Doom Magazine 1/Doom_magazine_01.bin/editeurs/ulted/ulted.txt

Text File | 1994-07-20 | 15KB | 303 lines

User Manual for ULTED v1.00b

i) Particulars:
------------

Author: Peter Ott
E-mail: [e-mail]

**************************************************************************
ULTED v1.00b is the beta release and so MUST BE USED WITH SOME CAUTION;
use a backup copy of the main doom.wad file, save your level often and use
several different names when saving.

As the author, I would like to express my thanks to Raphael Quinet and
Brendon Wyber, the authors of DEU5.X for distributing their code.  Much
of this editor, including the nodes builder and the PWAD read/write routines,
came directly from DEU.
I'd also like to impress on you that there is ABSOLUTELY NO guarantee or
warrantee of any kind that comes with this program.
Any comments are always welcome and can be e-mail directly to the address
above...
**************************************************************************

Now to the good stuff....

0) Contents:
-----------

1) Introduction
2) A Quick Trip through the Menus
3) What you can do Where
4) Automatic Sidedef Definition and Misc
5) Known bugs
6) Closing Remarks

*************************************************************************

1) Introduction:
-------------

If you're like me, you'd like to be able to edit your level, save it,
switch to a full-screen DOS window, and play the level.  If you find any
problems or things you don't like, you'd like to switch back to the editor
and fix the problems as you find them...well...ULTED allows you to do that.
That, and the fact that OS/2.1 is a stable platform that doesn't crash with
every little access violation that comes along, was the main reason I decided
to develope under the OS/2.1 environment.  This is my first OS/2 project.
I didn't know the first thing about the OS before I started just under
4 months ago...but after much hair pulling (darn memory management under
OS/2...heap?? what heap??? I thought malloc would work ok!!) and late nights
I've finally got something stable to show for my work and I'm happy that
somebody's willing to give it a try.

Anyways, assuming that the binary arrived to you in half decent shape,
it should be executable from any directory.  It's probably best to put
it right in your doom directory to reduce the amount of file dialog box
crap you have to go through to load/save a PWAD.

ULTED can be started by double clicking on the icon (nice picture...I'm not
much of an artist, but anyways...), or you can run it from the command-line
of an OS/2 shell (giving it the optional location of the doom.wad file) as
in:

[c:] ulted e:\doom\doom.wad

This will start ULTED, load the doom.wad, and display E1M1.  If you don't
supply the location of the wad (or it can't find it), just go to the FILE
menu and choose "open main wad".  This will display a file dialog and you
can find and load the main wad from there.
The main wad file MUST BE LOADED FIRST before any editing can be done.  This
is because the texture names etc are loaded with the main.wad file.

If all of that happened successfully, you have 3 ULTED windows open.  The
main window has the floor plans of E1M1.  This is where all the drawing,
moving, deleting, etc. will happen.  Another window, the THING window,
should be hanging around somewhere too.  This has everything you'll need
to fool around with things (more later).  A final window, the information
window, should be in the bottom left-hand corner.  This gives information
about everything that ULTED has done and is useful for ensuring that what
you thought SHOULD happen DID happen; for example, ULTED is
capable of melting 2 vertexes together.  If you want to be sure that
2 vertexes were melted, this will tell you.  It also spews lots of junk
when it's building the nodes when you save, letting you know it's actually
working.

A quick word on the mouse.  ULTED was built to use a three button mouse.
Depending on how you've got it set up with OS/2, the left button is for
selecting objects, the middle button is for getting information on an object,
and the right button is for inserting a new object.  I haven't tested this,
but I THINK that a two button mouse will emulate a 3rd button if both buttons
are pressed simultaneously.

2) A Quick Trip Thru the Menus:
----------------------------

I don't think there's a real call to go through each menu item separately
since they should be pretty self explanatory except to say that several
of them are not implemented yet...that sucks, but the important ones work.

The FILE menu does what you'd think:

    Start New PWAD:    clears the work area and initializes the editor.
            Note that your PWAD will be injected into the
            position that you were viewing when you initiated
            this option. (ie. if you were viewing E1M1 and
            initiated this option, the level you design would
            load into the E1M1 position of the main wad when you
            include it).

