The "How do I..." Thread

[InsanityBringer]

hmm, disregard my issue. It seems to be a problem with float handling in GDCC, either that or me doing something wrong. I guess I'll have to run the code by Dave when I get a chance. heh

EDIT: crap, even after turning this off, I'm still having problems with the value having its fractional bit dropped off or something as the bullet falls on very specific lines, but I'm not even sure how that could happen. wtffurther edit: this was just because I had dropped the .0 from the / 65536.0 bit. hmm

[LogicalFallacy]

]
What exactly is the problem? For starters, there's not one A GiveInventory in your code to give ammo.
Edit: You also don't have Weapon.AmmoUse, Ammo.Type, and Ammo.Give properties on your gun. Why don't you just make a new ammo type that has 6 bullets max, and make it jump to a reload once you run out of ammo instead of making the counter you're using right now?

I wasn't aware those were things to do. I'm still pretty new to using DECORATE, and I was attempting to use the PB code for reference, but I had no idea what all I was looking at. I'll give your suggestion a go and see if I can get that to work for me.

Also, the problem that had me bringing this up here was that the counter doesn't seem to be working at all.

[eppn5]

quote stuff

I wasn't aware those were things to do. I'm still pretty new to using DECORATE, and I was attempting to use the PB code for reference, but I had no idea what all I was looking at. I'll give your suggestion a go and see if I can get that to work for me.

Also, the problem that had me bringing this up here was that the counter doesn't seem to be working at all.

I suggest learning DECORATE from the ZDoom wiki and here.

[DoomKrakken]

If I may, this is how I think you should do the revolver... I've added a few comments in the fixes to show you how/why it works.

If you decide to view this in a word editor, I'd suggest turning on "word wrapping"... the comments are a tad bit lengthy, sorry about that... ^_^;

Let me know if it works!

Code: Select all

    Actor RevCylinder : Ammo //Changed the name of your ammotype so that it makes sense.  Also had it inherit from "Ammo" so that it works like proper ammunition.
    {
       Inventory.MaxAmount 6
    }

    Actor Revolver : Pistol 20001
    {
       Weapon.AmmoType1 RevCylinder //A dummy ammotype that represents the amount of ammo in your revolver.
       Weapon.AmmoType2 Clip //We define this so that it yields "Clip" ammo whenever picked up.
       Weapon.AmmoGive1 0 //Because it wouldn't make sense for your revolver's cylinder to magically fill back up from simply picking up another revolver...
       Weapon.AmmoGive2 6 //This is where the "Clip" ammo comes from.  This is why we defined "Clip" as another ammotype for the weapon...
       Weapon.SelectionOrder 550
       Weapon.SlotNumber 2
       -WEAPON.WIMPY_WEAPON
       Obituary "%o ate a bullet from %k's revolver."
       Inventory.Pickupmessage "You got a revolver."
       Tag "Revolver"
       States
       {
       Spawn:
          RVIC A -1
          Stop
       Ready:
          REVI A 1 A_WeaponReady
          Loop
       Deselect:
          REVI A 1 A_Lower
          Loop
       Select:
          REVI A 1 A_Raise
          Loop
       Fire:
          TNT1 A 0 A_JumpIfNoAmmo("Reload") //Since it's defined in your "Fire" state, it will check if you have any ammo left in your primary ammo pool, which is "RevCylinder".
          REVF A 2 Bright
          TNT1 A 0 A_FireCustomMissile("RevolTracer",0,0,8,8,0)
          TNT1 A 0 A_PlaySound("2XPFIRE1")
          REVF B 2 Bright A_PlaySound("weapons/pistol", CHAN_WEAPON)
          REVF CD 3
          REVF DC 5
          REVI A 5 A_ReFire
          Goto Ready

//Okay, now a most useful and efficient way to reload it is to have the weapon take one ammo at a time from your ammo pool and add it to the "RevCylinder" ammo pool.  
//It basically loops until the "RevCylinder" ammo pool is completely full.  This is how we do it...

       Reload: 
          TNT1 A 0 A_JumpIfInventory("Clip",1,1) //Here, if you have less than 1 "Clip" ammo left BEFORE reloading (which is 0), then it will go to the "NoAmmo" state, rather than jumping over the "Goto NoAmmo" statement and continuing with this animation.
          Goto NoAmmo
          REVR ABCDEFGHIJKLMFEA 2 //First, let's start with your animation sequence...
          REVI A 1

//Now we create a substate to loop the actual reloading part.  
//You can name it anything you want... but remember to keep the name simple and descriptive...

