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WadGadget

★ 30 Open GitHub ↗

Curses-based Doom WAD file editor

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![WadGadget icon](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fragglet/WadGadget/trunk/wadgadget.svg)

WadGadget is a console-based, interactive WAD file editor for Doom engine games
(and others that reuse the WAD format).

![Screenshot of WadGadget](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fragglet/WadGadget/trunk/screenshot.png)

The program is a love letter to TiC's [New WAD
Tool](https://doomwiki.org/wiki/New_WAD_Tool), a '90s WAD editing tool that I
have continued to find useful even two decades after its last release.  The
user interface is inspired both by orthodox file management tools like [Norton
Commander](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Commander) but also by the
[unfinished 1.4
beta](https://doomwiki.org/wiki/New_WAD_Tool#NWT_pro_beta_release) release of
NWT which was going to have a two-pane interface for viewing two WAD files
simultaneously.

A two-pane WAD editing tool has several advantages. Firstly, when editing Doom
WAD files, one develops PWADs as a patch against the original IWAD file. The
result is a merger between the two, and it's helpful to be able to explore this
and see the effect of one on the other. Secondly, WadGadget fully
integrates both the filesystem and WAD views; the actions of importing,
exporting or copying between WADs all take place through a consistent interface.

## Features

WadGadget aims at minimum for feature parity with NWT; this goal has mostly
been met, although [there are a few features still
missing](https://github.com/fragglet/WadGadget/milestone/1). It also adds new
features and a more logical GUI, but is likely never going to include as many
features as other tools like the excellent
[SLADE](https://slade.mancubus.net/).

The following table gives a brief summary of the current state:

|                                | NWT                  | WadGadget                                   | SLADE                                |
|--------------------------------|----------------------|---------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| Operating System               | DOS                  | Linux, macOS, BSD, other Unixes             | Windows, macOS, Linux                |
| Software License               | [License-free](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/License-free_software); v1.3 source is public | GNU GPLv2 | GNU GPLv2 |
| Interface                      | Text UI (80x25)      | ncurses (~any screen size)                  | GUI (wxWidgets)                      |
| Mouse support                  |                      | ✓                                           |  ✓                                   |
| Two pane view                  | ✓ (in 1.4 beta)      | ✓                                           | Multi-tab, shows one at a time       |
| File formats                   | WAD                  | WAD                                         | WAD, ZIP, PAK, HOG, many others      |
| Fundamentals: Create, Delete, Rename | ✓              | ✓                                           | ✓                                    |
| Rearrange lumps within WAD     |                      | ✓                                           | ✓                                    |
| Filesystem navigation          | ✓                    | ✓ (fully integrated with WAD view)          | ✓                                    |
| File management                |                      | ✓ (open, copy, delete, move, rename files)  | ✓ (open, copy, delete, rename)       |
| Open/edit via external editors |                      | ✓                                           | ✓ (open only)                        |
| Quick summary of lump contents | ✓ (graphics, demos)  | ✓ (graphics, demos, SFX, PC speaker sounds) | ✓ (almost everything)                |
| WAD clean/compact              | ✓ (via command line) | ✓                                           | ✓                                    |
| Undo                           |                      | ✓ (multi-level, plus redo)                  | ✓ (multi-level, plus redo)           |
| Hexdump view                   | ✓                    | ✓                                           | ✓                                    |
| View ENDOOM                    | ✓                    | ✓                                           | ✓                                    |
| Viewing graphics/flats         | ✓                    | ✓ (for terminals that support Sixels)       | ✓                                    |
| Graphics import                | ✓ (GIF, PCX)         | ✓ (PNG, BMP, PCX, GIF, LBM, XPM, TIFF)      | ✓ (many formats)                     |
| Graphics export                | ✓ (GIF, PCX)         | ✓ (PNG)                                     | ✓ (many formats)                     |
| Edit graphic offsets           | ✓                    | ✓                                           | ✓                                    |
| PNG grAb chunk support         |                      | ✓                                           | ✓                                    |
| Audio playback                 | ✓                    | fragglet/WadGadget#13                       | ✓                                    |
| Audio import                   | ✓ (WAV, VOC)         | ✓ (WAV, VOC, FLAC, others)                  | ✓ (many formats)                     |
| Audio export                   | ✓ (WAV, VOC)         | ✓ (WAV)                                     | ✓ (many formats)                     |
| Music playback                 | ✓                    | fragglet/WadGadget#14                       | ✓                                    |
| Music import                   | ✓                    | ✓                                           | ✓ (many formats)                     |
| Music export                   | ✓ (MUS)              | ✓ (converts MUS to MID)                     | ✓ (many formats)                     |
| Alternate palette support      | Doom/Heretic         | ✓ (arbitrary/custom)                        | ✓ (arbitrary/custom)                 |
| Palette/colormap import        |                      | ✓ (PNG)                                     | ✓                                    |
| Palette/colormap export        |                      | ✓ (PNG)                                     | ✓                                    |
| Texture editor                 | ✓                    | ✓                                           | ✓                                    |
| PNAMES editor                  | ✓                    | ✓                                           | ✓                                    |
| GENMIDI editor                 |                      | ✓                                           | ✓                                    |
| Online help                    |                      | ✓ (Hypertext-based contextual help)         | ✓ (browser tabs to access help/wiki) |
| Edit ACS scripts               |                      | ✓ (Bytecode disassembler/assembler)         | ✓                                    |
| View/edit levels               |                      |                                             | ✓                                    |
| Source port features           |                      |                                             | ✓                                    |
| Scripting                      |                      |                                             | ✓ (via Lua)                          |
| A zillion other features       |                      |                                             | ✓                                    |