    Open PWAD: loads a PWAD from disk and displays it, ready for editing.

    Save (Build): saves the currently displayed PWAD, rebuilding the
               nodes if it is required.

    Exit: hmmmmm....I wonder.  Note it doesn't ask you if you're sure!!

The EDIT menu:

    Clear Selections: Anything that has been selected in the edit window
              becomes unselected.

    Delete Selections: Anything that has been selected is deleted.
               If a vertex is deleted, any linedefs (and
               consequently Sidedefs) that are connected to the
               Vertex get deleted as well.
               Note the Known bugs section at the end of this
               document.

    Choose Level: This allows you to go to another level (eg. E3M8) and
              view the floor map.  I include this option only for
              setting the level you wish to start a new PWAD at
              (see Start New PWAD above).
              Note the known bugs section at the end of this
              document.

The TOOLS menu:

    Grid: Setting the snap-to-grid distance.  Off is included because
          the grid is really distracting when doing fine work...

    Scaling: Zooming in and out of your map.  There is an annoying
         feature (yeah...I'll call it a feature cause it ain't a
         bug) that, when you zoom out, the map moves down about 1
         screen (ie. push on the down section of the scroll bar
         a couple of times to scroll it back into view).  This
         isn't a problem if you zoom out 1 level, but going from
         a scale of 1 to 8 will definitely do it.

     Viewer: This is not quite working yet...but a feature that I deem
         as a necessity.  The OS/2 palette is being a real pain in
         the ass...this feature should be coming soon.

The MODE menu:

    This is pretty self-explanatory.  Each mode (except Vertex) brings
up it's own special dialog box (described more below).

The HELP menu:

    No help yet, but check out the ABOUT choice...

3) What you can do Where
------------------------

A general note: A 'set to default' button is displayed in all mode related
dialog boxes.  By choosing any desired settings appropriate to that
mode and pushing the 'set to default' button, ULTED remembers them and when
a new object is inserted, it's initial settings (wall textures for example) are
set to your defaults.

As well, if any object is selected and a dialog box setting is changed, the
change will effect the selected object(s).  For instance: if you are in THINGS
mode and select a chaingun, an imp, and Player 2, and then push on one of the
direction buttons, each of these items will change to face the new direction.
This is especially useful for changing the textures on many sidedefs at the
same time and has proven to be one of those invaluable tools you use all the
time.

Vertex Mode:  In this mode you can move, select, insert, and delete vertexes.
Selecting multiple vertexes is supported.  This can be handy if you want to
move a sector (or part of a sector) -> simply click on each of the vertexes
you want to move to highlight them (they'll turn pink).  Then drag one of
them and they'll all move relative to the one you're dragging.  Linedefs will
automatically be made 'elastic' and stretch when you release the mouse button.
Linedefs may be split by inserting a vertex at the place where you want the
split to occur.  This is necessary for making shapes from the standard
square sector (discussed below).
To insert a line between 2 vertexes, simply highlight the vertexes that you
want the linedef to go between, and click the right mouse button.  Multiple
lines may be inserted by highlighting the vertexes in order (ie. the first
linedef starts at the first vertex and connects to the second, the second
linedef starts at the second vertex and goes to the third, etc).

After a rebuild, you may see stray vertexes hanging around your map.  This
happens because the nodes builder inserts vertexes when it performs it's
linedef splitting.  These won't effect your map AT ALL, but if they bug you,
just reload your PWAD after a save.

