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ellmo

how does "block sound" flag work?

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I just found out, I do not fully understand how a "block sound" flag works.

I'm trying to contain moster awareness in the map, and sometimes they will activate and start to roam even if they shouldn't hear what's going on in the neighboring parts of the map.

Is there any kind of trick to this linedef flag?

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Sound isn't blocked until it's crossed two block sound lines. This is done so that you can't be shooting right next to them and have them not hear you.

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If your monsters still continue to trigger after fixing that with two block lines, look for windows or something else that is allowing the sound to pass thru to them. Sometimes it can be coming back to them thru a very round-about way.

If still no joy, you have the option to set the monsters to deaf.

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Also, deaf monsters do become aware after hearing you shoot. They won't come after you, but will be looking all around them after the shot. Block-sound linedefs will fix that behaviour, so be careful if you put monsters with their back at you, behind two block-sound linedefs. They will ignore your shots completely and be easy targets.

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Okay, it's strange that no-one has posted the most obvious thing yet. And I didn't think of this so obvious thing before, so that's why I had some problems.

The sound block is Sector, and not LineDef related.

Sound will not pass through two sound-blocking lines, given that they surround a sector other than the one, from which the fires have been shot, and the mosnter is in a different sector as well.

To put it simple:
You can make 20 sound-blocking lines around a monster, and he will still be able to hear you, if you fire your weapon (or swing your fists... duh) in the same sector he is located in.

printz said:

Also, deaf monsters do become aware after hearing you shoot. They won't come after you, but will be looking all around them after the shot. Block-sound linedefs will fix that behaviour, so be careful if you put monsters with their back at you, behind two block-sound linedefs. They will ignore your shots completely and be easy targets.

Deaf monsters are something different. They will never react to sound. That's not quite something I required.

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ellmo said:

Deaf monsters are something different. They will never react to sound.


Actually they do. When a deaf monster hears a gunshot, they are put into kind of an alert state, but inactive so they don't come looking for you. But as soon as you come into sight, even if they are facing away from you, they immediately wake up.

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EarthQuake said:

Actually they do. When a deaf monster hears a gunshot, they are put into kind of an alert state, but inactive so they don't come looking for you. But as soon as you come into sight, even if they are facing away from you, they immediately wake up.

Whoa, I totally didn't know that. I'll have to keep that in mind for future level designs.

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Here's how deafening and sonic barrier linedefs work. I just made a quick testmap for these to insure that my information is accurate:

Deafening:
-Deafening a monster prevents it from becomeing alert if you fire a shot and are not in its line-of-sight. However, after firing a shot that it can hear, it will become alert when you enter its line-of-sight regardless of the which way its facing.

Sonic Barriers:
-Two sonic barriers block sound as though they are solid sectors.
-Enemies facing away from you and completely surrounded by sonic barriers will not become alert if you fire a shot even within their line-of-sight.

There are two common issues I've found that cause enemies to awaken incorrectly.
-The first is that, like Searcher said, the sound could follow a round-about path through your map and end up somewhere you don't want it to (sonic barriers can correct this, since they block sound like solid sectors do without actually being solid.)
-The other thing is that in crafting your map, you may have inadvertantly left two none-adjacent sectors joined. For example, you divide a room in half by drawing a thin rectangular sector in the middle and stitching each end to the main sector. Each half is still considered the same sector. Even if you delete the new sector to isolate the two halves, enemies in either section can hear the sound in the other. The sector can be corrected by tracing over either half to create a new, distinct sector.

In the screenie, the to imps on the left are deaf. When the player fires, the one in plain sight will become alert. The one behind the pillar will not become alert unless you move to where you're in its line-of-sight. Neither of the rightmost two imps will be alerted, even the one in plain sight, because sonic barriers completely cut them off from the sector with the sound in it.
<Link Outdated>
To avoid the second common issue I mentioned subdivide sectors with linedefs like in the bottom screenie and not with sectors like in the top one.
WRONG:
<Link Outdated>
CORRECT:
<Link Outdated>

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EarthQuake said:

Actually they do. When a deaf monster hears a gunshot, they are put into kind of an alert state, but inactive so they don't come looking for you. But as soon as you come into sight, even if they are facing away from you, they immediately wake up.

I learned something new today, I used to think that deaf monsters started out in that "alert" state. So if you haven't made noise, then you can still pass behind a monster without waking it even if it's set deaf?

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Stilgar said:

I learned something new today, I used to think that deaf monsters started out in that "alert" state. So if you haven't made noise, then you can still pass behind a monster without waking it even if it's set deaf?


Correct.

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