LMP TOOLS v1.12 FOR DOOM 2, by Mark Hatton.                         (31/01/97)

THIS PROGRAM IS FREEWARE!

First of all, I can not be held responsible for anything that this program
does to your computer in any way.  Use this program at your own risk.  But, on
a lighter note, my computer's still working and I've been using the program
for a while :)

If you are getting errors when using -WARP, make sure that you are using DOOM
LMPs.  This program has only been tested with LMPs made with Doom 1+2 version
1.4 and above, and who knows what it might do to earlier versions (let alone
Heretic, Hexen, or Strife LMPs!).

Oh, and this program SHOULD work with Final Doom (but it hasn't been tested!)

But enough of that... on with the documentation.


INTRODUCTION:


        LMP TOOLS is a really simple program that I made in a matter of hours.
It can be used for viewing a couple of bits & pieces in an LMP recording file
(like the level number that the LMP was recorded on, the skill setting, etc.).
It can also be used for CHANGING the level number that the LMP was recorded
on (amongst changing other things).  This is why the program even exists.
        You see, I was happily making a WAD called THE HATMATCH TRILOGY (which
obviously contained three levels HatMatch 1,2+3). Each of the levels were
originally MAP01, and they were named HM1.WAD, HM2.WAD and HM3.WAD.  When I
merged them into the one level, I made HM1.WAD MAP01, HM2.WAD MAP02, etc.
This was all fine and dandy, until I realised that my LMPS no longer worked.
The HM2 LMPs played back on MAP01, which was now HM1. So, I had to change the
MAP that the LMP referred to.  This took some time to work out where the MAP
data was stored in the LMP, and then I just had to make a nice, easy-to-use
interface.  And there you have it, LMP TOOLS v1.0.
        Another problem was that NO other programs that I could find supported
this function (not even LMPUTILS or WINTEX).

I hope that you understand the above text, but it's quite hard to explain!
Just play around witht the -WARP option, and I think that you'll get to
understand it better.


LMP TOOLS v1.0 was actually an INTERNAL release, version 1.2 properly lists
data in the LMP and supports both Doom 1 and 2 LMPs (Doom 1 LMPs aren't fully
supported, however).


HOW TO USE THIS PROGRAM:


Simple!  If you want to VIEW the data in the LMP, type:

LMPTOOL [LMPNAME.LMP]           (You do NOT have to include .LMP however)

eg. LMPTOOL HM2DEMO

A message should appear telling you some useful information about the LMP,   
like version number, skill, etc.  This is handy to see that your LMP is really
version 1.9, because if large (or strange) numbers appear, then LMPTOOL isn't
going to change the MAP number properly.  If this does happen, make sure that
you backup your LMP BEFORE making any changes.

If you want to be clever, though, and you want to change the MAP number, type:

LMPTOOL [LMPNAME.LMP] -WARP [MAP NUMBER]

eg. LMPTOOL HM2DEMO -WARP 2

Now another message should appear and in the Mission bit, it should say 1 > 2
or something like this.  This means that the map number has been changed from
1 to 2!  You have now converted your LMP, and it's ready to view.

Note that Doom 1 LMPs aren't yet FULLY supported.  You can currently only
change the Mission number, and not the Episode number.  So you could, for
example, change a recording on E1M1, to E1M7, but you can NOT change a
recording from E1M1 to E2M7.

You can also view/alter LMPs that are in a different directory
eg. LMPTOOL C:\GAMES\DOOM2\LMPS\HM2DEMO -WARP 2

Another option that LMP TOOLS supports is the option to change the player
perspective for multi-player games.  To do this, use the -VIEW option:

LMPTOOL [LMPNAME.LMP] -VIEW

eg. LMPTOOL HM2DEMO -VIEW

The info screen will be displayed again and it should say something along the
lines of [Player] --> [Player] in the perspective bit.  Now play back your LMP
and it should be for someone else's eyes!  Oh, and if you accidently use this
option on single-player LMPs, don't worry, it SHOULDN'T stuff them up in any
way!

You can use as many options as you want at once:
eg. LMPTOOLS HM2DEMO -WARP 10 -VIEW


THE SCREENS:


This sections simply explains what's on the screen when you use LMP TOOLS:

File Name   : HM2_3WAY.LMP,   Version      : 109
              This is the name of the file, and the file's version number.
              109 = version 1.9, 105 = version 1.5, etc.

Game        : Doom, or Doom 2
              This tells you what games the LMP will LOAD in.  If this says
              "Doom", and you try to load it in Doom 2 it will crash.  If it
              says "Doom, or Doom 2", this means that the LMP won't crash in
              either Doom, or Doom 2, but instead the LMP might not work
              properly in the wrong game.

Episode     : 1
              This is the Episode number - this should always be 1 for Doom 2.  

Mission     : 1
              This tells you what the level number is.  This is the number
              that you can change using -WARP.

Skill Level : 4 - Ultra-Violence.
              This is simply the skill level.

