*** The "ask a miscellaneous editing question" thread ***

[Agentbromsnor]

scifista42 said:

http://zdoom.org/wiki/Creating_new_player_classes

Thanks!

I have a question about testing my maps in GZDoom Builder. If I load my level WAD in GZDoom Builder, I can only test it if I have Doom 2's WAD loaded as a resource, otherwise GZDoom doesn't start and complains that there's no IWAD even though my PK3 is loaded as a resource. What is the best workflow for editing and testing maps for a PK3?

[scifista42]

Why do you have a problem with setting Doom 2 as a resource? No source port can play Doom without an IWAD anyway. You can set multiple resources, you know. The IWAD should be the first resource.

[Agentbromsnor]

scifista42 said:

Why do you have a problem with setting Doom 2 as a resource? No source port can play Doom without an IWAD anyway. You can set multiple resources, you know. The IWAD should be the first resource.

But I don't want to play Doom. I want to test the levels of my own game (PK3).

[scifista42]

Let me reiterate: No source port will launch at all without an IWAD. Somebody else than me will have to advise you how to properly create your own standalone IWAD, all I know about it is that it's an intricate art. If your pk3 isn't finished yet, it should be OK to test it with Doom 2 as an IWAD in the meantime, I think.

[Agentbromsnor]

Also: the "Create a new player class" article only specifies creating a new player class for PWADs. Obviously my game is not a PWAD, so it shouldn't work then, no?

Regardless, I just tried creating a simple custom player class that inherits from DoomPlayer, and it doesn't seem to change anything.

[scifista42]

Agentbromsnor said:

Also: the "Create a new player class" article only specifies creating a new player class for PWADs. Obviously my game is not a PWAD, so it shouldn't work then, no?

Of course it will work in an IWAD if you manage to create one.

Agentbromsnor said:

Regardless, I just tried creating a simple custom player class that inherits from DoomPlayer, and it doesn't seem to change anything.

Did you follow the guide to the end and included a GameInfo block in MAPINFO specifying which player classes should be available in the game?

[Agentbromsnor]

scifista42 said:

Let me reiterate: No source port will launch at all without an IWAD. Somebody else than me will have to advise you how to properly create your own standalone IWAD, all I know about it is that it's an intricate art. If your pk3 isn't finished yet, it should be OK to test it with Doom 2 as an IWAD in the meantime, I think.

Yeah, I suppose it could work to just test it with the Doom 2 IWAD. I just figured there might be a more efficient way to do this instead of just lumping map WADs back and forth. Thanks for taking your time though!

[Agentbromsnor]

scifista42 said:

Of course it will work in an IWAD if you manage to create one.
Did you follow the guide to the end and included a GameInfo block in MAPINFO specifying which player classes should be available in the game?

I'm an idiot... I included a GameInfo block and now it seems to work. Herpaderp!

[Voros]

I have a newbie question.

Why is it that when i make a door, it only open on one side, and the other side is unresponsive? This is vanilla map format btw.

[torekk]

Voros said:

I have a newbie question.

Why is it that when i make a door, it only open on one side, and the other side is unresponsive? This is vanilla map format btw.

Did you assign the proper type to both door sides, aka linedefs? Also make sure that both linedefs face "outwards", like shown here:

[Voros]

Oh, linedefs have facing directions? That must be it. Thanks!

[Agentbromsnor]

I have a bit of an "advanced" issue regarding movement.

I'm trying to turn my game (custom PK3 IWAD) into a 2D platformer, and I already have the camera script in place, which follows the player around on the Y and Z axes, while locking the player down on the X axes since I want to keep it a simple 2D platformer.

The problem I'm facing now is turning around. When you press the backwards key, you of course move backwards, but if I use something like "SetActorAngle" I can only set the angle of the actor. Yesterday I theorized about using "SetActorAngle" and a negative walking speed to accomplish the same effect, but negative values don't seem to be possible in that regard.

I downloaded Tormentor666's Pogostick mod to see how he accomplished this, and it seems that he's using custom movement functions. This works fine, but I'm worried that this eliminates the possibility of using a controller (which I think is kind of mandatory for a platform-game).

I'm curious what some of you guys think of this. It would be nice to use an ACS solution for this, but I'm starting to doubt if this is possible...

[everennui]

There is a, "quick turn" that you can bind that flips you 180°…

[Agentbromsnor]

everennui said:

There is a, "quick turn" that you can bind that flips you 180°…

Hmm, yeah I've read about this when searching the boards. It doesn't seem like a sensible solution in a platform-game though...

[NEANDERTHAL]

How do I make a linedef activate is special once it has been "damaged" (IE shot 20 times or hit by 2 rockets) over a certain amount?

[Voros]

You cant. Although you could make it like killing a demon causes the linedef to activate, i know thats possible.

[scifista42]

In ZDoom, you can make an invisible, damagable, appropriately-sized actor in DECORATE, put it in front of your wall, and make it activate an Action upon its death.

[NEANDERTHAL]

How do I make a script that detects how many times it has been run?

