SLADE Discussion - Latest: v3.2.5 (19/Dec/2023)

[Gez]

I don't think SLADE can convert lumps into font formats. It only handles fonts as images. You'd have to use another program to generate the font proper.
There's this (a bit old) and that (more recent) and also [wiki]ImageTool[/wiki] the original utility to convert graphical stuff to ZDoom's custom formats.

[Jarewill]

Hello, I'm having some issues with SLADE currently.
I updated to the newest version (3.2.1), but I didn't like how it looked and performed, so I downgraded back to 3.1.9.
I used to have no issues with that version, however now it's working really poorly.

For example, using the search bar a few times breaks it:

Or when backing up in folder structure the list doesn't update unless I press the shift key.

I tried deleting all my settings and reinstalling SLADE, but neither fixed those issues.
I have no idea what I could do to fix it so I figured I might try asking here if anyone else has experienced such issues.

[Blue Shadow]

I don't know if this will help, but try a portable installation of the editor.

Download slade_3.1.9.7z from here. Extract the archive's contents where you want the editor installed. In the root directory, create a file (an empty text file will do) with the name portable (without any kind of extension).

[Jarewill]

Sadly that didn't help either.
This is a really strange issue I'm experiencing.

[doomzie]

Hi, I'm currently busy making a .pk3 for textures and flats. I have a weird issue that I can't figure out how to solve. When I copy over textures and flats from a texture pack and place them in a new .pk3 file, the textures are saved ok, but the flats aren't. After saving everything looks good, but when reopening the new .pk3 file, all the flats are listed as 'Unknown' type. I've tried recopying the flats, I've tried setting the flats to 'type gfx_flat' in the console and while everything seems fine again after that command, when I save and reopen the .pk3, all flats are "unknown" and are listed with a big red X in Ultimate Doom Builder.

[Gez]

It's got nothing to do with saving. The data is fine.

Flats are raw data dumps without any sort of header or metadata or other ways to validate the format other than their size -- 64x64 pixels, each one byte, for a total of 4096 bytes.

The problem is that if SLADE just assumes that every 4096-byte lump is a flat, then it'll have false positives.

So there's a two-step authentication method: the first step is checking the size, and the second step is sending a verification code to the lump's phone number checking the namespace of the lump. For a WAD archive, it has to be between an F_START and an F_END marker. For a PK3 archive, it has to be in the /flats/ directory.

[doomzie]

It's got nothing to do with saving. The data is fine.

For a PK3 archive, it has to be in the /flats/ directory.

I see, I had a structure "/textures/pack1/textures, /textures/pack1/flats, ... to pack40+ to have both flats and textures of a pack listed under the same folder "texture pack 1", "texture pack 2" et cetera. So I guess that's not possible. I've changed everything to "flats/pack1, textures/pack1, ... " and I confirm that the flats are now recognized again. I understand now that flats must be under "/flats/" in a .pk3, because they're unformatted (no header) raw data. Thanks for explaining.

The only thing is that I now have two huge (identical) structures in UDB for my "textures pk3", one for "flats" and one for "textures". Each with the same 40+ subdir structure :-/ Basically the reason why I placed everything under "textures" was to avoid this, but okay. I suppose that's the way it is?

Anyhow, thanks a lot for helping out !

[Gez]

Since you're using PK3, what you could do is convert the flats to a different image format, namely PNG. Then you can put them inside the textures folder as well.

[doomzie]

Since you're using PK3, what you could do is convert the flats to a different image format, namely PNG. Then you can put them inside the textures folder as well.

Oh, I see, so they don't have to be "flats". If there's no issue with this in any way, I'll just convert them all to .png. I don't know exactly what the purpose is of "flats" (versus textures).

Thanks!!

[Gez]

To make things short: in vanilla Doom, there are two types of textures: wall textures (defined in the TEXTURE1 and TEXTURE2 lumps), created from texture patches (listed in PNAMES). And flat textures.

The separation is because walls and floors/ceilings are rendered differently (in vanilla), using a column renderer for walls (and sprites) and a line renderer for floors and ceilings.

In ZDoom, this separation is obsolete because there is a unified rendering, which allows to put flats on walls and wall textures on floors and ceilings. In addition, ZDoom introduces a third type of textures, the "override" type. Those are in the texture namespace.

Here's how it works in practice: if you have a texture (let's name it TEX for this example) on a wall, ZDoom will first look for an override texture named TEX. If it doesn't find one, it will then look for a wall texture named TEX. If it still doesn't find one, it will look for a flat texture named TEX. If it still can't find one, it looks for any graphics at all named TEX. And if it still cannot find one, it uses the "missing texture" checkerboard pattern.

On a floor or ceiling, it's the same scenario, except it checks override > flat > wall > other graphics instead of checking override > wall > flat > other graphics.

When you have textures in the /textures/ folder, they are in the "override" category, not in the wall texture category. The only way to put textures in the "wall texture" category is by using TEXTURE1 or TEXTURE2 (which will automatically place them in this category) or TEXTURES (where you get to choose which category to use for each texture).

The distinction between flats and walls can be useful when you have textures that have the same name. For example in Doom you have a STEP1 flat and a STEP1 wall texture (same for STEP2). They look very different. A common problem of things like high-res texture packs was that they put everything in override and so they got the wrong STEP1 texture. If you don't have name conflicts in your texture packs, or if you use full texture paths instead of just short texture names, that will not be a problem.

[doomzie]

...

Thanks for this explanation. This is a big help. I had no idea how the mechanism behind it worked.

The only real remaining issue that I have is indeed the overriding of textures that have the same name as a texture in doom2.wad. I figured worst case I have to manually rename all these flats/textures. I don't know if there's an easy way to go through the list of images and rename those that have a doom2.wad texture name?

In either case, all flats and textures are showing up as far as I can tell. I'm pretty happy with the result after all the effort so far.

[jury]

Hello
I have converted (frequency and stuff ...) over two hundred sound fx files from Rise of the Triad WAD (pulled out of it by Slade)
Now I want to import those waves back into the WAD. All goes fine, but the game now plays like random sounds (you shoot and you hear like dog bark)
I guess its because when the files were imported back into WAD, the are in alphabetical order, and I guess the sounds are mapped by the index in the WAD instead of by the file name (???)
So, is there a way to import them in the original order?

[SPZ1]

You probably need to make a SNDINFO for your sounds

I guess the sounds are mapped by the index in the WAD instead of by the file name (???)

This is completely wrong. The index doesn't matter in a WAD in such a way.

[jury]

You probably need to make a SNDINFO for your sounds

Looks promising. Will check it out. Thanks.

[Jarewill]

A little update on my previous issue I've posted about here.

It only seems to happen with this mod specifically.
I tried to reproduce the issue with other mods and nothing happened, only that one triggers it.

Steps to reliably reproduce:
- Open the project in SLADE.
- Navigate to zscript/items/pweap.txt
- Use ctrl+F to open the search bar and search for something, I always try with "backstab".
- Close the search bar and open it again.
- SLADE should now enter a "glitched state" where the search bar appears wrong, the navigation menu doesn't update and there are no save/close popup windows.

I don't know if this matters, but I did do some changes on that project and saved it while using 3.2.1 while I didn't do that on any other of my mods.
I don't think this is an error on SLADE's part, as both resetting the settings and using a portable installation didn't fix it, maybe the actual project file got corrupted somehow?
Even then this is still a really annoying bug and I will be highly thankful for any help regarding it.