Best ROTT Editor?

[StoneFrog]

Hey guys! Let me start off by introducing myself. I'm a big fan of all the old 90s Apogee and id Software games, but what really brought me here was Rise of the Triad. I'd heard of it from time to time, but never really gave it a try - then I got myself a copy and pretty much spent my entire summer playing it! I've been through the original levels and have just started the Extreme Rise of the Triad maps as well. I have to say, this game is brilliant and way too underappreciated.

I want to make some maps for the game. I'm not sure at the moment if I want to just do one episode full of difficult maps or take a more balanced, four episode approach. I've mapped for Wolfenstein 3D before, so I know how floor codes and everything work - I think I could really get into this easily.

Except for one thing. The ROTT modding community is almost nonexistant (kind of disappointed, was hoping to see more of you guys), and I can't decide what editor to use. RottEd seems to be the most intuitive as far as the interface goes, although for whatever reason, the grid is all stretched out. I'm assuming it's either Windows XP not liking the program, or the fabulous VGA icons I got from here.



The other one that seems to be gaining popularity is Birger's 3D editor, but I don't really like the control scheme. It runs really well, but I don't like having to manually toggle between insert/delete for adjusting tiles when there should really just be a "LMB to add, RMB to remove" sort of thing.

Are these two the best? Are any of the old DOS editors (other than Ted5) worth trying?

[GrimWoman]

Well to be honest those are probably the best two level editors for ROTT. Also if you want Birger to add something to the 3D editor you could always talk to jbailey, he has connections.

Love your avatar btw...

[Exitus]

Originally Posted by StoneFrog

Except for one thing. The ROTT modding community is almost nonexistant (kind of disappointed, was hoping to see more of you guys), and I can't decide what editor to use. RottEd seems to be the most intuitive as far as the interface goes, although for whatever reason, the grid is all stretched out. I'm assuming it's either Windows XP not liking the program, or the fabulous VGA icons I got from here.

The ROTT modding community may be virtually non-existent now, but wait till you see my "Final ROTT" project. I'm tweaking some of the levels to work well with WinRott, but I've been working on this baby since 1999, and it will be the single greatest ROTT episode ever (and can run with or without WinRott, although some of the cool features will not show up without WinRott).

And yes, ROTTed is the best.

[StoneFrog]

Sounds neat! I wish you the best of luck with it.

By the way, is there any way to get a custom .RTL set of maps to load a resource WAD with it? You know, for custom graphics and the like - as you would with Doom. Or does that have to be hacked somehow?

[GrimWoman]

Originally Posted by Exitus

The ROTT modding community may be virtually non-existent now, but wait till you see my "Final ROTT" project. I'm tweaking some of the levels to work well with WinRott, but I've been working on this baby since 1999, and it will be the single greatest ROTT episode ever (and can run with or without WinRott, although some of the cool features will not show up without WinRott).

So are you almost done with that?

[jbailey]

Originally Posted by StoneFrog

Sounds neat! I wish you the best of luck with it.

By the way, is there any way to get a custom .RTL set of maps to load a resource WAD with it? You know, for custom graphics and the like - as you would with Doom. Or does that have to be hacked somehow?

-----------------------------------

The rtl file would be handled be the editor you are using, all of the custom
rtl stuff always used the 'official; rott wad files, you could try customizing
your textures in the shareware wad file, then include the changed shareware
wad file and your rtl file in a zip, you can't do that with the darkwar wad
file though.

[StoneFrog]

How can you get ROTT to load that custom WAD resource file, though? Do I have to make a batch file that runs the game with certain parameters?

[DragonsLover]

I'm glad someone else likes my new icons.

For RottED, to avoid getting the grid to be stretched and not having the scrolling bars, simply open the map while the RottED window is NOT maximized. Once the map has been loaded, then you can maximize the window and scroll without problems.

[StoneFrog]

That actually doesn't seem to work for me. Not sure why.

[jbailey]

Originally Posted by StoneFrog

How can you get ROTT to load that custom WAD resource file, though? Do I have to make a batch file that runs the game with certain parameters?

---------------------------------------------

I've never actually done what your talking about, I'll see if this can be
done or not.

---------- Post added at 05:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:34 PM ----------

To StoneFrog:

I did some quick research, put together some files and posted them
where you can get them, download the rar file unpack, and read the
readme, hope this helps!

http://www.filefront.com/17282806/wadutils.rar

[StoneFrog]

Thanks. Those utilities will come in handy - I found out how to load additional WADs, too. It's detailed in the ROTT FAQ on the 3D Realms website:

FILE

This is the name of a user added wad file for ROTT.
For example, if you wanted to use a custom wad file
named FNORD.WAD, you'd need to type in this...
ROTT FILE FNORD.WAD You can add three such files
using this method.

EDIT: I still can't get the RottED grid to display properly though!

[DragonsLover]

If you're talking about the tiles of the grid to be in a rectangle shape instead of square, you can't. The editor uses rectangle tiles, causing them to be stretched a bit vertically, but it's not a major problem. It's the same thing for everyone as the editor is made that way.

If you're talking about the impossibility to scroll the map, I explained how to do it earlier.

[StoneFrog]

Oh? Damn. I could've sworn the grid was square the very first time I ran the editor on my machine, but I guess I imagined that. The main thing annoys me about the rectangular tiles is how the foreground icons don't stretch with it, but I guess that's so you can see the background and foreground simultaneously.

[DragonsLover]

Exactly. I guess it was made for this purpose. Otherwise, you couldn't see what's behind the foreground tiles.