DEF Language
New to JFDuke3D\EDuke32 are DEF files. These parsed scripts allow redefinition of flat, Hightile textures, 3D models, miscellaneous settings, and, possibly, in the future, higher-quality sounds and music, and enhanced cutscenes.
Comments can be used by prefixing the text with a double forward-slash (C++ style), //, or surrounding the text with /* (comment here) */ (C style).
Preferred Commands
include
include filename
#include filename
Processes the script commands in filename at the point of the include call.
define
define label integer-value
#define label integer-value
Declares label to represent the numeric value integer-value. integer-value can be a label, in which case the value of the label given is used.
NOTE: You may find it convenient to include DEFS.CON (for JFDuke3D) or NAMES.H to predefine many of the tile names in the art file.
texture
texture tilenum { ... }
Defines a Hightile texture to replace an ART-file tile. tilenum may be a number, or a defined label.
The brace-enclosed block may contain these instructions:
pal
pal palnum { ... }
Replaces the palette palnum. If a palette has no pal definition palette 0 definition will be used. Tint will not be used on palettes defined with this instruction.
The brace-enclosed block may contain these instructions:
file
file filename
name filename
Defines which texture file to use. File may be any PNG, JPG, TGA, BMP, GIF or PCX file. This instruction must be supplied.
alphacut
alphacut cutoff-value
Sets the level of transparency at which a pixel in the texture is considered opaque. Pixels with more transparency than the cut-off are not drawn to the screen when rendered. The default setting is 0.32, which is just below the 33% transparency level of Build. If your texture has areas that are more transparent than the default, you can lower the cut-off level to preserve that detail.
nocompress
nocompress
Prevents the texture from being compressed using S3TC if texture compression is enabled.
scale
xscale value
yscale value
Sets the scale of the hightile texture in relation to the original texture. A value of 1.0 makes it the same size, higher makes it cover more then the original tile and smaller makes it cover a smaller area. xscale sets the horizontal scale and yscale sets the vertical scale.
detail (EDuke32-Native)
detail {...}
Defines a detail texture for the texture. The brace-enclosed block may contain these instructions:
file
file filename
Specifies which detail texture file to use. File may be any PNG, JPG, TGA, BMP, GIF or PCX file. This instruction must be supplied.
scale
scale value
value is a positive floating-point value that'll determine how much your detail map should repeat on your diffuse map (if you want your detail map to repeat five times, use a 1/5 scale : 0.2).
glow (EDuke32-Native)
glow {...}
Defines a glow map for the texture. The brace-enclosed block may contain these instructions:
file
file filename
Specifies which glow map file to use. This instruction must be supplied.
tint
tint { ... }
Defines a Hightile texture tint to simulate palette effects normally used on ART-file tiles. The brace-enclosed block may contain these instructions:
pal
pal palnum
The palette number the tint applies to.
color
red value
green value
blue value
r value
g value
b value
Specifies a color component value, in the range of 0 to 255. Unspecified components are assumed to be 255 and any out of range values are clamped to the maximum or minimum as appropriate.
flags
flags flags
Specifies any special processing effects to use for the tint. The value of flags may be the sum of any of these values:
- 0 = no effects
- 1 = convert to greyscale
- 2 = invert colors
skybox
skybox { ... }
Defines a skybox that overrides a parallaxing floor or ceiling in OpenGL Polymost rendering mode. The brace-enclosed block may contain these instructions:
tile
tile tilenum
Specifies the ART file tile to override.
pal
pal palnum
Specifies the palette number the skybox should happen for.
facename
*facename* filename
Defines a single face of the skybox where facename may be any of these keywords appropriate for the face in question:
Front Right Back Left Top Bottom ft rt bk lf up dn front right back left top bottom forward lt ceiling floor ceil down
NOTE: All six faces are required to be specified.
model
model filename { ... }
Defines a model to replace certain sprites in the game when running in OpenGL Polymost mode. filename is the model file in md2 or md3 format.
