Enjay's Adventures in GZDB.

[Enjay]

I want to make some sectors lower without making a noise. Placing a sound sequence actor (Ednum 1411) does the trick but I just want to check if that is a legitimate way to do it without also defining a silent sound sequence. I have not put a sndseq lump in the WAD (yet?). So I'm wondering if it is acceptable to just use the 1411 thing on it's own or should I define a silent sound sequence and attach it to the sound sequence actor?

I thought that there might be some sort of UDMF sector flag, but I don't see it (does it exist?). There is the "silent" check box in GZDB but that's for a skybox silencer-like effect.

[Graf Zahl]

Yes, there is such a flag, but when looking it up I noticed that it cannot be set through UDMF. I added that flag when writing an Eternity extradata parser so I could load the Vaporware map as a portal test, but never added editing support for it beyond that part...

[Enjay]

If you ever get a moment to add it (assuming it can be done without breaking the UDMF spec, or whatever) it would certainly be a useful addition IMO.

In the meantime, is it OK to simply place a 1411 thing in the relevant sectors, or should I define a silent SNDSEQ to be placed in those sectors rather than just a 1411 without parameters? (Just trying to avoid doing something that might be considered bad practice.)

[Kinsie]

There's already a "Silence" SNDSEQ in gzdoom.pk3 that can be applied to sectors. I use this a lot for elevators made up of multiple sectors so that only one sector makes moving noises and the player's ears aren't blown out.

[Enjay]

Thank you. I'll check that out.

[edit]And it worked perfectly. Of course, I didn't have gzdoom.pk3 loaded as a resource, so it didn't appear as an option but after a moment of head scratching, I realised the problem. Thanks again. [/edit]

I use this a lot for elevators made up of multiple sectors so that only one sector makes moving noises and the player's ears aren't blown out.

Pretty much what I need it for.

[Enjay]

And in the next episode of Enjay bumbles around in GZDB, tick boxes.



I assume that, when I have a line selected, I can move my mouse off the editor window and down to the status bar to uncheck any tick boxes that might be there. But whenever I move my mouse over the status bar, the tick boxes (and other info) disappear.

In DeePsea, I could keep the line, sector or thing in focus by holding shift when I moved across to DeePsea's equivalent dialogue and click on the buttons (they are buttons in DeePsea).



However, in GZDB, none of shift, Ctrl, Alt or anything else that I have tried seems to work either with the item highlighted or selected. Can it be done?

Even if it can, that would only be of limited value because any flags that are already unticked are not shown. Is there a way to show all flags (ticked or not) for the currently highlighted/selected item to allow me to tick them without having to open an editing dialogue? (I realise that in UDMF there are a lot of flags so I would understand it not being possible.)

[Nash]

I don't think the Expanded Info Panel is interactable, sadly.

[Enjay]

I don't think the Expanded Info Panel is interactable, sadly.

OK, at least I know. Thanks.


And more...

Is there a way to show things something like this in classic mode...


or


The usual display with the sprite is kind of cool but the cross in the middle of the above pictures really helps me know exactly where the thing has been placed. I've found the "Fixed Things Scale" option and that can be quite useful when fully zoomed in because the sprite occupies a very small area in the middle of its bounding box,



but an oldschool vector-like image with a cross would also be useful. Does it exist?


And error checking. Is there a way to permanently set which options I want to be active? It seems that every time I start GZDB, the F4 error checker goes back to its default selection of checks. There are some that I don't find particularly useful (e.g. "Unused Textures" flags up a lot of textures that are hidden at the start of the map but then get exposed when a floor or something moves), and would only want to use occasionally. So, is there a way to have them off by default?

[Tormentor667]

This is a good idea to be honest, you should suggest that in the GZDB thread

[Enjay]

Silly question; if I have the ACS script editor open and I've made a syntax error in my script it fails to compile (as expected). But I dopn't see where GZDB tells me what the error is.

I get a warning system sound to tell me that something isn't right, there is a "!" in a yellow triangle in the status bar telling me that there has been an error, and there is a red circle with another "!" on the line where the error is, but there isn't any text telling me what the error is. I know that ACS spits out sometimes-helpful errors but I can't seem to get them when compiling inside GZDB.

Anyone able to shed some light please?

[Kappes Buur]

In both GZDB and GZDBBF I can toggle a slide window on the bottom to show the error

[imgur]https://i.imgur.com/o5a71g2[/imgur]

[Nash]

In both GZDB and GZDBBF I can toggle a slide window on the bottom to show the error

[imgur]https://i.imgur.com/o5a71g2[/imgur]

This is very buggy on my computer; it's difficult to get the error log to show, even when I try to drag the handles. It's very inconsistent, sometimes it shows, sometimes it doesn't.

[Enjay]

Aha! I see it now. For what ever reason it was only appearing as the tiny shaded handle (i.e. the bottom panel was not visible) and I simply didn't spot it. In fact, it was still hard to get it to open even once I could see it. I've got it now though. Thanks.

[Empyre]

I know the topic of this thread has changed since then, but there is another way to make a sector move "silently". Draw a sector far far away in the void and join it to the sector that you want to be silent. The sector will still make a sound when moving, but the sound will be too far away for the player to hear it.

[Enjay]

A couple more questions if I may...

Question 1: AASTINKY
Is there any way to get GZDB to show the first entry in the textures lists and treat it as the game engine does? Doom has "AASTINKY" as a texture and Doom2 has "AASHITTY" and other games have their own equivalent. Because of their names, these are first in the textures list, and the game treats the first entry in the textures list in much the same way as having no texture on the line. Often when I am editing with my own texture set, I add a texture called "00000000" and use it in much the same way. However, GZDoom builder doesn't show this texture (or AASTINKY etc) in its texture lists and in 3D mode it shows the "unknown" texture image.

I know that I could just use "-" in most cases but I prefer using AASHITTY (etc) for a number of reasons. For example, DeePsea and GZDoombuilder flag up "-" on a 1S line as a missing texture, but that may be exactly what is needed with some 3D floor constructs. AASTINKY (etc) does the job nicely and in DeePsea, it doesn't flag as an error, but in GZDB it does.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that some stock Hexen maps actually make use of its first texture (called "ABADONE" IIRC).

So, is there an option any where that would make GZDB "see" the first entry in the textures list, not have it flag as an error and make it appear correctly (i.e. invisible) in 3D mode?



Question 2: Cloning sectors
Is there any quick way to "clone" a sector in GZDB? In DeePsea, if I select a number of sectors and then open the the editing dialogue, I can click a "clone sector" button. This will copy the sector properties (flats, heights, light levels etc) of the currently highlighted sector to all of the selected sectors.

Is there anything similar in GZDB?