[Forge]

jimbob, on 06 August 2021 - 12:13 PM, said:

is there any way to scale floortextures more than the build standard of 2 scales. i'd like to use floor textures larger than 64 64. using the latest eduke and mapster.

don't think so
"E" on floors and ceiling is the limit

it's an engine thing Tx explained & re-writing how the engine defines those surfaces would take a significant amount of work

use custom art

[jimbob]

well thats the point, i use custom art, but i use 256*256 for some textures, and the floor textures are in a 'max scale' of about 64 64 for standard crate sizes. so i have a nice high res textures on the wall, and a fugly on on top. unless i can define a high res texture to the low res on in the art files somehow

[ck3D]

So the issue is how weird the top of your crates look in comparison to their side walls? Maybe covering the top of the crate with a floor-aligned, one-way, non-blocked sprite version of the texture would work? I do that a lot with my crates when their sides have alternative palette values and I want a similar-looking top without the player changing colors if they get there, or when just aligning the floor texture doesn't look right due to the dimensions of the crate sector, which sounds like your problem.

[jimbob]

i guess that is a simple solution, thanks sometimes the simplest solutions are the ones i completely forget about.

[NNC]

An absolutely noobish question: can a touchplate activated floor rise effect modify the vertex / sector's horizontal position? I noticed this in Sweeney (at the last explosion site after the buggy door). The sector's horizontal change will make the switch disappear.

[oasiz]

Touchplate will only move up/down when placed in the air.
To move horizontally, you will have to use helper sectors combined with i.e. bridge stretcher or sliding doors (some use of quake could work too)

[oasiz]

jimbob, on 07 August 2021 - 10:13 AM, said:

well thats the point, i use custom art, but i use 256*256 for some textures, and the floor textures are in a 'max scale' of about 64 64 for standard crate sizes. so i have a nice high res textures on the wall, and a fugly on on top. unless i can define a high res texture to the low res on in the art files somehow

For this reason other games such as PS/EX and SW adjust the player scale.
The pixel count on rendering is fixed but if you make the players/objects operate at a larger scale, you gain more precision as you look at the textures from further away..
It even gives you extra precision to work with for things such as collision as a stair step could be 512 units wide instead of 256.

[NNC]

oasiz, on 11 August 2021 - 04:18 AM, said:

Touchplate will only move up/down when placed in the air.
To move horizontally, you will have to use helper sectors combined with i.e. bridge stretcher or sliding doors (some use of quake could work too)

Thanks, this is how I knew it.... the sector's northern vertex still moves when the explosion is triggered, covering the switch permanently and probably causing a HOM effect (there are some others in the map, but at least they are coming from colliding sector vision issues which can be fixed easily).

EDIT: It's the earthquake (SE2) that gives the troubles.

[NNC]

Ah, it seems SE2 always modifies the sector into its angle. The only time (from the ones I checked) it had been used properly ingame was Hollywood Holocaust's corridor to the projector room when it was used to create a rift on the floor. There were a few maps like The Abyss that put it into the main area, but it always moves the sector's vertexes to the north. Most times it had been put into a separate sector where this is not an issue.

People always learn new things.

[Aleks]

The Watchtower, on 11 August 2021 - 11:11 PM, said:

Ah, it seems SE2 always modifies the sector into its angle. The only time (from the ones I checked) it had been used properly ingame was Hollywood Holocaust's corridor to the projector room when it was used to create a rift on the floor. There were a few maps like The Abyss that put it into the main area, but it always moves the sector's vertexes to the north. Most times it had been put into a separate sector where this is not an issue.

People always learn new things.

According to Infosuite:

Quote

Used to set off an earthquake. During the earthquake, the screen will shake for about 4 seconds, and slopes will raise/lower.
Angle : Determines the direction that the sector will shift during the earthquake. It appears to shift 9 grid spaces on grid size 6.

