WadGadget is a love letter to TiC's New WAD Tool, a '90s WAD editing tool that I continue to find useful even two decades after its last release.
The user interface is inspired both by orthodox file management tools like Norton Commander but also by the unfinished 1.4 beta release of NWT which was going to have a two-pane interface for viewing two WAD files simultaneously. The advantage of this approach in a WAD editing tool is simple: when editing Doom WAD files, one develops PWADs as a patch against the original IWAD file. The result is a merger between the two, and it's helpful to be able to explore this and see the effect of one on the other.
WadGadget aims at minimum for feature parity with NWT; this goal has not yet been met. It also adds new features and a more logical GUI, but is likely never going to include as many features as other tools like the excellent SLADE.
The following table gives a brief summary of the current state:
| NWT | WadGadget | SLADE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating System | DOS | Linux, BSD, other Unixes | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Software License | License-free; v1.3 source is public | GNU GPLv2 | GNU GPLv2 |
| Interface | Text UI (80x25) | ncurses (~any screen size) | GUI (wxWidgets) |
| Two pane view | ✓ (in 1.4 beta) | ✓ | ✓ (multi-tab) |
| File formats | WAD | WAD | WAD, ZIP, PAK, HOG, many others |
| Basics: Create, Delete, Rename | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rearrange lumps within WAD | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Filesystem navigation | ✓ | ✓ (fully integrated with WAD view) | ✓ |
| Basic file management | ✓ (open, copy, delete, rename files) | ✓ (kind of, via OS file open dialog) | |
| Quick search within WAD | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Open/edit via external editors | ✓ | ||
| Quick summary of lump contents | ✓ (graphics, demos) | ✓ (graphics, demos, SFX, PC speaker sounds) | ✓ (almost everything) |
| WAD clean/compact | ✓ (via command line) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Undo | ✓ (multi-level, plus redo) | ✓ (multi-level, plus redo) | |
| Hexdump view | ✓ | #7 | ✓ |
| View ENDOOM | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Viewing graphics/flats | ✓ | ✓ (for terminals that support Sixels) | ✓ |
| Graphics import | ✓ (GIF, PCX) | ✓ (PNG) | ✓ (many formats) |
| Graphics export | ✓ (GIF, PCX) | ✓ (PNG) | ✓ (many formats) |
| Edit graphic offsets | ✓ | #11 | ✓ |
| PNG grAb chunk support | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Audio playback | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Audio import | ✓ (WAV, VOC) | ✓ (WAV, VOC, FLAC, others) | ✓ (many formats) |
| Audio export | ✓ (WAV, VOC) | ✓ (WAV) | ✓ (many formats) |
| Music playback | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Music import | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (many formats) |
| Music export | ✓ (MUS) | ✓ (converts MUS to MID) | ✓ (many formats) |
| Texture editor | ✓ | #9 | ✓ |
| PNAMES editor | ✓ | #10 | ✓ |
| Online help | ✓ (browser tabs to access help/wiki) | ||
| View/edit levels | ✓ | ||
| Edit ACS scripts | ✓ | ||
| Source port features | ✓ | ||
| Scripting | ✓ (via Lua) | ||
| Online help | ✓ | ||
| A zillion other features | ✓ |