How to autoload WADs

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There are several ways to autoload WADs on ZDoom startup:

Autoloading with the ZDoom ini file

Edit zdoom.ini and add a new section, "[*.AutoLoad]" (where * is the name of the game). Under it you can add the WADs with "Path=<path and name of the WAD>". For example, if you wanted to load WADs called skins.wad and xhairs.wad for Strife, you would add the following to the ini file: 

[Strife.AutoLoad]
Path=C:\Strife\wads\skins.wad
Path=C:\Strife\wads\xhairs.wad

Currently, these AutoLoad sections are available:

  • Doom.AutoLoad -- All Doom games
    • Doom1.AutoLoad -- Doom 1 / Ultimate Doom
    • Doom2.AutoLoad -- Doom 2
    • TNT.AutoLoad -- Final Doom: TNT Evilution
    • Plutonia.AutoLoad -- Final Doom: The Plutonia Experiment
  • Heretic.AutoLoad -- Heretic
  • Hexen.AutoLoad -- Hexen (including Deathkings of the Dark Citadel)
    • HexenDK.AutoLoad -- Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel expansion
  • Strife.AutoLoad -- Strife

The more general sections are loaded first, followed by the game-specific sections. So if any content is loaded from the HexenDK.AutoLoad section that conflicts with the content loaded by the Hexen.AutoLoad section, the HexenDK content will take presidence.

Autoloading with the shortcut

This is a good method to use if you want to play many mods for ZDoom that consists of multiple WAD files.

To do this, first create a shortcut to zdoom.exe on the desktop, or anywhere that suits your needs. Then right-click on it, and go to "Properties". In the "Link to..." box, by default you should see: 

C:\Doom2\zdoom.exe

In this box, add the following commandline: 

-file (WADfile).wad (WADfile2).wad (WADfile3).wad ...

And so on, replacing the example with the names of the WAD files of your choice. Put a space between the filenames. For example, if you wanted to play a mod named DOOMHELL.WAD with additional patches COOLWEAP.WAD and NEWENEMY.WAD (yes, obviously the example lacks creativity), your commandline should look like this: 

C:\Doom2\zdoom.exe -file DOOMHELL.wad COOLWEAP.WAD NEWENEMY.WAD

The -file command will assume that, if a filename is missing the extention, that file is a WAD file. Since the "Link to..." can only contain so many characters (about 260 characters), it is a good idea to omit the .WAD extentions when loading a very large number of files. Also, it is possible to load files other than WAD files this way. This is useful when loading a wave sound or images without adding them into a WAD file. For example, if you have a new sound for the pistol, and you want to play DOOMHELL.WAD with it, first rename that sound file to DSPISTOL.WAV so ZDoom would recognize it, then add it in your commandline, which should now look like (notice that the .WAD extentions are omitted here): 

C:\Doom2\zdoom.exe -file DOOMHELL COOLWEAP NEWENEMY DSPISTOL.WAV

Autoloading with the skins directory

Create a new subdirectory named "skins" under your ZDoom directory and put the WADs you want to autoload in there and they'll be loaded the next time your run ZDoom. ZDoom is capable of autoloading other files in from the skins directory but needs the file extension to be .wad.

Retrieved from "http://zdoom.org/wiki/How_to_autoload_WADs"
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