WADWHAT by Randall R. Spangler (rspangle@micro.caltech.edu) version 1.1 - 8/28/94 1. Introduction Have you ever downloaded a WAD file and wondered which maps it replaced? Have you ever wondered if the map you're about to start contains 10 cyberdemons? And how much ammo can you afford to waste in the map, anyway? If you've had any of these questions, then WADWHAT is for you. WADWHAT provides simple, easy-to-read numbers on the contents of any WAD file. Some nifty features: * Prints which maps are contained in the WAD * Tells whether a map can be used single-player, cooperative, or deathmatch (and prints the number of deathmatch starts) * Lists things present in each map at each skill level * Bosses (Barons, Cyberdemons, Spiderdemons) * Monsters * Weapons * Items * Ammo * Total healing and armor * Calculates a difficulty rating for each map based on the ratio of monsters to ammo * Calculates an average brightness of the level - how well lit it is * Prints the number of secrets, triggers, and sectors with nukeage floors * FREE What's new in version 1.1: * Fixed count of light amp goggles * Total damage and monster hit points can be >65000 now * Fixed divide-by-zero errors if there was no additional ammo in the level * Prints average light level (not counting blinking lights) * Prints number of secret sectors, nukeage sectors, total sectors * Prints number of triggers, total linedefs * Prints presence/absence of reject resource * Fixed multi-player map info (-B4 and -B4M now print differently) * Now has separate columns for each skill level of multi-player info 2. Usage Restrictions and Warranty (lack thereof) WADWHAT is free. Completely free. Source is even included, for the curious. (Note that it's even COMMENTED :-) All I ask is that if you use the source for WADWHAT in any other program that you give me credit in the documentation. WADWHAT also comes with no warranty of any kind (hey, you get what you pay for). Use it at your own risk. May contribute to global warming and many other disasters. If, by some chance, you find a way to melt down your computer with WADWHAT, you're on your own. 3. How to Use WADWHAT It's pretty simple. Just give it a series of filenames in the current directory (wildcards such as *.WAD are ok): WADWHAT foo.wad g*.wad doom.wad WADWHAT will then print the contents of all the WAD files to your screen. Because there's quite a bit of output, you might want to pipe the output of WADWHAT to MORE (which comes with MS-DOS). This will pause the output every screenful: WADWHAT doom.wad | MORE 4. Output Format - Normal When run on a WAD file, WADWHAT will produce output similar to the following: E:\GAMES\DOOM\WADS\GOOD>wadwhat sly1.wad WADWHAT 1.1 by Randall R. Spangler (rspangle@micro.caltech.edu) ============================================================================== PWAD FILE SLY1.WAD: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EPISODE 2 MISSION 1 S1 S2 S3 S45 | M1 M2 M3 M45 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Play modes: Single player Cooperative (4 player) Deathmatch (8 starts) Bosses: Baron 3 3 3 3 | 3 3 3 3 Cyberdemon 0 0 1 1 | 0 0 1 1 Monsters: Trooper 5 5 8 8 | 5 5 8 8 Sergeant 20 20 20 20 | 26 26 26 26 Imp 7 7 7 13 | 14 14 14 20 Demon 12 12 12 12 | 14 14 14 14 Spectre 7 7 7 7 | 9 9 9 9 Lost soul 25 25 26 26 | 29 29 30 30 Cacodemon 6 6 7 8 | 9 9 10 11 Weapons: Shotgun 3 3 2 2 | 3 3 2 2 Chaingun 3 3 3 3 | 3 3 3 3 Rocket launcher 2 2 2 2 | 2 2 2 2 Plasma gun 4 4 3 3 | 4 4 3 3 BFG-9000 2 2 2 2 | 2 2 2 2 Chainsaw 1 1 1 1 | 1 1 1 1 Equipment: Backpack 5 5 5 5 | 5 5 5 5 Berserk 2 2 2 2 | 2 2 2 2 Invisibility 3 3 3 3 | 3 3 3 3 Lite amp goggles 1 1 1 1 | 2 2 2 2 Expendibles: Bullets 1870 935 950 950 | 1870 935 950 950 Shells 1016 508 480 480 | 1104 552 524 524 Rockets 88 44 44 44 | 98 49 49 49 Cells 1160 580 520 520 | 1160 580 520 520 Armor points 1600 800 600 600 | 2800 1400 1200 1200 Health points 2118 1059 984 984 | 2738 1369 1344 1344 Barrels 61 61 61 61 | 77 77 77 77 Difficulty: Total monster hp 1187 1187 1643 1719 | 1467 1467 1923 1999 Max ammo damage 13062 6531 6230 6230 | 13878 6939 6638 6638 RATIO 0.091 0.182 0.264 0.276 | 0.106 0.211 0.290 0.301 Other info: Average brightness 165 (0=dark, 255=bright) Secrets 1 Nukeage / sectors 2 / 112 Triggers / linedefs 134 / 886 Reject resource YES At the top of the output is the name of the WAD file. Id has requested that all add-on files be PWADs, but you may run across an IWAD or two out there. After that is the information for each map (the example file contains only one map). The columns contain * The type of thing being counted * The number present at skill level 1 (I'm Too Young to Die) * The number present at skill level 2 (Hey, Not Too Rough) * The number present at skill level 3 (Hurt Me Plenty) * The number present at skill levels 4 and 5 (Ultra- Violence and Nightmare) **** Similar numbers, but for multi-player (cooperative or deathmatch) mode If a thing does not appear in a map (for example, dork.wad doesn't have any Rad Suits) it won't be listed. Expendibles are calculated differently from the previous sections. These are the total amounts of each thing from all possible sources. For