Pistol animation is broken

[Guest]

The flashing frame lasts too long. Please fix it, it looks horrible.

[Graf Zahl]

The fact that most players never noticed this one off-frame for more than 20 years says more than your description of 'horrible', I'd say.

I have to wonder: Should this stay for Dehacked compatibility or changed? AFAIK it has been altered for other weapons before.

[edward850]

Although only strictly the SSG. As it only affects dehacked, would it be possible to hard-code it if a dehacked patch is loaded (there's already a dehacked weapon flag internally)? Swap the frame set should the old one be needed.

[NeuralStunner]

It isn't particularly "broken", in the sense that it's accurate to the original code and doesn't affect gameplay adversely. (I don't really care for it either, but it's pretty easy to mod.)

If you changed it, then I guess you'd also have to fix the issue with the Plasma Rifle. (Nevermind that the Rocket Launcher looks pretty daft when refiring.)

[Gez]

The flash state is purely cosmetic and shouldn't have any game-breaking effect on any dehacked patch unless some perverse mind set out to somehow contrive a patch just for this exact purpose.

[Xaser]

The effect likely goes a bit deeper than reported: Vanilla and nilla-accurate ports seem to subtract one tic from the duration of the first flash state (as if it processes the first two tics at once); ZDoom doesn't do this, so I'd wager the reported effect happens for all Flash states.

...However, plenty of ZDoom mods depend on ZDoom's behavior, so we're looking at either a compatibility option or applying the effect only to DEH-affected weaponry. Whichever, really -- I just ran into this in a mod I'm working on so being able to keep the behaviors between ports in sync would be nice, even if it is indeed "cosmetic" in my case.

[Graf Zahl]

The effect likely goes a bit deeper than reported: Vanilla and nilla-accurate ports seem to subtract one tic from the duration of the first flash state (as if it processes the first two tics at once); ZDoom doesn't do this, so I'd wager the reported effect happens for all Flash states.

This had me scratching my head ever since I heard of this behavior.
The main question is, how many old ZDoom mods using Dehacked to modify the weapons exist where this actually matters?
These old mods are the only thing where changing the behavior could have adverse effects. Everything else could easily be handled with a simple internal flag on the weapons.
I guess the only option here is to implement the fix and if found necessary, add a compatibility option. A universal solution that catches all use cases is clearly not doable.

[Gez]

I'd just remove one or two tics from the flash states, as appropriate.

[edward850]

As long as the change stays on Dehacked. I accidentally got Yholl concerned that he'd have to reanimate most of DoomRLA.

[Graf Zahl]

Have you read my post?

What I'd do is add a new weapon flag that's only being used on the original Doom weapons and then make sure that their flash states have the same duration as the original state tables.
And then, if it becomes necessary, add a compatibility option to switch this off - but only if proof can be given that this is necessary.

[edward850]

Have you read my post?

Yup. I meant that in jest to clarify.

[Guest]

I noticed that it doesn't seem to last any longer than it should in Chocolate Doom.

[Blue Shadow]

I noticed these, but I'm not too bothered about them to the point I want them "fixed" by ZDoom. Heck, most of the time when playing I have one of those smooth animation mods loaded.

[Minigunner]

The fix should really only occur on the first shot, considering how Doom treats the first frame in a state; otherwise, in the event of a ReFire, there should be no fix.

[Xaser]

The fix should really only occur on the first shot, considering how Doom treats the first frame in a state; otherwise, in the event of a ReFire, there should be no fix.

I'm not seeing this behavior. Do you have an example/evidence?

At any rate, here's a simple test case for the wider issue -- a chaingun with its Fire and Flash states set to 1 tic:

chainfun.zip

1-tic chaingun of ultimate funness.

(322 Bytes) Downloaded 55 times

In ZDoom you get a flash; in Vanilla you do not (as the effective length is now 0 tics).

Interestingly, id knew about this and just adjusted the state tables, hence why Doom weapons have the flash states go a bit longer than they look like they should. The chaingun again is the best example; the firing states are 4 tics, while the flash states are 5 tics. In 'nilla you get a perfectly-synced animation, while in ZDoom you see this briefly:



tl;dr: yes, the issue exists, even if it's unnoticeable to some folks.