I think the most significant use of this effect in original game might be in Dark Side, after blue key train, where the earthquake after reactor is blown sloped part of the room and allows for access to yellow keycard. To be honest, I've only now checked the one in Hollywood Holocaust, it's pretty neat, but somehow I've never noticed it

[ck3D]

The sector shifting during an earthquake thing, while convenient for certain effects (e.g.. when you actually want the sector to shift for the slope to lead the player somewhere specific, Hollywood Holocaust being a good example), can also be a pain in the neck if you don't need nor want it - usually when you didn't plan your sector construction around the effect and so you have a relatively complex arrangement of walls and vertexes that only tangle up once the sector moves. Only somewhat recently did I find/figure out that you could negate the gliding of the sector all the while keeping the sloping, though, by adding another Earthquake SE to the next sector that's directly against the movement of the original one (you may have to draw it if you don't have one already), keeping the ground of that sector flat (if you want no visible consequence, otherwise you may slope it too), and orientating that second SE so that it's the complete opposite angle to the one of the first SE, and they're facing each other; that way, both sectors simultaneously trying to shift in opposite directions for the same preset distance with the same wall as reference nullifies the motion of both, but the slopes still happen. The sectors have to share (at least) a wall, though, otherwise they'll just shift into one another SOS style instead of 'pushing' against it and acting like a counter.

[Aleks]

ck3D, on 12 August 2021 - 04:26 AM, said:

The sector shifting during an earthquake thing, while convenient for certain effects (e.g.. when you actually want the sector to shift for the slope to lead the player somewhere specific, Hollywood Holocaust being a good example), can also be a pain in the neck if you don't need nor want it - usually when you didn't plan your sector construction around the effect and so you have a relatively complex arrangement of walls and vertexes that only tangle up once the sector moves. Only somewhat recently did I find/figure out that you could negate the gliding of the sector all the while keeping the sloping, though, by adding another Earthquake SE to the next sector that's directly against the movement of the original one (you may have to draw it if you don't have one already), keeping the ground of that sector flat (if you want no visible consequence, otherwise you may slope it too), and orientating that second SE so that it's the complete opposite angle to the one of the first SE, and they're facing each other; that way, both sectors simultaneously trying to shift in opposite directions for the same preset distance with the same wall as reference nullifies the motion of both, but the slopes still happen. The sectors have to share (at least) a wall, though, otherwise they'll just shift into one another SOS style instead of 'pushing' against it and acting like a counter.

That is a really useful tip, never though of it actually - but looks like a smooth way of working around the lack of "change slope" effect in Duke! Also it's worth noting that earthquake should be compatible with most other effects (e.g. floor rise).

[ck3D]

Aleks, on 12 August 2021 - 06:32 AM, said:

That is a really useful tip, never though of it actually - but looks like a smooth way of working around the lack of "change slope" effect in Duke! Also it's worth noting that earthquake should be compatible with most other effects (e.g. floor rise).

The limitation is earthquakes only function all the way up to three default slope increments (any terrain change higher than that just stops there anyway I think), and as I'm sure you can already picture that isn't much for practical use unless you're making gigantic sectors or combining them or other effects. But there already is a slope change effect using the rising wave effect if I'm not mistaken, it's rather limited too but not nearly as much (or in different ways?), pretty sure there is an entry for that one in the Infosuite somewhere.

And yeah I've been thinking of ways to exploit the earthquake shifts recently to be honest, not as far as actually experimenting but wondering how the sector movement could be used to achieve this or that given effect with possible crossing of lines, stuff going out of bounds, potential impact on SOS and whatnot. I don't have the brainpower myself but I'm sure someone with it could figure out some cool stuff there, although once again on a rather limited scope I'm certain, seeing as the Earthquake SE's only move the sectors along for such a relatively short distance. I feel like most of the time you could achieve similar stuff with the Bridge effect or even sliding doors and have better control.

But yes that tip in general is a good one to know, a lot of the later maps I've been making for Blast Radius use it and the current map I'm making for AWOL also relies on it quite extensively. Paired up with my approach of first building an empty sector-based grid whilst starting a new map only to then draw all the walls and detail in, it's in fact anecdotal to implement later as thanks to the grid, the basic construction with sectors designed to counter one another is already there by default and I just need ten seconds to add the SE's to alter huge chunks of the map.

