[ck3D]

I would be curious to see screenshots of the split screen effect thing unless you would mind posting any. Essential to know about viewscreen is it is a really dumb/rudimentary effect and all kinds of broken, for instance when linked to several cameras in a row inside a water sector (or teleporter in general but needs to be a frame-based input to trigger unless stabilized by water) can be a 'relative teleporter', or slimers viewed through cam will be attracted to it then attach to Duke's face, etc. because it just kind of jankily reappropriates player position for a bit. I know the Infosuite recommends not putting cameras too close to walls in general, or to one another, but that never really broke anything for me (post DOS Duke/Build days), position can tolerate being a little loose. Also when walking away from viewed screen, will show the last viewed scene with whichever pal was applied to the screen sprite to all of the scene; sometimes activation can be buggy if a nearby sector is tagged; etc.

Just to say don't expect too much out of it. But I would be interested in seeing what is up even just visually.

Sad sector thing is an actual message that you're getting? That is pretty funny I never got that one. bobross.gif

[unedukecated]

ck3D, on 21 May 2026 - 11:10 AM, said:

I would be curious to see screenshots of the split screen effect thing unless you would mind posting any. Essential to know about viewscreen is it is a really dumb/rudimentary effect and all kinds of broken, for instance when linked to several cameras in a row inside a water sector (or teleporter in general but needs to be a frame-based input to trigger unless stabilized by water) can be a 'relative teleporter', or slimers viewed through cam will be attracted to it then attach to Duke's face, etc. because it just kind of jankily reappropriates player position for a bit. I know the Infosuite recommends not putting cameras too close to walls in general, or to one another, but that never really broke anything for me (post DOS Duke/Build days), position can tolerate being a little loose. Also when walking away from viewed screen, will show the last viewed scene with whichever pal was applied to the screen sprite to all of the scene; sometimes activation can be buggy if a nearby sector is tagged; etc.

Just to say don't expect too much out of it. But I would be interested in seeing what is up even just visually.

Sad sector thing is an actual message that you're getting? That is pretty funny I never got that one. bobross.gif

Yeah, and suddenly when I wanted to make screenshots all viewscreens work normally by magic lol? Well, maybe later then... And thanks for the help. This is just a white wall sector splitted sometimes with red walls or just points. These are the walls the cam shows, so they are filled with images or text and spoilers.


Sad sector is only visible if I put "setrendermode 4" in console for previewing Polymer lighting. If I don't do that, the console is just too big in size to show it I think, since that rendermode is makes everything tiny and almost unreadable again:


What's sector 2036 now was sector 2041 and so on, it changes every time lol

[ck3D]

Message is hilarious but perhaps would owe being a bit more explicit to the user. Just like how you just pointed out sectnums can rearrange depending on various kinds of manipulations, so can spritenums and that is what determines security camera order when several of them are linked to one viewscreen, perhaps your map used to have some kind of strange conflict with that and the 'magical' mystery rearranging fixed it or something like that. I remember back in the DOS days used to be problematic how camera sequencing could and usually would get messed up at most any point of the mapping, and so was wise to reserve as one of the very last tasks when finalizing/exporting a map. Now/in EDuke no longer seems to do it so much but perhaps also has to do with how I personally still tend to save setting up cameras until late, say after structure is done and I know I no longer will need any parent sector split that might mess with the local objects.

In your map seems like a separate area just for screens though. If you added the splits after the cameras, perhaps that was what caused the glitch for a bit until the map fixed itself, something like that. Cool it's worked out now. Be mindful with this kind of setup with screen displays inside of separate sectors, you want some looseness with the camera placement, as in if a player uses different game/screen resolution from yours (and statistically, most will) it might show more or less of the area than you're really intending to display. You want what you want and then some margin both ways (cropped/uncropped).

[unedukecated]

Funny now it's still sector 2036, seems it has chosen to stay like this. Whenever I do a sector search it always shows me it's the same location. Just sectnum was changing all the time. I also did not make any changes there for weeks. I usually just build stuff out of sprites or put normal sprites like enemies now. As good as no sector work. And no, so far I have only linked 1 camera to 1 screen, no more. I once had 2 screens on 1 cam, but removed 1 screen again. But yes, that area was made only for the cameras. Thanks anyway ck, the factor resolution makes me more afraid now. Would it help to test different resolutions on my PC to see if there are big differences about the camera angle when viewing screens?

