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

[scifista42]

1 hour ago, MysteriousHaruko said:

Well, as I start move, everything gets brighter. Here wad for check. 

map..zip

Linedef 741 shouldn't have tag 0.

Edited July 20, 2017 by scifista42

[Albertoni]

One of the lines in the scroller is pointing to tag 0. This one:

 

This makes it so in (G)ZDoom all sectors without a tag light up. Just gotta fix that one.

[Misty]

I see now. Thanks for help.

[ShoDemo]

Here is a barrage of probably simple questions:

• Can I move ceiling or floor textures, like I can do with wall textures and if so, which buttons to use in Doom Builder 2? Or can I only move the sector which contains the texture (I used this as a quick fix in the past)?

• If I have a wall like what I drew in this picture, can I move texture "1" independently, without texture "2" moving?

  Spoiler

  

• How can I change a level's MAP slot?
• Doom and Doom 2 have quite a few sky textures. To access a certain sky texture, for an example SKY2, does my level have to be in a particular MAP slot, which in this case ranges from MAP12 to MAP20?
• How can I make a timed lowering sector and adjust for how much time I want it to be lowering (do I make it way higher than the ceiling and wait for it to lower or can I do it in an other way?)?

Edited August 2, 2017 by ShotgunDemolition

[everennui]

1.) In certain formats you can (UDMF, ZDoom)
2.) Yes. Be sure to unpeg one of them. 

3.) You'll need to either put it in a new mapslot or use (Z)MAPINFO lump.

4.) You can change the skies by renaming them, or using a MAPINFO lump for very specific skies.
5.) Depends on which format you are using. You could use a script to do this with a delay in ZDoom etc. In Boom you could use a dummy sector/voodoo doll combo to set the timing. In Vanilla, you're gonna need to wait for it.

[ShoDemo]

Ok, thanks!!!  :)

[scifista42]

The answers to questions 1, 2, 4 and 5 all depend on your map's format and/or target compatibility. As for question 3, just rename the map's header lump in SLADE3, or change the map's slot name in "Edit -> Map Options" in Doom Builder based map editors, or similarly in other map editors.

Edited August 2, 2017 by scifista42

[everennui]

Which formats DON'T allow for you to move textures on the same line def?

Sorry if you answered before I changed it to DON'T

Edited August 2, 2017 by everennui

[scifista42]

In Doom format, x/y line offsets apply simultaneously to upper, lower and middle textures. The lower and upper unpegged flags just determine what height will be taken as the origin of the y offset (it may be the line's front floor, or front ceiling, or back floor, or back ceiling height), but all textures remain affected by the same shared offset values, just in different ways (and not even that in case of the x offset). Only some combinations of upper, lower and middle offsets are possible, and only with some map geometry surrounding them, as floor/ceiling heights of sectors on the linedef's front/back sides do affect the line texture's rendering.

Edited August 2, 2017 by scifista42

[Gez]

You need UDMF-ZDoom to get separate offsets for upper, lower, and middle. UDMF-Eternity doesn't support that AFAIK; and neither do the "vanilla" UDMF namespaces (Doom, Heretic, Hexen, Strife) which don't add much features beyond the baseline Boom (for Doom) or vanilla (other games). The binary map formats (Doom and Hexen) don't have separate offset fields. So if your map is not UDMF-ZDoom, you might need to create a custom texture to bake in the offset you want...

[ShoDemo]

Well, I am using vanilla, so I guess my options are kinda limited, but I can work with that.

 

And from what I get, by using vanilla:

1) I can't move ceiling or floor textures, unless I move the sector.

2) I can't move them independently.

3) I can do this in Doom Builder or Slade.

4) I tried making a level in different slots a few seconds ago (basically it was one sector with a player start and a sky for testing purposes) and I noticed that by using the F_SKY1 texture, I got the 3 different skies each time. So, I guessed right about the MAP slot.

5) I can do the "sector greatly raised over the room's ceiling" technique for a timed lowering sector.

