Ultimate Doom Builder

[Enjay]

I'm not sure if this is a bug or more a case of "this isn't in the config files, so UDB doesn't know about it" or whatever (which is why this is here and not on GitHub) but I noticed that when you are placing sound environment things, the list of potential environments does not include all the ones that are listed on the Wiki reverbs page. I particularly noticed the ones near the top are not listed. I don't know if any further down are affected. I only noticed because I was trying to place an "Auditorium" environment.

I think I am loading all the required resource files.

Wiki Page


UDB


The unlisted items certainly seem to work if I type in the arguments myself.

[boris]

None of the reverbs are in the configs, they are all loaded from the reverbs.txt inside gzdoom.pk3. Looks like the missing ones are hardcoded for some reason.

[Enjay]

Sorry, clumsy wording on my part. I didn't mean UDB configs, more like "configs" from within gzdoom.pk3 etc - like the reverbs.txt file that you mentioned. However, those environments being hard coded, for whatever reason, would explain it - and is pretty much what I suspected might be going on.

Is it something that can be addressed, or will those have to be left as "enter manually" options?

[boris]

Is it something that can be addressed, or will those have to be left as "enter manually" options?

Not on UDB's side. Even if they were added to the UDB configs they would be overwritten by the existance of the reverbs.txt (like also happens with LOCKDEFS etc.). You could try to put a reverbs.txt with the missing ones into your resources.

[Enjay]

Fair enough. I'll give that a go. Thanks.

[edit]
I've also suggested that the hard-coded ones be moved into reverbs.txt (assuming that it is acceptable to do that). If they need to remain hard coded for whatever reason, then so be it.
viewtopic.php?t=80323

[Enjay]

You could try to put a reverbs.txt with the missing ones into your resources.

Well, I've just added a resource PK3 that only contains a minimal reverbs file for the missing entries. I think I got them all. I was going cross-eyed hopping between GitHub and the Wiki.

I didn't know all the parameters, and couldn't make sense of them from the hex numbers in the s_environment.cpp file, so I just opted for empty definitions and it seems to work for what I need (i.e. the entries to be listed):

Code: Select all

"Off" 0 0
{}

"Alley" 14 0
{}

"Arena" 9 0
{}

"Auditorium" 6 0
{}

"Bathroom" 3 0
{}

"Carpetted Hallway" 11 0
{}

"Cave" 8 0
{}

"City" 16 0
{}

"Concert Hall" 7 0
{}

"Dizzy" 24 0
{}

"Drugged" 23 0
{}

"DSP Water" 255 255
{}

"Forest" 15 0
{}

"Generic" 0 1
{}

"Hallway" 12 0
{}

"Hangar" 10 0
{}

"Living Room" 4 0
{}

"Mountains" 17 0
{}

"Padded Cell" 1 0
{}

"Parking Lot" 20 0
{}

"Plain" 19 0
{}

"Psychotic" 25 0
{}

"Quarry" 18 0
{}

"Room" 2 0
{}

"Sewer Pipe" 21 0
{}

//may be wrong
"Sewer Pipe 2" 21 2
{}

//may be wrong
"Sewer Pipe 3" 21 3
{}

"Stone Corridor" 13 0
{}

"Stone Room" 5 0
{}

"Underwater" 22 0
{}

I'm not 100% sure about the entries "Sewer Pipe 2" and "Sewer Pipe 3" they are also missing from the Wiki. (it only has "Sewer Pipe".) I *think* I converted the hex number to appropriate parameters, and they certainly sound about right in game. So, I think they are OK.

If anyone wants to use it, stick it in a file called reverbs.txt and into a PK3/WAD(I guess)/directory and load it as a resource. Probably best to exclude it when testing. This file only tells UDB about the names and thing parameters. It does not define the environments (GZDoom does that internally).

UDB now shows me a much more complete list of sound environments.



There are some really useful environments there that I had totally missed before. So, this was certainly worthwhile for me.