       ReloadLoop: 
          TNT1 A 0 A_JumpIfInventory("Clip",1,1) //Here, if you have less than 1 "Clip" ammo left WHILE reloading (which is 0), then it will just go back to the "Ready" state, rather than jumping over the "Goto Ready" statement.
          Goto Ready 
          TNT1 A 0 A_JumpIfInventory("RevCylinder",0,"Ready") //A value of 0 in any inventory-related action refers to the maximum inventory amount an actor has.  For "RevCylinder", we defined this as 6, so if you placed 6 in this place, then it will also work.  However, whenever working with multiple actors that check for full-capacity inventory, using a value of 0 is much more efficient.
          TNT1 A 0 A_TakeInventory("Clip",1)
          TNT1 A 0 A_GiveInventory("RevCylinder",1)
          Loop

//Another note... since all the state labels in the "ReloadLoop" state have 0-tic delays, then everything that happens in that loop happens pretty much simultaneously.  Neat, huh? :D

       NoAmmo:
          REVI A 2
          REVF C 2
          REVI A 2
          Goto Ready
       }
    }

[LogicalFallacy]

If I may, this is how I think you should do the revolver... I've added a few comments in the fixes to show you how/why it works.

If you decide to view this in a word editor, I'd suggest turning on "word wrapping"... the comments are a tad bit lengthy, sorry about that... ^_^;

Let me know if it works!

Code: Select all

    Actor RevCylinder : Ammo //Changed the name of your ammotype so that it makes sense.  Also had it inherit from "Ammo" so that it works like proper ammunition.
    {
       Inventory.MaxAmount 6
    }

    Actor Revolver : Pistol 20001
    {
       Weapon.AmmoType1 RevCylinder //A dummy ammotype that represents the amount of ammo in your revolver.
       Weapon.AmmoType2 Clip //We define this so that it yields "Clip" ammo whenever picked up.
       Weapon.AmmoGive1 0 //Because it wouldn't make sense for your revolver's cylinder to magically fill back up from simply picking up another revolver...
       Weapon.AmmoGive2 6 //This is where the "Clip" ammo comes from.  This is why we defined "Clip" as another ammotype for the weapon...
       Weapon.SelectionOrder 550
       Weapon.SlotNumber 2
       -WEAPON.WIMPY_WEAPON
       Obituary "%o ate a bullet from %k's revolver."
       Inventory.Pickupmessage "You got a revolver."
       Tag "Revolver"
       States
       {
       Spawn:
          RVIC A -1
          Stop
       Ready:
          REVI A 1 A_WeaponReady
          Loop
       Deselect:
          REVI A 1 A_Lower
          Loop
       Select:
          REVI A 1 A_Raise
          Loop
       Fire:
          TNT1 A 0 A_JumpIfNoAmmo("Reload") //Since it's defined in your "Fire" state, it will check if you have any ammo left in your primary ammo pool, which is "RevCylinder".
          REVF A 2 Bright
          TNT1 A 0 A_FireCustomMissile("RevolTracer",0,0,8,8,0)
          TNT1 A 0 A_PlaySound("2XPFIRE1")
          REVF B 2 Bright A_PlaySound("weapons/pistol", CHAN_WEAPON)
          REVF CD 3
          REVF DC 5
          REVI A 5 A_ReFire
          Goto Ready

//Okay, now a most useful and efficient way to reload it is to have the weapon take one ammo at a time from your ammo pool and add it to the "RevCylinder" ammo pool.  
//It basically loops until the "RevCylinder" ammo pool is completely full.  This is how we do it...

       Reload: 
          TNT1 A 0 A_JumpIfInventory("Clip",1,1) //Here, if you have less than 1 "Clip" ammo left BEFORE reloading (which is 0), then it will go to the "NoAmmo" state, rather than jumping over the "Goto NoAmmo" statement and continuing with this animation.
          Goto NoAmmo
          REVR ABCDEFGHIJKLMFEA 2 //First, let's start with your animation sequence...
          REVI A 1

//Now we create a substate to loop the actual reloading part.  
//You can name it anything you want... but remember to keep the name simple and descriptive...

