Wad2PDF

Wad2PDF, by Jussi Pakkanen, is a program that converts Doom, Heretic, Hexen, and Strife levels to PDF files. Wad2PDF's unique feature is that it draws the levels fully textured. All monsters and items are also drawn with sprites. The first release of Wad2PDF was on February 3rd 2005.

Wad2PDF is very configurable. It supports multiple pwads and paper sizes. It can also draw line art versions of the levels.

Wad2PDF is written in Python, so it runs on almost every platform that Python has been ported to, including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. There is also a stand alone binary for Windows so a full Python installation is not necessary.

How does it work
Wad2PDF relies on two external features: Gl nodes created by glBSP and the PDF imaging model. First Wad2PDF unpacks flats and thing sprites and converts them to PDF pictures. Then it processes the levels one at a time. Each level's geometry consists of subsectors as defined by the gl nodes. Regular Doom nodes and subsectors do not form convex polygons and can thus not be used in PDF drawing commands. Each subsector is then filled with its corresponding floor texture. Then a line is drawn over every linedef to separate neighboring sectors with the same floor texture (such as stairs). Finally a thing sprite is drawn over every item in the level.

Wad2PDF also has a way to simulate the light levels in a level. This is done by drawing a dark, partially transparent polygon over every subsector. The darker the light level in the subsector, the less transparent the overlay. The resulting light effect is different from the original games, but usually good enough.