Note: md2 is considered deprecated.
The brace-enclosed block may contain these instructions:
scale
scale value
value is a (possibly fractional) value specifying a scaling factor for the model when it is rendered, eg. 1.5 for one-and-a-half times as big.
shade
shade shade-offset
shade-offset is an integer value specifying how much to bias the sprite's shade value by. A negative value for this makes the model brighter. Conversely, a positive value makes it darker.
zadd
zadd offset
offset is a (possibly fractional) value specifying a height offset for the model. Quake models are aligned in the center while Build models are aligned at the floor. Using this command will allow Build to use Quake models without modification to the MD2/3 file itself.
skin
skin { ... } Defines a skin to be used on the model for all frames declared after this command. The brace-enclosed block may contain these instructions:
pal
pal palnum
Specifies which palette this skin maps to.
surface
surface surfnum Specifies which MD3 surface this skin should be applied to. This has no significance for MD2 models.
file
file filename
Specifies the texture file to use for the skin. File may be any PNG, JPG, TGA, BMP, GIF or PCX file
IMPORTANT: If your model exists in a subdirectory (ie. the model filename includes a path to the .md2/3) you will need to give the same path to filename if the skin is in the same directory.
anim
anim { ... } Defines an animation from a group of frames in the model. The brace-enclosed block may contain these instructions:
frame
frame0 framename
frame1 framename
Specifies the names of the start (frame0) and end (frame1) frames of the animation.
fps
fps fps
Specifies the frame rate at which the animation should play. This value may be fractional.
flags
flags flags
Specifies any special properties the animation should have, the values of which should be added together to combine multiple options.
Valid options are:
- 0 = none (looping animation)
- 1 = one-shot (plays beginning to end once and stops on the last frame).
frame
frame { ... } Defines a range of ART-file tiles to correspond with the given frame/animation of the model. The brace-enclosed block may contain these instructions:
name
name framename
frame framename
If framename is identical to the starting frame of an animation, the engine will play that animation, otherwise the replacement will be static. You can choose to use the frame or name versions of this instruction as both are identical.
tile
tile tilenum
tile0 tilenum
tile1 tilenum
Use the tile instruction to specify an ART-file tile which this model should replace. Use the tile0 and tile1 instructions together to specify a range of ART-file tiles. If you use tile0, you must also have a tile1. You may not use the same instruction twice to specify multiple ranges.
smoothduration (EDuke32-Native)
smoothduration value
If smoothduration is non-zero switching from another animation to the one defined by that frame block will trigger an intermediary animation smoothing state of duration value seconds.
hud
hud { ... }
Defines a range of ART-file tiles to use with a heads-up-display. The brace-enclosed block may contain these instructions:
tile
tile tilenum
tile0 tilenum
tile1 tilenum
tile0 and tile1 together specify a range of ART-file tiles which this model frame should replace when rendered as part of the HUD. You can specify individual tiles using a single tile command.
offset
xadd offset
yadd offset
zadd offset
angadd offset
Use these offsets to fine-tune the location of the model placement. xadd, yadd, and zadd are position offsets relative to the viewer's orienation. You can use floating point values with them. angadd is a Build angle offset. (512 = 90 degrees, 1024 = 180 degrees, etc...).
hide
hide
Some weapons use multiple ART tiles for constructing the gun or animation. Use this option to hide parts that you don't need in your replacement.
nobob
nobob
By default, the HUD model offset is affected by the player bobbing offset when the player is walking. Use this option to disable that.
flipped
flipped
Use this option to apply the settings inside the hud block only if the object is normally rendered x-flipped (mirror image). Some weapons, such as the devastator, are rendered in 2 pieces, the left devastator is actually a mirror image of the right.
nodepth
nodepth
Use this to render a HUD model without the use of the depth buffer. Normally, you should avoid this. The one exception where this is useful is for the spinning nuke menu pointer because it should always be in front - and it just happens to be convex ... which is the one case that is safe with the depth buffer disabled … a rather fortunate coincidence. 
