Bizarre -complevel 2 Effect

So, I recently finished a map for Unholy Realms and had finished testing it, but every run on -complevel 2 produced a weird result: a candle sitting here looks completely innocently placed. However, after hitting a nearby switch to open up the barred window, the sudden result has the candle floating in mid-fucking air.

Now I've edited the map from an earlier version where about four other candles did this exact same thing, but no matter what tweaks I've made, there's that eyesore. I would love some insight as to what's causing this. Note that this happens in PrBoom+ 2.5.1.1 on -complevel 2 and 4. Testing on -complevel 9 has no such effect on the candle.

I don't have a specific technical explanation, but this is quite a common glitch in wads that have been designed for vanilla but tested with Boom or other ports that have Boom-like behaviour. This is how it works in vanilla (I suspect that if you try your map in Doom2-plus, you'll see the same problem).

I think Vile Flesh had some glitches along these lines, for instance.

Snakes said:

Now I've edited the map from an earlier version where about four other candles did this exact same thing, but no matter what tweaks I've made, there's that eyesore. I would love some insight as to what's causing this. Note that this happens in PrBoom+ 2.5.1.1 on -complevel 2 and 4. Testing on -complevel 9 has no such effect on the candle.

Try moving sectors affected by the switch farther from the candle. AFAIK, when some floors/ceils move, Doom recalculates positions of all things in affected blockmap cell(s) or somesuch.

When that happens to me I move the thing further away from the wall. So I'd try moving the candle further away from the lava fall, so that no part of the candle is touching the lava fall sector.

I've tried both of these in various degrees, but neither works properly. If I move the candle any further it just sits on the grass, and I've pushed the doors as far away as I can. It's looking like I'll probably just remove the candle altogether. It's absence isn't nearly as big a flaw on a map as it is when it's floating.

Yeah, it didn't look like there was much room to move the candle away from the lava fall.

Can you make the sector where the candle sits bigger, so you can move the candle further away from the lava fall (it can't touch the falls at all)? If not, how about using whacked to change the radius of the candle to 1 (I dunno if things can have a radius of 0)?

eternal slumber said:

If not, how about using whacked to change the radius of the candle to 1 (I dunno if things can have a radius of 0)?

Actually, that's a really good idea. I'll have to try it out.

I don't know if this is related or even if it will help in any way but back in the 90's when i used to make levels using DCK I would sometimes end up with an invisible barrier in strange places. The only way to fix this was to delete random sectors until I found the offending sector. One time the offending sector happened to be a lift and the invisible barrier would lift when the sector did ( I think. It was a long time ago). Deleting and recreating the lift was the only way that I knew of to fix this.