Edit: file attached to make things easier for anyone who wants to use it.

reverbs.pk3

Download it, load it as a PK3 resource in UDB, and exclude it from testing.

If anyone spots anything wrong with it, please let me know - but it seems to be doing everything that I need it to.

[Enjay]

Still on sound environments...

Environment zone colours
I was wondering if there was any way to change/configure the colours that get allocated to a ZDoom sound environment area?

Most of the time it's fine, but I was just working on a map where the sound environments that I wanted to use all had the same (or very similar(?)) colour allocated to them - a medium-dark blue. It made it a little tricky to spot where one area stopped and the next one started when zooming out to get an overview of the map. (Also, I find the light grey-blue colour that short passages get to be quite close in colour to the default grey for no altered sound.) If I could have tweaked the colours, it would have been easier.

I've had a look through the config files and the options, but I didn't spot anything. That doesn't mean it's not there, of course, merely that I didn't see it. No big deal if it can't be done. I just thought I'd ask.

General enthusiasm
BTW, I absolutely LOVE editing sound environments and sound propagation in UDB. Doing it "oldschool" was always difficult, and it was very hard to spot leaks caused by split sectors or barely noticeable very short lines or whatever. I was never 100% confident that I'd managed to set things up how I wanted, especially when revisiting an older map where I hadn't built-in such features from the outset. However, the two "ear modes" in UDB make editing these things an absolute breeze. It's so satisfying to click the final line and see an area grey out, knowing that I've definitely managed to isolate an area. So much better than continually dipping into the game to fire my pistol to check if it echoes, or if monsters wake up.

Suggestions
A couple of possible suggestions - if they are considered doable/worthwhile, I can transfer this to GitHub.

1) While in ZDoom sound environments mode, it would be useful to see where things other than sound environment actors are. I can still see model-based actors (because the model mesh is drawn), but all other things are invisible. I understand why this is - it would be bad to have the clutter of all the things on the map visible when editing sound environments, but it does mean that it is very easy to right-click and place a sound environment thing in the same position as another actor. That's not a problem for the game, but if I then go into regular editing mode, several things being on top of each other can make it hard to spot what I am looking for. Of course, I wouldn't want the other things to be drawn at full opacity either - that would just get confusing and far too busy in sound propagation mode. So, if some sort of subdued/greyed/translucent rendering of them could be done, just to know that there is something there, it would be really helpful.

2) Line colours. When in sound environments mode, if you click a line (to make it a sound boundary) it turns red. All good. However, if a sound environment thing has not yet been placed in an area, and you click lines within that area, they still change to have the sound boundary flag, but there is no visual representation of this in sound environment mode. I think it would be useful if sound boundaries remained red (i.e. current behaviour) but other lines with the sound boundary flag were highlighted in some other colour - so you know it's got the flag, but it isn't actually doing anything (yet).

Both of the above are just "nice to have" things, but I would have found them quite useful over the last few days.

Error
Also, for what its worth (not much, I know), while working with sound environments I have twice had one of those error dialogues that tell you there is a problem and gives you the option to exit or continue. Unfortunately, I didn't have the presence of mind to save the details either time. I just pressed continue, saved my file, quit and restarted and everything was fine. The first one really took me by surprise because it's a very long time since I last saw one of them.
To put it in context, I have spent a lot of time editing sound environments over the last week or so (many, many hours) and I have literally only had this twice (once three or four days ago, and again half an hour ago). So, it hasn't been a major problem, but it has happened. However, without more information (from me) I realise that this not-really-a-report is pretty useless.

The reverbs.txt file I posted
BTW, I have been using the reverbs file attached to my previous post for a lot of this editing and had no problems with it (the first error that I mentioned happened before I was using it, so I don't think it's related). So, the file seems to be good enough for ensuring a complete list of built-in environments while editing.

[boris]

Still on sound environments...