LineDef Mode:  There are 2 dialogs associated with the Linedef mode -> the
main Linedef dialog that describes everything that is pertinent to the
linedef itself (no esthetics, just functionality).  Pushing on the Sidedef
info button in this dialog brings up the sidedef dialog, which shows which
sector each sidedef is currently attached to and what the textures are for
the upper, normal, and lower positions.  As with any of the other editors,
the sector tag in the Linedef dialog defines a platform number (INDEPENDENT of
sector number) that should be associated with any special action that the
linedef is to perform (raise floor etc).  The Flags list box defines the flags
(appropriately enough) associated with the linedef.  Any number of these flags
may be selected at 1 time.  The Type list box defines the special
functionality, if any, that the linedef exhibits (only 1 of these may be
selected at any time).  The Flip linedef button does just that.  Linedefs that
are non-normal (perform some special function) are activated when the player
walks, shoots, or switches the FIRST sidedef.  It may happen that your
linedef's first sidedef (the side facing right if the arrow is pointing up)
is facing the wrong way; a linedef flip will fix this up.
To get information about a linedef, click the middle button while on top of
the linedef.  The linedef and sidedef dialogs will change to reflect the
information associated with the linedef.  If you wish to change something
(such as from 2 sided to impassible), simply select the linedef (button 1)
and select the 2 sided entry in the Flags list to un-highlight 2-sided, and
then select the Impassible entry to highlight it.  Any of the textures, types,
sector numbers, sector tags, or flags may be changed in this way.  If you
want to change more than 1 linedef at a time, just highlight more that 1
linedef.

Sector Mode: Much of the discussion on Linedefs applies to Sectors. If the
mouse 'info' button is clicked inside of a sector, it's properties are
displayed in the sector dialog.  All the information in the Sector Edit dialog
is editable except the sector #; this only makes sense since to changing the
sector number means deleting this sector and inserting another one... not
usually done.  The Platform tag entry field is the sector's equal to the Sector
tag field of a Linedef.  The Platform tag number is totally independent of
any linedef number, and is only meant to match a Sector tag number (more info
on that is available from any of the docs on DEU or DoomEd).
A word of warning -> If you select more than 1 sector at a time, ALL of the
sector info that pertains to the most recently selected sector is transferred
to the others.  Example: say that you selected sector 6 and then selected
sector 3 -> All sector 3 information such as platform tag, light level, floor
and ceiling heights, etc. is copied to sector 6.  I treated this as a bug at
first (the original plan was to be able to select several sectors and change
a single setting on all of them), but it comes in handy for copying sectors
and I've used it quite a bit.

Thing Mode:  The Thing dialog box is slightly different than the others in
that, when the mouse 'info' button is clicked, the thing's information appears
in ULTED's Information window.  This is just because I haven't got around to
making the dialog box update with the mouse 'info' button yet.  All required
information is still displayed.  The dialog is pretty much self explanatory,
so I'm not going to go into it anymore than this.
As with vertexes, multiple things may be moved or changed to be whatever you
want simply by selecting them and changing the appropriate option in the
Thing Edit dialog.  One of the many things that came from the DEU5.X code is
the ability to tell the size of the object by the size of the circle around it.


4) Automatic Sidedef Definition and Misc
------------------------------------------

If a sector is inserted into the middle of another sector, the 2nd sidedefs
of this new sector are automatically set to be connected to the original
outside sector.  As well, if the floor and ceiling heights of the default
sector were defined before it was inserted, ULTED will automagically decide
whether upper, normal, or lower sidedefs are required and set them to the
default textures.  This can and will save A LOT of TIME.  It's worth trying
to figure it out.

As well, when 2 lines are melted (by melting the 2 vertexes from 2 separate
linedefs together) the linedef flag is automagically set to 2-sided and the
impassible flag is negated (this serves as a significant time saver as well).

5) Known bugs:
------------

1. Don't try to delete more than 1 sector at a time because ULTED will
crash.  I have an idea what the problem is, I just haven't had time to
fix it.

2. You have the ability to "Choose Level".  Doing this several times in
succession may(?) cause the editor to crash.  The moral of the story is:
don't look around -> go to the level you wish to edit and do it.

3. Though the nodes builder contained in ULTED functions, it has cause the
infamous HOM effect to happen in several of my test levels.  It is recommended
that BSP1.X be run on the saved PWAD before running it.  This will clear
up any minor node problems (by doing this, I've had NO problems with any of
the levels I've built with ULTED).


6) Closing Remarks:
-------------------

I know that I haven't covered in detail HOW to go about building a level and
I might've even left some stuff out about the editor, but if anything comes up,
please feel free to e-mail me about it (I'm always open to suggestions as
well, although I can't guarantee that anything'll be implemented soon....

Have fun, and keep the world of Doom alive ....

-Pete