[Stumpy]

Is there a "silent" sound in DN3D I can use with a switch to override the default sound? I want to avoid the Sound Blah-blah not found message which appears. So far all I have found as a workaround is to use an empty .voc file in my game dir and name it e.g. "yes.voc" then use that as the switch hi-tag value.

Appologies if this has been asked already, I searched and cannot find any info

[High Treason]

https://infosuite.du...nces_sound_list

Edit: No, wait, I had sound 130 down as BLANK.VOC, but apparently it's not defined anywhere. Umm... if you're not bothered about the switch actually animating, you might be able to hide a DOORTILE behind it, or maybe even an actual door (that the player can't see - use your imagination) or something that could be rigged up to trigger something else.

Now I feel bad for writing advice that was wrong, so if you can't figure it out, I'll probably fire up the editor and try to figure it out myself.

[Jan Satcitananda]

Stumpy, on 04 January 2025 - 12:41 PM, said:

Is there a "silent" sound in DN3D I can use with a switch to override the default sound? I want to avoid the Sound Blah-blah not found message which appears. So far all I have found as a workaround is to use an empty .voc file in my game dir and name it e.g. "yes.voc" then use that as the switch hi-tag value.

Using undefined sounds like 31 or 32 for a switch makes it silent and doesn't seem to produce any error message. Alternatively, DOORTILE sprites can sometimes be used as switches, and they are silent by default.

Too bad sound 188 was made to produce a dripping sound instead of blank.voc (like it was listed in some other reference) for a reason.

[Jan Satcitananda]

High Treason, on 04 January 2025 - 01:08 PM, said:

Edit: No, wait, I had sound 130 down as BLANK.VOC, but apparently it's not defined anywhere. Umm... if you're not bothered about the switch actually animating, you might be able to hide a DOORTILE behind it, or maybe even an actual door (that the player can't see - use your imagination) or something that could be rigged up to trigger something else.

Sound 130 seems to work well too, interestingly SNAKRM.VOC contains no audible sound as well.

[Aleks]

A bit off topic, but since using DOORTILES as switches and their sounds was mentioned, it is also worth noting that if given the hitag (for sound), the DOORTILE "switches" also become destructible like regular flat sprites, which can be used in some interesting ways (and is something that seems very obscure which I only found out by accident).

[Stumpy]

Brilliant answers everyone! Sound 130 does indeed work, I also failed to notice 31 & 32 missing in the list and they work nicely as well. My goal for this level is to stay completely vanilla, no scripting or extra files if at all possible.

AFA the doortile approach I may experiment with that idea since my switch is actually hidden (invisible with 'I) and is the working component behind a handprintswitch sprite, which of course doesn't actually function as a switch

Thanks for the ideas again, I really appreciate the quick responses... I wasn't sure if that many people still cared enough about the game and engine to stay actively involved!

[Reaper_Man]

Aleks, on 04 January 2025 - 02:00 PM, said:

A bit off topic, but since using DOORTILES as switches and their sounds was mentioned, it is also worth noting that if given the hitag (for sound), the DOORTILE "switches" also become destructible like regular flat sprites, which can be used in some interesting ways (and is something that seems very obscure which I only found out by accident).

Can you explain how this is setup? Or make an example map with what you mean? This seems strange and I want to dig into the source code to see what's going on but I'm not sure what the setup is here from your description.

[Danukem]

He's just saying that the various tile numbers named DOORTILE##, which are hardcoded to trigger a channel (lotag) and/or sound (hitag) also have the destructible feature on them when they are sprites. Mostly they are used as wall textures so that's a non-issue, but oddly the effects work when they are sprites, and sprites by default are destructible when they have a nonzero hitag, so these tiles do all the things.

[Jan Satcitananda]

Aleks, on 04 January 2025 - 02:00 PM, said:

A bit off topic, but since using DOORTILES as switches and their sounds was mentioned, it is also worth noting that if given the hitag (for sound), the DOORTILE "switches" also become destructible like regular flat sprites, which can be used in some interesting ways (and is something that seems very obscure which I only found out by accident).

Yes. but if you leave a DOORTILE sprite in its default (facing) orientation, it will not become a "faller" (destructible) yet still function as a switch. It can be very useful if made invisible because it's also a switch that you can walk through, and also move away using another switch (may be easier to work with than tagged wall switches). And it will work silently with a hitag of 0 (it may however produce the "KICK_HIT" sound in some older builds due to a bug).

[Aleks]

Reaper_Man, on 04 January 2025 - 09:47 PM, said:

Can you explain how this is setup? Or make an example map with what you mean? This seems strange and I want to dig into the source code to see what's going on but I'm not sure what the setup is here from your description.

Pretty much what Dan said - the doortiles when used as sprites retain both their "switch" effects along with regular hi-tagged flat sprite traits.

Jan Satcitananda, on 05 January 2025 - 01:09 AM, said:

Yes. but if you leave a DOORTILE sprite in its default (facing) orientation, it will not become a "faller" (destructible) yet still function as a switch. It can be very useful if made invisible because it's also a switch that you can walk through, and also move away using another switch (may be easier to work with than tagged wall switches). And it will work silently with a hitag of 0 (it may however produce the "KICK_HIT" sound in some older builds due to a bug).

Now the doortiles not being forced on blocking is something I didn't know - seems very useful for the situations where you'd want to disable Duke from autoclimbing on a "3D" switch!

[Jan Satcitananda]

Aleks, on 05 January 2025 - 05:54 AM, said:

Now the doortiles not being forced on blocking is something I didn't know - seems very useful for the situations where you'd want to disable Duke from autoclimbing on a "3D" switch!

Yes, a doortile becomes blocking only when the game makes it destructible. Coincidentally, this is what happens when you try to make it produce a custom sound unless it's in a facing orientation.

Note that doortiles function a bit different from ordinary switches, however. You might notice that a switch can't interrupt an effect in motion (like floor rise, ceiling fall etc.), while a doortile can (what can be exploited in some ways too).

[Aleks]

Jan Satcitananda, on 05 January 2025 - 06:10 AM, said:

Note that doortiles function a bit different from ordinary switches, however. You might notice that a switch can't interrupt an effect in motion (like floor rise, ceiling fall etc.), while a doortile can (what can be exploited in some ways too).

Hmmm, does it depend on the type of switch or the effect (or does it also depend on the type of switch)? IIRC some effects can be interrupted by switch presses (e.g. ST elevator) while other can't (e.g. SE31 floor rise), I remember using a dummy SE31 sector in Simpler Times to stop players from abusing the multi-floor elevator and block the operation of switches while the elevator is moving.

[Jan Satcitananda]

Aleks, on 07 January 2025 - 12:45 PM, said:

Hmmm, does it depend on the type of switch or the effect (or does it also depend on the type of switch)? IIRC some effects can be interrupted by switch presses (e.g. ST elevator) while other can't (e.g. SE31 floor rise), I remember using a dummy SE31 sector in Simpler Times to stop players from abusing the multi-floor elevator and block the operation of switches while the elevator is moving.

Yes, it kind of depends on both due to how check_activator_motion works in the game code. You can also use zero-speed dummy SE31's to make single-use switches that can't be switched back (or "unlock" after certain event).