Sneezy McGlassFace

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to have a little vacation with the beautiful @Snaxalotl :) We had a damn good time, and now she's well on her way to creating dark, evil sounding music using actual instruments! ... (That 5 string bass kicks ass btw)
 
 

 

 

 

Damn, birthday again already? 31 laps around the Earth completed?.. Where's that lone candle and stale cupcake I've been reusing for the last few years..

Hey peoples, just wanted to say I’ve been overseas the last few days and will be for another week-ish yet. I’m not ignoring anyone I swear! c:

On Discord, we got to talking about the longest distance over which an archvile will initiate an attack unprovoked, and I got really curious about exactly what it was. (Someone mentioned a speedrun that relied on an AV jump and how it'd be really useful to know the exact distance.)
 
"About 1024 map units" is the commonly understood distance that I've seen referred to the most. 
 
Like, it's what mappers have historically used when making cursed challenge encounters that spam ridiculous numbers of perched viles and place corpses as a cue so you can stay out of vile attack range to escape a horrific death. (When I say mappers I mean  Dubbz.) 
 
Some references give the value 896 -- the Wiki as I'm typing right now, but possibly will be fixed later; and a highly watched Doomtube video --  but outside of any ports that alter the behavior, that number is wrong and based on a misreading of the source code.
 
Focusing on these lines in the source code would suggest 896:
 if (actor->type == MT_VILE)     {     if (dist > 14*64)             return false;    // too far away     } But that glosses over these lines that come before it.
    dist = P_AproxDistance ( actor->x-actor->target->x,                  actor->y-actor->target->y) - 64*FRACUNIT;          if (!actor->info->meleestate)     dist -= 128*FRACUNIT;    // no melee attack, so fire more     dist >>= 16; Which basically mean the check (if (dist > 896)) only happens after we subtract 64 and then 128 from the distance -- which would mean its true range is 1088 (896+64+128 = 1088). Thanks Rayziik for spotting the 64 too.
 
It's worth testing stuff like this because taking the code at face value can hide a misreading. It's pretty easy to empirically check that 896 is way off and "about 1024" is correct (but not precise). But verifying the exact range was harder.
 
In a test wad where I placed the player start some distance from a carefully monster blocked vile, I can get the vile to attack 1088 units away. This is easy on -skill 5 since the vile will go into its attack with no delay, but on UV the archvile moves around a bunch and will spend most of its time slightly further than 1088 units away from the player and not able to attack. You might want to use DSDA-Doom with the game sped up. I got up and got something to drink instead and eventually heard myself being attacked, showing that was in range. With the player start 1089 units away instead, even the NM vile just jiggles around forever, so that's out of range. 
 
Also, it's not quite as simple as there being a consistent maximum range.
 
The P_AproxDistance function basically maps to something shaped like this:
 

 
The range is at its highest at direct cardinal directions (1088) and falls off to about ~1024 at 45-degree offsets from that.
 
But yeah, it seems like the theoretical maximum unprovoked range is 1088. The way it works out in practice, it has a steep dropoff in its likelihood of attacking you that far away outside of NM (and still kind of a dropoff on -fast), since it can't be perfectly monster-blocked without being stuck, and it'll be too busy backing slightly out of range pulling off its sick dance moves.

Hey all, I’m in the process of doing a whole bunch of life stuff all at once -  Moving into a new place which means lots of time on the road since it’s a 12 hour drive, and a bunch of other stuff more personal in nature.
 
I promise I’m not ignoring anyone, I’ll get back to all my notifications/PMs soon enough c:

Got some almost-done map fragments here that are 99% unlikely to ever be used, please take 'em and remix them to yer heart's content if you're looking for a map base to work with. No credit needed!
 
unused-dk.zip

I've been walking through your streets.
Where all your money's earning,
Where all your buildings crying,
And clueless neckties working.
Revolving fake lawn houses, housing all your fears.
Desensitised by TV.
 
Overbearing advertising - God of consumers,
And all your crooked pictures looking good.
Mirrors filtering information through the public eye,
Designed for profiteering.

Your neighbour. What a guy.

Just in case you're wondering what happened to me, the hard drive in my computer messed up - died, in fact, all of a sudden. So until I get another hard drive I'll be offline.
Sorries to the Jamal Jones crew for the delay this might cause, but I thought I should let you know. You may care or not at your discretion!
 

Hey peoples, I’m out of town doing a little outback exploration, which is why I’ve barely signed in this last week. In a few days time I’ll be back to check all PMs and other stuff like that!

Hey peoples, I’ve been travelling around a little and not on DW much this last week and probably up til Christmas. Don’t want anyone thinking I’m ignoring them, I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled schedule by New Years!

I’ve got a roof over my head, a comfortable bed, a family I love, good friends, and plenty of fun games.. guitars I love to play, that kind of stuff. I’m an extremely lucky individual who should be nothing but grateful (and I surely am grateful). I shouldn’t feel low and shitty. I should feel fine. So why don’t I?
 
The knowledge that others out there have it harder than I do is no consolation at all, it just makes me wish that life would cut them a break. My misery doesn’t want company, it’s just a feeling I want us all to be free from. I guess you need the bad for the good to mean anything. Or something like that anyway.
 
I’ve got PMs and discord messages backed up out the ass, I’m sorry for not responding to all of them sooner. I absolutely intend to. Just want to feel a little better before I do. Sorry for dragging my feet, seriously. I don’t want anyone to feel negative reading this, everything is gonna be alright for me and I want people to enjoy their time here, not get depressed by it. I just feel too low to do things with the care I’d prefer to, right now anyway. I’m just waiting til I can do the things I need to do/that people want me to do with the right energy and state of mind.
 
I hope anyone who reads this has a good day. Life is worth living and worth enjoying, there’s just times where that fact becomes harder to see. The important thing is to not give up, and remember that taking a little time to cool off is not at all the same as throwing in the towel.
 
..Does this post still make sense by now? Did it ever make sense? Does it matter if it makes sense? Well anyway, I really hope you’re doing ok and if you’re not, just try to stay strong. I know it’s hard to do sometimes. Some days, or sometimes some weeks are just shittier than others. I’m hoping it’s just been one of those weeks. I’m eager for new frontiers and a new state of mind..

Little blog post: A bit of what I've been up to the past two weeks, in case anyone's curious.
Doing some Quake mapping lately, this is for a brutalism-themed community project.
I'll be returning to Doom, particularly my little Jamal Jones episode later this year. I wanna get that wrapped up all nice and good before the year ends. I miss Doom, I honestly do. Having a functional level in half an hour is really something. With Quake, everything takes a million years, and then the debugging is a headache. The two are like apples and oranges, really can't be compared. But mapping for each of them is very fun in a unique way.
Anyway, have a good one, see you soontm

WIP2, hopefully soon with more verticality

Note to self: Backup, backup, backup! Compulsory saving is not enough, and auto-backups are not at all reliable.
 
A week's work down the drain. Only a few WIP screenshots remain.
Deep breath, and start over. Good lesson in resilience..