[SOLVED][ZSCRIPT] Issue with A_Warp

[Kan3x]

Hello

I'm having tons of troubles with A_Warp for unknown reasons.
Basically I want a monster to spawn a force shield in front of him and I want that shield to stay in position no matter where the monster goes or looks.
Easy, I thought, I simply call A_Warp every tic and that's it, but it doesn't work, the moment A_Warp gets called the shield parts "collapses" to the ground and at the monster's center, it's like it doesn't properly register the y and z coordinates I set in the function (the x coords work perfectly fine though...).

Here's the code for the shield parts:

---

Code: Select all

Class ShieldPart1 : Actor
{
	Default
	{
		Radius 48;
		Height 64;
		Health 80;
		RenderStyle "Add";
		Translation "112:127=192:207";
		Alpha 0.0;
		Scale 2.0;
		Bloodtype "ShieldHit";
		ThruBits 1;
		Projectile;
		+SOLID
		+SHOOTABLE
		+NOTAUTOAIMED
		+ALLOWTHRUBITS
		+DONTBLAST
		-NOBLOCKMAP
		+NOTELEPORT
		+NOBLOODDECALS
		+REFLECTIVE
		+DONTRIP
		+STOPRAILS
		+DONTTHRUST
		+VISIBILITYPULSE
		+BRIGHT
		DeathSound "ForceBarrier/Off";
		ReactionTime 525;
	}
	States
	{
	Spawn:
		HEXA AAAAAAA 1 A_FadeIn(0.1);
	Warp:
		HEXA A 1 {
			A_Countdown();
			A_Warp(AAPTR_MASTER, 256, 0, 32, 0, WARPF_NOCHECKPOSITION | WARPF_INTERPOLATE | WARPF_COPYPITCH);
		}
		Loop;
	Death:
		TNT1 A 0 {
			let w = War(master);
			if(w) {
				w.shield--;
			}
		}
		Stop;
	}
}

Class ShieldPart2 : ShieldPart1
{
	States
	{
	Warp:
		HEXA A 1 {
			A_Countdown();
			A_Warp(AAPTR_MASTER, 256, 0, 96, 0, WARPF_NOCHECKPOSITION | WARPF_INTERPOLATE | WARPF_COPYPITCH);
		}
		Loop;
	}
}

I tested (almost) every flag with no success at all.
Can you help me?

[Magdiel012]

Since you're already using ZScript, you can hold a reference to the shield in the monster class and set its position directly from there. You could also use TryMove() if you want it to be blocked by walls and other actors.

[Kan3x]

Since you're already using ZScript, you can hold a reference to the shield in the monster class and set its position directly from there. You could also use TryMove() if you want it to be blocked by walls and other actors.

Thanks for the help, but I just solved the issue. Apparently A_Warp doesn't properly work (?) on custom states in inherited classes, I just called the function from the Spawn state now and everything works fine.

Though at first I tried to look into TryMove(), but I didn't find much to learn from, can I ask you where I can find some documentation about these ZSCRIPT functions, variables and stuff? Cause I always feel like I'm missing a world of new possibilities.

EDIT: not true, I just forgot how inherited states work

[Magdiel012]

Though at first I tried to look into TryMove(), but I didn't find much to learn from, can I ask you where I can find some documentation about these ZSCRIPT functions, variables and stuff? Cause I always feel like I'm missing a world of new possibilities.

There is no one definitive place to find any of this stuff, you usually end up scrounging for bread crumbs from various sources. The wiki is a good place to start, followed by searching the forums to see if anyone else has asked about it already. After that I usually look through gzdoom.pk3 (file that comes with every GZDoom release) to see if any of the methods are described in comments (native ones usually aren't). If all else fails, I search through the GZDoom source for the native method and try to parse what the code is doing (my C++ comprehension isn't all that great though, to be honest).

Sometimes you have to get a little clever searching the wiki though. There's no page for TryMove(), for instance, but there is a page for CheckMove() that says:

Unlike TryMove this function will not actually move the caller if the check passes.

Which must mean that TryMove() behaves like CheckMove(), except it also moves the caller if it does pass the check.

[inkoalawetrust]

Since you're already using ZScript, you can hold a reference to the shield in the monster class and set its position directly from there. You could also use TryMove() if you want it to be blocked by walls and other actors.

Thanks for the help, but I just solved the issue. Apparently A_Warp doesn't properly work (?) on custom states in inherited classes, I just called the function from the Spawn state now and everything works fine.

Though at first I tried to look into TryMove(), but I didn't find much to learn from, can I ask you where I can find some documentation about these ZSCRIPT functions, variables and stuff? Cause I always feel like I'm missing a world of new possibilities.

You can find this information on the ZDoom Wiki, on the DECORATE and ZScript reference pages. Which are basically a portal to bunch of other articles related to DECORATE and ZScript, like the list of ZScript actor functions and ZScript virtual functions. Most of the DECORATE information like Action functions, DECORATE expressions etc still apply to ZScript as well. But keep in mind that a ton of the ZScript stuff is still not documented, such as a lot of functions on the ZScript actor functions page.

[Kan3x]

Thank you both for the answers!

There is no one definitive place to find any of this stuff, you usually end up scrounging for bread crumbs from various sources. The wiki is a good place to start, followed by searching the forums to see if anyone else has asked about it already. After that I usually look through gzdoom.pk3 (file that comes with every GZDoom release) to see if any of the methods are described in comments (native ones usually aren't). If all else fails, I search through the GZDoom source for the native method and try to parse what the code is doing (my C++ comprehension isn't all that great though, to be honest).

Sometimes you have to get a little clever searching the wiki though. There's no page for TryMove(), for instance, but there is a page for CheckMove() that says:

Unlike TryMove this function will not actually move the caller if the check passes.

Which must mean that TryMove() behaves like CheckMove(), except it also moves the caller if it does pass the check.

You can find this information on the ZDoom Wiki, on the DECORATE and ZScript reference pages. Which are basically a portal to bunch of other articles related to DECORATE and ZScript, like the list of ZScript actor functions and ZScript virtual functions. Most of the DECORATE information like Action functions, DECORATE expressions etc still apply to ZScript as well.

Yeah, that's how I'm going forward in this world x) but my coding experience is near to none, so after having seen a bunch of questions on this forum about (in this case) TryMove and checked CheckMove on the wiki, I abandoned the idea of trying to figure this out in this way cause I didn't really know how to properly cast pointers, call the functions, the correct arguments etc. I need a lot more "studying" and tries yet.

But keep in mind that a ton of the ZScript stuff is still not documented, such as a lot of functions on the ZScript actor functions page.

Speaking of which, dashing through the proper way to check for actor flags in anonymous functions, I stumbled on this https://github.com/jekyllgrim/ZScript_B ... /README.md. It looks like they're doing a very nice job