example, bullets come from clips, the chaingun, boxes of ammo, and killed troopers. Armor comes from the green and blue armors, and the helmet armor bonuses. Skill level 1 (I'm Too Young to Die) is the same as skill level 2 (Hey, Not Too Rough), except that all damage to the player is halved and all ammo amounts are doubled. A level with a low average brightness (128 or less) will be poorly lit; one with a high brightness (220 or more) will be very well lit, with only a few dark nooks. Secret sectors and sectors with nukeage (floors which damage you) are counted. Triggers are lines which open doors, drop lifts, and so on when you walk over, push, or shoot them. The total number of sectors or linedefs is a good gauge of level complexity. The REJECT resource speeds up drawing the level - the same level will play more smoothly if this is present. 5. Output Format - Brief If you're trying to compare a number of WAD files, the full output may be a bit unwieldy. WADWHAT has a brief output mode which prints one line per map, assuming a given skill level: E:\GAMES\DOOM\WADS\GOOD>wadwhat -B4 *.wad WADWHAT 1.1 by Randall R. Spangler (rspangle@micro.caltech.edu) File Map Play Bosses Monsters Weapons Equip RATIO -------------------c-de--ba-c-s--tr-se-im-de-sp-lo-ca--cpscrpb--bvsiral------- ANTHILL.WAD E1M1 4 1 2 1 0 32 35 33 14 1 0 4 12.4567 B..IRA. 0.227 BIOTECH.WAD E1M1 4 0 7 1 0 7 5 38 89 9 1 6 123456. BV.I..L 1.085 CIRCLE.WAD E1M1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 123456. B...... 0.000 DORK.WAD E1M1 4 0 3 0 0 0 24 56 26 0 38 40 12345.. ...I.AL 0.529 TREE3.WAD E1M1 4 0 3 0 0 7 34 53 14 6 13 3 12.45.. ...I..L 0.557 TREE3.WAD E1M2 4 0 2 0 0 1 26 51 14 2 11 6 12...6. B.SI... 0.270 TREE3.WAD E1M3 4 0 3 0 0 5 30 61 24 5 15 7 .2345.7 ..SIR.. 0.322 URBNBETA.WAD E1M1 4 1 1 1 1 41 8 0 0 0 7 3 1234567 B.S..AL 0.222 The brief output has the following sections: File The file containing the map. Map Which map is being replaced. Some files (TREE3.WAD, for example), contain more than one map. Play Play modes supported. "c" is the number of cooperative players, and "de" is the number of deathmatch starts. Bosses The number of barons, cyberdemons, and spiderdemons. Monsters The number of troopers, sergeants, imps, demons, spectres, lost souls, and cacodemons. "++" will be printed if more than 99 of a monster are present. Weapons Which weapons can be found in the level: 1=chainsaw, 2=pistol, 3=shotgun, 4=chaingun, 5=rocket launcher, 6=plasma gun, 7=BFG-9000. Equip Which equipment is present: B=backpack, V=invulnerability, S=berserk, I=invisibility, R=rad suit, A=computer map (allmap), L=light amp goggles. RATIO The difficulty ratio of the map at the specified skill level. Some levels add additional items in multi-player mode. To see the brief totals in multiplayer mode, add a 'M' to the end of the -B flag (so "-B4M" instead of "-B4"). 6. Difficulty RATIO The difficulty ratio is an attempt to provide some indication of how challenging a map is, based on the number of monsters and the amount of ammo in the map. Total monster hp is the damage required to kill all the monsters in the map. Max ammo damage is the amount of damage that could be done by using up all the ammo in the map. This assumes that every pellet from a shotgun hits, and rockets always hit directly. The higher the RATIO is, the more difficult the map. Some numbers from the DOOM episodes: Average episode 1, "Hurt Me Plenty" 0.177 Average episode 2, "Hurt Me Plenty" 0.399 Average episode 3, "Hurt Me Plenty" 0.374 Average "I'm Too Young to Die" 0.096 Average "Hey, Not Too Rough" 0.192 Average "Hurt Me Plenty" 0.317 Average "Ultra-Violence" 0.448 Easiest map: E1M1, "I'm Too Young to Die" 0.013 Hardest map in shareware: E1M8, "Ultra-Violence" 0.493 Hardest required map: E3M6, "Ultra-Violence" 0.738 Hardest secret map: E2M9, "Ultra-Violence" 0.915 7. Bugs and Limitations If -respawn is used, the effective number of monsters in the map will increase because they keep coming back to life. The RATIO ignores damage that may be done by exploding rockets, barrels, BFG-9000 blasts, and monsters killing each other. It also doesn't take into account damage done by the chainsaw or fists. A better measure of map difficulty would probably also use the amounts of armor and health available (any ideas for how they should be counted?) In multi-player mode, there will be slightly less ammo available because each weapon can only be picked up once per life. However, players which die start over with 50 bullets each time and can pick up each weapon again, so the net effect is probably small. 8. Information About the Author You can send comments, money, etc. to me at: Snail mail: Randall R. Spangler Caltech 116-81 Pasadena, CA 91125 Internet: rspangle@micro.caltech.edu I have also written some inexpensive shareware programs - try them out! (available by anonymous FTP, or e-mail): HOWITZER 0.95 (a SuperVGA artillery simulation game, 386 required) ftp to ftp.uml.edu, /msdos/Games/Misc/hwitz095.zip UNIXCORN 1.3 (enhances any shell or DOS Prompt, for Windows 3.1) ftp to oak.oakland.edu, /SimTel/msdos/windows3/unixcn13.zip ftp to winftp.cica.indiana.edu, /pub/pc/win3/util/unixcn13.zip