GZDoom :: Creating 3D Grates (NOW WITH BONUS QUESTION!)

[Lutz]

I would like to create a grate suspended over a pit with a 3D frame around it, as illustrated in the masterpiece below (gray is solid, red is the 3D frame, and the green line is a grate texture).  The 3D frame is easy (action 160), but when I try to create another 3D sector abutting the frame, I see some strange interactions.  Also, I am unsure as to how, exactly, to create a 3D structure that I can walk on but is infinitely thin.

 

Thanks in advance...

 

BONUS QUESTION: Is it possible to make a sector vertically fade to black?  The FLOOR/CEILING GLOW field works great for adding color, but is there a way to darken the sector near the floor/ceiling?

Edited December 15, 2021 by Lutz

[boris]

What "strange interactions" are you seeing? The grate will simply be a 3D floor like any other, just with the control sector having a height of 0, and the floor/ceiling textures being some grate texture.

[Aurelius]

You can set up the grate as a regular 3D floor, then set the Ignore bottom height flag. This way it won't have any vertical thickness, which would cause holes when intersecting with the surrounding 3D floors.

 

Vertical light gradients akin to horizontal ones can't really be simply replicated. You could use the glow as you mentioned, or subtractive dynamic lights. A hacky way would be to set up layers of transparent 3D floors on top of each other and increment their brightness (haven't tested this in practice so not really sure how viable it is).

[Bridgeburner56]

8 hours ago, Aurelius said:

You can set up the grate as a regular 3D floor, then set the Ignore bottom height flag. This way it won't have any vertical thickness, which would cause holes when intersecting with the surrounding 3D floors.

 

Vertical light gradients akin to horizontal ones can't really be simply replicated. You could use the glow as you mentioned, or subtractive dynamic lights. A hacky way would be to set up layers of transparent 3D floors on top of each other and increment their brightness (haven't tested this in practice so not really sure how viable it is).

There's actually a transfer brightness height action specifically for doing vertical light gradients. It works pretty much the same way as any other transfer function (floor and ceiling height of the control sector dictate the upper and lower boundaries). Much more performance efficient than layering invisible 3d floors as well.

 

12 hours ago, Lutz said:

BONUS QUESTION: Is it possible to make a sector vertically fade to black?  The FLOOR/CEILING GLOW field works great for adding color, but is there a way to darken the sector near the floor/ceiling?

There are a few methods:
- Use brightness height transfers to incrementally darken the sector
- Place a subtractive light in the pit (won't work on weirdly shaped sectors and can be performance intensive)
- Use a combination of fog and D64 lighting. Method shown here

 

[Mr.Rocket]

Here ya go:

bridge01.zip

 

This doesn't explain anything about fog effect however, @Bridgeburner56 pretty much has that covered. ;)