only bug I still know about with this is the staircase builder. Nothing big, but if it acts funny on you, change the zoom level by one. My main goal for beta 10 was simply to get it stable again. Here's a list of bugs fixed: + Scale mismatch errors have been fixed, wherever I could find them. + Found problems with Reject occuring. (see below) + Fix sectors & generate sectors gets an error when there are no lines. Pointless to use it in such a case, but it still shouldn't give you a fatal error, so I fixed that. + Whenever you try to load a map without any nodes, it would erase all your vertexes, so the map looked like a huge jumble of lines. Such a map is ok on disk, it's just that DMapEdit screwed it up after it loaded it. Fixed now, though. It should load a map like that fine now, if you encountered this bug. * Roundoff (snap-to-grid) can be toggled on and off now with the ' key. This will allow you to keep your current roundoff level intact when you want to use it again. * I found out that Reject was only calculated in one place in DMapEdit, and that was after a 'generate sectors'. This could cause problems for wads that already have a reject bitmap when you add more sectors. The reject bitmap no longer will be the correct size, and between the actual and the 'should be size' is undefined, and could be set. This can cause a number of problems: + Shooting rockets at walls point blank doesn't hurt you at all. + monsters round around you but never attack. + monsters looking straigh at you don't see you and thus don't 'wake up'. If you have a PWAD that you created that suffers from these problems, you can fix them now. Reject is rebuild with a 'make', but can also be recalculated with Alt-J. Beta 9: ------- * Fixed new bug that showed up in beta 8 with floor/ceiling textures not being found correctly from the IWADs. Beta 8: ------- * Beta 7 was actually quite buggy. Here's what the bugs were: + When saving the editor state, it only recorded the filename itself, and not the full path to the current PWAD. So when it tries to restore the state later, it tries to find the PWAD in the current directory. If it wasn't there, it crashed. However, even if it can't find it, it should just load up the IWAD instead. This has been fixed now. + When working with multiple maps at once, not all the information was being swapped in and out, mainly the wall textures. This could easily corrupt everything. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to track down all the bugs here yet, so watch out if you use more than one map slot. Beta 7: ------- * 3D preview now allows you to use coloring in solid rendering mode that most closely matchs the texture on that wall. Use 'C' to toggle this. * Preference menu items and the editor state can not be saved and restored on exit/startup. This is used by the demo functions, to keep a demo played back in a fixed state. As a result, previous demos, if you have recorded any, won't work. If you really want to convert them over, let me know and I'll explain how to do it. * Multi-map is in and working. I have done quite a bit of testing on it, and it's working pretty good now, but I really can't say how stable it is. However, as beta testers, I would appreiciate it if you used it a lot, as long as you aren't working on anything important. If you are, you could make a backup of it and then heavily test it. :) * Grid style (solid or dotted lines) is now selectable in the dmapedit.ini file. Variable is 'grid lines', and can be 'solid' or 'dotted'. So, lets have a vote. Try them both out and tell me which one you like better. I will make the one that the most number of people like best the default grid style. Also, if you zoom out too far, and the distance between grid lines gets below 8 pixils, DMapEdit will draw every other/every fourth/etc grid line until they are 8 or more apart. That's not new. What's new is that the grid will be drawn in red now if all the grid lines aren't being drawn, so you know that the grid you see doesn't represent the true grid size indicated. * Hold down the Alt key in rectangle creation mode while dragging out a rectangle will now force that rectangle to be a square instead. * Fixed a bug with the 'grid' setting used in the dmapedit.ini file. Before beta 7: -------------- * 3D preview. See above for more information of this. * Auto staircase-builder. Type 'b' to get it going. Should work without and problems. The ceiling problem has been fixed. * Polygon generator. Selectable from the misc menu. * Convert sector to door function. Type 'd' to activate it. * Demo record/playback. * Rectangle mode is in. Only way to get to it right now is with F5. So, press F5 and drag yourself some boxes. I think you'll enjoy it. Currently only overlapping horizontal and vertical lines are checked for and merged, but