How To Use PWAD (new level) Files
                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

                          4th Edition. 27/Feb/95
                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Note to Doom II players:

The examples given here are for Doom, but the same command line options apply
to Doom II as well. Note that there are currently two programs to convert PWADs
written for Doom I so that they'll work with Doom II. These are on the various
Doom ftp sites in:

  <blah blah whatever>/utils/wad_tools

and the file names are:

  wad1to2b.zip
  dm2cnv16.zip

In this file, all example commands have been indented to distinguish them from
the surrounding text.

How to use PWAD files:

After you have unzipped the PWAD zip file, place the WAD file in the same
directory as your DOOM.EXE and DOOM.WAD file.

Then enter:

  doom -file pwadname.wad

e.g.

  doom -file stones.wad

Then just start a new game on the appropriate episode and/or level. 

Some PWADs replace levels that are not level 1 on an episode. For these, you
can start by activating any new game and then just use idclev to get to the
appropriate level; e.g. if a PWAD replaced E2L5, for example, then you could
run Doom with the usual:

  doom -file whatever.wad

then you could start a new game on any episode and once the game has begun,
you would type:

  idclev25

And that would teleport you to the appropriate level (note: every PWAD should
come with a text file which says which episode and/or level it is replacing).

Alternatively, you could warp straight to the level using a command line;
e.g. for the above example you would use:

  doom -file whatever.wad -devparm -warp 2 5 -skill <skill number>

Where <skill number> is in the range 1 to 5.

Yet another way to use PWADs, and the easiest I think as it saves you
worrying about which level the PWAD is replacing, is to use a PWAD manager
program of some kind. DWM is one. Another is DOOMENU. There are several more
available as well. These will let you select a PWAD to play, which skill level,
etc. and will warp you straight to the appropriate level. They will also keep
track of how many times you have played a particular PWAD, and so on. Both of
these programs allow you to supply a short descriptive comment for each
PWAD as well. These programs become more and more useful once your PWAD
collection grows beyond 20 or 30. They also support multi-player games, modem
play, etc.

One final thing on WAD manager programs: they usually allow you to keep
your PWADs in a separate directory (e.g. DOOM\WADS). You simply specify
where this directory is when first installing the PWAD manager. This is how
DOOMENU works.

I use DOOMENU, in case you're wondering. :) It is currently up to version 17
and is a pretty cool program. You can get it from:

  ftp.cdrom.com

in the directory:

  pub/doom/misc

and the files are:

  doomen17.zip
  doomen17.txt

Don't forget to enter 'bin' before downloading.


Note 1: all the usual things can be done with PWADs. e.g.

  doom -file stones.wad -devparm -warp 1 1 -skill 4 -respawn -record stdemo

To play this back you'd use:

  doom -file stones.wad -playdemo stdemo -respawn


Note 2: the '.wad' extension IS needed! This is unlike .lmp demos, where the
        '.lmp' extension is not needed.


Note 3: for some reason, I know not what, some PWADs will not allow you to
        save your position when playing them.


Other info:

You must be using the registered version of Doom.

WADs written with one version of Doom (e.g. v1.2) will often not work
properly with another version of Doom (e.g. v1.666), usually because of the
various small differences between the DOOM.EXE files, etc. The usual effect
of this is that the game will freeze up after a short period of play, or
will not load at all. Check the accompanying text file to see what version
of Doom the WAD is intended for. However, there are programs available to
convert PWADs from one version to another, available from the Doom ftp sites.

Some WADs are pretty extensive patches and change many things in Doom, often
using the 'Dehacked' program. These kinds of patches often come with useful
batch files to save you all the bother of figuring out how to run the WAD.
An example is Aliens TC. This is installed by entering "INSTALL" and is
thereafter run by entering "ALIEN".

Have fun! :)

Ian.

The Doom Help Service (DHS).
Co-ordinator of rec.games.computer.doom.help.

WWW addresses:   

  Home page:     http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~mapleson/
  DHS:           http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~mapleson/doom/doom.html
  Help Archive:  http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~mapleson/doom/doomhelp.zip
  Dissertation:  http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~mapleson/diss/diss.html
  SGI Stuff:     http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~mapleson/sgistuff/sgindex.html

Ian C. R. Mapleson BSc.,
Oceans Systems Research Group,
Room G86,
Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering,
Heriot Watt University,
Riccarton Campus,
EH14 4AS,
Edinburgh,
Scotland,
United Kingdom.

email to: mapleson@cee.hw.ac.uk