Tools for Odamex editing

[mmx]

I just wanted to know what are the tools under the toolbelt of the pros around here. I've been using SLADE but i find the limitations very hard. It is very very difficult to replace sprites and to add new ones. Also, there are lots of hidden logic in the way sprites are played (pistol and chain gun, for example).

[Decay]

Odamex is similar to zdaemon in terms of support. You'll need to work with DehackED and BEX lumps if you want to do any of that stuff.

[mmx]

Dehacked changes the executable directly right? So, i'm better off modifying the source directly.

[Decay]

No, dehacked is a lump you can make in an editor such as slade I believe. My suggestion is to find a wad that uses a Dehacked lump and try to understand it from there.

[mmx]

I'm confused. Here it says that it changes the EXE:

https://zdoom.org/wiki/DeHackEd

 

You're saying that i can apply the patch to a special lump file or something? And the engine will read it?

[Ru5tK1ng]

Here is your utility: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/utils/exe_edit/dhe31

 

An old but good tutorial: http://www.aspectsweb.co.uk/dehacked/index.html

[Decay]

What I mean is that you don't need to edit odamex itself (or go into the source) to make the Dehacked file.

 

If you look at EonDM in slade, you'll see a text file lump named Dehacked. If you play the wad in odamex, you'll notice the chainsaw sprite and actor replaced with a railgun.

 

Follow Rust's post, and also be aware odamex is limited with what you can do with it.

[Doomkid]

Use WhackEd 4 and make a ZDaemon compatible .bex lump if you want extended editing features in terms of monster behavior and whatnot. As a warning, not all of these features work in Odamex, particularly the stuff pertaining to Heretic (actions like StaffAttack and whatever - make sure to stick within Doom behavior)

 

There's a lot that can be done in terms of modifying monster and weapon behavior but it's really difficult to communicate - I've found it all out through trial and error over the years. If you really want to play it safe, simply edit in Doom (DEH) format as opposed to BEX/Extended BEX format.

 

As Decay said, WhackEd (and most dehacked editors) will output a .DEH or .BEX file that can be imported directly into your wad as a lump and read by Odamex, Zdaemon, Zandronum and other ZDoom derivatives. Simply rename the lump to "DEHACKED" (using Slade or XWE) after importing it.

 

You don't need to worry about editing the source or anything like that. If you have any other specific questions, I'll definitely try my best to help.

[scifista42]

19 hours ago, mmx said:

I've been using SLADE but i find the limitations very hard. It is very very difficult to replace sprites and to add new ones. Also, there are lots of hidden logic in the way sprites are played (pistol and chain gun, for example).

That "hidden logic" is inherent to the game engine, not to the editor. SLADE3 is a general wad content editor, it edits wad content regardless of what the content is. The content only gains meaning when it is loaded in a game engine. You are supposed to know how stuff works in the engine so that you can devise what content does a wad need to contain to achieve your goal, and just use SLADE3 to actually make a wad with such content. This is what using SLADE3 is about - it's editing on the technical level of the file format, not editing inherently connected with features in the game through some high-level abstraction.

Edited May 6, 2017 by scifista42

[Gez]

On vendredi 5 mai 2017 at 8:38 PM, mmx said:

I'm confused. Here it says that it changes the EXE:

https://zdoom.org/wiki/DeHackEd

 

You're saying that i can apply the patch to a special lump file or something? And the engine will read it?

DeHackEd is both a utility to create patches and apply patches for the vanilla Doom executable, and the "standard" of these patches.

 

DeHacked.exe cannot modify source port executables (it only knows about the various DOOM.EXE after all), so instead source ports are able to read DEHACKED patches and interpret them. So if you make a DeHackEd patch to give the zombieman 1337 hit points, then a source port reading that patch will know it has to increase the health of the zombieman to 1337. In other words, you use DeHackEd only to create the patch and you leave up to the ports to apply them.

 

For simple patches (just changing a few values) it's even possible to create them "by hand" in a text editor instead of using DeHackEd. If you want to mess with state sequences or do other complex changes, you'll be better off using DeHackEd (or its modern successor Whacked). DeHackEd is a simple format, but one that becomes hard to follow really quickly.