the other checks are on the way. * Sidedef edit mode is in. Use F6 to get to it. It displays textures on the currently highlighted sidedef, and it is also handy for editing groups of sidedefs. Ever wanted to edit all the sidedefs of a sector at once? Just mark a sector in sector edit mode, switch to sidedef edit mode, and press spacebar. Well, kinda. I'm still working on it so it probably won't work correctly, but it will soon. * Pretty minor, but when box-marking, or making a rectangle in rectangle mode, you can press the delete button/key to cancel. You will be holding down one of the buttons already (for stretching the box), so the remaining buttons (excluding the delete button) will switch you to the opposite corner of the box. Handy if you started the box but found you slipped slightly from where you wanted to start. * New lines are created smarter now. If the line is single sided, it won't have a '-' for the middle texture. If it's double sided, but has a multi-patch texture for the middle, it'll change it to '-' automatically for you. So, creating lines shouldn't introduce sidedef errors of any type anymore. * The merging problems with rectangle mode I decided to handle in the add new line function. So, new lines you create from line edit mode will also merge. Like I said, though, only the horizontal and vertical overlap cases are currectly detected. * add/remake sector function has been fixed up and improved. Void detection worked much better now, and should be flawless. It also won't alter anything if it fails during the process. It's also much faster, since void checking is done 'as it goes' instead of before it even attempts to do anything. * Whole new interface! Menus, toolbar, info boxes! Better than windows itself! (only my opinion, of course) And a lot more colorful too. If you are going to spend hours building maps, shouldn't it be plesant to look at? * Better docs! It describes in detail not only how to use DMapEdit, but how to go about making maps, what rules need to be followed, how doors, lift, etc work, you name it. And because it is split up into several files, the info you are looking for is generally easier to find. There's even a DMapEdit FAQ. * Copy and paste! Duplicate whole groups of Things, Lines, etc. and put copies elsewhere on your map. * Fix sectors option available now. Much like 'generate sectors', only it doesn't trash your old sector definitions first. Instead, it tries to use your old sector definitions. * Template support! Mark a group of objects, copy them, and save to a template file to use later in other pwads. Grab template files from friends and build a prefabricated structures library. Distribute whole libraries for others to use. You can use templates to snag an area from another pwad and put it into one of yours too. Templates are the future of doom map editing, and will make map creating a snap. * Map scrollable with the mouse. Bring the cursor near the edge of the screen, and it changes to an arrow. Press the left mouse button to scroll a single step, or the right mouse button to scroll continuously. Also, holding ctrl, pressing a mouse button and dragging will drag the map viewing area. Nice for positioning it exactly where you want it. * Many preferences selectable from the preferences menu. Things like zoom on cursor position, grid size follows roundoff value, etc. * File picklist system, much like most DOS programs use. See all the PWADs you have in your directory and click on the one you want to load. You can even use the 'del' key to delete PWADs off your drive. * Extensive map error checking. If your map has an error, chances are DMapEdit will find it! The only thing I know of that it won't find is some causes of HOM. This is something that is almost impossible to detect. If anyone has an idea for doing it though, let me know and I'll put it in if it's feasable. * Node generator has been improved. Faster and better than before. Code was written by be from scratch, so won't hit problems that other node builders hit. There is checking for roundoff errors as well (complex splits), but this new code doesn't appear to get any such errors. Thanx to the Renegade Node builder, which I stole the line-splitting method from. Still don't fully understand the math, though.. :) * Map rating system for all difficulty settings. Nice for telling how hard a map is likely to be, and to see if difficulty settings are even implimented in a map. * Bug fixes: + Line color wasn't updated after editing a line. + Cancel button wasn't reachable in 1024x768 graphics mode. + Saved maps were corrupt when sidedefs memory block was >64k. + Vertical lines weren't skipped when remaking sectors. + Void detection has been improved when remaking/adding sectors. Also, no changes are made if the operation fails, so you don't