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Fenriswolf

Clusters and entertext

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Hello!
This question is related to ZDoom!
I want a text to be displayed immidiately after the game starts. First I thought I could do this with a cluster definition and adding an "entertext". It did not work and after reading the description on ZDoom wiki I understood why, cluster entertexts are only displayed whenever a player switches from one cluster into another. But is there also a possibility to display a text or a picture right at the start of an episode?
Thanks alot!

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Thank you!
But as far asI remember "print" is only able to display a showrt text for a few seconds and the game does not stop when such a print message appears but goes on, so that the player cannot concentrate on the text? Or is there a way to manage this problem?

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How would this work exactly? What I wanted to do is to display the story of the mod right when the player starts the first episode, so that he can read it before the game begins. Yet I have to add that the modification only changes weapons and enemys so far, i did not edit the levels themselve.... so is this possible?

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Have Map01 be a blank map in cluster 1, that ends imediately and then start the game properly on Map02, which is part of cluster 2.

I'm kind of suprised ZDoom doesn't have a proper way of displaying text screens before a map?

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Thank you Vermil! But the Problem is, that E1M1 (it's for Heretic :)) is the same map as always, so I cannot make it blank, it should stay the way it is, jsut with an introduction text :/

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Make a map called for example E1M0. Let the map end immediately after it begins, like Vermil said. You can do it using the script (the map should be in Hexen or UDMF format) - write this to the SCRIPTS lump:

#include "zcommon.acs"

SCRIPT 1 OPEN
{
exit_normal(0);
}
Then you need to write this in the MAPINFO lump in your wad:
clearepisodes

cluster 15 // new cluster
flat FLAT1 // the flat on the background of the text
exittext "blablabla..." // your introduction text here

episode E1M0 // E1M0 is now the first map of the episode
name "$MNU_COTD" // Heretic episode 1 name
key "c"

map E1M0 "INTRO" // The first blank map
cluster 15
nointermission // statistics are not displayed, but the intermission text is
next E1M1
You don't even need to do anything with E1M1. Now when the player starts the episode, map E1M0 will be loaded, but it almost immediately ends and the intermission text is displayed. Then the game starts at E1M1 as usual. I hope this will help you.

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Many thanks! What does the map have to include? At least one room and a player start I guess?
And is it possible to do this without having to include anything into the IWAD?

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Yes, at least one room and player start(s) + the script. But take into account that player will see the map for a short time before the intermission text will appear. I would recommend to make the map similar to the first area of Heretic E1M1, so the player will see the same room before and after the text appears. (that trick is used for example in DTHTI)

You don't have to include anything into the IWAD. In fact, it's bad idea to modify IWADs. I read your other thread and I assume you made a PWAD which replaces graphics. So you just need to add that blank map and a MAPINFO lump into your wad. Do I understand it right?

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Since you are using a ZDoom family port, it would be a good idea to use a http://zdoom.org/wiki/TITLEMAP .

On the other hand, maps can have any up to 8 char long name, which makes intro maps for each episode extremely
easy to construct. Just specify the order in MAPINFO.

For an example of a TITLEMAP and CREDITS map have a look at http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=15531

Another example is LWM's http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=14321 , hspawn.wad in hspawn20.

Something to consider is the size of the text. With using print or hudmessage, the text size is usually too small for easy reading. Best is the use of an appropriate Font.

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scifista42 said:

Yes, at least one room and player start(s) + the script. But take into account that player will see the map for a short time before the intermission text will appear. I would recommend to make the map similar to the first area of Heretic E1M1, so the player will see the same room before and after the text appears.

Personally, I'd go for something like black walls, black floor, 0 light or maybe use "fadeto (0, 0, 0, 1.0, 0.0);" in a script to make everything black anyway.

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Enjay said:

Personally, I'd go for something like black walls, black floor, 0 light or maybe use "fadeto (0, 0, 0, 1.0, 0.0);" in a script to make everything black anyway.


Haha this was what I did in the first place, making the room very very dark so that you can see absolutely nothing. It works, but the problem is that you can see the status bar for a second or two and this kind of annoys me...
So I will maybe go with the other idea, copying E1M1. Or is there a way to hide the status information completely?

Adding a possibility to do this the easy way (displaying a text before a map/epidode would be a great thing to add in the next ZDoom version, it would be very welcomed :)

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Fenriswolf said:

...... Or is there a way to hide the status information completely?


You could try something like this in SBARINFO

height 0;
statusbar normal
{
}

Fenriswolf said:

Adding a possibility to do this the easy way (displaying a text before a map/epidode would be a great thing to add in the next ZDoom version, it would be very welcomed :)


This is already possible. You just have to do some more learning.

However, if you feel that you must, there is a thread on the ZDoom Forum for Feature Suggestions .

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I'm guessing he wouldn't want to cancel the status bar completely, just for the first fraction of a second of the first map.

You could use a HUDMessage to print a black graphic to the screen (making sure it covers the screen at all resolution ratios)and flag it to be shown on top of the HUD.

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Thank you!

I'm guessing he wouldn't want to cancel the status bar completely, just for the first fraction of a second of the first map.

Exactly ;) I have chosen the variant to copy the first room of E1M1 and save it as E1M0. This was easy to do and looks ok now. Only problem I have in the moment is that I would have to hide Episode 1 vom the Episode selection cause now there are two, the one with the short intro map and the other one without it, so I would have to hide the second one... How could I do this without deleting it? :P

This is already possible. You just have to do some more learning..


I do not really understand how you mean this, there does not be an ption "entertext" for before a hud starts, but just the option "exittext". Therefore, it is not possible, until you "work around it" with some tricks like we are doing at the moment, but although this works somehow it is more complicated and not that "clean" so adding this option would be a great improvement imo ;)

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Fenriswolf said:

Only problem I have in the moment is that I would have to hide Episode 1 vom the Episode selection cause now there are two, the one with the short intro map and the other one without it, so I would have to hide the second one... How could I do this without deleting it? :P

Do it exactly like I wrote and you'll not have this problem:

clearepisodes
This keyword at the beginning of MAPINFO clears all predefined Heretic episodes and they must be redefined with new first maps. In my example, only the first episode is redefined, but you can do it similar way with all other episodes.

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