       ReloadLoop: 
          TNT1 A 0 A_JumpIfInventory("Clip",1,1) //Here, if you have less than 1 "Clip" ammo left WHILE reloading (which is 0), then it will just go back to the "Ready" state, rather than jumping over the "Goto Ready" statement.
          Goto Ready 
          TNT1 A 0 A_JumpIfInventory("RevCylinder",0,"Ready") //A value of 0 in any inventory-related action refers to the maximum inventory amount an actor has.  For "RevCylinder", we defined this as 6, so if you placed 6 in this place, then it will also work.  However, whenever working with multiple actors that check for full-capacity inventory, using a value of 0 is much more efficient.
          TNT1 A 0 A_TakeInventory("Clip",1)
          TNT1 A 0 A_GiveInventory("RevCylinder",1)
          Loop

//Another note... since all the state labels in the "ReloadLoop" state have 0-tic delays, then everything that happens in that loop happens pretty much simultaneously.  Neat, huh? :D

       NoAmmo:
          REVI A 2
          REVF C 2
          REVI A 2
          Goto Ready
       }
    }
 

Thank you sir, this works fantastically with only a few minor changes, and is much cleaner than what I was attempting to do. My reference for code right now is mostly PB, which is rather daunting. I do try to use the ZDoom wiki as much as possible as well, but it's tough finding some things without already knowing they're there. Some of the stuff in your comments I already knew, but overall it was quite informative, thank you.

Of note, the minor changes were: changing the use ammo boolean in A_FireCustomMissile to true, since I had changed it to false to try and get the counter to work; adding the tag WRF_ALLOWRELOAD to A_WeaponReady, something I thankfully learned about looking at the tutorial eppn5 linked; and moving the NoAmmo check to the end of the firing animation, with a new null frame just after it for A_ReFire.

[Mikk-]

Okay so I have another problem; this used to work before I updated to GzDOOM 2.2 dunno what changed but... now I get "VM EXECUTION ABORTED: INVALID SELF POINTER" and the projectile deals no damage.

Basically, in my mod you can deflect projectiles with a skill, deflecting a projectile is supposed to add 100 points of damage to the projectile, like I said, this used to work and you could smoke a Chaos Serpent in a few well-placed deflections. But now I get the VM error listed above.. Is this fixable?

Code: Select all

ACTOR ENEMY_CSERP_FIREBALL1 : Demon1FX1 replaces Demon1FX1                     
{
    damagetype "CSerpFireball1"
    var int user_dmg;
    damage(random(20,30)+(user_dmg))
    +HITTRACER
    states
    {
    Spawn:
        DMFX AABBCC 2 bright A_JumpIfInventory("PROJECTILE_DEFLECTED",1,"damageincrease",AAPTR_DEFAULT) //Check to see if the player deflected the projecitle
        loop
    DamageIncrease:
        TNT1 A 0 A_TakeInventory("PROJECTILE_DEFLECTED")
        TNT1 A 0 A_SetUserVar("user_dmg",100) //increase the damage dramatically when deflected. 
        goto Spawn
    }
}

actor SHIELD_REFLECT : BASE_SHIELDPART //This is the deflecting actor, quite a few are spawned when the player uses their deflect attack making a wall of sorts. 
{ 
    +REFLECTIVE
    +AIMREFLECT
    States
    {
    Spawn:
        TNT1 A 6 
        stop

    Pain.CSerpFireball1: //When the actor is hit by the Chaos Serpent's fireball it enters this state and radius-gives a dummy actor which *should* increase the damage of the projectile...
        TNT1 A 0 A_RadiusGive("PROJECTILE_DEFLECTED",32,RGF_MISSILES,1) 
        TNT1 A 1 A_PlaySound("FighterHammerHitWall","soundslot5",10.0)
        goto death
    Death:
        TNT1 A 1
        stop
    } 
}

edit: I replaced the user variable references with args[0] and that seems to have fixed it, though for the future I'd like to know how/why this broke..

[jazzmaster9]

How do I make the Doomsphere play the "snd/damage" when I shoot a monster.

I tried this but it doesnt seem to work.

