ECWolf - Wolfenstein 3D source port for mods

tpo1990

@cyperghost Yes. It's a live. The PR has been created for RetroPie project.

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/pull/2811

Edit: Now all there is left to do is fingers crossed and hopefully it will be accepted for merging. ;-)

ExarKunIv

@cyperghost and @tpo1990

now that i have sorted out my one problem. this is great, just one question

i have come across some nice mods, but they are not in pk3 form, they seem to be in there own standalone game.
With their own WL6 and SOD files.

is there a way to use ecwolf to play these

cyperghost

@ExarKunIv I don't know. You can try on your own and give back report.

tpo1990

@ExarKunIv I have not tried it out. Can't say if it works or not. If you can somehow extract the file contents of the mod's wl6 and sod files, you could maybe import/archive it into a pk3 file that ECWolf would be able to use.

ExarKunIv

@tpo1990 ok i did not think about extracting the files from the WL6.

but i did look into building pk3 files.

i will do some digging.
as i have come across a lot of the mods seem to be their own standalone games.
not many are in pk3 version, compared to being their own game

but still
i have a good list going. will update with it soon

cyperghost

@ExarKunIv I tried some mods in WL6 format and they work. But the pk3 files should be better because the "old" mods needs own directory ... this is no problem so far by simply editing the .ecwolf files.

I tried Alexstein and Dreams of a Madman.
DoM crashed from time to time.

ExarKunIv

@cyperghost same here, some work and some dont when it comes to the .WL6 files.

and the pk3 is just so easy

so far i have tried

Wolf3D_Demolition
Coffee break
wolfpak2
Wolfenstein Missions First Encounter
Claw of Eisenfaust
Escape from Totenhaus
Wolfenstein 3D - Fourth Encounter
Halten Sie
and Wolf3d HiRes that you posted before

so far they all work for the first level at least

cyperghost

@ExarKunIv I think the old mods heavily depends in internal file versions - you can say every mod (wl6 based of course) that runs in Wolf4SDL will likely run in ec Wolf.
If you find a method to create proper sky3 file then you can leave here a note.

personally will not use the old file hacks

ExarKunIv

@cyperghost some do some dont. i have notice the old mods have different SDL files and such with them to make them run so even ecwolf will not run them right.

but i will be looking in to how to unpack the WL6 files and build pk3 files.

since i dont get building programs like you guys, maybe i can take a stab at mods. :P

cyperghost

@ExarKunIv Yes this would be great. But please don't update only the ones because of the glory of gore and heavy use of old symbols :)
I think the original levels and the whole SoD series alone is it worth.

The HighRes mods for the original series are undoubtfull a treasure just for all the original titels. Even some unknown mods of "Super Noah's Ark 3D" are really fun to play and the original titel profits (massive) from modding (the original is well.... obscure?)

tpo1990

@ExarKunIv Yes if you somehow can manage to extract the file contents of a wl6 file from a mod and that it compares with the same files that is found inside a pk3 file, then yes i believe it should be possible to make it work in ECWolf.

If you look inside a ecwolf mod's pk3 file, you get this file structure (taken from Astrostein 3D mod):

xlat
Textures
sprites
sounds
music
maps
graphics
actors
TEXTURES.txt
SpifRead.txt
SpifInfo.txt
sndinfo.txt
smallfnt.fon2
SE_READ.TXT
Ryder.txt
READ.txt
mapinfo.txt
language.txt
decorate.txt
BIGFONT.file

@cyperghost I agree that alone the original levels and the whole SoD is worth it too. In fact it is even better than the primary Wolf4SDL port found on RetroPie. :-)

cyperghost

@ExarKunIv There is a extensive How To create PK3 files available. Indeed you can extract gamedata and put them to pk3 files.
Tutorial part 1 is more usefull of this.
If you confident enough you can use part 2 and create your own (extended) levelset ;)

ExarKunIv

@cyperghost cool.
i have found a few things also, but i will take all the help i can get.
always wanted to make my own mod. :)
guess in a way i still might. if it works

SinisterSpatula

I re-uploaded my Gpi ecwolf.cfg; the changes are that I added the map to select, and the d-pad mode is now select+left (axes mode) which is the better mode to use (Gpi gamepad firmware mode, when setting the controls). The link is still the same: github ecwolf.cfg

cyperghost

I've installed ecWolf on RetroPie 4.5.1 (current version from 08/2019) and it installs fine with the script. I've attached install logs for @BuZz to check install progress for some errors. Log is here
This script installed for me all SoD Mission Packs (3) Wolfenstein Full version and Noah's Ark 3D, so it's correctly working now ;)

@tpo1990 I would suggest for

downloadAndExtract "https://bitbucket.org/ecwolf/ecwolf/get/5065aaefe055.zip" "$PWD"

this seems to look better ;) The script module can be improved for some config screen later. But all in all it's running good.

tpo1990

@cyperghost Thank you, i will soon correct this in the PR and in the original repo once i have my RPI with me.

Do you happen to know what the $PWD trigger does?.
It looks like some variable.

All in all. It does look great and it seems to perform well within RetroPie.

cyperghost

@tpo1990 $PWD means present working directory. The dot is just a relative path. I think the string is just better coding as it's a built in in most shells

tpo1990

@cyperghost Ah i see. It makes perfectly sense to use built-in strings.

Did you try to install ecwolf before or after the use of $PWD?

cyperghost

@tpo1990 I installed with the variable. But I wouldn't change so far maybe I'm wrong - I'm not a professional programmer and probably I'm wrong - just wanted to tell my point of view

tpo1990

@cyperghost Well at least i will test it out my self before making any changes just to be sure.

Me neither. Most of the time it is trial and error. Hopefully it will improve on my part of programming as well. :-)