-NoMonsters : Yes
              Yes means No Monsters, No mean there are Monsters.

-Respawn    : No
              This tells you whether or not the monsters come back to live
              (Respawn) after a short period of time.

-Fast       : No
              This tells you if the monsters are in FAST mode, or not.
        
# of Players: 3
              The Number of players in the recording, can be 1-4.

Perspective : 1 - Green
              This tells you who's eyes you are looking through when the LMP
              is played back.

Duration    : 16976 (Game Tics), 8:05 (Minutes)
              Tells you the amount of Game Tics and the length of the LMP.
              A Game Tic is simply 1/35th of a second, which is how often Doom
              will refresh the screen if your computer can keep up (if not,
              Doom simply skips some Game Tics).


OTHER INFO:


Contacting the Author (Mark Hatton):
        Web   : http://www.geocities.com/timessquare/3332
        E-Mail: hatty@netlink.net.au
Please E-Mail me, I would REALLY love to hear from you!  All Comments and
Suggestions will be THOUGHOURLY sorted and taken VERY seriously.

Please send any bug reports, too... eg. if LMPTOOL doesn't like one of your
                                        LMPs, but the others work fine, etc.

Also, my Web page is full of my Doom levels, including HATMATCH!!!

VERY IMPORTANT: IF YOU USE THIS PROGRAM WITH LMPS FROM STRIFE, HERETIC, HEXEN,
                OR WHATEVER, MAKE SURE THAT YOU BACKUP THE LMP BEFORE YOU
                CONVERT THE MAP NUMBER.  ACTUALLY, IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA
                TO BACKUP DOOM LMPS AS WELL.  ANY VERSION OF DOOM 1+2 LMP
                SHOULD WORK (IN THEORY), BUT THIS HASN'T BEEN TESTED.

Later Versions:
I would like to add the following to later versions of this program (if I get
a large response from everyone, and they convince me that this program is
just the greatest, etc. :)

*       A Windows version (nearly finished, check out my home page for more
        details.  The Windows version supports most of the options listed
        in this section).
*       Changable Skill Level (might be useful if you alter the WAD AFTER you
        record the LMP)
*       Changable options, like NoMonsters, etc. (What the heck!)
*       Find out if CHANGABLE is actually a proper word.
*       Colourful ANSI screens and a nice GUI (Might be useful if you like
        Windows, and you can't afford to go into a DOS box for more than 2
        seconds...)
*       OS/2, UNIX ports (??? Someone had better help me with this!)
*       More options than you could ever imagine.
*       Smaller EXE file (40k is too big!)
*       Really test every single possible different combinations of command-
        line options, LMP versions and LMPs for different games.
*       Full support for Doom, Doom 2, Final Doom, Heretic, Hexen & Strife.
        I'll have to buy the games first though :(   $$$SSSSssss....
                                                   (My money's disappearing!)
*       LMP TOOLS should tell the user the name of each level and the name of
        each Episode (eg. Level Number: 1, Entryway).
*       Option to change the version of the LMP.
*       -PLAY should allow you to run Doom 2 straight after converting the LMP
        with the LMP loaded (for faster viewing, although this is pretty
        useless.)
*       Better help file (this one is shocking!)
*       Can't think of anything else at the moment, E-Mail me with ides!


Version History:
1.0     INTERNAL:
        Displayed the LMPs MAP # and Skill, and could also change the MAP #.

1.1     Now Displays more things from the LMP, like Version Number, Respawn,
        NoMonsters, # of Players, etc.

1.11    INTERNAL:
        Fixed bug when checking 4 player LMPs, added names of Skill setting
        (eg. Ultra-Violence).  Another big thing that I added was the -VIEW
        option, which allows you to change the player perspective for
        multi-player LMPs.  LMP TOOLS now also tells you the colour of the
        player's uniform that the LMP is being viewed from.

1.12    Calculates the # of Game Tics and then the number of minutes that the
        LMP goes for.  I have also re-worked some of the code to make changes
        easier to make later on.

1.2     (IN THEORY, this version will have the following): Displays more info
        from the LMP and tells you the NAME of each level #, etc.  The option
        to change both the Episode, and Map #'s when using Doom 1 LMPs and
        change the version number.  I'm still working on other things, too.
        Expect version 1.2 to appear on cdrom.com and my home page in late
        February 1997, at the latest.

        (Some of the things that were going to be in version 1.2 have been
        included in versions 1.11 and above.  For example the player
        perspective code and the skill level names code.)

        I might not actually release version 1.2 at all, though.  It seems to
        me that a Windows version would be more popular.  LMPTOOLS for Windows
        can currently do everything that I've ever wanted version 1.2 to do
        and MORE! (Visit my home page (address above) for more info.)  At the
        current time of writing, I am working on the Windows Help file for
        LMPTOOLS for Windows.  When this Help file is finished, version 1.0
        of the program should be released.

Also   If you want a copy of the source, E-Mail me at: hatty@netlink.net.au
