How Do You Edit The Story Text Screen?

[Da Eediot]

I've been trying to find the file that contains the text used in the story text screen, but I can't find it and I don't know how to edit it. Does anyone know how to help me? Here's the Wiki page in case you don't know what I'm talking about : http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Text_screen

[Nevander]

You have to change it by either creating a DeHackEd patch (the vanilla way) or MAPINFO (the modern way). Look into these two things for more on how to do them.

Some links:

http://zdoom.org/wiki/DeHackEd
http://zdoom.org/wiki/Strings
http://zdoom.org/wiki/MAPINFO
http://zdoom.org/wiki/MAPINFO/Cluster_definition

[Da Eediot]

I know about using WhackEd to edit the text screen, but I can't find the specific string people are talking about.

[Rayziik]

Place this in a Dehacked lump and edit the text after the enter sign:

[STRINGS]
C1TEXT = End MAP06
C2TEXT = End MAP11
C3TEXT = End MAP20
C4TEXT = End MAP30
C5TEXT = End MAP15 secret exit
C6TEXT = End MAP31 secret exit

Use " \n " without the quotes to start a new line.

Or just find those strings in WhackEd

[Da Eediot]

Is that going to help me edit what shows up on the story text screen? Because I don't want to remove it, I just want to edit it.

[scifista42]

Yes, this is a method of editing them, not removing them.

[Da Eediot]

Okay. Thanks.

After "C4TEXT = End MAP30" do I type "/n" and then the new text or do I do something else?

[Rayziik]

Everything after the enter sign is the new text. Delete what I put there, because I only put that there to show you which ones showed up after which map in-game.

" \n " is interpreted as " ENTER " (or a line break, whatever you want to call it) by the game engine, so it will start a new line on the text screen. You can fit 16 lines on screen, and each line can fit about 45 characters maximum (including spaces and symbols) each.

Also, I should add that you need to keep all the text on one line in the Dehacked file. Don't hit enter while typing your new text, use "Word Wrap" to see everything you type instead.

[Da Eediot]

Okay. Thanks.

Wait. So I would do "C4TEXT = " and then put my sentences after the equals sign? Do I have to put anything else inside the DEHACKED file? Also, do I press save or compile when I'm done?

[Rayziik]

Copy that code I posted earlier directly into the Dehacked file. It should just be regular text.

You only need to keep the ones you're changing, so if you are only changing C4TEXT, it would look like this in your Dehacked file:

[STRINGS]
C4TEXT = Type your text here.\n\nThat was a double spaced line.\nExample.

The " [STRINGS] " part IS REQUIRED.

Make sure there are no line breaks between that header and the first string in the list, or in the list of strings you change. A line break will end the " [STRINGS] " section.

To save it, you should just hit save. Dehacked files are just text files basically.

[Quasar]

It's \n guys, not /n.

[Rayziik]

Oh, whoops... yea you're right, but I did have that in my first post. Got confused along the way...

[Spectre01]

What about placing text after, say map03 in a short wad? Is there an issue with that, because I always see text in the usual map 06, 11, secrets, 20 and 30 spots aside from wads like Valiant or AA.

[Rayziik]

You can't change that with Dehacked, you'd have to use a more advanced format to do that.

For Zdoom, everything you need to know about it is here: http://zdoom.org/wiki/MAPINFO

Specifically, if you need to create a new intermission in a new location, you would first have to reassign the maps in your wad to the appropriate "cluster" in the individual maps' "map definition". If you want an intermission after MAP03, you would assign MAPS 01, 02, and 03 to "cluster = 1", and then MAP04 and however many after to "cluster = 2".

Then you would create a new "cluster definition" and use either the "exittext" or "entertext" to define your new text. You can also type out the text into a LANGUAGE lump, and use a lookup to retrieve the text.

