My Heretic mod's ToP powerup got broken by unknown reasons

[Hexereticdoom]

Hello everyone, I felt compelled to open this topic because I have encountered a rather unusual problem these last few days...

I suppose you already know about my Heretic mod, which I have had a little abandoned, but at the same time I had thought to return to it for some future updates...

Well, I hope to explain myself more or less OK... The fact is that after a testing game, I have been able to verify that after using the Tome of Power powerup in any of the magic weapons of the mod, once it gets expired, the selected weapon loses the powerup effect, but the special SFX that loops during the influence of the ToP keeps playing indefinitely... A thing which has never ever happened before to me.

What's more, I remember perfectly that the previous behaviour was the following one: the Tome of Power is activated, the magic weapon enters in its 'powerful' state, and once the powerup sequence expires, the weapon is deselected and selects the normal weapon... But since a couple of days ago, this radically changed somehow ... Now what it does, once the ToP magic influence is depleted, the LZDoom's engine does not deselect and raises the standard weapon, it just swaps it instantly, but it does not call the Decorate function to stop the looping SFX anymore. Why? I have no idea at all... It's simply baffling.

Furthermore, in the next video which displays the showcase weapons of the mod (from 7:09) it's perfectly shown that the previous sequence (deselect powered weapon -> stop SFX loop -> raise normal weapon) is correctly executed:



Now the question is... How do I get back to this 'tomed weapons' behaviour? I have searched and re-searched in the LZDoom's menu in search of some option that returns it to how it was, without success...

Also clarify that, I have already tested running the mod without any addon, and even apart I have used the most recent version of GZDoom (4.8.2) with a clean INI file, just in case it was something strange related to LZDoom, but the main problem still persists... I don't understand at all why it doesn't work now like it used to.

(In addition, the Shazam addon by Sgt. Shivers, which was used as base to my mod, is also affected in the same way by this issue).

So then, if by chance you find the solution to this, I will be very glad to hear it, because right now I am totally stuck and baffled with this matter...

Thanks in advance and have a nice day.

[Hexereticdoom]

Impressive... More than 200 views, and all of them DK/NA/REF...

Really nobody knows any solution?

[wildweasel]

Impressive... More than 200 views, and all of them DK/NA/REF...

Really nobody knows any solution?

I don't know a solution, but I can at least put more eyes on it for you by moving it to Bugs - since I'm fairly sure it is one.

[Hexereticdoom]

Hmm, seems after all I opened the topic in the wrong place... My apologies.

Thanks for moving it, WildWeasel.

[Graf Zahl]

The first thing you should do is try to track down the GZDoom version where the problem started.

[Hexereticdoom]

The first thing you should do is try to track down the GZDoom version where the problem started.

OK, after testing several GZDoom versions from the 4.x.x branch taken from here, seems I have discovered some revealing information:

- From v4.0.0 to v4.5.0: powered weapon deselects and selects the normal one and the looping sound stops, as expected.
- From v4.6.0 to v4.8.2: powered weapon switches instantly to normal one, and the looping sound won't stop...

The same goes to LZDoom, I can confirm that it also fails from the same release in which the changes to version 4.6.0 were adopted.

Hope this helps for fixing this weird, annoying bug for good...

[Graf Zahl]

That "weird annoying bug" was reverting the behavior back to the original.

[Hexereticdoom]

That "weird annoying bug" was reverting the behavior back to the original.

Oh, I get it... So it was intentional after all, wasn't it?

And I guess there is currently no option in GZDoom/LZDoom to bring back the v4.0.0-v4.5.0 old behaviour... Or is there?

[Hexereticdoom]

All right.. It doesn't matter anymore. I've figured out a way to fix this unwanted behaviour (at least that's my opinion), so I'll be working on a new, heavy update for the mod these days to come.

You can close or delete the thread if you consider it convenient... Thank you for your attention.

[Graf Zahl]

Even if it may be too late for you, the proper place to terminate an effect attached to a powered up weapon is the EndPowerup method in the weapon actor. This is guaranteed to get called when the tome expires and before the game switches back to the base weapon.

[Hexereticdoom]

Even if it may be too late for you, the proper place to terminate an effect attached to a powered up weapon is the EndPowerup method in the weapon actor. This is guaranteed to get called when the tome expires and before the game switches back to the base weapon.

Good info, didn't know that at all... Too bad it's an exclusive feature for ZScript, something I'm not expert enough in yet... I'm afraid it's not a valid option for now.

Anyway, on one side, it may have turned out better this way, because if the old behaviour after all was just an unsafe method that could lead to some glitches -according to what I have read these days in the v4.6.0 changelog- then at the end it's totally logical and understandable that it has been fixed that way...

And on the other hand, I think the recent changes I'm making to the mod will allow me to expand it more easily than before (especially in the matter of weapons) because to tell the truth, creating an ultra-powerful version of each one is something that has given me on several occasions more than a headache... And best of all, the substitute powerup will now be valid for all weapons, even non-magical ones...

Seems this time that famous proverb has been fulfilled, the one that says: "Every cloud has a silver lining"... Or as we say in my language: "No hay mal que por bien no venga".