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Text File | 1994-08-01 | 17.8 KB | 424 lines

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- DOOM Construction Kit Ben Morris Release Revision Documentation Zerius Development bmorris@amtsgi.bc.ca --------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are viewing this doc from the install program, I strongly suggest that you read the entire thing. It contains very important information! - Ben Legend --------- * Fixed a bug / changed something - Removed something + Added something 08-01-94 (Second public release -- Version 1.0) ----------- * WOW lots of changes. Better docs? Next release.. I promise :) + Some people have mentioned a texture viewer. There IS one, already! Press F2 while you're in any texture field to browse through the textures (including floor and ceiling fields.) F1 brings up a help screen in the browser. + Stairs! Automatic creation of stairs is now available. Simply select two linedefs, press Ctrl+Z, and enter the information. Voila! A couple things to consider when using stair creation: - Going with DCK's design philosophy of "start simple", the stair tool will *not* handle all situations. The best way to create stairs is to select two linedefs (the two linedefs must be in the same sector, and must be on the same closed path.), create the stairs, and then use the drag-drop features of DCK to modify the staircase. - The direction of the staircase is based upon two things: the direction of the first selected line (first meaning "lowest numbered") and the setting of the "reverse" checkbox. The stairs will start at the first line's first vertex and end at its last, and vice-versa if the reverse box is checked. In the next release, a preview window will make this more obvious. - The two lines that you select should not have any linedefs "in between" them. However, this is the only restriction: The lines do not have to be the same length or angle. - Creating stairs going *down* is simple: Enter a negative "height difference" value. + Sector objects! DCK now allows you to apply a set of commands to any sector (and its associated linedefs) in one simple step. These commands include functions to raise and lower the ceiling and floor heights, change the ceiling and floor textures, the textures of the sector's borderlines, set a sector tag, etc. This makes it very easy to create things like lava pits, crates and other "simple" objects. Please see the file DCK.ADF for more information. + Format painter! Here's how to use it: 1. Mark a bunch of objects. 2. Move to the source object. 3. Press Ctrl+P. DCK will then copy the source object's attributes to all the marked objects. What exactly is copied depends on the type of the object: - Things : Copies the flags only (not the type or the angle.) Linedefs: Copies all flags except the impassable and two-sided flags. On the sidedef(s) that have textures, replaces their textures with those of the source's sidedefs (but only if the source *has* a texture at the location.) Sectors : Copies the ceiling and floor textures, the light level and the sector type (and NOT the floor or ceiling heights.) + Automatic tag setting. Mark a bunch of sectors or linedefs and press Ctrl+T. DCK will switch to the opposite edit mode, at which time you must click the left mouse button once on the object to share the tags with. If the "clicked" object already has a tag, that tag will be set in the marked objects. Otherwise, a new tag will be found and set in the marked objects *and* the "clicked" object. You can press the Right mouse button or ESC to abort the tag-set operation. + New snap-to mode added: Snap To Vertex. Press P to cycle through the three modes. Snap to vertex will snap to the grid, PLUS any vertexes in the cursor's vicinity. This makes dragging and joining things very easy (you don't have to fiddle with the grid size or turn off snap to grid in order to match not-on-grid vertexes.) + Normalize lines: Ctrl+N in line mode. Removes sector tags and sets the linetype to "Normal" throughout the marked and highlighted line(s). + New key: Ctrl+E. Replaces all marked linedefs' sidedefs' textures (yikes!) with those of the current motif. Also works in sector mode: Operates on all sidedefs that reference the sector, PLUS sets the floor and ceiling textures and the light level. Please note that this function takes no notice of the current textures of the marked objects. If there's a texture, it'll be replaced. + New key: Ctrl+B -- Combine Lines / Join sectors: ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ │ + +─┘ │ │ S1 B A S2 │ │ + +─┐ │ └─────────┘ └─────────┘ 1. Move to Line A. Press Ctrl+B. 2. Move to Line B. Press Ctrl+B or click the left mouse button. Result: ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ │ |──────┘ │ │ S1 1|2 S2 │ │ |──────┐ │ └─────────┘ └─────────┘ Where the dashed line is now two-sided, has two sidedefs and references both sectors properly. + Dragging and dropping a smaller line over a bigger line (provided the lines are approximately the same angle) will now split and combine the two. This makes room attachments extremely simple: Just drag the smaller room's wall over top of the larger room's, and the two will