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

[Nevander]

Dragonfly said:

Showing your script would help here, and/or a quick screenshot of the area in question in a 3D view would help too. :)

That would be a looooong script to post. It's for the switch puzzle at the end of Doom 64's "Holding Area." I got it to work though, just had to make sure there was some open space between the sectors. I might get a screenshot later to explain.

[scifista42]

Nevander said:

Why can't floors/ceilings move if there is no open space between the two sectors to be moved? What I mean is, floor A and B are beside each other (like a joined sector beside a dummy sector) but the two sectors are separated in the vertical void, so the floor of one is all the way above the ceiling of the other.

I still don't understand what you mean, an illustrative screenshot or sketch with descriptions inside it would come in handy.

[Nevander]

EDIT: Wtf... so I went back to try to make it NOT work and now I can't. Now it works even the other way. Must have been an error with the script possibly, because it works now even with the space gone. I'll still get the picture just so it can be out there.

EDIT 2: Here, a visual representation of what I did and what happened.

[scifista42]

"Vertical void" absolutely doesn't matter to anything. The only important thing is that the sectors share the linedef between them (precisely, that one of the sectors is the linedef's front side sector, and the other one is the linedef's back side sector, according to the linedef's / sidedef's properties - sector indexes). That's how the engine knows the sectors are neighboring - that there is at least one such linedef shared by them.

[lwks]

A_SpawnItemEx chance of spawning goes from 0 to 256, shouldn't it be 0 to 255? WTH?

Also
I've created a damn PK3 files and put levels inside them with SLADE and some Stuff, but when I try to play the PK3 GZDoom doesn't find a level

Also 2.0

CODE
if (GetCVAR(hs_hierarchy = 1)){
//REVENANT//
actor MinionRevenant : Revenant replaces Revenant
{
DropItem "RocketAmmo"
States
{
Death:
SKEL LM 7
SKEL N 7 A_Scream
SKEL O 7 A_NoBlocking
SKEL P 7
SKEL P 0 A_SpawnItemEx("ChaingunGuySpawner",0,0,0,0,0,0)
SKEL Q -1
Stop
}
}
...more code
} else { }
/CODE

I get this error
Script error, "Hellspawn v1.1.wad:DECORATE" line 45:
Expected '{', got '(GetCVAR(hs_hierarchy'.

I think DECORATE can't handdle code like that, right? Is there a way for me to check a variable and them load one decorate file or another?

[scifista42]

lwks said:

A_SpawnItemEx chance of spawning goes from 0 to 256, shouldn't it be 0 to 255? WTH?

From the wiki page: "chance: This is the chance (out of 256) that the actor has of not spawning. If this is 0 or omitted, the actor will always spawn. If it is 256, it will never spawn."

This is the typical way how Doom defines probabilities: 0 is the bottom extreme, 256 is the top one. Despite the similarity to the value range of a single byte, these probabilities aren't actually stored in a single byte. The real purpose is that Doom's random number generator generates numbers between 0 and 255, and random check function generates one random number and checks if it's strictly lesser than the defined probability value. So, if the probability value is 256, there will be 100% chance that the randomly generated number (0-255) will be strictly lesser than 256, whereas probability value 0 gives 0% chance that the randomly generated number (0-255) will be strictly lesser than 0, and probability values between 0 and 256 will give probabilities between 0% and 100% respectively.

lwks said:

CODE
/CODE

The letters should be lowercase and the words should be inside square brackets for the [code] tag to work.

lwks said:

I think DECORATE can't handdle code like that, right? Is there a way for me to check a variable and them load one decorate file or another?

Right. There isn't.

[Gez]

lwks said:

A_SpawnItemEx chance of spawning goes from 0 to 256, shouldn't it be 0 to 255? WTH?

A random number between 0 and 255 is compared to the value you gave.

If the random number is less than your value, spawning doesn't happen.

If you give the value 256, every possible random number will be less than that (since 255 is the max they can be, and 255 < 256).

If you give the value 0, no possible random number will be less than that (since it's strictly less than, not "less than or equal", and 0 is not less than 0 since it is 0).

Therefore, the chance of spawning logically ranges from 0 to 256, as 1 would not give a 100% chance of always spawning, and 255 would not give a 100% of never spawning.

[lwks]

Wait, Doomworld actually support this?

asd

Edit
(LMAO, IT WORKS /\ )

Thanks anyway, gotta do the rough way...

Edit 2.0
And abou the PK3 file...?

