Alternate method for shell ejection in decorate?

[DenisBelmondo]

Four score and seven years ago, I made a theoretical method to implement shell casings in a weapons mod without the positioning of small, bouncing projectiles. I don't have enough knowledge of ZDoom to know if this is possible or not, but I'll just go ahead and share anyway.

Essentially you have your weapon. After 'A_FireBullets()' is declared, you would normally have an item such as 'casingspawner' to be declared after the a_firebullets. What if the casing spawner was an inventory item that drew itself on the player's screen? And what if you could somehow make that sprite change its offset and animation to emulate a spent casing's trajectory after being ejected from the weapon? Was this clear or did it seem that I was just rambling on unintelligibly about something no one really cares about again?

Spent-casing-talk is encouraged.

[hitmanx]

I think i know what you mean but something like that seems impossible, and why would you do that when you can just have normal bouncy shells that work fine.

Because with your method i assume they'll just dissapear through the ground, and the beautiful thing about shells in doom is they put such little tax on your computer because it's such an old game so you can have casings everywhere after a big gunfight.

[bgraybr]

You mean you want shell casings to be drawn on the screen or be part of the weapon animation? It's perfectly possible, and IMO it looks much better. I don't care to have the ground littered with shell casings anyways, and if you still want them you can have them drop from the player somewhere where it's not visible and it will look just fine.

Shouldn't this be in editing?

[DenisBelmondo]

[...]why would you do that when you can just have normal bouncy shells that work fine..

To me, bouncy shells seem harder to work with, that's all.

You mean you want shell casings to be drawn on the screen or be part of the weapon animation? It's perfectly possible, and IMO it looks much better. I don't care to have the ground littered with shell casings anyways, and if you still want them you can have them drop from the player somewhere where it's not visible and it will look just fine.

Shouldn't this be in editing?

I agree, and perhaps. I'm sure a mod will see this and move it.

[Sodaholic]

Four score and seven years ago

I had no idea Doom existed in 1924!

In all seriousness, the idea doesn't sound too great, to be honest. No other players could see it, and there's not much advantage to doing it that way.

[DenisBelmondo]

No other players could see it

That could be an advantage. Otherwise, no. You're right. Just seeing if it was possible though since I'm pretty decorate-inept.

[Matt]

You'd have less things around the map which could be a performance saver (though the alternative implementation might well make up for that)...

[amv2k9]

The only problem I've encountered with casing ejection, the way most do it now, is that the casings can go through walls if you're too close to one.

I was wondering: why do some people make weapons that spawn a casing spawner actor, which then fires the actual casing? It seems kinda redundant to me.

[wildweasel]

Why isn't this in Editing?

[TheDarkArchon]

The only problem I've encountered with casing ejection, the way most do it now, is that the casings can go through walls if you're too close to one.

I was wondering: why do some people make weapons that spawn a casing spawner actor, which then fires the actual casing? It seems kinda redundant to me.

Because until A_SpawnItem(Ex, I think) was made, the only way to launch them was via the missile launching functions, which has no Z-offset so you had to launch a dummy forward before launching the casing for that.

[DenisBelmondo]

Why isn't this in Editing?

Yeah, sorry 'bout that. I'm not exactly sure what I was thinking at the time of the topic's creation. Thanks for moving it.

Because until A_SpawnItem(Ex, I think) was made, the only way to launch them was via the missile launching functions, which has no Z-offset so you had to launch a dummy forward before launching the casing for that.

I've noticed this after making numerous blood replacements. IIRC I think you still need to use this method both for shell casings and blood. If I replaced Doom's blood with a blood puff, for example, it would retain the default blood's mass and gravity even if I tell it not to. Does anyone have an explanation as to why one has to make a dummy or a spawner actor instead of making a simple replacement?