[Fixed] 2.0.50 decals bug

[Nash]

I noticed that in 50, the blue marks for the plasma rifle do no appear.

Then I found out that decals that don't use "shade" (for example, the plasma rifle's blue mark decal) aren't drawn for some reason.

I tried removing the "shade" property from the BFGLITE decal and lo and behold; the lightning doesn't appear.

Please fix...

[Nanami]

I think Randy removed this for compatibility issues. Some DeHacked files may change the graphics around and different things may splat on the wall.

For example, in Batman Doom, the decal appears as a person, which is obviously undesirable.

I liked the effect before but compatibility is important. I think Randy should include original sprites in ZDoom.wad to read from, rather than reading the ones from Doom(2).wad - like the BFG Ball does.

[Enjay]

Well, I'd like to see the old fading plasma decals back. They were cool. If compatability is an issue for older mods that were never intended to have decals - turn decals off. As for putting the decal graphics in Zdoom.wad - well OK, but the plasma bullet graphics from the IWAD looked just fine - and I have played a few mods where the plasma bullet has been changed and also looks fine with the decal as it was in earlier versions. So my solution would be:

Restore the old decal behaviour
For old mods (regular and Zdoom), turn off decals if it bugs you ( cl_maxdecals 0 )
For new Zdoom mods, expect the author to provide suitable graphics/decal definitions

[Graf Zahl]

Well, I'd like to see the old fading plasma decals back. They were cool. If compatability is an issue for older mods that were never intended to have decals - turn decals off. As for putting the decal graphics in Zdoom.wad - well OK, but the plasma bullet graphics from the IWAD looked just fine - and I have played a few mods where the plasma bullet has been changed and also looks fine with the decal as it was in earlier versions. So my solution would be:

Restore the old decal behaviour
For old mods (regular and Zdoom), turn off decals if it bugs you ( cl_maxdecals 0 )
For new Zdoom mods, expect the author to provide suitable graphics/decal definitions

Put a copy of the plasma bullet into ZDoom.WAD and all problems are gone. This way there is no need to turn decals off. Decals shouldn't rely on lumps that can be altered by mods that aren't ZDoom specific.

For me it doesn't matter anyway. I don't like decals and have removed most of them (except the blood smears) from the DECALDEF lump.

[Enjay]

Put a copy of the plasma bullet into ZDoom.WAD and all problems are gone.

Unless of course you are playing a mod which changes the appearance of the plasma bullet - maybe a simple change like making them red, but when they hit the wall they leave a blue mark.

I've played quite a few mods that have different looking plasma bullets that look fine with the old decal definitions.

[Cyb]

perhaps the default decaldefs for projectiles should only work for projectiles that have not been dehacked in any way?

[Graf Zahl]

perhaps the default decaldefs for projectiles should only work for projectiles that have not been dehacked in any way?

That's the best solution of all!

[Enjay]

perhaps the default decaldefs for projectiles should only work for projectiles that have not been dehacked in any way?

Well, that wouldn't fix the problem I mentioned if only the appearance of the sprites had been changed, but the decal was moved to zdoom.wad. And what if the projectiles had been dehacked, but still looked good with the original decals - I dunno, a change of damage value, or an extended in flight or death animation or something?

I think the easiest option is to have things as they were and for people to be able to switch off decals when playing a mod that doesn't match the decals if it bothers them.

Perhaps to make this easier, a new cvar could be added. eg cl_showdecals. 0 would prevent decals showing, whereas 1 would show decals using the current cl_maxdecals value. A menu item to switch decals on and off could be added to help make this more accesible. I know some people would even like cl_showblooddecals (for blood splats) and cl_showshotdecals (for hitscan and projectiles). I suppose you could even divide it up further for monster versus player decals and hitscan versus projectiles, but I think that might be a touch excessive.

[Graf Zahl]

Perhaps to make this easier, a new cvar could be added. eg cl_showdecals. 0 would prevent decals showing, whereas 1 would show decals using the current cl_maxdecals value. A menu item to switch decals on and off could be added to help make this more accesible.

good idea.

I know some people would even like cl_showblooddecals (for blood splats) and cl_showshotdecals (for hitscan and projectiles).

absolutely!

I suppose you could even divide it up further for monster versus player decals and hitscan versus projectiles, but I think that might be a touch excessive.

I don't think anybody needs this.

[randi]

Fixed. Ironically, it happened because of a bug that prevented decals from using most textures.

[HotWax]

Am I the only one wondering what Graf and Enjay are smoking? Put the plasma bullet sprites in zdoom.wad? What for? So they can be overwritten twice instead of once and end up with the same result? To wit:

Command line: zdoom -iwad doom.wad -file SpiffyPlasmaMod.wad

Loaded wads (in order):

DOOM.WAD <-- Loads plasma sprites
ZDOOM.WAD <-- Overwrites plasma with same graphics
SPIFFYPLASMAMOD.WAD <-- Overwrites plasma with new graphics

Whoops, same error. Imagine that.

[Cyb]

steve: you can specify what sprites you want on the wall, so putting new graphics in zdoom.wad and giving them diff names (ie names not used by doom2.wad or any other wad) and then changing the graphic in decaldef would not cause that problem

[timmie]

Actually, iirc, zdoom.wad gets loaded before the iwad.

[HotWax]

Actually, iirc, zdoom.wad gets loaded before the iwad.

That's teh silly. Any particular reason why?

[Graf Zahl]

Actually, iirc, zdoom.wad gets loaded before the iwad.

That's teh silly. Any particular reason why?

So that the IWAD can override predefined stuff in ZDoom.Wad