How do you make a Solid window in Vanilla Doom [bump, split]

Szymanski said:

The simplest method is to put a sector inside the window and set its floor height just below its ceiling. It will block any projectiles and remain transparent.

andrewj said:

You forgot the important part: keep the lower textures empty, as "-"

This is working very well for me, but it creates a slight rendering error from some angles -very slight and easily overlooked though.

DemilinX said:

This is working very well for me, but it creates a slight rendering error from some angles -very slight and easily overlooked though.

You can avoid that. :)

First of all, make sure the points where the invisible raised sector meet the walls are just a vertex each. There should be no 1-unit bit of wall in the middle of it, just have it be a triangular shape that only meets each side wall with a single vertex.

Secondly, put another triangle sector surrounding it, one in front of it, and one behind it. Set that sector's ceiling height, and the ceiling height of the invisible raised sector inside it, to something absurdly high; I usually go with something like 2048 units above the actual window's height. Leave the upper textures as "-". Now, set the invisible inner sector's floor to 1 unit below the absurdly high ceiling.

Your window should now work completely glitch-free from all angles.

DemilinX: Stop bumping old threads.

Bloodshedder said:

DemilinX: Stop bumping old threads.

Okay. While I disagree with your rationale, I do respect your authority and shall modify my behavior accordingly.

esselfortium said:

You can avoid that. :)

First of all, make sure the points where the invisible raised sector meet the walls are just a vertex each. There should be no 1-unit bit of wall in the middle of it, just have it be a triangular shape that only meets each side wall with a single vertex.

Secondly, put another triangle sector surrounding it, one in front of it, and one behind it. Set that sector's ceiling height, and the ceiling height of the invisible raised sector inside it, to something absurdly high; I usually go with something like 2048 units above the actual window's height. Leave the upper textures as "-". Now, set the invisible inner sector's floor to 1 unit below the absurdly high ceiling.

Your window should now work completely glitch-free from all angles.

Thanks for the keen advice. I'm going to give this a try and report back later with my results.

esselfortium said:

First of all, make sure the points where the invisible raised sector meet the walls are just a vertex each. There should be no 1-unit bit of wall in the middle of it, just have it be a triangular shape that only meets each side wall with a single vertex.

Beautiful! The monster box displays are working perfectly and without complication now. Awesome!

esselfortium said:

Secondly, put another triangle sector surrounding it, one in front of it, and one behind it. Set that sector's ceiling height, and the ceiling height of the invisible raised sector inside it, to something absurdly high; I usually go with something like 2048 units above the actual window's height. Leave the upper textures as "-". Now, set the invisible inner sector's floor to 1 unit below the absurdly high ceiling.

I'm having trouble understanding this aspect. Why should the triangle sector closest to the player be so high? Might this not cause rendering problems possibly in some engine variants? Is this to make sure there is no chance that sound can travel through and alert the monsters on the other side? The inner triangle sector with its height one unit less than the surrounding sectors seems to be doing the trick perfectly on its own in the map I'm editing.

It's probably best you avoid bumping old threads. You are more than welcome to browse old threads because they usually contain very interesting discussions, but posting in them revives a discussion we already had a long long time ago, and we prefer that dead conversations stay dead.

However, it's probably better to use the information you gained from this thread, try it out, and if you have trouble with it, create a new thread. That's a more clean and respectable approach.

Also posting more than once in sequence is called Double Posting and makes us have to scroll down the screen a little longer to read whatever was in response to what you said. If you already posted and realize later you have more to say, try editing your last post instead of creating new ones.

DemilinX said:

I'm having trouble understanding this aspect. Why should the triangle sector closest to the player be so high? Might this not cause rendering problems possibly in some engine variants? Is this to make sure there is no chance that sound can travel through and alert the monsters on the other side? The inner triangle sector with its height one unit less than the surrounding sectors seems to be doing the trick perfectly on its own in the map I'm editing.

The reasoning for this is because, if the player is ever at a height greater than that of the 'invisible' floor, it will cease to be invisible, and bleeding flats will draw across it instead. And it'll be yuck.

By making it much higher than anyplace the player can possibly stand, jump, or whatever to, you can avoid this problem entirely.