[3709 Mac] ZPack E2M3: checkerboard portal

[Lars2500]

I just checked this with 2.2.0 which was the current version at the time of release. With that it all works fine - except of the bugs in the portal setup, of course.

To add even more confusion: With a freshly installed copy of v2.2.0 (http://zdoom.org/files/zdoom/2.2/zdoom-2.2.0.zip) the portal does NOT work for me. I do not get the checkerboard but not the portal, either - just the normal skybox.

[hfc2x]

To add even more confusion: With a freshly installed copy of v2.2.0

Same here:

---

[randi]

So, did anybody else notice this lovely bit of scripting in the map:

Code: Select all

//Remove Portals
script 556 OPEN
{
    if(GetCVar("vid_renderer") == 1)
    {
    delay(1);
    }    
    else
    {
    thing_remove(40);
    thing_remove(10);
    } 
} 

Run it with vid_renderer set to 1, and you get the portals. Run with it set to anything else (or undefined), and you don't. Except they're not completely removed, since removing them directly in an editor lets the sky draw properly.

[edward850]

Well that's a very questionable use of GetCVar. So what would this be then? "Absurdly removing portal things makes stuff go nuts"?

[Blzut3]

And once again we see why user-agent renderer sniffing is bad.

Perhaps calling GetCVar with vid_renderer should print a warning?

[Kate]

Nah, we should totally remove GetCVar, GetScreenWidth, GetScreenHeight, GetPlayerInfo, GetPlayerInput, and PlayerClass

Because they retrieve info about a user and that can potentially be used in an inappropriate way, and that means it needs to be completely removed because potentially abusable features by people that don't know what they're doing are totally heretical in every way.

...Right?

Also, Grade-A++ scripting by Tormentor667.

[esselfortium]

It's also worth noting that the entire problem could've almost certainly been avoided, without any visual difference at all from the released map, by building the portal with the intended source port's renderer in mind.

At least, um, I would assume that ZDoom was ZPack's intended source port.

[Graf Zahl]

Run it with vid_renderer set to 1, and you get the portals. Run with it set to anything else (or undefined), and you don't. Except they're not completely removed, since removing them directly in an editor lets the sky draw properly.

Older versions of ZDoom drew the normal sky. It's quite obvious what this was for: There were portal problems with the software renderer.
Still, some very, very questionable stuff.

[Project Shadowcat]

"Don't do that!"?

[Graf Zahl]

Of course it's 'Don't do that!' But it was doing what Tormentor expected in older versions.

[Gez]

Yes and no. ZDoom never recognized vid_renderer, so if you put ZDoom and GZDoom both in the same directory so they use the same config file, and used ZDoom for software renderer and GZDoom for hardware, then you had vid_renderer 1 in all cases.

[Graf Zahl]

I meant removal of the skybox things.

It's true that checking vid_renderer is undefined but the action the script performs has definitely changed for the worse.

[randi]

Fixed in r4224, though it doesn't do anything about the broken assumption that vid_renderer can be used to detect when one is using software rendering.

[Hell Theatre]

Sorry for bumping but I'd rather ask here than creating a new thread.

Having just played this particular map I noticed that in the latest devbuilds the portal gets no longer removed - and the checkerboard texture is back for the sky, but not only here but everywhere in the map. Is this somehow related to this old bug?

[Graf Zahl]

I am not surprised.

First, the checkerboard texture appears because this map defines no proper sky and the current devbuilds do not process skyboxes. This is a known bug that's already reported.

The portal does not disappear anymore because a few months ago I refactored the portal data so that it no longer depends on actors in the map - these were creating problems with portal links during savegame restore. Portals are now static once the stacked sector things have been processed - just like they always have been in GZDoom from the start. The things remain in the map for compatibility, but they no longer have an effect on the actual portal.