[fixed]Problem with rising floor/ hidden sector trick 0.9.11

[Enjay]

You know the trick where you lower a sector, don't put textures on the lower sidedefs, stick a monster in the hole and have the monster "magically" pop up in front of the player? Well, I think it might be broken in 0.9.11.


I don't normally use this effect - I find it a bit clumsy - and if I need to hide a sector, I usually use transfer heights. However, in one case this was not an option because the thing that was popping up from under the ground was built from sectors. The item in question looks like a tank (the military vehicle, not a big container Actually, it doesn't pop-up in front of the player either, it appears off-screen so when the player re-visits an area, an enemy tank has arrived.) The tank uses slopes. So transfer heights wasn't an option because that would flatten the sectors and I couldn't "build" the tank at runtime using a script because slopes can't be modified at runtime. So, I built my tank in DeePsea, lowered it by 1024 units to hide it and didn't put textures on the lower sides. Then, when the tank needed to appear, a script raised all the sectors that make the tank by 1024 units. Voila, a tank where there wasn't one before.

This worked in Zdoom and worked in 0.9.9 however, something about 0.9.11 breaks the effect because when you go and look at the area before the tanks arrive, you can see big tank-shaped "holes" in the ground displaying f_sky.

For info, in case it's relevant, the sectors in question are near the edge of the map and are "outside" - ie they have f_sky on the ceiling.

For me, it's not a big deal. I've modified the level. The tanks are now always at full height but hidden behind a wall. Instead of just arriving, the wall gets smashed down. Not quite so satisfying because you loose the "how the feck did they get there" factor, but the level works. However, this is a commonly used effect and if it isn't working, it will break quite a few maps.

BTW, this would be an ideal place for a model. I'm not sold on using models for monsters in Doom. I've seen nothing to convince me they will work or even look remotely as good as sprites - even with all their downsides. However, scenery and suchlike are perfect. Pillars and so on look great and my tank would too. However, I'd have to learn to make 3D models as well. Currently I'm clueless on that front.

[Graf Zahl]

Could ypu send me the level? I have an idea what change caused it but I need something to test. The hole effect in general still works but there seems to be something in your setup that breaks it.

[Enjay]

OK, I pulled the level out of my mod, replaced all the textures with Doom default ones and deleted all the items because there were lots of non standard ones - and the problem went away!

After a bit of digging, I found where the problem lies - the sky is a skybox (should have mentioned that earlier, but I forgot). The attached map is the version with replaced textures and removed things (so it looks odd - but you may recognise it as a modified version of one of Daniel's maps). If you play on easy or medium, you'll see the problem. I placed the player start so it's easy to find. If you start a hard game, the skybox camera is not present and the problem has gone.

If you really want, puke 201 to get the tanks to raise.

[edit] Bug fixed, so level removed. [/edit]

[Graf Zahl]

Fixed