Environment zone colours
I was wondering if there was any way to change/configure the colours that get allocated to a ZDoom sound environment area?

Most of the time it's fine, but I was just working on a map where the sound environments that I wanted to use all had the same (or very similar(?)) colour allocated to them - a medium-dark blue. It made it a little tricky to spot where one area stopped and the next one started when zooming out to get an overview of the map. (Also, I find the light grey-blue colour that short passages get to be quite close in colour to the default grey for no altered sound.) If I could have tweaked the colours, it would have been easier.

I've had a look through the config files and the options, but I didn't spot anything. That doesn't mean it's not there, of course, merely that I didn't see it. No big deal if it can't be done. I just thought I'd ask.

The colors are not in the config, they are hard-coded. Same sound environment types will always have the same color. But there are only 24 colors defined, and since there could be 65536 different environment types different types will also share the same color.

General enthusiasm
BTW, I absolutely LOVE editing sound environments and sound propagation in UDB. Doing it "oldschool" was always difficult, and it was very hard to spot leaks caused by split sectors or barely noticeable very short lines or whatever. I was never 100% confident that I'd managed to set things up how I wanted, especially when revisiting an older map where I hadn't built-in such features from the outset. However, the two "ear modes" in UDB make editing these things an absolute breeze. It's so satisfying to click the final line and see an area grey out, knowing that I've definitely managed to isolate an area. So much better than continually dipping into the game to fire my pistol to check if it echoes, or if monsters wake up.

Make sure to check out the sound leak finder, if you haven't done so already: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH8t1BDC60M

1) While in ZDoom sound environments mode, it would be useful to see where things other than sound environment actors are. I can still see model-based actors (because the model mesh is drawn), but all other things are invisible. I understand why this is - it would be bad to have the clutter of all the things on the map visible when editing sound environments, but it does mean that it is very easy to right-click and place a sound environment thing in the same position as another actor. That's not a problem for the game, but if I then go into regular editing mode, several things being on top of each other can make it hard to spot what I am looking for. Of course, I wouldn't want the other things to be drawn at full opacity either - that would just get confusing and far too busy in sound propagation mode. So, if some sort of subdued/greyed/translucent rendering of them could be done, just to know that there is something there, it would be really helpful.

They are supposed to show, but thing transparency is somehow screwed. So it's a bug, but it's not rooted in the Sound Environment Mode, but a general problem. I think it's related to this one: https://github.com/UltimateDoomBuilder/ ... ssues/1064

2) Line colours. When in sound environments mode, if you click a line (to make it a sound boundary) it turns red. All good. However, if a sound environment thing has not yet been placed in an area, and you click lines within that area, they still change to have the sound boundary flag, but there is no visual representation of this in sound environment mode. I think it would be useful if sound boundaries remained red (i.e. current behaviour) but other lines with the sound boundary flag were highlighted in some other colour - so you know it's got the flag, but it isn't actually doing anything (yet).

It only adds lines that belong to an sound environment, but not all the other lines, so that's a bug.

Error
Also, for what its worth (not much, I know), while working with sound environments I have twice had one of those error dialogues that tell you there is a problem and gives you the option to exit or continue. Unfortunately, I didn't have the presence of mind to save the details either time. I just pressed continue, saved my file, quit and restarted and everything was fine. The first one really took me by surprise because it's a very long time since I last saw one of them.
To put it in context, I have spent a lot of time editing sound environments over the last week or so (many, many hours) and I have literally only had this twice (once three or four days ago, and again half an hour ago). So, it hasn't been a major problem, but it has happened. However, without more information (from me) I realise that this not-really-a-report is pretty useless.

Without the exact error message it's indeed not possible to look into it.

[Enjay]

I was not aware of the sound leak finder feature. Very useful - and very interesting to see how the sound is able to travel across a level and around blockages. Genuinely fascinating stuff.

Thank you very much for your answers, and for taking the time to explain things so clearly. It is very much appreciated.

If I do get another error message, I will try to have the presence of mind to save the details.

