Can invisible secret lines become visible?

[Enjay]

Is there an option (user option, gameinfo, mapinfo, whatever) that allows secret lines to become visible once they have been seen? I am aware of the option to have map lines become magenta on the automap once the secret sector they bound has been discovered and the lines have been seen. However, this only works if the lines are not set to be invisible.

Since forever, I have been in the habit of making the lines inside a secret area invisible so that the automap doesn't give the game away. However, once the secret has been found, I would be quite happy for the lines to become visible and, even better, if the user has their options set to show secrets in magenta, for them to be highlighted in accordance with that preference. Is there any current way or should this be a feature suggestion?

[Edward-san]

... I'm worried that there will be probably a suggestion which will make your effort useless, ie 'can you keep the lines invisible regardless of the option?'

[Graf Zahl]

The only way to handle this that I consider feasible is to add a new line flag 'hidden when touching an undiscovered secret sector', then we won't need any counter-flags and other nonsense.

But since I know Enjay, this will be perfectly useless to him as a staunch DeepSea user.

[Gez]

A possibility would be a generic ACS function to change a linedef's flags. So far there are several functions that can change some flags (mostly blocking flags), but no general solution.

[Graf Zahl]

A general solution is out of the question. Most line flags need to be static by necessity. Aside from the blocking flags the only other ones I might consider are the visibility flags (secret, hidden)

[Gez]

... and shown.

[Enjay]

Hmmm, it seems as if what I want is more difficult than I hoped. My thought process was along the lines (pun) of:

Typing IDDT can already reveal hidden lines.
The game can already identify lines that surround a secret sector and colour them.

Therefore, I hoped that it might be possible to have a user option that means the following:
a) lines surrounding a secret sector are identified when the sector is found (or whenever they are normally identified).
b) regardless of whether they are flagged invisible or not, ZDoom uses the IDDT line display logic to display the lines identified in a).

It sounded simple in my head but it looks like the reality is different.


A UDMF flag would allow new maps to be created that do what I'm looking for (of course, whether such a staunch DeePsea user would take advantage of it is another matter entirely ) but it wouldn't solve what I was hoping to be able to address: to be able to play already existing maps with invisible-lined secrets and have the lines appear once the secret has been discovered.

[Graf Zahl]

It could be added as a user option - but it may also not quite do what you expect...

[Enjay]

A user option would be the nicest way to get this functionality - if it can be done without too much effort of course.

but it may also not quite do what you expect...

I'm guessing that the tricky part is getting the automap to only show a subset of the invisible lines (ie the ones bounding the secret sector) rather than showing all invisible lines?

[Graf Zahl]

No, the problem is that not all invisible lines connected to a secret will also be connected to the actual secret sector.

[Enjay]

Oh, that's fine by me. In fact, that isn't unexpected - it's exactly what I expected actually. At present, only the lines for the actual secret sector get shown in magenta so I wouldn't have expected other lines to magically become visible just because they are inside an area that the player may recognise as a secret room but the engine has no way to know about it being secret.

For me, it's enough that *something* appears picked out in magenta showing the location of the discovered secret sector on the automap. Other invisible lines nearby remaining hidden, even if they are the lines that show the path to get to the secret sector or something, would not be a problem for me at all.

So, this could actually happen then?

[Graf Zahl]

Could - yes.
Will - probably not. It's too much of a hack with all negative impication of that term.

[Enjay]

Fair enough. It was just a "nice to have" as far as I was concerned because I like seeing the magenta lines and I find them quite helpful. Thanks for the feedback anyway.