sv_overridegetcvar

[Major Cooke]

My idea would be a section in the INI and/or a control lump where the user can enter default values for any CVAR they want to protect. This shouldn't just be limited to the stuff you and I may come up - I have seen abuse of too many seemingly benign CVARs that anything should be protectable. I have seen mods that started to play foul, even with something seemingly harmless as 'screenblocks', trying to force a specific setting the player may not have liked. I had to hack a few mods to get rid of this stupid stuff over the years.

Ideally I just would write a small text file with the desired values, and copy it into the WAD/PK3, never to be bothered again by such things.

This I can agree with. Things like D4D rely on the prices of upgrades being an actual cvar. We had to make it that way in order to work with our menudef menu system.

[Ed the Bat]

If it should still happen to be of any interest, I've made a revision for Ghoul's Forest 2 with the kill scripts removed, as per Eruanna's request.

If everyone decides that this all can/should be dealt with engine side, I'll scrap it.

[Major Cooke]

Engine side/user configurable please.

[Rachael]

If it should still happen to be of any interest, I've made a revision for Ghoul's Forest 2 with the kill scripts removed, as per Eruanna's request.

If everyone decides that this all can/should be dealt with engine side, I'll scrap it.

I think it should be kept, as the official ZDoom versions still will not have any changes engine-side to counter it. No sense in wasting time/effort if it's already done.

Engine side/user configurable please.

Of course.

[NeuralStunner]

It seems reasonable to do both: A user-level setting block and an override file for old, non-updated mods known to be abusive. The former provides more proactive defense against new hacks*, while the latter avoids everyone having to reinvent the wheel, so to speak.


* Provided the hack is innocuous enough: If a current in-dev mod is being actively abusive, shame on them.

[Rachael]

@NeuralStunner: Exactly.

[Cutmanmike]

Sorry to bump this but I need clarification: Would this feature be enabled by default? Yes, people can abuse GetCVAR to do some dumb things to the player but I don't think it's worth playing around those stupid WADs. I've used GetCVAR recently to detect which renderer is being used to get around software visual bugs (y'know, bugs that no one wants to fix because the software renderer is bad) and A LOT of people who play my mod can't run openGL mode, probably more than you expect. I made a boss fight that uses a ton of sloped 3d floors, and after finding out they don't work in software mode I actually went and programmed a second boss fight simply because there was no way they were getting fixed in software and I didn't want to abandon what I already created. If this gets implemented and is set to true by default, a lot of people are going to see a buggy mess due to GetCVAR vid_renderer returning true in software mode.

Other than my own work I've heard of maps using GetCVAR with the renderer (and other settings) to do things such as changing skyboxes that don't appear correctly in software mode. I think having this enabled by default is a mistake, and for what, one really old bad WAD file that could easily be fixed with a patch wad or update/revamp? It just seems stupid for me to have to tell (or force?) players to disable this flag by default for all the current WADs that use GetCVAR in a positive way rather than the other way around if they want to play specifically Ghoul's Forest 2 in software mode.

(The fact I'm the one who made GF2 and that dumb script feels like a cruel joke )

[Graf Zahl]

This feature was rejected due to the inherent problems. Sorry for the bad tag, it should have been "No".

[Nash]

QZDoom's true colour software mode is making all this moot as time goes by, to be honest... dynamic lights already work in the TCR... all that's left is skyboxes and models (of which the drawer already exists and works), get Zandronum to adopt the TCR, and everyone will be happy. :D

Of course all this won't "just" be easy and fast but it all seems do-able already and modders don't need to come up with shithacks anymore in future...

[Rachael]

Exactly. It's like - why even bother letting the mod check for the renderer? It's pointless. And plus, people STILL like to do silly ugh-worthy death scripts like GF2 did. (No offense, Cutman)

[Cutmanmike]

I want to believe that. You don't know how many frustrated conversations come out of our dev chat about how we shouldn't add xyz because it doesn't work properly in software mode.

[Major Cooke]

QZDoom's true colour software mode is making all this moot as time goes by, to be honest... dynamic lights already work in the TCR... all that's left is skyboxes and models (of which the drawer already exists and works), get Zandronum to adopt the TCR, and everyone will be happy.

Of course all this won't "just" be easy and fast but it all seems do-able already and modders don't need to come up with shithacks anymore in future...

Don't forget the triangle drawer and/or flat/roll sprite implementations, if that can happen.

@Cutman: Worry not, I wasn't targeting you specifically, just what was done as an example. (At this point I can just make the player absolutely immune to instant death scripts at the drop of a hat. I can even make him impervious to ACS health-setting of 0.)

[Graf Zahl]

I want to believe that. You don't know how many frustrated conversations come out of our dev chat about how we shouldn't add xyz because it doesn't work properly in software mode.

No matter what, the engine requirements belong in a text file, not in an ACS script, and certainly not in one that nukes the game! It's bad that such things even need to be told!

[Cutmanmike]

I agree, and haven't done anything that extreme since, but I think you overestimate the common PC user. Many of them barely know how to extract a zip file (especially in this "touch" generation of hardware), let alone bother reading a README text file. There's a reason I had to make a simple launcher for my mod that creates a default ini file for you with recommended settings.

[Rachael]

We're not the ones pulling them straight out of Youtube and Twitch.

It's always nice to have some good additions to our community, but by the time they get here they usually know a thing or two about it. Even if they don't, they're smart enough to figure out how to ask for help.