## Demo videos

* [NWT vs WadGadget](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEsZD3Kg_PQ) (comparison
   of basic features)
 * [WadGadget external editors](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMA9COCpSkU)
   (demonstrates editing WAD resources using GIMP, Vim and Ocenaudio)
 * [WadGadget ACS assembler/disassembler](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxai63IgEnM)
   (editing bytecode for Hexen ACS scripts)

## Build instructions

On Debian-based systems (including Ubuntu, Mint etc.):

```shell
sudo apt install pkg-config make gcc libncurses-dev libsndfile1-dev \
                 libsixel-dev libpng-dev
make -C src
./src/wadgadget
```

## FAQ

**Can I use this under Microsoft Windows?**

There is not yet a native Windows version, although one is in development on
[the win32-port](https://github.com/fragglet/WadGadget/tree/win32-port) branch
using [pdcurses](https://pdcurses.org/).

**Will you add {my favorite feature here}?**

Maybe, but bear in mind that WadGadget is never going to implement every
feature found in other editors like SLADE. Some of the planned features are
listed in the table above. If there is a particular feature that you think is
important to add to the program, [file a feature
request](https://github.com/fragglet/WadGadget/issues/new).

**What features will never be implemented?**

The goal of the project is to develop a curses-based Doom WAD editor. This
necessarily means that various features will always be out of scope. Some
examples are:

* It will never include a level editor, or anything else that requires a
  graphical display (like an image editor). It's better to delegate that
  kind of thing to other programs.
* It is unlikely to ever include any kind of GUI or GUI integration.
* It is unlikely there will ever be support for other archive formats, like
  `.zip`/`.pk3` (used in some Doom source ports), or formats like `.pak` or
  `.grp` used in other games.

The project also tries to avoid "useless" features -- for example,
configuration options to change the colors of the interface (Commander
Mode is the one such feature that is the exception).

**Why is this ugly/slow on FreeBSD?**

The version of curses shipped with FreeBSD seems to be very limited or an
old version for some reason. Make sure you compile against the version from
the ports database, and also install the terminfo database. You can do this
with `pkg install ncurses terminfo-db`.

WadGadget

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