have added sidedefs around the map. + Node generator bug fixed while I was optimizing it. So, not sure what was causing it, but it's gone now. Hasn't failed on any valid map yet. I dare you to find an exception! :) + Math optimizations everywhere, thanx to Robert Forsman, 'Math God' -------------------- New stuff since v3.0 -------------------- * Combined the shareware module (unreg.c) and registered module (reg.c) into a single module, which is now used. It's basically just the registered version now, except for messages and such. * Fixed a minor bug in the texture picklist. No, it's not the major bug that some people are talking about. I haven't found that one yet, and may not anytime in the near future. This one's hiding really well in there. I don't know if it's every really in the texture picklist routines, or is somewhere else, and the picklist just shows the symptoms of it. If anyone out there can debug, and has this problem on their system (it doesn't show up on my system normally) and are interested in trying to find it, THANX! Your name will go to the front of the 'thanks you' list at the end of this file. * Fixed the group line edit bugs. Now, when you change something, it will actually be changed! * Fixed a bug in saving maps. Some people said that texture names were getting screwed up after a blockmap generation. Well, close. Actually it happened when you saved a map with the size of the sidedef memory block >64k. Fixed now, though. * Included is a very helpful file called 'concepts.doc', which I wrote to help anyone out there who doesn't have god-like knowledge of the internal workings of Doom by reading and fully understanding the unofficial Doom specs. It's an excellent file for programmers and hackers, but it's not really written for map designers. So, 'concepts.doc' will give you all the basic concepts and such you need to know instead. Let me know if you have any ideas/complains/feedback on this file. I'm more of a programmer than a docs writter.. -------------------- New stuff since v2.1 -------------------- * Memory usage has been drastically altered. You should be able to use it with less memory now, and with larger files, as long as you have memory for it all. The old limits I had for everything are now gone. It still uses base memory, and not EMS or XMS. Until I know how to use these memories, it will stay this way. If your map gets too big to for DMapEdit, it's probably too to play with Doom without it being slow on the average pc. Split into a few missions instead! * Texture picklists! No need to try and remember/figure out all the wall texture names. If you become familiar with the names, though, and know just what texture you want, you can still just type it in, (for power users like myself), by clicking with the right mouse button instead. * Zooming, roundoff, and the grid has been changed around. Zooming has "half-steps" now. The grid now displays to the scale of the roundoff level, unless the space would fall below 7 pixils between lines. In this case, every other line/fourth line, eighth/etc is drawn instead. * Made a new hilight method, which is now the default. If you liked the old way better, though, it is still possible to use that. Just put "flash mode=old" in the INI file. Which brings us to: * INI file support. You change all sorts of default settings in the "dmapedit.ini" file. Take a look at it. A list of all INI file variables and values is discussed in "dme_ini.doc". * There is now a crosshare that shows where adding things, etc will be put. With roundoff values greater than 1, this position can be different from the mouse hotspot. ("roundoff" is know and "snap-to grid" in some other editors) If it gets on your nerves or something, you can turn it off with the 'x' key. * Node generator has been improved to eliminate the "sliver" effect it used to produce. The "sliver" effect is a very narrow vertical line that you can see through while playing doom. The speed hasn't been changed from v2.1. This will be worked on for the next version, hopefully. * Loading/saving to a working datafile is no longer supported. Such files are obsolete, and PWADs should be used instead. The new load/save routines have been greatly improved as well. "L" and "S" are now used to load/save to/from a PWAD, which is first prompts your for. "Alt-L" and "Alt-S" will also load/save to/from a PWAD, but it doesn't prompt you for the name first, unless this is the first time it has asked you. * Ability to re-configure the mouse buttons. Key to do this is <tab>. Then just click the function button with the whatever mouse button you wish that button to be used for. * Ability to mark objects (an object is a Thing, Vertex, Line, Sidedef, or Sector). Except for Things, all marked objects affect the marking of the remaining object. Thus, if you