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lmputil.faq
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1995-05-22
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========================================
Frequently Asked Questions about LmpUtil
========================================
Q : Why do I need to use -viewer when I can press F12 during the demo?
A : F12 during the demo will not completely switch you to the other
player as the status bar, sound, and screen display still shows
the current player, not the one you switched to. This can be quite
confusing at times.
You can, for example, get the frag count of the other player by
viewing the LMP from a different player. (So you don't have to
ask them how many frags they had...)
Q : Will one version of LMP work under another version of Doom?
A : That's a tough question. There are several factors that determine
whether one LMP will work under another version of Doom or not.
Changes to various parts of the map, enhancements to the Doom engine
are the main reasons some LMP get out of synch very quickly under
a different version of Doom.
In general, Deathmatch LMPs recorded with -nomonster have very high
chance of playing back correctly under another version, where as
few 1.1 or 1.2 single player LMPs (older LMP format) played back
correctly under 1.9 (new LMP format).
Some of my favorite 1.2 LMPs that worked under Doom 1.9 are
rocket.lmp, domino.lmp, etc. (From the LMP collector's edition)
And all of my Doom II 1.6 Deathmatch LMPs worked under 1.9.
Q : Why can't I change the LMP version for my 1.1 or 1.2 LMPs?
A : LMP file with version prior to 1.4 use a different format and
does not contain version number information, as well as some other
information kept with the newer LMP format. When you display info
about 1.1 or 1.2 LMPs, blank entry indicates information that
are not kept with the older LMP file.
To playback the older LMP file, use the -convert option to convert it
to the newer format first.
Q : Does LmpUtil support Heretic LMPs?
A : Heretic 1.0 uses the older LMP format like doom 1.2. LmpUtil makes no
attempt to distinguish Heretic LMPs. It will simply display them as
Doom 1.2 LMPs. However, you need to pass the -heretic parameter to
LmpUtil or else the display of LMP's Duration might not be correct.
You also need the -heretic parameter if you use -cut or -wait, or else
a invalid LMP file might be produced.
Q : I heard something about wildcards support for LmpUtil?
A : LmpUtil can now processing multiple LMPs for -ver and -viewer
parameter. Simply use standard DOS wildcards in place of the LmpFile.
Let's say if you want to set all the LMP version to 1.9 of all the
LMP files in your current directlry, simply do:
lmputil -ver 1.9 *.lmp
Any invalid file specified will be ignored and an error message will be
printed indicating the type of error. Ignored files are not modified.
Q : What is a game tic? How do I use it with -cut and -wait?
A : You simply need to remember that 35 gametics = 1 second. Thus, if you
want to add 10 seconds of idle time to your LMP, simply do:
lmputil -wait 350 source.lmp target.lmp
Or, if you want to remove the first 321 seconds of the LMP, do:
lmputil -cut 1 11235 source.lmp target.lmp
because 11235 = 321 x 35.
Q : Why doesn't -convert support wildcards?
A : -convert requires a source.lmp and a target.lmp, so it doesn't make
much sense supporting wildcards when specifying source.lmp, because
lmputil won't know what the target file is for each of the matching
source file.
If you are using 4dos or Ndos, you can easily setup an alias that
converts all lmps in the current directory, I use the following :
convert lmputil /convert %1 %temp\~.lmp %+ *move %temp\~.lmp %1 /q
conall for %f in (*.lmp) convert %f
If you are not using 4dos, then GET IT.
Q : What hints do you have for using the -cut parameter?
A : The -cut was intended to delete a section of LMP, say the first
3 minutes in which you died 10 times before you successfully beat
the level. Instead of quit to DOS and start the recording again
every time you die, you can just press space bar to revive, and
continue the recording until you succeeded. Then remove the first
xxx seconds of LMP and only keep what's left.
Whenever you die during recording of a demo, press the space bar to
revive yourself. Then, stay idle for at least 10 seconds before you
begin to move. Look at your timer when you have revived. A good
estimate might be 2 seconds after you pressed spacebar.
Q : I did what you said, I was able to remove the section I wanted.
I can tell because the new lmp started by me holding that pistol.
It played ok for a while, but then the player goes nuts and died!!
A : Ok, I am just going to give it away, -cut doesn't work all the time.
Even if you were able to precisely remove the section you wanted.
In fact, it doesn't work at all when I tried it.
I guess the explanation is that there's some randomness to some aspect
of Doom. Those random variable starts with the same seed when you run
Doom from DOS, and changes on the fly depends on the player's movement
and possibly some other factors.
Put in simple terms, monster behavior are different each time you press
space bar and replay the level. Thus, in theory, if you simply delete
the first xxx seconds of the LMP, the LMP will never play back correctly.
But don't take my words for it, try it yourself.
I decided to leave the -cut in the program so you can do some other
things. Like remove the last 30 minutes of the LMP and so on..
Q : What exactly does the -wait do, do I need to use it?
A : -wait simply adds some extra waiting time at the end of the LMP, makes
it a little longer. It is intended to give you more time to look
at the score should the LMP ended too quickly.
Q : LmpUtil says my LMP are missing bytes, what does it mean? what do i do?
A : Normally, a LMP should contain complete gametics. However, you may end
up with LMPs that contains broken gametics, if the game end unexpectly,
like someone picked up the phone while you were recording a deathmatch,
or if Doom simply ran out of Demo space (-maxdemo).
You can safely igore the warning. To fill in the empty byte(s), use
"lmputil -wait 1 old new". This will create a new LMP and fills in any
missing bytes.
Q : I have a LMP file "xxx" that doesn't have the .lmp extension, but when
I type in "lmputil xxx" it says "xxx.lmp" file not found!!
A : Well, by default, if the file specification doesn't contain a period,
then LmpUtil automatically inserts the ".lmp" extension for you.
To use a LMP file that doesn't have any extension, put a period after
the file, such as in
lmputil mylmp.
Raymond Chi
chiry@po.EECS.Berkeley.EDU
05-22-95