[Dragonfly]

Provide the script a variable to use.

var scriptRunCount;

Script 1 (void) {
    scriptRunCount ++;
    Print(s:"This script has run ", d:scriptRunCount, s:" times.");
}

To explain the script:

1. Define a variable - "var scriptRunCount;".

2. At the start of the script, increase the value of the variable by one - "scriptRunCount ++;"

3. Done. Make use of that variable as you see fit. In this instance I've provided a print function that prints the sentence "This script has run x times.", where X is the value of the variable.

[MaxED]

var scriptRunCount; // <- this should be "int scriptRunCount;"

[scifista42]

If you wanted to make multiple scripts, each of which counting its own number of times it has been run, it would be wiser not to declare the counting variable at map scope (above the script), but declare it as a static variable within the script. See http://zdoom.org/wiki/Scope. That way, the variables of individual scripts could all be named the same - otherwise (if you declared them above the scripts) you would have to declare and use multiple, differently named variables, each for one script. But then you also wouldn't be able to access the information (of how many times a specific script has been run) from any other script than from the specific script itself.

[Dragonfly]

MaxED said:

var scriptRunCount; // <- this should be "int scriptRunCount;"

Sorry. Javascript is my day job. :P

[NEANDERTHAL]

How do I get the interactive portal option in Sector_SetPortal to work?

[miketheratguy]

I asked this a few days ago but never got an answer so I figured I'd try again. Do any of you editors out there know what the curved staircases in the game are called? Things like this:




And this:




The reason I ask is because I'm trying to tailor the levels that I generate with OBLIGE. The latest version of the generator never produces any instances of such stairways whereas older versions do, but also load the levels full of exploding barrels (even when turned to a low setting). I know that this is related more to OBLIGE than Doom but I already asked on their forums and haven't seen anyone around in over 10 days. Besides, I thought that maybe someone familiar with Doom editing could at least tell me what the game refers to these things as so maybe I could find them in the config files myself.

Or, if someone knows of a way that I can disable barrels from my game, that would help too. :)

[Kappes Buur]

miketheratguy said:

I asked this a few days ago but never got an answer so I figured I'd try again. Do any of you editors out there know what the curved staircases in the game are called? Things like this:
image
And this:
image

Curved staircase is a legit name for them.
In both, DB2 and GZDB, there is a tool called Stair Sector Builder which is ideally suited to building curved staircases.

miketheratguy said:

Or, if someone knows of a way that I can disable barrels from my game, that would help too. :)

In both, DB2 and GZDB, there is a tool Find and Replace ( F3 ) to find Thing types, for example barrels,
And it has a replace function so you can replace the barrels with whatever.

[miketheratguy]

Kappes Buur said:

Curved staircase is a legit name for them.
In both, DB2 and GZDB, there is a tool called Stair Sector Builder which is ideally suited to building curved staircases.

Oh okay, nothing in the Doom files themselves that could be changed to increase the changes of the curved staircases showing up?

I'll look at these Doom builders, maybe I can just generate some maps with the earlier version of Oblige that produces those staircases and then use one of the builders to swap all the barrels it throws at me with more monsters or something.

[scifista42]

miketheratguy said:

Oh okay, nothing in the Doom files themselves that could be changed to increase the changes of the curved staircases showing up?

Like everything in Doom maps, stairs are just freeform shapes made of linedefs and sectors that were manually created in a map editor. Modern editors have features to "generate" stairs, merely for mapper's convenience, but after they're generated, they're once again nothing more than formations of linedefs and sectors.

Did you expect some sort of "stairdef script" that defines where the stairs start, where they end, how tall the stairs should be, what texture they use, and possibly how they should curve, and this "script" would be somehow placed into a map and "generate" the necessary sectors and linedefs upon the map being loaded in the game engine? No such thing exists.

[miketheratguy]

scifista42 said:

Like everything in Doom maps, stairs are just freeform shapes made of linedefs and sectors that were manually created in a map editor. Modern editors have features to "generate" stairs, merely for mapper's convenience, but after they're generated, they're once again nothing more than formations of linedefs and sectors.

Did you expect some sort of "stairdef script" that defines where the stairs start, where they end, how tall the stairs should be, what texture they use, and possibly how they should curve, and this "script" would be somehow placed into a map and "generate" the necessary sectors and linedefs upon the map being loaded in the game engine? No such thing exists.

Mm, no, I didn't necessarily expect it, but I thought that it was worth asking so that I'd learn. Being new to Doom editing I wasn't sure what objects were specific, individual assets and what were user-defined shapes that had to be placed manually. I wasn't sure what the framework was and what kind of manipulation options were available within said framework.

[Dragonfly]

Assume anything that is part of level geometry is 100% hand-made.

[Gez]

scifista42 said:

Did you expect some sort of "stairdef script" that defines where the stairs start, where they end, how tall the stairs should be, what texture they use, and possibly how they should curve, and this "script" would be somehow placed into a map and "generate" the necessary sectors and linedefs upon the map being loaded in the game engine? No such thing exists.

Unless you count WadC. :p