Hexen editing questions

[Ganryu]

These questions should probably deserve seperate threads, but I decided to avoid clutter by keeping it in one place.

1: The behavior of switch textures seems hardcoded somewhere in the wad file. I note for example that all switches automatically change graphic when activated, EXCEPT the "big puzzle switch". (the one that is used for all major puzzles in the game. the one with a chain pulled from left to right)

Is there any way to rectify this? For one of my levels I had to write a manual script to cycle the textures for the switch when activated.

2: Is there any way to prevent a switch from being pulled until a particular condition has happened? I have a puzzle that involves several switches rising up from the ground and then lowering again when one is pulled. The problem is the player can still pull them by activating the line while standing above it, even if the switch is below ground. Can I somehow stop this?

3: For my mod I need to inherit from a particular monster class. I note it is possible to extend the base class much like you can in object oriented programming, but is it possible to REMOVE features from the base class? For example, I want to replace all the animation data but keep almost everything else intact.

Thanks in advance. This forum is extremely useful :D

[scifista42]

1. Make a custom ANIMDEFS to define animation for the switch. Note that it's a ZDoom feature. Vanilla Hexen has ANIMDEFS too, but it can't be used to define switches. If you want vanilla Hexen compatibility, you can use another trick: Import Hexen's TEXTURE1/TEXTURE2/PNAMES lumps into your wad, and redefine another switch inside TEXTURE1 to be wider and look like both the original switch and the new one, then use the texture with appropriate X offsets in your maps to display the correct switch.

2. No, you can't. But if the switch activates a script, you can add a simple "if" condition inside the script to abort itself when it's not supposed to be launched (according to a variable or something). If it bugs you that the switch still plays its sound, you can (in ZDoom's ANIMDEFS) redefine the switch to have quiet animation, and make the script itself play the switch's intended sound (from a nearby mapspot) when it's truly triggered as intended.

3. I suppose you're talking about ZDoom's DECORATE here, otherwise you can't do much to change monster classes. You need to make a new class and use "replaces" keyword in its header (examples at the bottom of this page) to replace the original class.

[Gez]

Ganryu said:

2: Is there any way to prevent a switch from being pulled until a particular condition has happened? I have a puzzle that involves several switches rising up from the ground and then lowering again when one is pulled. The problem is the player can still pull them by activating the line while standing above it, even if the switch is below ground. Can I somehow stop this?

Since you seem to be using ZDoom, you can mark the switch linedefs with CHECKSWITCHRANGE (it's a flag in UDMF; in Hexen map format you'll have to use Line_SetId). Then the line can only be activated when the switch texture is in sight of the player.

You can also, alternatively, have the line not have any effect and have your script that raises the switch blocks put the effect on the line, with SetLineSpecial.

[Ganryu]

Thank for the replies, people! That cleared up a few questions :D

Yes. I'm using Zdoom. Decorate. Doom Builder 2.

Another question then :)

It seems zdoom does not like my textures. Doom Builder shows them correctly, but zdoom just draws a black surface where the texture should be.

The zdoom console complains about texture such and such missing patch this and that.

[scifista42]

This typically happens when you run the wad with an incorrect IWAD. Do you select the correct IWAD when you launch the wad in ZDoom?

[Ganryu]

scifista42 said:

This typically happens when you run the wad with an incorrect IWAD. Do you select the correct IWAD when you launch the wad in ZDoom?

The iwad is the original source wad file, correct? So when I map for hexen, it should be hexen.wad? Hexen.wad seems to be correctly used as the iwad in that case. At least

I've added the textures to my own modname.wad which contains the maps and some minor decorate work.

Do I need to enclose my own textures and patches between some kind of tags in the pwad?

[scifista42]

Ganryu said:

Do I need to enclose my own textures and patches between some kind of tags in the pwad?

Yes!

[Ganryu]

Apparently I already had all the texture between TX_START and TX_END.

For some reason zdoom can't find the patches at all, but doom builder can...

I managed to fix it. Zdoom doesn't like when a patch is within TX_ namespace.

[Ganryu]

Ok now I'm confused.

I have two custom textures CITY01 and CITY02. These are based on three patches. P20, P21 and P24.

For some bizarre reason CITY01 does not render correctly by zdoom at all. Previously I had the problem that everything was drawn black. Now the problem is that I don't get any textures there at all. I get the typical "garbage" that appears when you attempt to play in zdoom with some surfaces given the NULL texture.

CITY02 renders fine.

[Xaser]

It's probably best to post up a wad with the patches and TEXTUREx lump(s) if at all possible. It's difficult to diagnose things just from descriptions.

Here's a random thing to check that hasn't been mentioned yet: are the patches valid Doom/PNG format? Somewhat un-intuitively, BMP is not supported by ZDoom, in case it was accidentally imported as that.

[Ganryu]

http://www.update.uu.se/~kgs/F_stripped.wad

That's a stripped down wad without the maps and decorate. If you need a more complete wad, tell me and I'll upload it.

[scifista42]

Try putting the patches between P_START and P_END markers. Also try putting TEXTURE1 and PNAMES before the patches (to the beginning = the top of the list of lumps, and NOT between any markers).

[BaronOfStuff]

Deleting TEXTURE1 & PNAMES, shoving everything else between TX_START and TX_END and resetting all the texture offsets to 0,0 seems to have worked for me:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/yvk8yipy6r8zi07/F_stripped.wad
Shitty example MAP01 included.

Edit:
Oh fucking cocks didn't see you were making patchwork textures. Uh, just ignore all this then.

[Ganryu]

Trying a lot of your suggestions and nothing works...

I think I'll just manually bake the textures from the patches in photoshop instead :)

[Ganryu]

Another question has popped up!

I decided that it'd allow for some more interesting architecture if I started using some 3d floors sparingly. This made me migrate to gzdoom builder.

That made me think that perhaps I should
1: Switch over to UDMF format
2: Switch from storing everything in a wad file to using a folder structure

Are there instructions here on how to go about doing the above?

[Angry Saint]

Ganryu said:

1: Switch over to UDMF format

You can use Wad To UDMF:

http://zdoom.org/wiki/Wad2udmf

[Gez]

GZDoom Builder can convert from Hexen format to UDMF. Just change the map's properties and it'll do it for you.

For your other question, see those:
http://zdoom.org/wiki/Using_ZIPs_as_WAD_replacement
http://zdoom.org/wiki/Namespace

[Ganryu]

Thanks again people!

Is there anything in particular I should worry about when converting to UDMF?

I saw, in passing, someone mentioning that some linedefs might break.

[Gez]

Ganryu said:

I saw, in passing, someone mentioning that some linedefs might break.

They shouldn't if you use GZDB to do the conversion. Just in case, though, here's the reference for the kind of lines whose conversion isn't straightforward ("Differences for modders" section).