[scifista42]

What about the PK3 file? As I already told you, you can't conditionally load some DECORATE files but not others.

[lwks]

Not about the code, about the PK3 file, I have a PK3 file and everything seems to be organized, each thing inside it's correct folder but the maps don't open, like I tried putting a wad with the levels, tried saving one level in a separated wad but when I load the game it plays Doom II's Map01

[Gez]

scifista42 said:

The letters should be lowercase

It's case insensitive.

CODE
/CODE

CoDe
/cOdE

cODe
/CodE

and so on.

[Edward850]

lwks said:

I think DECORATE can't handdle code like that, right? Is there a way for me to check a variable and them load one decorate file or another?

Conditionally loading code requires what's known as a preprocessor, ZDoom and especially Decorate lacks one of these. There are IWAD lump filters but as stated, they are strictly for IWADs.
Meanwhile, using cvars would be vastly too late for a preprocssor to do anything anyway, as by that time you'd have already loaded most of your mod before the cvar became relevant.

[Albertoni]

lwks said:

Not about the code, about the PK3 file, I have a PK3 file and everything seems to be organized, each thing inside it's correct folder but the maps don't open, like I tried putting a wad with the levels, tried saving one level in a separated wad but when I load the game it plays Doom II's Map01

MAP01 needs to be in a file named MAP01.wad. Map 2 needs to be in MAP02.wad, etc. That might be your problem.

[Crunchynut44]

Is there a redo selection hotkey or option in DB2? Sometimes I accidentally click outside selected sectors or linedefs and have to select them all again which can be time consuming.

[MaxED]

No, but there is Preferences -> Editing -> "Automatic clear selection in Classic Modes" option. When it's disabled, selection will be cleared only when you use "Clear selection" action.

[Agentbromsnor]

I have a question regarding A_CheckRange (or similar DECORATE functions in ZDoom).

For a weapon DECORATE script, I would like to do a check weather or not the player is in range of a monster before he can use the weapon. So far, all the examples I've seen on the Wiki more or less state that A_CheckRange only works for monsters, and how they are in range of the player. Is there a way to achieve this for the player as well?

[scifista42]

A_CheckRange can't do this. If you could make it so that the player would be looking towards where the monster would potentially be (even just for the brief moment when the monster range check is supposed to happen), you could use A_JumpIfTargetInLOS. Otherwise (if the player wasn't looking towards the monster's position), I doubt it's possible at all.

[Byeblothingal 1024]

enkeli33 said:

When I launch my map, in the console is "22 unused sidedefs" and list of sidedefs that were removed

what that means? And how can I find these sidedefs in the map exactly and edit them to be OK?

thanks

If you're using doom builder 2 you click on the magnifying glass tool & it will point out the sons uh bitches for you. This usually happens when you flip a white wall linedef out into sector -1 (the void area) I wish it wouldn't allow you to be able to do that because thats happened to me a good number of times. Always its when I didn't even realize I flipped the motherfucker over to face the front wall into the void sector -1

[Albertoni]

Agentbromsnor said:

Is there a way to achieve this for the player as well?

ZScript would allow this, but who knows when it'll be done.

[Agentbromsnor]

scifista42 said:

A_CheckRange can't do this. If you could make it so that the player would be looking towards where the monster would potentially be (even just for the brief moment when the monster range check is supposed to happen), you could use A_JumpIfTargetInLOS. Otherwise (if the player wasn't looking towards the monster's position), I doubt it's possible at all.

I guess I'll experiment with A_JumpIfTargetInLOS then.

ZScript would allow this, but who knows when it'll be done.

Really? What makes you say that?

[Voros]

I've got a question about offsets.

So I found out that the offsets values of sprites ingame (like pickups, enemies etc) tend to have X offset value of around half of the sprite itself eg sprite is 100 wide, so value is 50, and the Y offset is usually around the same height as the sprite eg sprite is 120 high, so value is 120.

But how do the onscreen weapon sprite offsets work? I tried it like that, but it doesn't work correctly. I'm guessing those offset values are based around the 320x200 screen size? It would really help if someone tells me how those offsets are produced. Im using Deutex on my phone to assemble this "forgotten" weapon sprites, to test it ingame (because I lack a computer that would let me use the GUI of Slade3 to produce the offsets myself).

Really appreciate it f someone tells me. Meanwhile I'll keep experimenting with possible values.

[scifista42]

Voros said:

I'm guessing [weapon sprite] offset values are based around the 320x200 screen size?