[Enjay]

Well, whadda ya know? I got another error message:

Code: Select all

***********SYSTEM INFO***********
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
UDB: R4217
Platform: x64

********EXCEPTION DETAILS********
Collection was modified; enumeration operation may not execute.
   at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowInvalidOperationException(ExceptionResource resource)
   at System.Collections.Generic.List`1.Enumerator.MoveNextRare()
   at CodeImp.DoomBuilder.SoundPropagationMode.SoundEnvironmentMode.Highlight(Sector s) in c:\build\UltimateDoomBuilder\Source\Plugins\SoundPropagationMode\SoundEnvironmentMode.cs:line 101
   at CodeImp.DoomBuilder.SoundPropagationMode.SoundEnvironmentMode.OnMouseMove(MouseEventArgs e) in c:\build\UltimateDoomBuilder\Source\Plugins\SoundPropagationMode\SoundEnvironmentMode.cs:line 446
   at CodeImp.DoomBuilder.Windows.MainForm.display_MouseMove(Object sender, MouseEventArgs e) in c:\build\UltimateDoomBuilder\Source\Core\Windows\MainForm.cs:line 1214
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnMouseMove(MouseEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseMove(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
   

As before, I was just pottering around in ZDoom Sound environment mode. I'd just clicked a line (the only way into a room) to isolate it from the corridor outside (which already had a sound environment allocated) and as the screen was refreshing, the error popped up. I cancelled the error and saved my map, then restarted and it was all fine.

Issue Raised on GitHub: https://github.com/UltimateDoomBuilder/ ... ssues/1174

[boris]

1) While in ZDoom sound environments mode, it would be useful to see where things other than sound environment actors are. I can still see model-based actors (because the model mesh is drawn), but all other things are invisible. I understand why this is - it would be bad to have the clutter of all the things on the map visible when editing sound environments, but it does mean that it is very easy to right-click and place a sound environment thing in the same position as another actor. That's not a problem for the game, but if I then go into regular editing mode, several things being on top of each other can make it hard to spot what I am looking for. Of course, I wouldn't want the other things to be drawn at full opacity either - that would just get confusing and far too busy in sound propagation mode. So, if some sort of subdued/greyed/translucent rendering of them could be done, just to know that there is something there, it would be really helpful.

They are supposed to show, but thing transparency is somehow screwed. So it's a bug, but it's not rooted in the Sound Environment Mode, but a general problem. I think it's related to this one: https://github.com/UltimateDoomBuilder/ ... ssues/1064

It wasn't related to that issue. But the thing transparency was still wrong - it was applied twice. Besides that I also changed the alpha value of the things, so they should be rendered the same as things in modes other than Things Mode.

[Enjay]

Oh, thank you so much. I've just updated and I can see all the things in Sound Environment mode now.
That'll help me avoid plonking environment things down on top of other things.

As a side note - many more hours in SE mode and no error/warning if I click when it's still refreshing. I'm increasingly confident that problem is also fixed (as already seemed highly likely).

[Marinelol]

Sorry if this was already asked but are there settings to force scale toolbars and icons in the interface? The DPI compatibility settings don't do anything on my machine and most icons are very hard to tell apart.

[boris]

Sorry if this was already asked but are there settings to force scale toolbars and icons in the interface? The DPI compatibility settings don't do anything on my machine and most icons are very hard to tell apart.

No, there's not.

[Enjay]

Purely out of interest (and I suspect the answer is rounding errors) when I place a 128x128 texture on a wall that is 96 wide by 96 tall and ask UDB to scale the texture to fit the wall, the scale factors come out as X: 1.333, Y: 1.33299994468689?

Obviously it doesn't really matter much, but it caught my eye, so I thought I'd ask. In fact, I've been meaning to ask for some time now.

(Sizes are just examples, it happens with other combinations too, where X and Y end up with different scale values - with the Y having far more decimal places than the X.)