Very odd problem - bullets wont hit enemy

Im in the middle of making a very large map.

No errors come up when I check the level and everything seems perfect in the map. There are two spots in my level where if you try to shoot someone with say the chaingun, it does not hit them until you walk close. However, you can shoot projectiles at them and it works fine. At one spot I am up on some stairs, shooting the chaingun and puffs of smoke are appearing, right infront of me in the middle of the air as if there is an invisible wall there. Anyone know what could possibly be going on? Thanks.

I was thinking the blockmap bug at first, but that's not really consistent with what you mention about bullet puffs appearing in thin air.

I've seen this error occur in a lot of very large maps (such as HolyHell) and it might have to do with nodes although I'm not really sure but I think there's a thread about this before so that might help.

Ill search for a thread...

I have been using glBSP as my node builder with no prior problems. I then tried ZenNode and it didnt work at all.

i had a similar problem with a map of mine lately... it was caused by either a massive use of actors (it reached 10k actors total or more) and also becouse it was simply too much large to handle for the compiler i used. resizing the map (splitting it in two parts and reducing wasted spaces) and reducing the spawned actors it worked fine.

what do you mean by actors

Actor = mobj. Pretty much all the things you placed in the map editor (except player starts; and a few port-specific stuff) are actors. In addition, things such as a fired rocket, plasma ball, or fireball, or other projectile is also an actor. Lost soul spawned by a pain elemental? An actor. A bullet puff? An actor. Those annoying arch-vile flames? Actors!

This sounds like the wall in E3M6 that will block hitscans but lets anything else pass through.

Dragonsbrethren said:

I was thinking the blockmap bug at first, but that's not really consistent with what you mention about bullet puffs appearing in thin air.

It does sound like a blockmap bug but not that blockmap bug. It sounds like the one that happens in very large levels. It's fixed in new prboom+.

It is a known error: http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Hitscan_attacks_hit_invisible_barriers_in_large_open_areas

I can't say what causes it myself. I think I remember someone hypothesizing it had to do with blockmap limits or something.

so i have been making levels for 15 years and have honeslty only ever finished 1 level, temple of skulls, (featured as the picture of the new levels posted every once in while here on doomworld!) im never been a pro, hell I used waded up until a few years ago. but how could I work around it? do you think this will keep on happening from now on? because my level is gigantic, a dream land kinda thing with castles huge trees mountains, ocean floor, pirate ships, lava... and i really want to keep going with this big epic theme

Only way it's gonna get "fixed" is by playing it with a modern port that addresses the issue. Not much you can do from a mapping standpoint.

Its happening using GZdoom, with doom in doom format. ive only recently discovered exactly what the other formats were... like I said Im no expert but have a basic understanding.

if I create something in say zdoom in hexen format do you think it would change anything?

If you switch to ZDoom format, depending on how the architecture is you might be able to split your map into smaller ones and link them together seamlessly with a hub.

joedotts said:

Its happening using GZdoom, with doom in doom format. ive only recently discovered exactly what the other formats were... like I said Im no expert but have a basic understanding.

if I create something in say zdoom in hexen format do you think it would change anything?

Don't use Hexen format, just use UDMF

Seriously, once you start playing around with UDMF nothing else will do.

any way I can work around this or fix it? any ideas? it is absolutly destroying my level that is literally years in the making.

I just dont get why it is doing this... maps like the original Deus Vault is absolutly massive, bigger than mine and more complex and has more monsters.

could i try copying and pasting everything into a new file? maybe its corrupt or something?

If you could post the wad, people could give better help.