[MC84]

I suspect this function doesn't exist, but I'll ask anyway; is there a hotkey/shortcut to make all of a certain ceiling tile # parallaxed? I ask because I'm working on a complex outdoor area with quite a bit of height variations, so I leave the sky tile un-parralaxed so that I can work out the sector placement to avoid any graphical issues. Then to check I'll manually press p on each tile and test in-game. My current method works but it does get a bit tedious. Thanks

[jimbob]

i think i saw such a little feature on the eduke wiki, let me see if i can find it.

[edit] easiest way i can think off top of my head is select all sectors with the mmb and then simply press P, this should affect all selected sectors.

there's probably something in here, cant quite remember if and where i saw something specifically for paralax things.
https://wiki.eduke32...onsole_commands

[NNC]

I'm wondering, why the AltGr doesn't work for copypaste in recent versions? I have to go back to very old Mapster builds if I want to use it. Is it keyboard related? I use hungarian layout and a laptop. Unfortunately PgUp and PgDn are also a bit of pain as you need an Fn key to press there too in modern laptops, and it's hard to use that with locking on with mouse.

[ck3D]

The Watchtower, on 15 September 2021 - 07:48 PM, said:

I'm wondering, why the AltGr doesn't work for copypaste in recent versions? I have to go back to very old Mapster builds if I want to use it. Is it keyboard related? I use hungarian layout and a laptop. Unfortunately PgUp and PgDn are also a bit of pain as you need an Fn key to press there too in modern laptops, and it's hard to use that with locking on with mouse.

I've noticed that before with Alt Gr too, and a bit more recently with ' (apostrophe) using a French keyboard. I think I remember that at one point in Mapster32 development, the program was made to stop auto-switching your settings to the English keyboard upon launch and so that may be related, since then some functions just have seemed inaccessible even when pressing what should be the correct key, or literally every other key. Didn't try the following with Alt Gr (just like you I go back and forth in between versions of Mapster32 for different features, and this happens to be one), but forcing my Windows keyboard settings to English right before launching Mapster32 fixes the apostrophe thing for me (it's not assigned to the apostrophe on my physical keyboard - it is to the % key instead - but at least it works).

[NNC]

ck3D, on 15 September 2021 - 08:41 PM, said:

I've noticed that before with Alt Gr too, and a bit more recently with ' (apostrophe) using a French keyboard. I think I remember that at one point in Mapster32 development, the program was made to stop auto-switching your settings to the English keyboard upon launch and so that may be related, since then some functions just have seemed inaccessible even when pressing what should be the correct key, or literally every other key. Didn't try the following with Alt Gr (just like you I go back and forth in between versions of Mapster32 for different features, and this happens to be one), but forcing my Windows keyboard settings to English right before launching Mapster32 fixes the apostrophe thing for me (it's not assigned to the apostrophe on my physical keyboard - it is to the % key instead - but at least it works).

I used the latest Mapster build, and it forces the english keyboard. I guess the Alt Gr issue is not coming from this though.

[Aleks]

The Watchtower, on 16 September 2021 - 01:31 AM, said:

I used the latest Mapster build, and it forces the english keyboard. I guess the Alt Gr issue is not coming from this though.

I manually set the US English in Windows before launching Mapster and it fixes the problem with using Alt for selecting sectors for me, try it.

[quakis]

Had this same issue before and got help on discord. I need to manually switch keyboard language while Mapster is open.

If above suggestions aren't working; Try pressing left ALT + Shift when Mapster is open to switch keyboard language (on Windows anyway), then see if AltGr works. Try again if you have more keyboard languages installed. It only seems to work for me specifically when Japanese is selected, AltGr doesn't respond for either my US/UK layouts, oddly enough.

[NNC]

Bingo. That worked. I had to set japanese keyboard to make it work. Crazy as shit and needs to be fixed.

[dandouglas]

Hopefully this the right thread for this question - does anyone know if it's possible to get a switch sprite to reset itself to the "off" position after a designated delay? i.e., the player hits a red switch sprite, which then changes to green, and changes back to red again after a delay without a need to press it again.

I've tried using a hidden door-close-delay effect thinking that might work but no luck.