Code: Select all

Actor PowerQuadDamageST : PowerDamage
{
Damagefactor "Normal", 4

}

Actor Doomsphere : PowerupGiver 7818
{

  Inventory.MaxAmount 0
  Powerup.Type QuadDamageST
  Powerup.Color RedMap
  Inventory.PickupMessage "Quad Damage!"
 

  +CountItem
  +NoGravity
  +Inventory.AutoActivate
  +Inventory.AlwaysPickup
     inventory.usesound  "snd/damage" <<<<<<<<<\\\ADDED THIS!
 Inventory.PickupSound "dam/up"
  States
  {
  Spawn:
    DOOM A -1 Bright

    Loop
  }
}

EDIT: Never mind I got it working

[DoomKrakken]

If I may, this is how I think you should do the revolver... I've added a few comments in the fixes to show you how/why it works.

If you decide to view this in a word editor, I'd suggest turning on "word wrapping"... the comments are a tad bit lengthy, sorry about that... ^_^;

Let me know if it works!

Thank you sir, this works fantastically with only a few minor changes, and is much cleaner than what I was attempting to do. My reference for code right now is mostly PB, which is rather daunting. I do try to use the ZDoom wiki as much as possible as well, but it's tough finding some things without already knowing they're there. Some of the stuff in your comments I already knew, but overall it was quite informative, thank you.

Of note, the minor changes were: changing the use ammo boolean in A_FireCustomMissile to true, since I had changed it to false to try and get the counter to work; adding the tag WRF_ALLOWRELOAD to A_WeaponReady, something I thankfully learned about looking at the tutorial eppn5 linked; and moving the NoAmmo check to the end of the firing animation, with a new null frame just after it for A_ReFire.

Ah, yes... I figured I missed something...

Glad to know I helped.

PB, Brutal Doom, and other Brutal Doom-related mods/submods have some really nasty coding practices. I recommend expanding your horizon to other mods, such as Guncaster and Trailblazer, for more coding. God knows how much I've learned from them...

[CJacobsSA]

How would I go about giving a weapon varying animations upon being fired? I have a machine gun with some visual kickback done using offsets in its firing animation, but it looks a bit silly to have it kick the same way every time. Is there a method of making there be multiple animations for firing and having the game pick one at random?

[Ravick]

I'd try something like:

Code: Select all

Fire:
TNT1 A 0 A_Jump (255, "FireAnimation1", "FireAnimation2", "FireAnimation3"


FireAnimation1:
*Your animation for it*
Goto Ready

FireAnimation2:
*Another animation for it*
Goto Ready

FireAnimation3:
*Yet another animation*
Goto Ready
 

_____________________

Question: How can I make a monster to check its target's health?

I was trying the following:

Code: Select all

A_JumpIfInTargetInventory ("Health", 1, "Printa", 0)

But it seems to not work.

Thanks in advanced.

[InsanityBringer]

Question: How can I make a monster to check its target's health?

I was trying the following:

Code: Select all

A_JumpIfInTargetInventory ("Health", 1, "Printa", 0)

But it seems to not work.

Thanks in advanced.

Health isn't an inventory item. Use health in a [wiki=DECORATE_expressions]decorate expression[/wiki] instead
For example:

Code: Select all

A_JumpIf("health < 35", "MyState")

[/s]

EDIT hey I'm a fuckwit instead just use [wiki]A_JumpIfHealthLower[/wiki] which now has pointers

[CJacobsSA]

I'd try something like:

.

Nice, that works perfectly! Thanks!

[Darsycho]

How can I make certain textures unable to have decals on them? It's kinda annoying to have a bunch of decals covering up a switch and you dont even know its there.

[Kappes Buur]

How can I make certain textures unable to have decals on them? It's kinda annoying to have a bunch of decals covering up a switch and you dont even know its there.

In Hexen format use the texture in TEXTURES with the NoDecals property
In UDMF specify the 'No decals' flag for the sidedef.

[Mánibranðr System]

How do I make it so that I have Health, Armor and And Rechargeable Shield where the Shield always takes 1.0x damage and Armor reduces damage to Health and Health only?

Every method I could think of applies Armor damage reduction to both Health and Shields. The only method I could think of would be to use a script to check for health damage and then reimburse health based on how much armor is supposed to protect, which just sounds janky and could cause problems when the health dips below 0 before reimbursement.