detail (EDuke32-Native)
detail {...}
Defines a detail texture for the model. The brace-enclosed block may contain these instructions:
file
file filename
Specifies which detail texture file to use. File may be any PNG, JPG, TGA, BMP, GIF or PCX file. This instruction must be supplied.
scale
scale value
value is a positive floating-point value that'll determine how much your detail map should repeat on your diffuse map (if you want your detail map to repeat five times, use a 1/5 scale : 0.2).
surface
surface surfnum Specifies which MD3 surface this detail texture should be applied to. This has no significance for MD2 models.
glow (EDuke32-Native)
glow {...}
Defines a glow map for the model. The brace-enclosed block may contain these instructions:
file
file filename
Specifies which glow map file to use. This instruction must be supplied.
surface
surface surfnum Specifies which MD3 surface this glow map should be applied to. This has no significance for MD2 models.
voxel
voxel filename { ... }
Defines a voxel to replace sprites. filename is the name of the .KVX file containing the voxel. The brace-enclosed block may contain these instructions:
tile
tile tilenum
tile0 tilenum
tile1 tilenum
Use these instructions to map tiles that should be rendered as a voxels. Use tile to map a single tile to be rendered as voxels and tile0, tile1 together define a range of tiles to be rendered as voxels. The tile0 instruction should appear before the tile1 instruction to define a correct range.
scale
scale value
value is a (possibly fractional) value specifying a scaling factor for the voxelmodel when it is rendered, eg. 1.5 for one-and-a-half times as big.
Un-Definitions
The main use for these is for cases in which the .ART files are somewhat different, and you want to ensure compatibility for the new art without new textures or models. A good example of this is the Duke: Nuclear Winter HRP by Hendricks266. (see undef.def)
undeftexture
undeftexture tile
This is for undefining Hightile textures.
undeftexturerange
undeftexturerange tile0 tile1
Same as undeftexture, but with a range of tiles.
undefmodel
undefmodel tile
This is for undefining 3D models.
undefmodelrange
undefmodelrange tile0 tile1
Same as undefmodel, but with a range of tiles.
undefmodelof
undefmodelof tile
Same as undefmodel, but all the tiles grouped together within the same .DEF code block are un-defined.
Support of undefmodelof seems to be broken at this time. Using it in your .DEF files will result in crashing upon compiling.
EDuke32-Native Commands
alphahack
alphahack <tilenum> <value>
alphahack is a deprecated command to improve alpha filtering of highres art of <tilenum>. <value> is always -1.
alphahackrange
alphahackrange <tilenum1> <tilenum2> <value>
Same as alphahack, but with a range of tiles.
dummytile
dummytile <tilenum> <x-dimension> <y-dimension>
Used in DEF files to create a blank tile at location <tilenum> of the dimensions <x-dimension> and <y-dimension>. This allows the creation of placeholder tiles for use with definetexture\texture without having to edit .ART files.
dummytilerange
dummytilerange <tilenum1> <tilenum2> <x-dimension> <y-dimension>
Same as dummytile, but with a range of tiles.
loadgrp
loadgrp <.GRP\.ZIP file>
The DEF equivalent of the /g command line switch. loadgrp can only be used in the originating .DEF file; it is usually duke3d.def or the .DEF file specified by the /h command line switch.
fogpal
fogpal <palette number> <red intensity> <green intensity> <blue intensity>
fogpal defines a palette a sector-based fog effect. To use it, change the pal of your sector to the pal defined with fogpal.
Intensities range from 0-63. Palettes 26, 27, 28 and 29 are pre-defined for you as white, red, green and blue respectively. Sector visibility controls fog density.
2dcol
2dcol <colornum> <red> <green> <blue>
2dcol is a definition of a color to be used in the 2D mode of Mapster32, in conjunction with spritecol that works similarly to tint and definetint. <colornum> is a unique identifier, similar to defines and gamevars. <red>, <green>, and <blue> are the RGB color values that are mixed together to get your custom color.
