EDF Feature!

When is the next eternity coming out so we can fiddle with EDFs?

Uh...heh, don't expect to see EDF for quite some time...

EDF will probably not be in the next beta, but it should be in the one after it for sure, because I'm pretty much at the point where it and ExtraData are needed features. Two reasons:

1. Heretic things, frames, and weapons could be implemented more easily and without static data explosion if they are loaded from EDF files rather than stored inside arrays in the executable.

2. Some Heretic sector specials are incompatible with the BOOM extended sector system, and alternative methods of implementation do not look positive, since there seems to be no simple way to position a mapthing at runtime and know for sure that it is in a certain sector (ruling out controller things like the BOOM PUSH/PULL). If sectors had ExtraData fields they could be used to implement the Heretic wind and scroller types without unnecessary complications.

So, there I have my motivation to get these long-put-off features working :->

Quas, answer me this...with ExtraData and EDF, would one be able to :

Make weapons reload (provided they have their own reloading animations)
Ammo per shot (wait, this is already possible IIRC)
Alternate attacks
Alternate attack reloading
Secondary modes (they could call on a new set of primary and alternate attacks and clipsizes and stuff)

If you could make this possible with EDF/ExtraData I would die a happy man ^_^

"Make weapons reload (provided they have their own reloading animations)"

I suppose it would be POSSIBLE to add such a frame, but it would not be compatible with weapons that use the traditional weapon code action functions (like BEX Reload) because I won't modify them to support it. In other words, a weapon would have to use a whole new set of code pointers to enable that kind of thing.

"Ammo per shot (wait, this is already possible IIRC)"

This will naturally be available, since it has to be stored in the weaponinfo_t structure. Of course DeHackEd will still have access to it after EDF is loaded.

"Alternate attacks"

It would be easier for me just to allow the rebindable weapon definitions idea which we talked about earlier on IRC than to add a whole secondary set of states for each weapon. That would be a waste of space, really. Although, if you mean simply a second possible attack state and the rest of the weapon remains the same, that could possibly be doable with 1 extra frame. The question is, what would activate the alternate attack state? A powerup?

secondary fire button

Quasar said:

"Make weapons reload (provided they have their own reloading animations)"

I suppose it would be POSSIBLE to add such a frame, but it would not be compatible with weapons that use the traditional weapon code action functions (like BEX Reload) because I won't modify them to support it. In other words, a weapon would have to use a whole new set of code pointers to enable that kind of thing.

"Ammo per shot (wait, this is already possible IIRC)"

This will naturally be available, since it has to be stored in the weaponinfo_t structure. Of course DeHackEd will still have access to it after EDF is loaded.

"Alternate attacks"

It would be easier for me just to allow the rebindable weapon definitions idea which we talked about earlier on IRC than to add a whole secondary set of states for each weapon. That would be a waste of space, really. Although, if you mean simply a second possible attack state and the rest of the weapon remains the same, that could possibly be doable with 1 extra frame. The question is, what would activate the alternate attack state? A powerup?

Yeah like

M-16

Primary : shoot
Alt : fire grenade (uses another firing animation and another ammo type. Instead of a muzzle flash you see a flash on the underbarrel grenade launcher.)

An alternate attack could be called on by a binded key for alternate attacks (my idea would be X, since that is most common)