[Aleks]

I might have misread something, but isn't the viewscreen thing just the regular behaviour, i.e. viewscreens preserving the last view shown but in very low resolution after player stopped using them (I think they keep showing the image until player backs away from them for a certain distance), I think with several viewscreens next to each other they would all just show the last viewed image even if the camera isn't linked with all of the viewscreens.

And yeah the order of cameras in a single viewscreen is always by their spritenum from highest to lowest, so it's best to keep as last thing in the map indeed (also when you know where exactly you'll have viewscreens and in which order you're showing them). Similarly, if there are more than a single locator with the same lotag in a track sector for SE (or in a map altogether for RPV), then the engine/RPV will pick the locator with the highest spritenum to follow and completely ignore the remaining ones (also useful for combining 2-way trains with other movers).


Also, "sad sector" message is extremely hilarious, but then I also found "lonely SE 0" message quite amusing when I first got it as a kid.

[unedukecated]

Well yes Aleks, I know about the viewscreen reverse order and that they usually show the last image for a while after you used them, but mine sometimes throws multiple viewscreen images on one and the same viewscreen, some even 90° rotated I think which looks very weird. So it's like you use one viewscreen but you can see all other viewscreen as well layered. Then they also work normal sometimes. It's like my "very sad sector" which has changed its sectnum again from 2036 to 2028 which is absolutely hilarious. I will try to fix the viewscreen thingie, maybe I linked some of them wrong or they use the same tags. I don't have multiple viewscreens next to each other though, I placed 1 and the next 1 is like hundred meters away. The different resolutions people use will make it tricky, needs better camera placement then. Thanks anyway Aleks!

[ck3D]

Ah now sounds like your bug is something Lezing is showcasing on purpose in E9L99 around (one of) the end(s) of the level. No idea how it's done, never looked at it or tried to achieve it, must be some kind of position or flag interference. Sectnum rearranging again is common depending on your ways of mapping (certain operations will switch nums around like that, which you can learn to manipulate on purpose i.e.. 'sector counting'... don't worry about that just yet), generally should be safe/nothing to stress about but if you ever come to realize it is messing with something specific you're trying to do, would recommend reserving studying what causes it (by experimenting with/breaking down some of your methods) when it becomes an actual problem if it ever does, realistically it is innocent enough a thing until maybe you're starting to tackle certain expert or abuse-powered engine tricks. What's more important is you've noticed and registered it is a thing that exists/happens, and you can learn to manipulate (e.g.. via copypasting/cloning/deleting...).

Anything specific about the sector that keeps changing num but remains sad that would hint at what's happening and why it's sad? Perhaps it is documented on the Wiki and should look it up (edit - just checked, it's not, or I could not find it). If it's Polymer exclusive I wonder if it is something simple like sector size that might cause it. But I've heard the renderer has been worked on again recently and so perhaps a later potential EDuke update might cure the sadness.

[unedukecated]

No, that sad sector is just random if you ask me. It changed sectnum again, but whatever. I don't think it's a Polymer issue. I haven't done any sector work there for quite some time now and I also wasn't trying to manipulate something there. Whatever, as long as it's fine it shouldn't be sad anymore lol. 13.000 sprites placed now, my goal is a maximum of 15.000 but I would really need more. Guess I'll have to deleted some elsewhere, it's ridiculous. This map turned into a hate/love thing to me now, and the hate part is increasing day by day now. I only want to finish it so I can finally work with walls on a new map again. I am so sick of 99% spritework only time now lol

[ck3D]

Had never had the opportunity to notice that before, but TROR extension maskwall reserves lotag for data (same way TROR bunch reserves floor panning)? That is surprising, given how this interferes with forcefields (but I assume really must have been the only semi-open field left given how Build recalculates walls all the time). Personally can still achieve what I'm trying to do by modifying my level set-up a little and going on a wallnum counting scavenger hunt, but had to observe/warn this could be problematic/result in conflict in theory.