mark a sector, it also marks all the lines touching the sector, all sidedefs facing the sector, and all vertexes involved. Once you have marked object(s), you can do several things with them as a group. See the appropriate section below for more information. * Ok and Cancel buttons have been added to the relevent windows. The <enter> key simulates the Ok button, and <esc> for Cancel also. * Most of the edit modes have been changed around a little to be more intuative and useful. * More error checking routines have been implemented. * Many bugs have been corrected from v2.1, including: change level bug, which reported inability to open "", display filter buttons wouldn't light up, "sliver" bug in node generator, creating 'donut sectors.' That's all I can remember offhand. -------------------- New stuff since v2.0 -------------------- * Shareware version will allow you to save maps of limited size now. A map such as E1M1 is too big. In fact, all the original maps are too big. This has been done so that people can test it out and verify that it does actually work (with the distrust of current node generations lately, I needed to provide this save ability) * Bug fixes. Ok, so I guess I didn't get all the bugs. I planned to, but forgot to do so with everything else on my mind. Sorry. Got them now, though. I'm sure this time, because unlike last time, I fixed them before I am writting this. :) * Ability to flip lines now, (and flip line & sidedefs). Because of dooms pickyness with a sidedef on the right side, you can do this. I really don't think it will be needed anymore, though. DMapEdit will automatically handle these problems for you, but in case I'm wrong (I didn't write Doom, so I can't be sure what will and will not cause problems), this options is here. Note: Be sure to line error-check any map from other editors or previous versions of DMapEdit. Can't hurt anything, and it will fix any minor problems a map may have. (such as a map causing doom to hang or reboot when it loads the map, which happened to me, and thus I was able to fix DMapEdit to repair them) -------------------- New stuff since v1.1 -------------------- * Fix of all know bugs! If there's still any around, then let me know, since I can only fix bugs I know about, and if there still are any in there, I don't know about them. * Sector edit mode has been improved. You can add/delete sectors with the proper add/delete mouse buttons (or ins/del keys). There is also a sector blend/copy function now (requested by Rod McCabe, in the first postal letter I have received of 2 total to date :) For information about this function, see below under 'sector editing'. * A new misc/advanced functions menu (F9 key), with several options: * Error checking options: Use these to check over a new map to identify any errors that might exist (and fix some of them). If you get a new PWAD from somewhere, you should error check it before you start messing around with it in DMapEdit. Strange thing might happen if you start editing a map with errors. * Line Fixer: This option will correct any errors or inconsistancies it detects with the lines/sidedefs. It may change things that are meant to be the way they are (the less common special effect type things), so it should probably be used mainly for a major overhaul, or to setup sidedefs for a new map that you have laid out the lines for (easier than doing it by hand!) * Sector generator: This options will reconstruct, from scratch, all the sectors. This should really only be used for a major overhaul, or on a new map without any sectors yet, since any existing sector information will be lost, replaced with a standard sector definition. * Fix sectors: Not yet available, this will attempt to correct any problems with existing sectors, and create new sectors in any empty polygons. The result will be pretty much the same as with the sector generator, except the current sector info will not be trashed, but incorperated. * Node generator: Before a new or line changed map can be played, a node structure must be generated. That is what this option will do. I have fixed all the bugs in it, and tested it out on several maps, and it has worked fine on them all. * Blockmap generator: When you complete a new map, or finish changing an existing map around, the last two steps are to create a Node BSP tree, and a blockmap, before you can play it. The blockmap generator works flawlessly, but the node generator..you know.. * Working PWAD/datafile name and editing mode is now displayed at the bottom of the screen. * Picklist now is scrollable in 2 directions. The old selection is also in the middle of the displayed list now, instead of the top. (for example, the current thing is an ammo clip, and you select picklist, then the ammo clip will be in the center of the displayed list).