[scifista42]

1. You got it, although you can achieve the desired appearance with a trick: Make custom flats that look like the original flats but are offset by the value you need, put them to your wad and use them in your map.

2. You got it, although *sometimes* you can achieve the desired appearance with careful use of unpegging flags AND adjusting floor/ceiling heights on the line's front/back sectors.

3, 4, 5. You got it, and I think that's all you can do.

Edited August 2, 2017 by scifista42

[42PercentHealth]

Reading up on Boom linedef types... Can someone explain to me how "numeric model" floor transfer types work?

 

The reason I ask is because I'm trying to change a floor into damaging lava, but the front sidedef of the switch is not damaging lava. I've managed to get it to work by assigning the front sidedef to a dummy sector outside the map, but just wondering if a numeric model type would be simpler/cleaner.

 

Thanks!

[scifista42]

6 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

Can someone explain to me how "numeric model" floor transfer types work?

Quote

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Linedef_type

Numeric model algorithm:

1. Find all floors adjacent to the tagged floor at destination height
2. Find the lowest numbered linedef separating those floors from that tagged
3. The sector on the other side of that linedef is the model

So if you use it on an action that changes floor texture/effect, the new texture/effect for the tagged sector will be copied from the abovementioned model sector.

12 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

I've managed to get it to work by assigning the front sidedef to a dummy sector outside the map, but just wondering if a numeric model type would be simpler/cleaner.

Assigning a sidedef to a different sector will lead to incorrect rendering of the sector in front of the sidedef and potential node builder related problems, while using a numeric model might get broken if the target sector borders with multiple sectors with different textures/effects and the map editor reorders linedefs so that the lowest numbered one is now one that borders with a different sector than the one you want to transfer texture/effect from.

[42PercentHealth]

Hmmm. That's not confusing at all.... maybe I should start experimenting with generalized linedef types. Any risks there?

 

EDIT: Nevermind... I don't see a way to assign a dummy sector as a target using generalized linedef types. :-\

Edited August 2, 2017 by 42PercentHealth

[scifista42]

I don't know what you mean, I was assuming you are using them already, otherwise you couldn't explicitly set the model of texture/effect change.

 

In fact, a certain predefined action might suit your need the best: Floor lower to lowest floor (changes texture) will change texture/effect to the same sector that it lowers down to, which is the neighboring sector with the lowest floor at the time of triggering the action.

 

34 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

EDIT: Nevermind... I don't see a way to assign a dummy sector as a target using generalized linedef types. :-\

EDIT1: That is indeed not possible. But it is possible to put a voodoo doll or a thing onto a conveyor belt in a dummy sector that has the desired texture/effect and contains a linedef with the action using trigger model, and release the voodoo doll or thing to cross the linedef and trigger the action when you want it to be triggered. See this post for how to use generalized actions in the floor/ceiling category so that monsters and things can trigger them, so that you don't have to use a voodoo doll which might not reliably work in multiplayer.

 

EDIT2: Seeing that the thing-activation trick depends on a strange use of the model change property, I'm not sure how well the trick would work in your case where you need this property for its intended use, though. Feel free to try it.

Edited August 2, 2017 by scifista42

[42PercentHealth]

10 minutes ago, scifista42 said:

I don't know what you mean, I was assuming you are using them already, otherwise you couldn't explicitly set the model of texture/effect change.

I was using type 189, which doesn't change floor hight at all.

 

I think I can get this to do what I want using a Boom scroller, actually. If the switch lowers a sector, allowing a voodoo doll to cross a linedef assigned to the dummy sector, that should remove the risk of graphical bugs, right?

[scifista42]

10 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

If the switch lowers a sector, allowing a voodoo doll to cross a linedef assigned to the dummy sector, that should remove the risk of graphical bugs, right?

See my edits above.

Edited August 2, 2017 by scifista42

[Adahn]

If anyone could pls help me, I am new to doombuilder, how can I change the skybox in one of the levels of my Hexen wad? It is bright red, I want it to be the blue skybox.

