[HERETIC] Unexplained Gargoyle glitch

[Guest Unregistered account]

So, I was playing Chocolate Heretic on my phone (yes) and I was on E1M1: The Docks and I killed a Gargoyle right outside the little hut thing where you get the Yellow Key. The Gargoyle fell to the ground... and then stopped, and just froze 8px above it.
Everything else acted normally, but that one Gargoyle was just left floating there, still in its falling frame. I have no idea what it was all about. It was quite close to the step - could that be it?
Also, I tried to make a savegame of it, but as soon as the game was loaded physics obviously came knocking at fantasy worlds' doors, and the Gargoyle plummeted 8px to the ground.
Any theories?

[Doomkid]

Man, I'm hearing about all sorts of Doom engine behavior oddities for the first time today.. First the moonwalking shotgunner and now this!

[scifista42]

Joe667 said:

It was quite close to the step - could that be it?

Yes. When a Gargoyle dies, it falls and keeps displaying the falling animation until its body hits the ground, and only then it changes to a corpse. If touching an edge of a step, it would stay lying on the step and collision with floor might never be detected, even though the body no longer falls down.

[ASD]

scifista42 said:

Yes. When a Gargoyle dies, it falls and keeps displaying the falling animation until its body hits the ground, and only then it changes to a corpse. If touching an edge of a step, it would stay lying on the step and collision with floor might never be detected, even though the body no longer falls down.

Does it have to do with their midpoint located at the lower sector?

[Graf Zahl]

No, it has to do with not falling after death. The animation is started when the corpse hits the ground, but if the monster dies while being at floor height this never happens.

I remember fixing this glitch in ZDoom a long time ago.

[kristus]

Not really a glitch. The effect is that the monsters body gets squashed from the fall. If it already at ground height, there's no reason for it to splat.

[Guest Unregistered account]

It kiiiinda is, because it looks like it's falling, limbs in the air and all.

[Guest Unregistered account]

Doomkid said:

Man, I'm hearing about all sorts of Doom engine behavior oddities for the first time today.. First the moonwalking shotgunner and now this!

It seems 2015 is the year for new Doom discoveries... :)
(What with all of Romero's released resources/etc.)

[ASD]

Heretic bug related: What's causing the rare quirk where the Dragon Claw's first shot sounds like the Elven Wand firing?

[Enjay]

Joe667 said:

It seems 2015 is the year for new Doom discoveries... :)
(What with all of Romero's released resources/etc.)

Although, given that Graf fixed this glitch* years ago in ZDoom, this is hardly a new discovery (I personally remember it from years ago too). ;)

*I would definitely class it as a glitch. Despite the logic of kristus' explanation, visually it is glitched because it just looks ridiculous and wrong sitting on the ground but still looking like it should be falling. It looks like it got stuck during its death animation.

[Maes]

BTW, I can't help but hinking that Heretic took a jab at Doom's manual description of the Imp:

You thought an imp was a cute little dude in a red suit with a pitchfork. Where did these brown bastards come from?...

And, lo' and behold, the very first enemy that you see is practically exactly that, minus the pitchfork. As stereotypical a "red devil" as it gets. The Fire Gargoyles make them practically equivalent to flying Imps.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

This actually happens not infrequently in vanilla/chocolate. Interesting to know why it is.

[Quasar]

Not new. I fixed this in Eternity's implementation of the gargoyle about a decade ago. (And yet said game is still not playable yet 9_9 )