The "How do I..." Thread

[Matt]

2. an animated image on the status bar that appears if you do not have a specified inventory item?

Code: Select all

InInventory not TheItem
{
  drawimage "ANIMIMAG", x, y;
}

Incidentally looking that function up answers my first question too, thanks!

[gerolf]

How do I make the shotgun/SSG shoot plasma projectiles instead of puffs? Like they shoot out the same amount of cells as they did pellets. With that, how would I make them a projectile like the plasma rifle shoots rather than it just appearing wherever the you point at?

[Blue Shadow]

So, you want a plasma-firing shotgun? If so, here is an example:

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ACTOR PlasmaShotgun : Shotgun
{
  Weapon.SlotNumber 8
  States
  {
  Fire:
    SHTG A 3
    TNT1 A 0 A_FireCustomMissile("PlasmaBall", frandom(-5.6, 5.6))
    TNT1 AAAAAA 0 A_FireCustomMissile("PlasmaBall", frandom(-5.6, 5.6), FALSE)
    TNT1 A 0 A_PlaySound("weapons/shotgf", CHAN_WEAPON)
    SHTG A 7 A_GunFlash
    SHTG BC 5
    SHTG D 4
    SHTG CB 5
    SHTG A 3
    SHTG A 7 A_ReFire
    Goto Ready
  }
}

[renaldones]

So how do I get the PALVERS lump to work? The example on the wiki doesn't make any sense to me, but I assumed I just write the name of the texture/flat/sky and nothing else, but that crashed zdoom.

rgbtex* are the textures to use when playing while using the hardware renderer, e.g GZDoom. paltex* are the textures to use when playing while using the software renderer, e.g ZDoom. Simple as that.

As for the crash, I found it to do that when the textures defined in the lump don't correspond to actual textures loaded in the WAD/pk3.

But that's what I'm already doing. :/

I've got two skies, paletted png's, that are the same file. Zdoom seems to automatically find the best fit for the game's palette anyways, so I didn't see the point in making a separate doom-palette sky that I'd never use. One of them is "RSKY1" just like the texture in doom2, and the other is "RSKY1P" which, again, is still just the same image.

The lump says "RSKY1 RSKY1P" and it doesn't change anything. I tried reversing them, so it says "RSKY1P RSKY1" but that did the same thing: nothing. If it's not crashing anymore, I apparently have the lump right, I'm guessing there's something wrong with the images or maybe the order they're in? For the record, I have them right at the top just after mapinfo and between two markers, like this:

MAPINFO
P_START
RSKY1
RSKY1P
P_END

Before then, they were just sort of mixed in there randomly and their weren't any start or end markers anywhere. Moving those things around didn't change anything, but I'm bringing it up because maybe I just didn't move them around in the right way? Is it wrong to use "P_START" if they're skies? Are those different from other textures somehow?

...am I supposed to put ".png" at the end of the file names in the lump? (Just kidding, I've already tried that)

[gerolf]

So, you want a plasma-firing shotgun?

Just what I needed


How do I enable the commented out quit messages in Doom (the nasty ones about cyst holes and stuff)? Or, where do I find these and un-comment them out?

ALSO How do I get Doompatcher to work?

[Blue Shadow]

@renaldones: Can you post the WAD?

How do I enable the commented out quit messages in Doom (the nasty ones about cyst holes and stuff)? Or, where do I find these and un-comment them out?

Those quit messages don't exist in ZDoom in the first place to be un-commented out. But you can add them if you want (though I don't see why you should).

In a [wiki]MAPINFO[/wiki] lump, have this:

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gameinfo
{
  quitmessages = "<MESSAGE1>", "<MESSAGE>2", "<MESSAGE3>"
}

Replace <MESSAGE1>, <MESSAGE2>, <MESSAGE3> with the actual messages. You can add more messages if you like.

[renaldones]

I THINK I figured it out. I used to use XWE, and when I did everything just sort of... worked. I didn't really DO anything, I just clicked add and it added whatever it was and automatically figured everything out for me, which was nice. But then, it didn't have a "save as" or even "save" function, and I ended up losing some stuff because it's kind of weird. Anyhow, I started using SLADE.

I just now realized something was up because I was trying to load this wall texture with slade and doom builder just wouldn't have it. So I loaded it in with XWE, and looked at what it did differently. Apparently, by loading it through the "patches" tab it automatically generates markers and a lump. Which is cool, but on the other hand it I was so used to XWE automatically doing everything that it took me this long to realize all I was missing was a stupid lump. :/

So, I'm gonna go look up TEXTURE1 and PNAMES on the wiki and I'm assuming this is going to fix it.

