WadWhat
From DoomWiki.org
WadWhat, programmed by Randall R. Spangler, or the more recent revision WadSpy, programmed from the source code by Oliver Brakmann is a utility that provides simple, easy-to-read numbers on the contents of any WAD file. It outputs details such as which maps are contained in a .WAD and which levels they replace, which play modes (single player, cooperative, deathmatch) a level supports, lists all the things present in each map at each skill level, calculates an average brightness of the level, prints the number of secrets, tagged linedefs, and sectors with damaging floors and calculates a difficulty rating for each map based on the ratio of monsters to ammo.
Example[edit]
An example of WadWhat's output looks like this:
WADWHAT 1.1 by Randall R. Spangler (rspangle@micro.caltech.edu)
==============================================================================
PWAD FILE SLY1.WAD:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EPISODE 2 MISSION 1 S1 S2 S3 S45 | M1 M2 M3 M45
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Play modes:
Single player
Cooperative (4 player)
Deathmatch (8 starts)
Bosses:
Baron 3 3 3 3 | 3 3 3 3
Cyberdemon 0 0 1 1 | 0 0 1 1
Monsters:
Trooper 5 5 8 8 | 5 5 8 8
Sergeant 20 20 20 20 | 26 26 26 26
Imp 7 7 7 13 | 14 14 14 20
Demon 12 12 12 12 | 14 14 14 14
Spectre 7 7 7 7 | 9 9 9 9
Lost soul 25 25 26 26 | 29 29 30 30
Cacodemon 6 6 7 8 | 9 9 10 11
Weapons:
Shotgun 3 3 2 2 | 3 3 2 2
Chaingun 3 3 3 3 | 3 3 3 3
Rocket launcher 2 2 2 2 | 2 2 2 2
Plasma gun 4 4 3 3 | 4 4 3 3
BFG-9000 2 2 2 2 | 2 2 2 2
Chainsaw 1 1 1 1 | 1 1 1 1
Equipment:
Backpack 5 5 5 5 | 5 5 5 5
Berserk 2 2 2 2 | 2 2 2 2
Invisibility 3 3 3 3 | 3 3 3 3
Lite amp goggles 1 1 1 1 | 2 2 2 2
Expendibles:
Bullets 1870 935 950 950 | 1870 935 950 950
Shells 1016 508 480 480 | 1104 552 524 524
Rockets 88 44 44 44 | 98 49 49 49
Cells 1160 580 520 520 | 1160 580 520 520
Armor points 1600 800 600 600 | 2800 1400 1200 1200
Health points 2118 1059 984 984 | 2738 1369 1344 1344
Barrels 61 61 61 61 | 77 77 77 77
Difficulty:
Total monster hp 1187 1187 1643 1719 | 1467 1467 1923 1999
Max ammo damage 13062 6531 6230 6230 | 13878 6939 6638 6638
RATIO 0.091 0.182 0.264 0.276 | 0.106 0.211 0.290 0.301
Other info:
Average brightness 165 (0=dark, 255=bright)
Secrets 1
Nukeage / sectors 2 / 112
Triggers / linedefs 134 / 886
Reject resource YES
Difficulty Ratio[edit]
The difficulty ratio is the result of all the monsters' health points divided by the total amount of ammunition (from all sources) available in the map. In other words, the higher the ratio is, the more difficult the map is. A ratio of greater than 1.0 means that the ammo in the map is not sufficient to kill all monsters; infighting would need to be utilized to achieve 100% kills. The difficulty ratio provided by WadWhat is supposed to indicate how challenging a map is. This, of course, can only be an educated guess, because the difficulty of a level is quite a complex thing. For optimal results, one should also take into account the amount of health and armor available, the layout of the level and also which non-monster hazards there are (such as crushing ceilings and damaging floors). As such, here are some examples of calculated difficulty Ratios of IWAD maps.
Average episode 1, "Hurt Me Plenty" 0.177 Average episode 2, "Hurt Me Plenty" 0.399 Average episode 3, "Hurt Me Plenty" 0.374
Average "I'm Too Young to Die" 0.096 Average "Hey, Not Too Rough" 0.192 Average "Hurt Me Plenty" 0.317 Average "Ultra-Violence" 0.448
Easiest map: E1M1, "I'm Too Young to Die" 0.013 Hardest map in shareware: E1M8, "Ultra-Violence" 0.493 Hardest required map: E3M6, "Ultra-Violence" 0.738 Hardest secret map: E2M9, "Ultra-Violence" 0.915
Bugs and Limitations[edit]
While WadWhat is a helpful utility for both .WAD designers and players, it should not effectively substitute other mediums such as playtesting from human players. The difficulty ratio is not necessarily an entirely realistic or fair way to successfully account for a map's difficulty, as there are many other factors that contribute to the challenge involved with a map that can't be calculated by quantities alone. A level in its entirety can be made significantly harder by putting all the weapons and ammunition in impossible to reach areas, or significantly easier by keeping all the monsters in an isolated room and still carry the same difficulty ratio in both circumstances. Other things to consider are if -respawn is used, the effective number of monsters in the map will increase because they keep coming back to life. The difficulty ratio also ignores damage that may be done by exploding rockets, barrels, BFG9000 blasts, and monsters killing each other by infighting. It also doesn't take into account damage done by the chainsaw or fists. A better measure of map difficulty would probably also use the amounts of armor and health available. Another factor to consider are in multiplayer modes, there will be slightly less ammo available because each weapon can only be picked up once per life.
