More Pitch Fixes

[Graf Zahl]

The real question has to be: Why did nobody report these backwards facing issues and just worked around them? When I made the first public commits about that I specifically asked to testing that stuff.

The thing is, now we are in the worst possible situation: There's a lot of content out there that was made for the old and correct versions and some new content for the broken 2.2

[Caligari87]

I think the problem is that it's one of those things where usually the documentation doesn't clearly state "positive up, negative down" or whatever, and so someone using the function for a new project just goes with what works. "Oh, my missiles are going the wrong way, better invert that sign." Most of us aren't neck-deep in the source so we just assume that if it "works" that's how it was meant to be. This is especially insidious because it's such a simple "fix" for the modder, all I have to do is negate my final number and voila, it's perfect and I don't even consider it might possibly be a bug.

[Graf Zahl]

And despite all that, what I need right now are some simple test cases that cover various bad parameters so that I can test them against different versions.
These tests have to be in pre-scripting-branch DECORATE, i.e. no anonymous functions!

[Graf Zahl]

I think the problem is that it's one of those things where usually the documentation doesn't clearly state "positive up, negative down" or whatever, and so someone using the function for a new project just goes with what works. "Oh, my missiles are going the wrong way, better invert that sign" and doesn't even consider it might possibly be a bug. Most of us aren't neck-deep in the source so we just assume that if it "works" that's how it was meant to be.

What I mean is: If something changes in an unexpected manner, I'd expect to get a report. Ultimately I did get a report on A_FaceTarget, but it only was last month when that stuff had been broken for 7 months already. And now some people come in and demand to revert it because they used it wrong. What should I do?

[Caligari87]

I personally say fix it and get everything consistent. 7 months is not that long a time, and it's highly unlikely there's many high-profile mods created in that window which also have been abandoned to the point of not getting a patch or fix.

[Graf Zahl]

My plan. And then provide a set of wrapper functions, but not part of ZDoom but as a script file people can add to their mods later so that they do not have to change all parameters but just the function names.

First thing I need is some stripped down test stuff I can use to check behavior. If I do not get that I cannot safely determine which one is old and which one is not.

[Guest]

So what's affected so far?

definitely affected:
A_CustomMissile with pitch parameter
A_Face* (at least with max_pitch)

possibly affected:
A_ChangeVelocity
A_*Refire
A_BulletAttack
A_CustomComboAttack
A_BasicAttack
A_MonsterRail
A_SkullAttack
A_CheckLOF
A_CustomRailgun
A_SeekerMissile

Anything else? (or anything from the above we can conclusively rule out?)

[Major Cooke]

A_Face* including FaceMovementDirection.

[Matt]

First thing I need is some stripped down test stuff I can use to check behavior. If I do not get that I cannot safely determine which one is old and which one is not.

Would something like this do?

---

Code: Select all

actor pitcher:shotgunguy replaces shotgunguy{
	states{	//consider replacing "goto testend" with "SPOS F 2 bright A_LogInt(pitch)" to run all at once
	see:
		SPOS AABBCCDD 4 A_Chase
	missile:
		SPOS E 1 A_RearrangePointers(AAPTR_TARGET,AAPTR_TARGET,AAPTR_TARGET,PTROP_NOSAFEGUARDS)
				//set all pointers to target