Anyways, anyone know how to make it so a door only opens if you hit it with a rocket yet? I've kinda decided against doing that in a map at this point, but I'd still like to know if there's a way to script that.

[Blue Shadow]

I made a small test WAD, in which I put custom textures between P_markers, but didn't include TEXTURE1 or PNAMES lumps, and it workd fine . Sure, the textures won't appear in Doom Builder, but I was able to use them with PALVERS, still.

A tip: You can save yourself some effort by putting the textures between TX_markers instead of placing them between P_markers and having to create TEXTURE1 or PNAMES lumps.

Anyways, anyone know how to make it so a door only opens if you hit it with a rocket yet?

Check the example in the [wiki]CheckWeapon[/wiki] ACS function's page. It'll give you an idea on how to do this.

[renaldones]

Well, I've been poking around at it, and most of the time it just crashes. I guess I'm really, really terrible at writing lumps. I've tried whatever I can think of but none of it is really making a difference, and since you say you don't even need the lumps, I'm just lost.

So I uploaded a little version of the wad here: http://www.mediafire.com/?pfhmlv97btb9fxq

Right now it's just at the last thing I tried which is, you know, deleting the lumps and just using TX markers like you mentioned.

That check weapon thing is exactly what I was looking for! Awesome.

[Blue Shadow]

As far as I can see, your WAD seems to be set up properly, except the map didn't have a sky set up for it.

Here is a slight modification of your WAD. I added a MAPINFO lump to set the sky of the map, which should be RSKY1. I changed the colors of the RSKY1P to something different (green) so I can easily tell if it works or not. The result, as was expected, was that it works; if I run WAD with GZDoom I see the RSKY1. On the other hand, if I run it with ZDoom I see the paletted green sky used instead.

Also, just to be sure, what version of ZDoom/GZDoom are you using? The support for PALVERS has been added in ZDoom 2.6.0, so make sure you use that or higher versions like 2.6.1 or a recent SVN build.

[renaldones]

I, uh... deleted the MAPINFO before I uploaded it because I renamed the map MAP01 and knew that it already used RSKY1 anyways, so I didn't see the point.

More to the point: yeah, I see the green sky in ZDoom, which is the problem. If I'm not mistaken, those are the greens in the Doom palette, right? And the entire point of PALVERS is to load images that use their own palette, so they don't look awful when converted to doom's? I mean, the purpose of PALVERS couldn't possibly be to load true color images in GZDoom. Why on earth would anyone bother to make a lump for something GZDoom already automatically does 100% of the time? I mean... right?

Am I using it backwards, or did I somehow misinterpret "This can be used if a truecolor texture does not convert well to the game palette with the built-in closest match method?" And if there's no way to display textures in true color on ZDoom, is there at least a way to make the fog in GZDoom not so offensively awful and make the sky not turn into a cylinder?

Since you asked, I'm using an SVN build I downloaded a couple of days ago, so I'm like 90% sure the one from Nov. 19.

[Blue Shadow]

You don't seem to fully understand what PALVERS offers.

As you already know, ZDoom remaps the colors in an image to match the closest in the available palette, no matter what format the image is in or what colors it uses. When you use an image that uses colors outside the palette (be it 256-paletted or true-color), these don't usually translate well in the software renderer. In other words, ZDoom remapping results aren't always satisfactory. This is where PALVERS comes; it gives you the option to provide a palette-friendly version of that true-color graphic. You get to choose how the graphic's colors render, instead of depending on ZDoom's remapping. And of course, for the best results, you might want to stay within palette restrictions when making the palette-friendly version.

Note that the replacement graphic doesn't have to be something similar but with slightly different color remapping. You can use entirely different design or style.

I, uh... deleted the MAPINFO before I uploaded it because I renamed the map MAP01 and knew that it already used RSKY1 anyways, so I didn't see the point.

As a patch, it's called RSKY1. But as a texture, it's called SKY1. If you place it between TX markers, the graphic is considered a texture. If you place it between P markers, then it's a patch. Multiple patches comprises a texture.

[Ricochet]

How do I make a weapon have a different select/deselect animation from raising/lowering while still making it enter the ready state?

[insightguy]

how do I change an actor's (monster's) height?

Can monsters be given dummy inventory items?

[Zombieguy]

how do I change an actor's (monster's) height?

You must define a value for both "height", and "radius", between the brackets just before the state indicator.

Example:

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Actor My_Stoopid_Actor : DoomImp Replaces DoomImp
{
Height 56
Radius 20
States
{
Spawn:
    DUMB AB 10 A_Look
    Loop
    }
}

Can monsters be given dummy inventory items?

I'm just as curious as you are.