Example:

map MAP01 "MAPNAMEHERE"
{
   levelnum = 1
   titlepatch = "CILV00"
   next = "MAP02"
   sky1 = "SKY1", 0
   cluster = 1
   music = "MUSICNAMEHERE"
}

map MAP02 "MAPNAMEHERE"
{
   levelnum = 2
   titlepatch = "CILV01"
   next = "MAP03"
   secretnext = "MAP09"
   sky1 = "SKY1", 0
   cluster = 1
   music = "MUSICNAMEHERE"
}

map MAP03 "MAPNAMEHERE"
{
   levelnum = 3
   titlepatch = "CILV02"
   next = "MAP04"
   sky1 = "SKY1", 0
   cluster = 1
   music = "MUSICNAMEHERE"
}

map MAP04 "MAPNAMEHERE"
{
   levelnum = 4
   titlepatch = "CILV03"
   next = "MAP05"
   sky1 = "SKY2", 0
   cluster = 2
   music = "MUSICNAMEHERE"
}

map MAP09 "MAPNAMEHERE"
{
   levelnum = 9
   titlepatch = "CILV08"
   next = "MAP03"
   sky1 = "SKY1", 0
   cluster = 3
   music = "MUSICNAMEHERE"
}

cluster 1
{
    exittext = "<message>"
// OR
    exittext = lookup, "<keyword>"
}

cluster 2
{
    entertext = "<message>"
// OR
    entertext = lookup, "<keyword>"
}

cluster 3 //if MAP09 is the secret map, use "entertext" to get a secret intermission"
{
    entertext = "<message>"
// OR
    entertext = lookup, "<keyword>"
}

Using "exittext" will show the text whenever you use an exit in one of the cluster's maps and enter a map belonging to another cluster. "entertext" will show the text when you enter the cluster the text belongs to. If you had a secret exit on MAP02 for example, you'd want a new cluster with an "entertext" to show the secret intermission, instead of using "cluster 1"'s "exittext" to show the intermission, because (iirc) "entertext" will override "exittext".

Hopefully that helps some, the Wiki has lots more info.

[Nevander]

Is there a vanilla way to re-cluster maps? Or are you restricted to the original text screen locations and clusters? I'm assuming so, which is also one reason why many megawads still place the secret exit on MAP15 and lead it to MAP31-32. Making a secret exit on MAP11 which goes to 30 would require MAPINFO?

[Rayziik]

No, you cannot modify the location of the text intermissions in anything less than a port that supports using MAPINFO, which is basically ZDoom + derivatives and Eternity.

One thing you could do to sort of create a new "pseudo-cluster" is to make the secret exit on MAP15 the standard or only exit and put a custom text there, and then have only one secret map and 31 standard maps by using the secret exit on MAP31.

[Gez]

Nevander said:

Is there a vanilla way to re-cluster maps?

No.

[Da Eediot]

Rayzik said:

(unnecessarily quoting a huge block of text and code)

Okay. Thanks.

[Da Eediot]

It said that the LANGUAGE lump's language wasn't specified. What do I do?

[Rayziik]

I guess there is a header requirement. Add this to the start of your language lump:

[en default]

[Da Eediot]

Okay. Thanks.

[Da Eediot]

It says it's missing a string at the end of the file. What do I put to signify the end?

[scifista42]

You should put each string between double quotes, and a semicolon after each string. See this zdoom wiki page for an example of how the content of a LANGUAGE lump should look like.

[Da Eediot]

I added the quotation marks and the semicolon which got it to run without errors, but my custom text didn't show up in the final text screen. C4TEXT is the text for the final text screen, right?

I'm trying to edit the text shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6exgR5r0WM
I can't find out what map it shows after though.

[scifista42]

That's C1TEXT, the text after MAP06.

[Da Eediot]

scifista42 said:

That's C1TEXT, the text after MAP06.

Oh. Thanks.

It worked! Thank you!

[Da Eediot]

Wait. The text runs off and indenting just gives me an error when I run the WAD. How do I fix this?

[scifista42]

Example solution:

C4TEXT = "First line\n"
"Second line\n"
"Third line";

[Da Eediot]

scifista42 said:

Example solution:

C4TEXT = "First line\n"
"Second line\n"
"Third line";

Okay. Thanks. I'll see if that works.

I got it to work! Thanks!