[Mister Sinister]

Duke doesn't support this kind of stuff, though one workaround I can think of is distant shooter activation. Buttons can only be activated by hitscan weapons, so in theory you can set up a pistol shooter triggered by desired button somewhere in the map and make it hit another button tagged with the same lotag.
There's a catch.
1) Hitscan shooter track player location and shoot in general direction
2) I can't tell you if buttons with the same lotag sync
3) The shooter needs to be activated and deactivated with the same button.

Maybe there's another way. I'm not sure.

[NNC]

I always thought that implementing Doom's automatic switch off would help the player navigate better if there is a close door delay in the activated sector. If the switch opens multiple doors, but only one has door close delay, it should affect all linked sectors.

[Aleks]

dandouglas, on 18 September 2021 - 11:09 AM, said:

Hopefully this the right thread for this question - does anyone know if it's possible to get a switch sprite to reset itself to the "off" position after a designated delay? i.e., the player hits a red switch sprite, which then changes to green, and changes back to red again after a delay without a need to press it again.

I've tried using a hidden door-close-delay effect thinking that might work but no luck.

I'd suggest making the actual tagged switch invisible, and have two visible switches that are just for "decoration", one in "off" state and the other one in "on" state. Depending on the operation, you could use a small sector with SE31 and gpspeed with large lotag that would go up/down depending on the switch state and show either the "red" or "green" switch. This SE31 could be operated by the yellow/pal 23 masterswitches, which can be operated indefinite number of times, so each activation would first change the "red" switch to "green", then after some seconds change it back to "red".

Not sure if that description is clear, I can try making an example map later, but I'm too tired right now.

Mister Sinister, on 18 September 2021 - 11:56 AM, said:

Duke doesn't support this kind of stuff, though one workaround I can think of is distant shooter activation. Buttons can only be activated by hitscan weapons, so in theory you can set up a pistol shooter triggered by desired button somewhere in the map and make it hit another button tagged with the same lotag.

Hmmm, aside from all the issues you raised, would hitscan shooters actually toggle a "shootable" switch like dipswitch etc.? At least enemy fire, even hitscan guns, don't trigger them, and the hitscan shooters didn't seem like something reliable at all last time I tested them in game.

[Forge]

the shooter won't trigger dipswitches

iirc, the shrinker shooter will trigger bullseye targets though

[dandouglas]

Aleks, on 19 September 2021 - 10:23 AM, said:

I'd suggest making the actual tagged switch invisible, and have two visible switches that are just for "decoration", one in "off" state and the other one in "on" state. Depending on the operation, you could use a small sector with SE31 and gpspeed with large lotag that would go up/down depending on the switch state and show either the "red" or "green" switch. This SE31 could be operated by the yellow/pal 23 masterswitches, which can be operated indefinite number of times, so each activation would first change the "red" switch to "green", then after some seconds change it back to "red"..

Thanks for this! I'll give it a shot.

[jimbob]

random question, sometimes when i make a room, and add sprites to it, the sprites disappear when i make new sectors within the room, its really annoying when you just did detailing and you need a sector for say a touchplate

[Aleks]

jimbob, on 18 December 2021 - 12:57 PM, said:

random question, sometimes when i make a room, and add sprites to it, the sprites disappear when i make new sectors within the room, its really annoying when you just did detailing and you need a sector for say a touchplate

Do they completely disappear (like deleted), or can still be seen in 2D mode, but not in 3D mode?

If they just aren't visible, the problem might be that when you split a sector (IIRC shouldn't happen with inner loop/child sectors), either of the 2 new sectors can inherit the original sector number. Now if you use expert mode (probably also with auto-fixing sprites switched to off), the sprites within the sector will now belong to the sector with the same number as the original one, which is not necessarily the one they are physically located in. In this case, when viewing from certain angles (e.g. you split a relatively small sector near the entrance of the room, and now you stand in the middle of the room looking at the opposite direction, but the small sector inherited the original sector number), the sprites won't be rendering, because the sector they "belong" to (with sectnum) isn't rendered.

To avoid this, you can just select all sprites in 2D mode with Shift+Ctrl, then press LMB, not even moving them at all, but just "pretending" you're moving them - and they will all belong to their physical location.

[jimbob]

they seem to completely dissapear ( as in deleted )

i could try the selecting them trick