be properly combined. The bigger the level, the slower this feature is. Note: Auto-Join mode (J to toggle) must be on for this feature to work. + Lift creator added. Ctrl+L in sector mode to activate: It works just like you'd expect it to .. try it out :) + Added all v1.5 linedef types. With this release, the naming convention of the line types has also been changed (in the F2 list of the line dialog box): Trigger What's affected How it's affected [Additional] Where "Trigger" is: Manual: Door sectors. Spacebar-activated. Switch: Once-only. Spacebar-activated. Button: Repeatable. Spacebar-activated. Walk: Once-only. Walk-activated. Walk-R: Repeatable. Walk-activated. Impact: Once-only. Gun-activated. The rest of the descriptions are pretty self-explanatory. A couple terms: DownWaitUpStay: Plats (lifts) only. Floor comes down, waits three seconds, then returns to its original position. UpWaitDownWait: The "wait" is five seconds. OpenStay: Doors only. Opens and .. stays open! OpenWaitClose: Doors only. Opens, pauses six seconds, and closes. Note: "Blazing" line types can only be used with version 1.4 and up. Apparently this is also true for the "Monster only" teleport linetype. + When you're dragging something, the coordinates at the top right of the screen will turn red if the dragged object(s) are at their original position. + You can now type partial information in a list box field, press ENTER, and DCK will find the first match and use it. For example, type "BFG" in the thing dialog box, press ENTER, and DCK will correctly fill the field with "WE: BFG9000". Please keep in mind that the very first found match is used. + Floor / ceiling texture display is now tiled, allowing a better view of what the ceiling will be like in the level. Also, press 'T' in wall texture display mode to toggle tiling the texture across the screen. + Added a more support for the right mouse button. It now exits (cancels) dialog boxes and exits menus. * Door creation improved. Now you can create multi-sided doors automatically, too. It'll warn you if the door has more than four sides before proceeding. Also, a pop-up menu of door types is provided for quick creation of keyed and remote doors. * Now, before joining vertexes, DCK will prompt you. * For all "Auto-join" features, the distance between the objects to join must be less than or equal to two map units. This prevents accidental (ie: unintended by the user) joining of objects, which can be a pain to clean up. * Monster bug squashed. The following steps were required to produce it, but it *completely* destroyed a saved level: - 1. Load a map. 2. Delete / add some vertexes. 3. Save the map. 4. Save the map again. The on-disk map was thoroughly corrupted. What would happen was that DCK would save the old vertexes (from the initial load, step 1) into the file instead of the new vertexes. Oops! * WADassist was scrapped. * You can now delete sectors. All lines that reference the sector will be deleted, unless they're two-sided lines -- in which case, the sidedef that references the sector will be removed and the line flipped if required. * Object (thing, vertex and line) selection is now a lot more accurate, making it easier to select close objects and small lines. * Better appearance! New color scheme and font. * DCK.STA sometimes got screwed up and caused DCK to exit to DOS instead of loading properly. Fixed. 07-06-94 (First "public" release -- still prerelease condition) ----------- Ok, a couple bug fixes. * The linedef editbox did not properly check for consistencies among marked objects. Fixed. * In the last release only, marking some linedefs and then using Line Split (Ctrl+C) hung the system. Oops! Fixed. Still to come: Currently, sector splits do not take into account sidedefs that are affected by sector splits (when a sector is split, the assignment of new sector references versus old is visually arbitrary.) -- 1. Before sector split 2. After sector split +-----------------------------+ +-----------------------------+ | 0 | | 0 | |0 0| |0 0| | | | 0 | + + >-----------------------------< -- Split | | | 2 | | | | | | 0 | | 0 | | +-------+ | | +-------+ | | | 1 | | | | 1 | | |0 0|1 1|0 0| |2 0|1 1|0 2| | | 1 | | | | 1 | | | +-------+ | | +-------+ | | 0 | | 0 | | | | | | 0 | | 2 | +-----------------------------+ +-----------------------------+ 1. A small sector within a larger sector. References are OK. 2. The split has made the upper portion of the original sector into sector 0, and the part encompassing the smaller sector into sector 2. This causes problems, as the smaller sector's external sidedefs still reference sector 0. This should be fixed soon. The code for this fix will also allow proper region creation bounding an existing sector -- +---------------------------+ The dashed lines indicate the newly created | | region. The same problem arises here: All | - - - - - - - | sidedefs within the new region still refer- | | | | ence the old sector. | +-----+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-----+ | | | | | | - - - - - - - | | | +---------------------------+ I'm aiming to make the region-creation tool very intuitive. If you have any ideas for additional automation, please send them to me! Thanks. DCK.ADF / DCKADF.EXE The functionality provided by these files will be expanded on soon -- I plan to add "sector objects" (ie: easy creation of things like lava pits, crates, crushing ceilings, etc.) within the next couple releases. 