		goto test1	// *** change this label to one of the following as needed ***

	test1:
		SPOS E 0 A_CustomMissile("doomimpball",32,0,0,CMF_AIMDIRECTION,-45)
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_CustomMissile(doomimpball,32,0,0,CMF_AIMDIRECTION,-45)")
		goto testend
	test2:
		SPOS E 0 A_CustomMissile("doomimpball")
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_CustomMissile(doomimpball)")
		goto testend
	test3:
		SPOS E 0 A_FaceTarget(0,0)
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_FaceTarget(0,0)")
		goto testend
	test4:
		SPOS E 0 A_FaceTracer(0,0)
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_FaceTracer(0,0)")
		goto testend
	test5:
		SPOS E 0 A_FaceMaster(0,0)
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_FaceMaster(0,0)")
		goto testend
	test6:
		SPOS E 0 A_ChangeVelocity(1,0,1,CVF_RELATIVE)
		SPOS E 0 A_FaceMovementDirection(0,0,0)
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_FaceMovementDirection(0,0,0)")
		goto testend
	test7:
		SPOS E 0 A_SetPitch(-70)
		SPOS E 0 A_ChangeVelocity(cos(-pitch)*20,0,sin(-pitch)*20,CVF_RELATIVE)
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_SetPitch(-70); A_ChangeVelocity(cos(pitch)*20,0,sin(-pitch)*20,CVF_RELATIVE)")
		goto testend
	test8:
		SPOS E 0 A_SetPitch(-70)
		SPOS E 0 A_SpawnItemEx("doomimpball",0,0,32,cos(-pitch)*20,0,sin(-pitch)*20)
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_SetPitch(-70); A_SpawnItemEx(doomimpball,0,0,32,cos(pitch)*20,0,sin(-pitch)*20)")
		goto testend
	test9:
		SPOS E 0 A_MonsterRefire(0,"testend")
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_MonsterRefire(0,testend)")
		goto testend
	test10:
		SPOS E 0 A_BulletAttack
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_BulletAttack")
		goto testend
	test11:
		SPOS E 0 A_SkullAttack
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_SkullAttack")
		goto testend
	test12:
		SPOS E 0 A_CheckLOF("test12a")
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_CheckLOF BLOCKED")
		goto testend
		test12a:
			SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_CheckLOF CLEARED")
			goto testend
	test13:
		SPOS E 0 A_CustomComboAttack("doomimpball",32,1,"baron/melee",true)
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_CustomComboAttack(doomimpball,32,1,baron/melee,true)")
		goto testend
	test14:
		SPOS E 0 A_BasicAttack(5,"imp/melee","doomimpball",32)
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_BasicAttack(5,imp/melee,doomimpball,32)")
		goto testend
	test15:
		SPOS E 0 A_MonsterRail
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_MonsterRail")
		goto testend
	test16:
		SPOS E 0 A_CustomRailgun(10)
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_CustomRailgun(10)")
		goto testend
	test17:
		SPOS E 0 A_CustomRailgun(10,0,blue,red,RGF_EXPLICITANGLE,0)
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_CustomRailgun(10,0,blue,red,RGF_EXPLICITANGLE,0)")
		goto testend
	test18:
		SPOS E 0 A_CustomRailgun(10,0,blue,red,RGF_EXPLICITANGLE,1)
		SPOS E 1 A_Log("A_CustomRailgun(10,0,blue,red,RGF_EXPLICITANGLE,1)")
		goto testend
	testend:
		SPOS F 2 bright A_LogInt(pitch)
		goto see
	}
}

[Edward-san]

Graf, do you mind if you test these also with zandronum 3.0 beta (requires commenting out A_FaceMovementDirection)?

[Matt]

While a final fix remains pending, can those of us hoping to update our mods assume from hereon in that all pitches will be treated negative up, positive down and that any exceptions to that will eventually be fixed if found?

[Edward-san]

No, I think ZDoom will add new action functions which would do the correct thing.

[Matt]

Ugh, thanks but that was opposite of the sort of answer I was looking for. I'll just have to tell everyone to use an earlier dev version of GZDoom until this is resolved. [EDIT: apparently 2.2.0 works with HD if you remove the A_SetInventory and just accept that the thing will constantly crash on exit]

I think the problem is that it's one of those things where usually the documentation doesn't clearly state "positive up, negative down" or whatever, and so someone using the function for a new project just goes with what works.

For what it's worth, until this happened I've always assumed it was the player that was glitched in having positive values mean look down. (Seriously who thought it was a good idea to do it this way anyway???)

[Graf Zahl]

(Seriously who thought it was a good idea to do it this way anyway???)

We all know... we all know...

[Graf Zahl]

So, A_CustomMissile has landed on the chopping block and been replaced by a new function that implements it properly. This one was particularly bad because it would set the projectile's pitch value wrong.