
                      ----------------------------------
						 HCK 3.0 Public Beta Number 3
						Release notes and Readme file
					  ----------------------------------

BETA notice
-------------

This is a BETA version of HCK 3.0.  It works really well - there aren't
any huge bugs, and it's very stable.  There are a couple features that
aren't yet implemented, however:

   - The online help system does not work. Popup help does, though!
   - The map-info dialog box isn't lined up properly.
   - Raven's script compiler might not run correctly if you've got
     less than 500k of free memory before you start HCK.
   - To keep with DCK tradition, the docs aren't polished for this
     "pre-release" :)

Grab a copy of WARM 1.5 for node-building from ftp.cdrom.com.  It's the
only nodebuilder I've successfully tested with HCK - ZenNode doesn't
work at all, for some strange reason (probably Borland's awful DOS
extender - which ZenNode also uses!)

Please remember that although this program is in beta stage, it's not
free.  Register for the standard price of $25 USD, and you'll get the
full version when it's ready - by the middle of December or so.  Read
below for what's in the full version, and check out ORDER.FRM for
ordering info.

Don't forget to check out READTHIS.DOC - it contains fairly important
information about HCK and Hexen Editing.


--------------------------------
Changes since the last release
--------------------------------

Thanks to all the people who reported bugs!


12/07/95   Beta 3

- There were STILL problems with the "find Hexen" feature.  This has been
  fixed.
- The "Create Door" feature never set the Repeatable flag, even if the
  checkbox was set.  Fixed.
- Saving a new map didn't prompt for a filename - HCK just saved the map
  as MAP01 in UNTITLED.WAD.  HCK now prompts for a filename.
- The save status window was a little messed up.
- A couple minor interface changes.
- Editing multiple THINGs with different TIDs set all the TIDs to the
  first selected THING's TID.  Fixed.
- Creating a new THING set its TID to that of the last thing edited. It
  is now set to 0.
- Deleting sectors didn't work.
- The auto-tag-set function didn't work properly.
- The Sector number is now displayed on the Sector info status bar.
- Deleting a line to join two sectors didn't work properly.
- The beta testers didn't work properly.
- I'm joking!


12/06/95   Beta 2

- If your copy of Hexen wasn't in C:\HEXEN, HCK would crash when it
  first loaded, after scanning and finding Hexen.  It was work-around-
  able, but what a dumb bug!  This is fixed.


Now, on to the good stuff:

---------------------
What's new for 3.0?
---------------------

New Features:

- Hexen support, of course!  HCK supports ONLY Hexen, in fact, and
  will be released before DCK 3.0 (which will contain all the non-Hexen
  features of HCK 3.0, and will work with Doom/2 and Heretic.)
  HCK contains lots of Hexen-specific enhancements:
     - Pop-up choices for Arguments, where available - for example, you
       can pop up a list of THINGS to spawn for the Thing_Spawn...
       specials.
     - Built-in support for the ACS script compiler.
     - Edit your map's script right from HCK, using your favorite DOS
       editor.
     - Fully supports THINGS that take Arguments.
     - Highlights the relationship between THING TIDs and Lines whose
       Specials reference those TIDs.

- No more built-in nodebuilder, so you can use whichever you prefer.

- "Drag-and-align" texture alignment.  Besides having a really crafty
  name, this feature is very useful: HCK displays the texture you
  want to align and allows you to drag a crosshair to exactly the
  point that you want DOOM to start displaying the texture.

- Integrated vertex and line modes!  No more switching back and forth
  in order to make structural changes.  This is a BIG timesaver.

- A totally new user interface.  It looks and acts a lot more like
  Windows, and is much easier on the mouse hand.
   - More responsive dialog box controls, drag-scrolling listboxes,
     and so on.  Buttons actually push DOWN now - incredible!
   - PopUp help in dialog boxes.  If you like, HCK will display a
     description of the field you're editing in a Pop-Up window beside
     the dialog box.  You can turn this on and off in File|Configure.
   - A nicer-looking, proportional font.
   - More configuration options.
   - A much quicker method of finding what you're looking for in lists
     of items, specials and so on: type a couple abbreviated words and
     HCK displays all the items that contain those words.  You'll see
     what a difference this makes when you're looking for that bloody
     green thing, but you can't remember what its proper name is!
   - A real mouse cursor instead of that awful green thing.

- A full-screen texture browser with multiple zoom levels: view
  textures from 256x128 all the way down to 32x32.  The new browser
  will optionally display names only (with one picture at the bottom),
  so you can view most of the textures available for picking without
  having to page-down the list.

- More informative status bars contain all the information for Hexen
  objects.

- Small features like:
   - Shift-key flag toggling.  In line mode and thing mode, you can
     turn on and off any of the object flags just by hitting a
     Shift-key combination.
   - Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right rotate THING objects.
   - Horizontal and Vertical mirroring.

- You guessed it: And even More!


All the good old features of previous releases:

- Graphical THING display: shows graphics of the Things in the game,
  right on the map!
- Rectangle and Polygon tools.
- A fast wall and floor/ceiling texture browser.
- Runs the game right from within the editor, so you can test your
  levels out and get right back to editing!
- Seamless support for custom textures.
- Automatic texture-alignment tools.
- A clipboard with Cut, Copy and Paste - even between levels!
- Full drag and drop functions.
- An easy-to-use and thorough map "error checker."
- An UNDO feature.
- A powerful, built-in WAD management tool.
- Motifs: named sets of wall and floor/ceiling textures for "coloring"
  areas of your map quickly and easily.


Future plans?:

- There WILL be a much-nicer-looking help system sometime soon, with
  hypertext links and other cool stuff.

- This is a maybe, but a texture-creation facility has always been on
  my to-do list.  If I find the time..!

- Project files.  Hexen maps have script functionality, so you have to
  have some way of telling HCK which script goes with the map you're
  editing.  Project files also allow you to specify multiple sequences
  of "level-building" - for example, you could have a sequence that
  builds the BSP at a draft level and runs the map so you can check out
  your texture alignments quickly, and a sequence that builds the entire
  10-level PWAD you're working on and zips it up for distribution.
  These are simple descriptions, because projects are totally
  configurable.  Kind of nifty.


Bugs fixed:

- Deleting multiple sectors in one operation never worked before.
- The crashing bug has been fixed -- i hope.

----------------------------------
What's in the registered version
----------------------------------

- The WAD manager.
- Graphical THING display.
- THING filter (for example, to display only those
  objects that appear on skills 1 and 2.)
- A feature to find the selected object's associated-
  by-sector-tag objects.


----------------------
Where can i get it?!
----------------------

HCK is available at the following locations.  It should be under the
filename "HCKnn.ZIP" (where nn is the version, eg: 30 for 3.0)

FTP -
  Always at:
   ftp.cdrom.com                /pub/doom2/utils/level_edit
   ftp.islandnet.com            /bmorris


WWW -
   http://www.islandnet.com/~bmorris/hck30b.zip


BBS -
   Software Creations           1-508-368-7139
   Channel 1                    1-617-354-3137


Other -
   Compuserve                   ACTION forum, browse for HCK*.ZIP
