DoomEd 3.0 - Eighth and (hopefully) Final Alpha release
           - by Geoff Allan

READ THIS PART!!! - READ THIS PART!!! - READ THIS PART!!! - READ THIS PART!!!
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Q: What's been taking so long?
A: Several things have delayed development of DoomEd 3, I would like you all
   to know about them. First, Calgary (where I am) has been experiencing the
   nicest weather that we have had since 1991. After that time, it is believed
   that the volcanic ash spewed into the atmosphere from Mt. Pinatubo in the
   Philippines has caused temperature reductions... I personally agree with
   this theory... but we have been enjoying 70 degree nights and 85-90 degree
   days for several weeks now. Kinda hard to concentrate when there are bikini
   clad young beauties strutting around all the local lakes and parks...
   Second, Chicago. A friend works in a company which is a beta site for this
   amazing product... and we've been experimenting with DoomEd (and other
   stuff) on it. Let me say this: you WILL love Chicago. Virtually all of the
   complaints I have ever had about Windows are not only fixed, but dramatically
   surpassed in every way. Don't want to say too much more - yet, but I want
   to write another support module that makes your Windows 3.1 look and act
   like the UI on Chicago. Man, what an improvement! (BTW - I don't have it on
   my machine - my friend is honoring his Non-Disclosure Agreement... drat!)

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READ THIS PART!!! - READ THIS PART!!! - READ THIS PART!!! - READ THIS PART!!!

This is a "public Alpha" release. It is being distributed widely
through the internet, but is not intended as a release version.
PLEASE do not distribute this generally. Especially, do not upload
to Compuserve or other on-line services. Please keep this to the
Internet for now.

The intent of this "public Alpha" release is to get feedback from
users on the features implemented or planned. There is no documentation.
There is also no built-in nodes builder, you will need IDBSP.
If something doesn't work, then it's just not implemented. Play, please.

        You may contact me at: 
                allang@cuug.ab.ca

        For more information on the current status of DoomEd, and
        release dates, try:
                finger allang@sun.cuug.ab.ca

The Basics:
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System requirements:
   For sure, you need at least 4Mb.
   800x600x256 is the BEST configuration for video. Period.
   I have a 24 bit card, but run it at 256 colors... faster.
   Anything else is needed for Windows, so you have it.

Since this is a ground-up rewrite, I was able to make some user interface
changes which might be a little confusing at first:

1) General: When working with things, lines, sectors, or Vertices, you can
   use the following:
        a) Click once to unselect everything else and select the item
        b) Shift-Click to add an item to the selected list
        c) starting outside of what you want selected, draw a box around
           a group of items
        d) to drag multiple items, you must actually start the drag ON one
           of the items...
2) Things: Cannot change a group yet - just drag them
3) Sectors: Cannot change groups yet. When you drag and drop, it is important
   that the dropped sectors not be overlapping any others - YET. The next
   release will allow this, but for now I've disabled it to fix a problem.
   If you drag a single sector into another and drop it there, it will become
   a sector-within-a-sector. If you drag a sector out from inside another
   sector, or hit DEL to delete it, the other lines will still be there. You
   must then delete them with the line tool.
4) Although you CAN drag lines around, I sure don't recommend it!
5) Vertices are fun to move around!
6) Generally, the right mouse button is for adding. To add a sector, drag out
   an area using the right mouse button. After defining the area, a menu will
   pop-up asking what shape to make it. To Edit a sector, click on it with the
   LEFT mouse button to select it, then the RIGHT button the pop-up a menu
   of changes. Only "make a door" works at this moment...

NEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEW

        1) Graphical display of wall textures and floor/ceiling flats
           as you select them.
        2) Completely rewritten bitmap conversion routines are extremely
           fast to support the above feature.
        3) Memory management system changed - should be a lower memory
           requirement now - and very fast.
        4) All kinds of internal things that you probably won't see...

NEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEWNEW

TECHNOLOGY:

        1) Tags (aka platforms) are very much reworked here. Select a
           sector, click the Add button, select OK, and you have defined
           a new tag. (optionally, you may add a description)
           Click Lin, select a linedef, and move through the list of tags.
           As you do, the sector with that tag number will be highlighted
           to show what's going on. (Not saving descriptions yet... when
           they are saved, they will be in a lump called TAGDESC rather
           than PLATFORM. Previous maps will still load.)
           
        2) The act of SELECTing a thing makes that thing the default.
           If the thing dialog is showing when you add something, it will
           instantly reflect the added thing. Expand the thing box for
           a graphic picture.
           
        3) LINEDEFS and SECTORS now use the list provided by John Romero
           for actions - this means that a bunch of them don't work, since
           they're for Doom II. Actions that don't apply to 1.2 are marked
           with a *. BTW - IMPORTANT!!!  I'll be renaming these things, but
           for now you need to know this:
               a) Manual - actions that affect only the sector (no tag)
                 Things that happen when you activate the line:
               b) Switch - happens only once
               c) Button - repeatable
                 Things that happen when you cross the line:  
               d) Trigger - happens only once
               e) Retrigger - repeatable
               
        4) After dragging sectors, linedefs, or vertexes, a vertex level
           reconnect is attempted. Any vertexes which have been moved that
           overlap other vertexes are connected to the old vertexes. Walls
           are automatically made transparent as required for this purpose.
           Changing the height of a sector's floor or ceiling also causes
           a reconnect to occur, so that any floor/ceiling mismatches can
           have textures automatically applied.

To install:
  Copy the files into a directory (not your old DoomEd directory!)
  Move the ctl3dv2.dll into \windows\system
  Remove ctl3dv2.dll from any other directories
  Run doomed.exe

To create a working map from the editor, use Map..Export and give it
a name. Then, use IDBSP to create the playable wad. This will be changed
on the next release to be fully automated as you would expect.

Development system:
        ASI 9000 80486 DX/2 - 66MHz,
        8 Mb Ram
        1 Mb SmartDrive
        Windows 3.11
        Microsoft Visual C++ 1.0
        255Mb IDE hard drive w/ Stacker 4
        Panasonic CD-Rom drive on Soundblaster 16 ASP

BUGSBUGSBUGSBUGSBUGSBUGSBUGSBUGSBUGSBUGSBUGSBUGSBUGSBUGSBUGSBUGSBUGSBUGS

Known bugs:

1) Exporting bitmaps only works when Windows is in 256 color mode
2) SOMETIMES doors don't create properly - I'm working on it...
3) Sector drop is flaky - it makes the lines go the wrong way
4) Multiple line editing deletes the first line...

If you send a bug report, I'd appreciate the following information:

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        BUG REPORT:

Your Name: ____________________________
    email: ____________________________

 Computer: ____________________________
           ____________________________
           ____________________________
 Graphics: ____________________________

  Problem: ____________________________
           ____________________________
           ____________________________

  Possible fix: (theorize:)
           ____________________________
           ____________________________
   
  How Serious?  VERY  |  Annoying  |  Not a problem

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