Yes. Weapon sprite offsets define the offset of the weapon's top left corner relatively to the screen's top left corner. SLADE3 has a graphic view mode called "HUD" that shows this nicely (the red and blue lines and numbers were added to the screenshot by me in a graphic editor for illustrative purposes only).

[Voros]

I suspected that it would be something like that. Thanks you've helped a bunch, like always :)

[Albertoni]

Agentbromsnor said:

Really? What makes you say that?

It would allow you to mix ACS and Decorate, basically. So you could get the enemy's position and do some Pythagorean math to get the distance between you both.

The problem of getting which enemy the player is aiming at would still exist, but... That could be fixed with some creative projectile usage to tag an enemy, I think.

[Bauul]

I'm trying to add some custom ambient sound effects to my GZDoom map, and I can't work out how to reduce the "size" of the Ambient Sound thing.

The Wiki says it's controlled using the "fourth parameter" but I'm not sure what that means, or how to find the parameters to change it.

Is it something in the SNDINFO or in the map itself? I'm using GZDoom Builder in UDMF format.

Anyone any ideas? I feel like it should be something quite simple!

Edit: Nvm, worked it out. It's the "Arguments" in the Action part of the Thing properties in GZDB. Just because they're greyed out (due to not having an action selected) doesn't mean they don't do anything!

[scifista42]

Parameters = Arguments. Also, what features your editor shows as available depends just on the editor's config, which may or may not perfectly match the target engine's current feature set. It's not like the editor could decompile and analyze the engine to see what features are currently available, how they are named and how to show them up - no, these things are being defined manually by the editor config's author, using his informed knowledge about the engine's features. Some automation might be involved (it most probably is, I assume - even then, it might depend on something such as comments in the engine's definition files, which themselves might not always be perfectly reflecting the actually working features), but all under control of the config's author during his work on the config - your editor won't change its configs on its own. (Well, the editor can also read DECORATE and such files in zdoom.pk3 or other wads you are using as resources, which partly improves the situation, but it has the same potential problem with dependance on labels in comments that aren't perfectly matching the real functionality - missing parameter labels might be an example of this, maybe.)

[Bauul]

Thanks Sci. I think I wouldn't have struggled if I'd known parameter = argument. Also totally get what you mean about the editor having to have the functionality built in manually, I think I've been spoiled by how most things seem to be in GZDB!

On a separate note, I've been playing around with over/under Portals in GZDoom and have run into a problem. I can get them to look right, but for the life of me can't work out how to get them to allow the player to pass through. Basically the "interactive" part just isn't working.

I think I've done everything right - probably easier to screenshot than describe.




WAD download link here if anyone has a moment

Any help would be super appreciated!

Edit: Found the answer over on the ZDoom forums. Turns out Sector Portals can't exist in the same "group" of sectors. I.e., you shouldn't be able to physically walk to both sides of the Sector Portal. There has to be void separating them entirely.

[Dreamphaser]

Just yesterday i went on discovering the udmf format,
i got a couple things working already, but i can't say i really understand
the logic behind the tags now as opposed to the normal doom format.

i created a rising stairway without flaws in the doom format, i tried
doing it now in the udmf format and i just can't get it to work.
what is the difference between the tag under identification
and the sector tag under action for example? are there specific udmf
tutorials around because i searched ( maybe poorly ) and found little.

so in short how to create rising stairs in udmf and what is the logic behind
the tag system now? it seems more complex than it should be but maybe it isn't ?

[Kappes Buur]

Dreamphaser said:

Just yesterday i went on discovering the udmf format, ..... it seems more complex than it should be but maybe it isn't ?

http://zdoom.org/wiki/Stairs_BuildUp
http://zdoom.org/wiki/Stairs_BuildDown
http://zdoom.org/wiki/Generic_Stairs

There is very little difference from DOOM/DOOM2 specials 7 or 127, except that you have more control in DOOM in Hexen or UDMF. Perhaps a couple of screenshots will help you.

Draw the linedefs, pay attention to the direction of the linedefs of the leading edge of the stairs and last indicator linedef where the stairs should end.



then alternate the sectors with stair specials 1 and 2



The tag, in this case 10, simply links the linedef special with the affected sector.

[edit]
When using special 204 you have even more control over the stair building action and you do not need to set stair specials 1 and 2.

[Dreamphaser]

Alright i got it working, however using the action 127 it didn't work.
with all of the same settings it just raised only the first step.

thanks for the effort, the stairproblem is solved but i still don't feel
like i understand the actual logic. like why one doesn't have to set a tag
for the line that's being activated, or when u should set one.