Features and improvements since Eternity 4.00.00

I've decided to post some features which you can find on development builds of Eternity. I haven't documented them on the wiki because I wanted to be free to change them in case of error, without risking breaking any maps or even works in progress. Still, I think it's helpful to disclose some of them which seem pretty much stable by now.

• You can have visual linedef anchored portals (not linked) on rotating polyobjects, they'll rotate properly with the poly.
• (quality improvement): if you use linked (interactive) portals on polyobjects, you no longer need to have a sector tunnel connecting polyobject's control sector to the destination area.
• Placing linked portals is now more permissive! This means that the portals connecting the various areas no longer need to match their coordinates! The automap and gameplay will adapt accordingly as you and other things walk through portals (it's done completely deterministically). CAUTION: I'm not fully satisfied with how it works; it's still possible for monsters to be oblivious to your presence until you pass a portal. Expect further changes to improve monster sight through portals (don't count on them being oblivious on later EE uploads). ALSO, I'm considering making the automap less jittery to this. Also, currently you still cannot make a contiguous area with a portal pair Pacman-style :( a portal must still connect two distinct areas.
• New polyobject specials from ZDoom: Polyobj_MoveTo, Polyobj_MoveToSpot, Polyobj_OR_MoveTo and Polyobj_OR_MoveToSpot. Read their ZDoom wiki documentation for now; I'll post it on Eternity's on next official release.
• (bug fix): polyobjects can now correctly be concealed away into exterior walls, without visual bleeding.
• Linedef push activation from Hexen is now available!
• (FINALLY fixed) Hexen double skies.
• You can now add +SKILL5FAST (as written) inside EDF frame and framedelta blocks (to remove, use - instead of +) with the same effect as the previously Decorate-only fast specifier (which is used by Demons on nightmare).
• As posted in another thread, I've changed a bit the motion behaviour while inside polyobject portals, to make it feel more natural in Doom, more similar to the other, classic movement types (lifts, things etc.). Mainly, you won't move together with the object unless standing on the floor.
• You can now have in the ExtraData linedef blocks the portalid field and in sector portalid.floor and portalid.ceiling, so that you can use the Portal_Define static linedef special in Doom-format maps.
• Portal overlays now support midgrates and other masked textures (MIDSPACE looks good). You can also apply the SMMU swirling effect on them (using the EDF animation block or ANIMDEFS). No change done to physics yet, but I'm considering adding the same behaviour as with 2-sided impassable lines against projectiles and hitscans.

I wish I could put demonstration maps with all the examples I listed here, but that takes too much time. I hope you believe my word then :)

Anything not listed here is not stable yet and may change.

That sounds great, thank you! More moving portal functionality is awesome, and masked portal overlays have been on the wishlist for a good while so it's nice to see them finally in :) I'd suggest that if you allow them to behave like 2-sided impassible lines, it should be optional as a sector flag, defaulting to the regular behavior unless told otherwise.

15 minutes ago, esselfortium said:

I'd suggest that if you allow them to behave like 2-sided impassible lines, it should be optional as a sector flag, defaulting to the regular behavior unless told otherwise.

Most definitely I won't change the default behaviour: it will be passable by default.

45 minutes ago, esselfortium said:

I'd suggest that if you allow them to behave like 2-sided impassible lines,

Just FYI: impassible linked portals were already possible. See the sector "portalflags" properties.

4 hours ago, Mordeth said:

 

Just FYI: impassible linked portals were already possible. See the sector "portalflags" properties.

I know, I was referring to this:

5 hours ago, printz said:

No change done to physics yet, but I'm considering adding the same behaviour as with 2-sided impassable lines against projectiles and hitscans.

On 2/7/2019 at 4:48 PM, printz said:

• You can have visual linedef anchored portals (not linked) on rotating polyobjects, they'll rotate properly with the poly.
• (quality improvement): if you use linked (interactive) portals on polyobjects, you no longer need to have a sector tunnel connecting polyobject's control sector to the destination area.
• Placing linked portals is now more permissive! This means that the portals connecting the various areas no longer need to match their coordinates! The automap and gameplay will adapt accordingly as you and other things walk through portals (it's done completely deterministically). CAUTION: I'm not fully satisfied with how it works; it's still possible for monsters to be oblivious to your presence until you pass a portal. Expect further changes to improve monster sight through portals (don't count on them being oblivious on later EE uploads). ALSO, I'm considering making the automap less jittery to this. Also, currently you still cannot make a contiguous area with a portal pair Pacman-style :( a portal must still connect two distinct areas.
• New polyobject specials from ZDoom: Polyobj_MoveTo, Polyobj_MoveToSpot, Polyobj_OR_MoveTo and Polyobj_OR_MoveToSpot. Read their ZDoom wiki documentation for now; I'll post it on Eternity's on next official release.
• (bug fix): polyobjects can now correctly be concealed away into exterior walls, without visual bleeding.

So this means that Duke 3D-style vehicles are now possible in Eternity? That's way too cool!