Minimal data for a standalone TC

[ddave]

Hi! I'm new to the forum. I'm quite experienced in Wolf3D and Doom modding, but I never realized a total conversion for those games and now I'm thinking about creating one for ECwolf. I don't know what minimal data ecwolf requires for a standalone PK3, apart from weapon's sprites, sound and decorate code, textures, graphics such as fonts, a palette, statusbar, title screen, and levels to play. My idea was creating one thing for each of these categories, obtaining a playable PK3, and then adding new stuff when I need it. But I don't know what else the port needs to make this PK3 standalone.

[AstroCreep]

You will need a map txt file (like wl6map.txt) this tells the game what resources the game needs. Then you also need an xlat. This is a map translator file (xlat), so you can actually build maps using Wolf editors, define walls/floors, and a few other options. You also need a decorate, which is the coding for actors, a language file (if you don't want it to say Wolf3D or noah stuff), sndinfo, and a whole lot more. Analyze ecwolf.pk3 for a general idea for what you need. One thing though - I have NO idea how to get ecwolf to read it like an iwad, unless you run from command line and use the "--iwad" command. I'm sure Blzut3 can fill you in on the rest, as I'm sure there's an assload of stuff I forgot.

[Blzut3]

ECWolf doesn't have support for a single file IWAD yet since nothing needed it yet. This will change as Mac Wolf support improves though.

With that said, the only data ECWolf needs to boot is a palette, a tile8 (this requirement due to be lifted as Mac Wolf support improves), small font, and big font.

You don't need the map txt file unless you're using vanilla data files, which I don't recommend for an ECWolf mod. All that does is assign names to the data in those vanilla containers.

Edit: You can get the dev versions to load your "IWAD" standalone by modifying iwadinfo.txt in ecwolf.pk3 to contain detection code for your game.

[ddave]

Thanks for the replies! I've more clear ideas now. I have one more question: with the dev version, or even when ECWolf will officialy support MacWolf, will I have to use necessarily an IWAD to get it standalone? Not a PK3? Because obviusly I prefer a lot the internal structure of a PK3 instead of the IWAD's one.

I've analyzed the ECWolf tech demo's PK3 for a lot, but it's not standalone. Now I will look into ECWolf's PK3.

To be clear, no, I don't need any of the original Wolf 3D data. I've done a dozen of textures based on the original game's palette and I'm working on the first weapon, with its own sprites, sounds, and decorate code. When it's finished, I will make the fonts, a level and I will try to get the IWAD (or the PK3) work with the dev version of ECWolf.

Howewer, I'll continue working on my own textures, sprites and so on and I will try the dev version.

I forgot a thing in the first post: I like a lot ECWolf and it's (modding) features, and I wish the best for it. Without ECWolf, I'd never tried to make mods for Wolf 3D.

[Blzut3]

You can use any file format. I use the term "IWAD" since there's not really anything better to call them that isn't verbose.