 

Spoiler

 

Edited August 3, 2017 by Jthom

[everennui]

Always specify the format first.

Which leads me to my next question. Which format?

I assume ZDoom/UDMF based on the screenshot (probably a degree for error). You'll need to use MAPINFO.

Edit: derp. "Hexen map". Use MAPINFO.

Edited August 3, 2017 by everennui

[Adahn]

If you mean the format I'm using in doombuilder, it's just plain Hexen format. How do I use mapinfo to set the skybox?

Edited August 3, 2017 by Jthom

[everennui]

You'll need to use Slade3 as far as I know. I'm not sure if you can do it with just Doom Builder. (I've never used it.)

[Adahn]

Hmmmm alright well I'll try slade3 I guess, thanks for the help

[everennui]

It's very simple. Look up MAPINFO lump. It's like 2 lines of short text.
 

map Map01 "I have a custom name now."
{
   next = "MAP02"
   sky1 = "redsky1"
}

*bluesky1

Addendum: I'm not saying that you're going to get this right away, but I think it illustrates how easy it is. Don't get intimated by it (like I was at first).

Edited August 3, 2017 by everennui

[Adahn]

Ahhh I was able to figure it out using that example you posted, now I was able to change my sky to blue! Thx a ton man :)

 

Spoiler

 

[scifista42]

While vanilla Hexen supports MAPINFO, the abovementioned MAPINFO example uses a ZDoom specific syntax and so the wad wouldn't work in vanilla Hexen or ports that don't support ZDoom's syntax. The original syntax uses neither curly brackets nor equals signs and only supports certain commands and properties. If you want your wad to be compatible with other than ZDoom based ports, you need to reformat your MAPINFO to look more like this.

Edited August 3, 2017 by scifista42

[Spectre01]

Does merging similar sectors improve map performance or is it strictly related to visible sidedef count? Just wondering if it has a purpose outside of editing convenience for the mapper.

[Gez]

Merging similar sectors will not change anything about map performances. It definitely has no impact on rendering.

 

Unless you mean something along the line of "perhaps instead of 60 steps with 8-unit change in the staircase, I can make just 20 with 24 unit changes" or something like that. But if you don't mean changing the map geometry to simplify it by removing excess details and unsmoothing light gradients or whatever, then no.

 

As far as rendering goes, sectors means visplanes (ceiling and floor). And the Doom engine already merges visplanes whenever possible -- if two visible ceilings have the same height, texture and light level, and they are not separated by another visible ceiling with different properties, then they get merged into a single visplane. So whether they are the same sector or not changes nothing.

[scifista42]

Joining sectors has no effect on rendering at all, but it affects sound propagation (as if the disconnected parts of the sector were connected) and collision detection (which uses sector bounding boxes for area checks, and if a sector consists of disjoint parts far away from each other, the bounding box will be unnecessarily big and possibly slow down performance or even cause bugs like things near ledges jumping up or sector movement being blocked in vanilla - other times though, joining sectors can improve performance of collision detection, like when you have lots and lots of tiny sectors relatively near each other).

Edited August 4, 2017 by scifista42

[KVELLER]

I'm messing with DECORATE, and I get this message at startup:

 

Script error, "LeafBlower.pk3:decorate/leafblower.txt" line 3:
'@property@weapon.kickback' is an unknown actor property

 

Here's the code:

ACTOR LeafBlower
{
	Weapon.KickBack 500
	
States
	{
		Ready:
			PLSG A 1 A_WeaponReady
			Loop
		
		Deselect:
			PLSG A 1 A_Lower
			Loop
		
		Select:
			PLSG A 1 A_Raise
			Loop
		
		Fire:
			PLSG A 3 A_FireBullets
			PLSG A 3 A_ReFire
	}
}

 

The hell am I doing wrong?

 

It's been a while since I work with this, so I kinda forgot.

Edited August 8, 2017 by KVELLER
Brain failure