---------------------------------- HCK 3.0 Public Beta Number 3 Release notes and Readme file ---------------------------------- BETA notice ------------- This is a BETA version of HCK 3.0. It works really well - there aren't any huge bugs, and it's very stable. There are a couple features that aren't yet implemented, however: - The online help system does not work. Popup help does, though! - The map-info dialog box isn't lined up properly. - Raven's script compiler might not run correctly if you've got less than 500k of free memory before you start HCK. - To keep with DCK tradition, the docs aren't polished for this "pre-release" :) Grab a copy of WARM 1.5 for node-building from ftp.cdrom.com. It's the only nodebuilder I've successfully tested with HCK - ZenNode doesn't work at all, for some strange reason (probably Borland's awful DOS extender - which ZenNode also uses!) Please remember that although this program is in beta stage, it's not free. Register for the standard price of $25 USD, and you'll get the full version when it's ready - by the middle of December or so. Read below for what's in the full version, and check out ORDER.FRM for ordering info. Don't forget to check out READTHIS.DOC - it contains fairly important information about HCK and Hexen Editing. -------------------------------- Changes since the last release -------------------------------- Thanks to all the people who reported bugs! 12/07/95 Beta 3 - There were STILL problems with the "find Hexen" feature. This has been fixed. - The "Create Door" feature never set the Repeatable flag, even if the checkbox was set. Fixed. - Saving a new map didn't prompt for a filename - HCK just saved the map as MAP01 in UNTITLED.WAD. HCK now prompts for a filename. - The save status window was a little messed up. - A couple minor interface changes. - Editing multiple THINGs with different TIDs set all the TIDs to the first selected THING's TID. Fixed. - Creating a new THING set its TID to that of the last thing edited. It is now set to 0. - Deleting sectors didn't work. - The auto-tag-set function didn't work properly. - The Sector number is now displayed on the Sector info status bar. - Deleting a line to join two sectors didn't work properly. - The beta testers didn't work properly. - I'm joking! 12/06/95 Beta 2 - If your copy of Hexen wasn't in C:\HEXEN, HCK would crash when it first loaded, after scanning and finding Hexen. It was work-around- able, but what a dumb bug! This is fixed. Now, on to the good stuff: --------------------- What's new for 3.0? --------------------- New Features: - Hexen support, of course! HCK supports ONLY Hexen, in fact, and will be released before DCK 3.0 (which will contain all the non-Hexen features of HCK 3.0, and will work with Doom/2 and Heretic.) HCK contains lots of Hexen-specific enhancements: - Pop-up choices for Arguments, where available - for example, you can pop up a list of THINGS to spawn for the Thing_Spawn... specials. - Built-in support for the ACS script compiler. - Edit your map's script right from HCK, using your favorite DOS editor. - Fully supports THINGS that take Arguments. - Highlights the relationship between THING TIDs and Lines whose Specials reference those TIDs. - No more built-in nodebuilder, so you can use whichever you prefer. - "Drag-and-align" texture alignment. Besides having a really crafty name, this feature is very useful: HCK displays the texture you want to align and allows you to drag a crosshair to exactly the point that you want DOOM to start displaying the texture. - Integrated vertex and line modes! No more switching back and forth in order to make structural changes. This is a BIG timesaver. - A totally new user interface. It looks and acts a lot more like Windows, and is much easier on the mouse hand. - More responsive dialog box controls, drag-scrolling listboxes, and so on. Buttons actually push DOWN now - incredible! - PopUp help in dialog boxes. If you like, HCK will display a description of the field you're editing in a Pop-Up window beside the dialog box. You can turn this on and off in File|Configure. - A nicer-looking, proportional font. - More configuration options. - A much quicker method of finding what you're looking for in lists of items, specials and so on: type a couple abbreviated words and HCK displays all the items that contain those words. You'll see what a difference this makes when you're looking for that bloody green thing, but you can't remember what its proper name is! - A real mouse cursor instead of that awful green thing. - A full-screen texture browser with multiple zoom levels: view textures from 256x128 all the way down to 32x32. The new browser will optionally display names only (with one picture at the bottom), so you can view most of the textures available for picking without having to page-down the list. - More informative status bars contain all the information for Hexen objects. - Small features like: - Shift-key flag toggling. In line mode and thing mode, you can turn on and off any of the object flags just by hitting a Shift-key combination. - Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right rotate THING objects. - Horizontal and Vertical mirroring. - You guessed it: And even More! All the good old features of previous releases: - Graphical THING display: shows graphics of the Things in the game, right on the map! - Rectangle and Polygon tools. - A fast wall and floor/ceiling texture browser. - Runs the game right from within the editor, so you can test your levels out and get right back to editing! - Seamless support for custom textures. - Automatic texture-alignment tools. - A clipboard with Cut, Copy and Paste - even between levels! - Full drag and drop functions. - An easy-to-use and thorough map "error checker." - An UNDO feature. - A powerful, built-in WAD management tool. - Motifs: named sets of wall and floor/ceiling textures for "coloring" areas of your map quickly and easily. Future plans?: - There WILL be a much-nicer-looking help system sometime soon, with hypertext links and other cool stuff. - This is a maybe, but a texture-creation facility has always been on my to-do list. If I find the time..! - Project files. Hexen maps have script functionality, so you have to have some way of telling HCK which script goes with the map you're editing. Project files also allow you to specify multiple sequences of "level-building" - for example, you could have a sequence that builds the BSP at a draft level and runs the map so you can check out your texture alignments quickly, and a sequence that builds the entire 10-level PWAD you're working on and zips it up for distribution. These are simple descriptions, because projects are totally configurable. Kind of nifty. Bugs fixed: - Deleting multiple sectors in one operation never worked before. - The crashing bug has been fixed -- i hope. ---------------------------------- What's in the registered version ---------------------------------- - The WAD manager. - Graphical THING display. - THING filter (for example, to display only those objects that appear on skills 1 and 2.) - A feature to find the selected object's associated- by-sector-tag objects. ---------------------- Where can i get it?! ---------------------- HCK is available at the following locations. It should be under the filename "HCKnn.ZIP" (where nn is the version, eg: 30 for 3.0) FTP - Always at: ftp.cdrom.com /pub/doom2/utils/level_edit ftp.islandnet.com /bmorris WWW - http://www.islandnet.com/~bmorris/hck30b.zip BBS - Software Creations 1-508-368-7139 Channel 1 1-617-354-3137 Other - Compuserve ACTION forum, browse for HCK*.ZIP