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Lvangundy

Does enemy/player height change on death?

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(I guess I should have asked- "does it change in stages?")

Something I noticed in GZDoom is that Mancubi fireballs sometimes aim down to the ground if another monster dies from the first hit, and another set of fireballs is on the way out. Is this old news that was added back when source ports first appeared to allow sprites on top of sprites (like allowing the caco to actually be over you)? Like a side effect of defining a height for the player and monster units?

Another way to look at it - when the player dies and in each stage of his animation, (like being on his knees with his hand around his neck then to the ground) are there values to each of those stages? Is it the same number scaled with monsters?

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Yes, if something dies, its height is normally reduced to 1/4th, although in ZDoom it is possible to use any value you like for the corpse's height.

There is only one reduction stage, and that's when death occurs.

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Their height changes to 24 (or 32?) and the sprite's "blocking" value goes 'false' upon dying (having their HP set to the value 0) AFAIK.

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Thanks. Just to confirm though, this was a byproduct of source port design right? Original engine didn't have it?

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It's been that way since the beginning. Something dies, it turns to 1/4 of its original height and ceases acting as a solid object.

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Strange, I don't recall Mancubi fireballs aiming to the ground...? Maybe I do the more I think about it. Maybe I'm force injecting it into my memories. haha.

I guess in Doom 2 there were fewer opportunities for Mancubus / [monster] infighting and I'm only noticing it because I've been playing WADs recently jam packed with hundreds of monster units in a small area.

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In Scythe2 - MAP25 the exit is after a passage that's to low to walk in, and to reach it you must suicide with a rocket.

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Kind of reminds me of Vanguard map5?6? You die entering the exit area, but have to wait about 10 seconds (unlike E1M9 where the level end is instant).

gaspe said:

In Scythe2 - MAP25 the exit is after a passage that's to low to walk in, and to reach it you must suicide with a rocket.

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It's kind of strange that the height changes. I mean, is there any application for this behaviour except for letting the player glide into the exit? Maybe it's a remnant from the early days of Doom development?

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The height is changed because of crushing physics - you don't want the corpse to be crushed too early, before the crusher (or door, raising floor...) goes low enough to appear like touching the sprite.

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Lvangundy said:

Strange, I don't recall Mancubi fireballs aiming to the ground...? Maybe I do the more I think about it. Maybe I'm force injecting it into my memories. haha.

I guess in Doom 2 there were fewer opportunities for Mancubus / [monster] infighting and I'm only noticing it because I've been playing WADs recently jam packed with hundreds of monster units in a small area.

That's most probably it. Cyberdemons will do the same thing and fire downward at the corpse if they kill their target with the first or second rocket in a volley; it's easy to see this occur in MAP08 of Doom II.

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Even enemies who fire a single projectile (as opposed to a volley) will fire to the ground if their target manages to die just before they shoot. This, of course, requires a third party attacker to kill the target.

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BaronOfStuff said:

Something dies, it turns to 1/4 of its original height and ceases acting as a solid object.

A_Fall removes the blocking flag, typically a few frames into the death animation.

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For certain a few frames in, if you try to run/push through a body you have to wait until it's basically near the ending death animation.

Da Werecat said:

A_Fall removes the blocking flag, typically a few frames into the death animation.

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