Extremely newb question - wads and pk3s

[Linion]

I have an extremely newbie question. I've already looked up info, but I want to be absolutely sure I understand everything. Please be patient with my fragile baby brain.

If I'm creating a mod with new levels, textures, etc, would I release it as a WAD or a PK3? What is the difference between them? Also, say I want to use lights.pk3 in my mod, would I provide that file with my mod?

pls don't be mean or I'll tell my mom.

[Nevander]

WAD and PK3 are just two ways to package the same contents. Some argue PK3 is easier to maintain, and it is to a degree since you can manage it without SLADE. WAD is more "locked" so-to-speak and is more recognizable. More people understand what to do with a WAD versus a PK3.

It all comes down to your preference really. There are some pros that only PK3 has though, for example support for using models. I don't think you can use models in a WAD. PK3 also has the benefit of using normal folder structures for lump organization. There are more PK3 specific pros but I can't think of them now.

The biggest drawback to WAD that I can think of is that the format for building one isn't all that user-friendly. For me personally, I find WAD easier to manage but that's because I'm weird.

Now to the crux of your question: for new levels and textures only, a WAD would be more than suitable. In fact a PK3 might be overkill for such a simple thing.

Lastly, lights.pk3 already comes standard with all GZDoom downloads. Including it is redundant and might even be outdated (I don't know how often lights.pk3 gets changes). The best thing to do is to tell users in a readme to also run lights.pk3 with your mod for maximum effect.

[Voros]

PK3 has better compression ratio, easy to organise, but only a select few ports read it. I recommend not doing this if you're aiming for compatibility with other ports like PrBoom+.

WAD has pretty much no compression, not that easy organise, and every port can load them. Use this if your mod has widespread compatibility with various ports.

[phantombeta]

WAD has pretty much no compression

Actually, WADs don't have any compression at all.
(Yeah, there's the console Doom WADs that have LZSS compression, but 1. I don't know if any source ports can even read that and 2. last time I checked there wasn't any WAD editor that could save a WAD with LZSS compression, so.)

And yeah, PK3s are way easier to organize. WADs have a limit of 8 characters for filenames, which can be rather annoying. (With PK3s you can use the full path to a file in some lumps, such as TEXTURES, DECORATE, ZSCRIPT, SNDINFO, etc.)

[Linion]

Sweet! Thank you all for the informative responses. c: