DDF Hints & Tips

This section includes errors sent in to Fanatic, and his answers. You can continue to send your DDF problems to Fanatic, or directly to me. This page will hopefully become a major storehouse of common DDF problems and solutions.

There is a suggestion that it will be possible to create error logs in future versions of EDGE. For the moment however, you should send a thorough explanation of your problem, the DDF files (zipped), an exact description or screenshot of any error message, and the command line parameters that you were using at the time.

1) Incomplete THINGS.DDF entries can cause EDGE 
    to instantly reboot your system

    -missing pain frames when the thing has the ability to be hurt
    -missing death frames when the thing has the ability to die
    -missing walking frames when the thing has the ability to walk or awaken
    -missing idle frames


2) "Bad states: "<sprite name>"
	- check for missing duration
	ex. "TROO:A::NORMAL:NOTHING,"
                    ^- duration # is missing, ex. "8"


3) EDGE crashes from within the game back to DOS with a stack 
    dump and "Allegro shutting down" message
	-this would occur as soon as one of your custom sprites is 
	used in the game, like if you added a new weapon to key 5, hit 
	key 5 in the game, and then EDGE crashes
	 -check that your WAD file with custom sprites in it have the entries
	S_START and S_END instead of SS_START and SS_END


4) RANDOM_SPREADER and FIXED_SPREADER won't bounce when they 
    don't have NOGRAVITY set and have a SPARE_ATTACK of SKULLFLY
	
	-it just doesn't work, I tried it too :)
	-use a SPAWNER or TRIPLE_SPAWNER instead, you won't 
	get the spread, but you will get the bounce, use multiple things 
	instead of one thing in the map to get the "spread" effect


5) "DDF_ItemGetType: Unknown Type: 'CHAINSAW'"
	
	-you don't have an attack called "CHAINSAW" in ATTACKS.DDF
	-if you look at the last DDF file loaded, it is being called from
	 "DDF_InitThings", therefore something in THINGS.DDF is calling for it
	-check your spelling
	-add the attack if it doesn't exist


6) After I added some stuff to my ATTACKS.DDF, it crashes back 
    to DOS upon loading the ATTACK.DDF file like  this:

	DDF_InitAttacks.................Exiting due to signal SIGSEGV
	Page fault at eip=000aa540, error=0004
	eax=0000004f ebx=000bd4c4 ecx=554f5247 edx=001e1800 
	esi=00000001 edi=0000842c ebp=001b501c esp=001b501c	
	program=D:\NEWBREED\EDGE.EXE
	cs: sel=00a7  base=83b6a000  limit=ffcdafff
	ds: sel=00af  base=83b6a000  limit=ffcdafff
	es: sel=00af  base=83b6a000  limit=ffcdafff
	fs: sel=0087  base=00011e30  limit=0000ffff
	gs: sel=00bf  base=00000000  limit=ffffffff
	ss: sel=00af  base=83b6a000  limit=ffcdafff
	Call frame traceback EIPs:
	0x000aa540
	0x000086c6
	0x0000b243
	0x00008657
	0x0000c62f
	0x000056be
	0x00015268
	0x000a95f2

	-most likely you've added a non-attack special to your ATTACKS.DDF, 
	 like "ON_CEILING", which is not a valid "ATTACK_SPECIAL"
	-if you want something to spawn on the ceiling, use a SPAWNER or
	TRIPLE_SPAWNER, let the thing calling for it be "ON_CEILING" (like
	the Pain Elemental attack or death, make a Pain Elements that is on
	the ceiling and attacks from there)


7) "DDF_AtkCheckType: No such attack type 'SSPAWNER'"
	-check your spelling and make sure you have entered a valid entry to
	ATTACKS.DDF and "ATTACKTYPE"
	-in the error above, I spelled "SPAWNER" as "SSPAWNER" causing the
	error


8) When I use one of my new monsters or weapons, I see some odd 
    shrunken, and semi-transparent sprites offset somewhere on the 
    screen that doesn't look quite right

	-check that your newly added sprite names are spelled correctly in 
	your DDF code sections and your WAD file
	-chances are they are incorrectly spelled in your code or are missing
	from your WAD file


9) My new animated wall textures with names like LFALL_01 won't animate

	-do your texture names have an underscore in them? (LFALL_01)
	-if yes, use quotes around the names in 
	ANIMS.DDF (FIRST = "LFALL_01";)
	-or, rename the textures you want to animate
	excluding the underscore (LFALL01)


10) My textures won't scroll up or down, only left or right
	
	-if you have Dosdoom (now EDGE) version 0.653 or less, that's why -it's broken
	-later versions have this fixed


11) I added a new weapon, an Uzi, but when I run it in the game 
      I get an error from DDF "UZIG frame A is missing rotations"

	-weapon frames can only have a zero direction (same view 
	from all angles)
	-check your WAD file and the sprite name
	-in this case, it's probably UZIGA1 -change it to UZIGA0


12) I added a new weapon, an Uzi, and I want a monster to drop it when
       it dies, but instead it's dropping an Imp
	
	-in this case, the dropped item's sprite nane was only 3
	characters long (M23A0 or UZIA0)
	-all sprites MUST be 4 characters long (MG23A0 or UZIGA0)
	-this is something Wintex should check/capture as an error, 
	but it doesn't, same as running DEUSF -CHECK <WADFILE>,
	it doesn't catch it either.


13) I get an error "unknown command: PUFF"
	
	-make sure you have DOS DOOM (now EDGE) version 0.653 or better
	-the PUFF modification was broken prior to this version


14) I added a new sound to my WAD file and THINGS.DDF, but when I 
      run the game I get "Unknown SFX: 'DEMON1'"

	-this is most likely because you didn't add the sound to SOUND.DDF
	-did you declare the sound name in SOUNDS.DDF?
	-did you omit the "DS" (DDF puts that in for you)


15) I tried running doom, and it crashes on level 12, when it tries to
      play the text screen. I get a message like: 

     "DDF Language Lookup - Level12Text not defined"

	-not actually a DDF error, dosdoom 0.65 (now EDGE) had a bug with the level 12 
	text. Go download the most recent version. 


16) I've been playing EDGE, but I don't like how the weapons
      jump around on the screen. How do I turn this off?

	-you probably have older DDF files which have the string "kick=0.2;"
	in weapons.ddf. Simply comment out that line as such:
	// kick=0.2;  It's that easy!


17) I've made a custom texture animation, but when I try running it with
      EDGE, I get a message "bad cycles". If I merge my pwad with
      the iwad, the problem disappears.

	-not actually a problem with your DDF. The animation frames 
	in your wad are out of order (e.g TEXTURE2 appears before
	TEXTURE1) Order your textures properly, and it will work
	without any problems.	 


18) I've removed the chainsaw / punch weapon, and when I run out of ammo, the game crashes.
      The game also crashes if I try to use IDGIVE1.

	-You should always make sure that there is a weapon in the punch / chainsaw
	slot. Make sure this weapon doesn't require ammunition (AMMOTYPE=NOAMMO)
	This appears to be a doom limitation that may be changed in later versions of EDGE.

19) I've removed some sound entries in sounds.ddf. Now EDGE 
      keeps stopping duirng the load up with an error. 

     - A number of sounds are hardcoded into the EDGE engine, and 
     should never be removed from your sounds.ddf file as this will 
     only cause problems.

Hard-coded sounds:

swtchn, tink, radio, oof, slop, itmbk, pstop, stnmov, pistol, swtchx, noway, bossit, bospn, bosdth, bospit, telept, boscub, pldeth, pdiehi, shotgn, barexp, sgcock, jpmove, jpidle, jprise, jpdown, jpflow


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DDF docs written by Andy Baker and Ziggy Gnarly, with updates by Andrew Apted.
Site design by Fanatic (with graphics and modifications by Ziggy Gnarly). Problems with the docs, errors and comments should be directed to the EDGE team.

© EDGE Team 1998, 1999, 2000.