#80 Seperate Definition Files for Heretic
I know Heretic support is being planned, but is
something that will not be seen for a while, so I
thought I would suggest this before anything is
permanent. Basically, instead of using DDF files to
define behavior within Heretic, a seperate file system
that would only be read by Heretic could be used. I was
thinking maybe the Heretic specific files could be
called HDF files, or Heretic Definition Files. :) Now,
for something really cool, HDF and DDF files would be
backwards compatible, meaning you could use features
from both file types in either format. This would be
especially useful for mod designers who would like to
port their project to another game.
Now, having seperate file types for both games might
confuse things, but I thought it would be a nice
feature to have so the DDF file system doesn't become
cluttered with code from two games. This would also
make it make it easier for people who would rather code
for Heretic rather than Doom and only want to be
concerned with features found only in Heretic. Keep in
mind this suggestion should only be considered if
Heretic support is something seriously being sought after.
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Not a good idea for numerous reasons in my opinion.
Heretic support coded into the engine: too much work for the
programmers IMO (you're asking them to learn a whole
different game inside and out!). Much easier if someone just
did the necessary DDF and a lot more efficient. I know that
someone has already started this, and someone else is still
working on it even as we speak:) and the demo I saw was very
promising: it was just a question of passing in the Heretic
Iwad and a pwad to EDGE.
Also, as you said, it would be confusing to have two
separate file types, especially since their format and
structure would be almost identical anyway.
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You're right Lobo, keeping everything in DDF files would be
best, all you would need to do is have seperate sections
inside the DDF file for the two games. The only thing I'm
curious about is how EDGE will "know" or distinguish between
Heretic and Doom files, and not confuse the two or load up
Doom files in Heretic. I know someone will figure this out,
though. ;)
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If Heretic support was going to be added, it would
probably work by detecting that the IWAD was the
heretic wad (that's pretty easy). Then instead of
loading DDFTHING (etc) lumps from edge.wad,
load up heretic versions (HDFTHING lump maybe).
Internally Heretic and Doom are very similar, and
it's a lot easier adding heretic support than Hexen
support (which needs Polyobjects and ACS
scripting). ACS scripting is out of the question
since the code for it is incompatible with our GPL
license, and reverse engineering it - way too much
work.