Certain low values are already hard-coded, and redefining them will change colors of the default layout. If you know the correct value, you can replace the default colors used for all the sprites. You truly have the power to customize Mapster32. Lime green 2D mode background, anyone?
spritecol
spritecol <tilenum> <normalcolornum> <blockingcolornum>
spritecol is a definition of the color a sprite will appear in 2D mode, instead of the standard sky blue and hot pink, or another special color (like yellow for hard-coded enemies or white for the special sprites). <normalcolornum> is the <colornum> of the 2dcol definition of your color for the standard sprite color as defined by <tilenum>. The same goes for <blockingcolornum>, except that this value is for when the sprite has the first bit of cstat set (1) ([']+[B] keys in Mapster32), which is the blocking flag.
Deprecated Commands
definetexture
definetexture tile-number palette-number x-center y-center x-size y-size filename
Defines a Hightile texture to replace an ART-file picture. tile-number may be an number, or a defined label. Use a value of 0 for x-center and y-center and a value of -1 for x-size and y-size for now until these values are actually used. filename may be any PNG, JPG, TGA, BMP, GIF or PCX file.
definetint
definetint palette-number red green blue flags
Defines a Hightile texture tint to simulate palette effects normally used on ART-file tiles. red, green, and blue are numbers in the range 0 to 255 which specify the color the tint should look like. flags specifies any processing effects to use. Valid values are:
- 0 = no effects
- 1 = convert to greyscale
- 2 = invert colours
These values can be added together to produce a combination of effects.
defineskybox
defineskybox tile-number palette-number reserved front-face-filename right-face-filename back-face-filename left-face-filename top-face-filename bottom-face-filename
Defines a sky-box composed of six images mapped onto the faces of a cube to be used when tile-number is set as parallaxing in GL Polymost mode. reserved should be 0 for now until its meaning is fully conceived.
definemodel
definemodel filename scale shade-offset
Defines an MD2/3-format model file to replace certain sprites in the game. See definemodelframe and definemodelanim for details on how to specify the ART-file tiles to replace. filename is the name of the MD2/3 model. scale is a (possibly fractional) value specifying a scaling factor for the model when it is rendered, eg. 1.5 for one-and-a-half times as big. shade-offset is an integer value specifying how much to bias the sprite's shade value by. A negative value for this makes the model brighter. Conversely, a positive value makes it darker.
definemodelskin
definemodelskin palette-number filename
Defines a skin to be used on the model for all frames declared after this command, when the sprite palette is equal to palette-number. (This makes more sense when given a demonstration.) IMPORTANT: If your model exists in a subdirectory (ie. definemodel includes a path to the .md2/3) you will need to give the same path to filename if the skin is in the same directory.
definemodelanim
definemodelanim start-frame end-frame frame-rate flags
Defines an animation from a group of frames in the model given by the last preceding definemodel instruction. start-frame and end-frame specify the names of the starting and ending frames of the animation. frame-rate is the frame rate at which the animation should play. This value can be fractional. flags specifies any special properties the animation should have. Valid options are:
- 0 = none (looping animation)
- 1 = one-shot (plays beginning to end once and stops on the last frame)
definemodelframe
definemodelframe frame-name first-tile last-tile
Defines a range of ART-file tiles to correspond with the given frame of the model specified in the last preceding definemodel instruction. frame-name is the name of the frame, which if identical to the starting frame of a definemodelanim animation will play that animation. If frame-name is not corresponding with an animation, the replacement will be static. first-tile and last-tile specify a range of ART-file tiles which this model frame should replace.
definevoxel
definevoxel filename
Defines a voxel to replace sprites in the game. See definevoxeltiles for details on how to specify the ART-file tiles to replace. filename is the name of the .KVX file containing the voxel.
definevoxeltiles
definevoxeltiles first-tile last-tile
Defines the range of ART-file tiles to replace with the voxel given in the last preceding definevoxel instruction.