Using ZIPs as WAD replacement
From ZDoom Wiki
PK3 redirects here. The PK3 file format is the same as the ZIP file format, and is treated exactly the same by ZDoom.
ZDoom allows using several compressed archive formats instead of the traditional WADs. Most notably:
ZIP
- A .zip file used as the container for a ZDoom mod is usually given the .pk3 extension, instead of .zip. While there is no technical differences, this helps avoid potential confusion from users thinking the mod should be extracted from it, and also prevents Windows from presenting it as a directory. ZDoom supports several ZIP archiving methods: stored (no compression), shrunk, imploded, deflated (the most commonly used), bzip2, LZMA and PPMd algorithms. Note that many ZIP utility only partially implement the ZIP standard and as a result their support is limited to stored and deflated files. This partial implementation also affects some editing tools which normally support the PK3 format, such as Doom Builder 2 and Slumped.
- 7z
- A .7z file used as the container for a ZDoom mod is usually given the .pk7 extension, for similar reasons. This format offers much better compression ratio, however its reduced support, especially by modding utilities, make it less interesting overall. A possibility would be to develop a mod as a PK3, then convert it to a PK7 once finished, to decrease the size of the archive to be distributed.
Compressed archives have many advantages over PWADs, even for storing content for Doom:
- Smaller file size due to compression
- Greatly reduced memory usage during play
- Proper use of directories instead of WAD namespaces
- You no longer need dedicated WAD management tools like XWE for manipulating your data.
- More flexibility due to the use of full path names. Currently there is only limited support but it is planned to change everything that references lump names to support full paths.
Contents |
How to
You can embed WADs inside ZIPs. Any WAD file found in the root directory will be added to the lump directory as well. This allows loading many of the ZIPs distributed through /idgames without the need to extract them. If several wads are included in an archive, they will be loaded in alphabetical order.
Unlike WADs which do not have a true directory structure, the placement of data within ZIPs are much more strictly enforced in order to allow the engine to recognize it as a default lump. Any special data must be placed in the respective directory inside the ZIP or it will not be found. For the lump name, the first 8 characters of the file name are used, the extension is stripped. So for example, to place a MAPINFO into a ZIP file, you have to name your file MAPINFO.TXT, MAPINFO.LMP (or whatever extension you like) and place it in the ZIPs root directory. The following subdirectories are used to assign data to the existing WAD namespaces in ZDoom:
| Directory | Description |
| patches/ | contains patches normally found between PP_START and PP_END |
| graphics/ | All special graphics like title pictures or font characters must go here. This namespace does not exist in WADs. |
| sounds/ | contains all sound files that are referenced by SNDINFO. This namespace does not exist in WADs. |
| music/ | contains all data that is used as music. This namespace does not exist in WADs. |
| maps/ | contains levels in form of WADs. These WADs must only contain the data for one single level (including GL nodes lumps if required). Any other data in such a WAD will be ignored. Note that the file name and not the map label inside the WAD determines how the map is named in the game. |
| flats/ | contains flats normally found between FF_START and FF_END |
| sprites/ | contains sprites normally found between S_START and S_END (also known as SS_START, SS_END) |
| textures/ | contains textures normally found between TX_START and TX_END |
| hires/ | contains high-resolution textures normally found between HI_START and HI_END |
| colormaps/ | contains Boom colormaps normally found between C_START and C_END. New ZDoom WADs should not need to use this. |
| acs/ | contains ACS libraries normally found between A_START and A_END |
| voices/ | contains Strife dialog sounds normally found between V_START and V_END |
(Note: Any lump found in the root directory is added to the global namespace.)
Tips
- The ZIP file's directory is sorted alphabetically before adding it to the lump directory; any WAD files in the .zip are then loaded afterwards. Keep that in mind when creating data that relies on file name ordering. For most things, there is no need to depend on ordering, with the exception of texture animations of type range that animate textures from the flats/ or textures/ subdirectories.
- Any file not in one of the reserved directories is not added to the WAD directory and can only be used by code that looks for full path names. Currently that is only the music code but it will be gradually extended so that everything that references a lump name can do it.
- Sprite lumps for the \ frame in a WAD (such as VILE\* for one of the Arch-Vile's healing frames) can be put in a ZIP file, the backslash character just has to be changed to a caret character (^). So, VILE^1 to VILE^8 in a ZIP file will be interpreted as the VILE\1 to VILE\8 lumps. This replacement only works for sprites, any other lump name should not contain backslashes anywhere. As it is possible to use multiple sprite names for an actor with DECORATE, frames beyond Z need not be used however.
- It is strongly recommended to use the .pk3 extension, not .zip, when creating a file meant to be loaded directly into ZDoom. The average user is used to opening a .zip file and extracting a .wad from it, so naming the actual game file a .zip will often cause unwanted confusion.
- The contents of the files inside the ZIP must be identical to the lumps in a WAD. This is especially important for graphics. ZDoom does not read .BMP files! Even though that is the most likely format you will encounter, importing them with a WAD manager will convert them to Doom's internal format. XWE converts graphics encoded in Doom's internal format to .BMP during export. SLumpEd can export these graphics as raw Doom lumps. In order for ZDoom to recognize graphics as such, they have to be either in Doom's internal format or PNG.
- Beware of hidden files! If you add a full directory, or directory tree, to a PK3, it is possible that unwanted system files (such as Windows' thumbs.db file that tends to be created in any folder containing pictures) will be included as well. They will needlessly increase the file size and can trigger warning messages when loading ZDoom. Slumped frequently crashes when browsing through a PK3's resources, as it expects thumbs.db to be a graphic and obtain incoherent values.
Compatibility
Currently the only editors which support this format are Doom Builder 2, SLumpEd and the Slade 3 beta, but of course you can also use any Zip tool available if you do not need access to Doom specific features like texture definitions or graphics offsets.
Vavoom and Doomsday also use PK3 files for their resources; however their subdirectory organization differ. Adapting a mod from one of these ports to work in ZDoom may therefore require repackaging, in addition to conversion of enhanced features to their ZDoom equivalent.