07-05-94 ----------- + LOTS of new features. Read on for details. Sorry for the late beta release, but I got a lot of suggestions and .. that's how it went :) + Text documentation is now included in DCK.TXT. It's NOT complete yet! + When Scaling and Rotating, you can press the command key (Ctrl+O or Ctrl+A) again and a dialog box will be displayed prompting you for absolute scaling and rotation values. + DCK.CFG has changed. You MUST use the new one -- please view DCK.CFG for more information. + MOTIFS! Check out DCK.ADF for details. New file DCKADF.EXE must be run every time DCK.ADF is changed. Press Alt+M to pick a motif from the map editor. + Map redrawing is now a LOT faster. + New "box unmark" operation. Exactly the same as the mark box, but it UNMARKS everything in the encompassing rectangle. Use the right mouse button and drag to activate it. (Does not work in sector mode.) + Sidedef editing: After deleting or adding the second sidedef on a *single* linedef, the impassable and two-sided attributes are automatically modified. + New command: Snap marked objects to grid. Ctrl+V to activate it. Snaps all marked objects to the closest points on the grid, even with snap to grid mode off. Works in all modes -- in line and sector, ALL relevant vertexes are snapped. + New command: Run level. Press F9 to activate it. Automatically builds the nodes if required (uses the new information in DCK.CFG) and runs DOOM. Swaps back in to DCK when complete. + When exiting DCK, all saved maps are checked for required node build. On all maps that require a rebuild, DCK asks you if you'd like to run the node builder. + "Edit map" dialog box has been modified. You can now load PWAD files from within DCK by specifying the name of the file along with the episode and mission number you'd like to edit. Press Alt+E for more details. + The sidedef edit dialog box now accepts "out of range" sector references. Upon exiting the dialog box, DCK will ask you if you'd like to create a new sector if the number you entered was out of range of valid sectors. IN the dialog box, press F to find the first free sector number (in the sector field). Please note that this is not a recommended method for creating sectors, but rather a useful feature for fixing large numbers of erroneous sidedefs. * Lots of little cosmetic bugs were fixed. NOTE: I've included the file DCK1.WAD with this release. This is a small .WAD that took about an hour to build from scratch with DCK. It's not large at all, but the detail is pretty nice. Take a look! 06-28-94 (internal) ---------------------- + 'F' works as well as Alt+F in sector tag fields to find the next tag. + ESC pressed in a submenu will now exit the menu system if on a first- level submenu. + ESC pressed from the map editor will bring down the menu as well as highlight the menu bar item. + Thing/Sidedef/Linedef edit: when editing multiple things, shared information is used in the dialog box. + Consistency checker: Added "Sector has a tag but no linedef shares that tag" check. + Made the region tool (double-clicking while in line mode) more robust: you can now create connected regions inside other regions. + Files specified with -F are now loaded AFTER files that were open during the last session. Now you can specify files with -F without specifying -R-. * The screen is now updated properly if a linedef's color on the map is changed after editing it. * Switching edit modes no longer moves the map. 06-26-94 ----------- + Clipboard. When pasting objects, everything that's currently marked is UNMARKED and all the pasted objects are MARKED. * Finally fixed the bug where textures would disappear from the list. * Line creation: When the sequence was aborted (for whatever reason), the last linedef in memory would also be deleted along with the created lines. Fixed. * "Create Sector Split" no longer hangs the system as it did in rare cases before. 06-24-94 ----------- * Fixed the mouse cursor problem when graphics paging was enabled. The mouse cursor would never be displayed when the system was using page 2. * Line mode information displayed differently: Instead of a blank line where there's no sidedef, displays "No [first/second] sidedef." * When line creation was started (double-click), the highlighted object remained highlighted. Fixed. * Texture display: the error message "Could not allocate 2048 bytes" was fixed. * Listbox processing changed: A left click OUTSIDE of the listbox now saves the current selection and exits the lbox. Before, it discarded the selection. + In THING edit mode, use the HOME/END keys to toggle between copying / moving objects when dragging them. + HOME/END now cycle through edit modes when not dragging. + Consistency Checker greatly enhanced. Many of the error messages are now "fixable", and help is available for all of them (press F1 on an error message to get a quick description of what it means.) 'F' fixes those errors that can be fixed. + New file DCK.HLP now contains all the help text for the program.