Newbie Modder

[Enjay]

Also ... How does one add dynamic lights, and is it possible to attach them to certain objects? (i.e. Fixing it so that every ceiling light will cast a light.)

Dynamic lights can be added as stand-alone light source items or defined and attached to things in a special lump. How to do both is explained in the documentation thread. Both are very straight forward. However, the dynamic stand-alone light sources allow you to set arguments like how red/green/blue they are. Thing arguments need you to be using the ZdoomHexen map format. I'm not sure if there are light objects for Doom mode maps.

Attaching dynamic lights to an existing object is incredibly easy (and available in Doom mode). You define how you want the light to be - just a few lines of simple code - then define which frames for a given actor you want to use the light(s). If you grab the lights definition WAD from the download page, you'll see how it's done if you look at the doomdefs lump in the WAD.

If you want to DL a WAD that does something similar to what you have asked about (ceiling lights) I just released a WAD that takes advantage of just that. It's called Operation Overlord and you can find a link to it at the bottom of a page discussing crouching in GZdoom.

Documentation thread

http://forum.drdteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=231

Overlord

http://forum.drdteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=726

Oh, and if you are still using Wintex, my advice it to try another program. Wintex has severe limitations on what it can do, especially where new ports with custom lumps and features are concerned. You have already come up against one, and it won't be the last. Have you tried XWE or the lump management tools in DeePsea (not limited in the shareware version)?

[Paul]

Overlord
http://forum.drdteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=726

The new version is soo awesome. Especially the propagandic posters.

[Boingo the Clown]

ACTOR Crown : Inventory 21055
{
+COUNTITEM
+AUTOACTIVATE
Inventory.DefMaxAmount
Inventory.PickupSound "pickups/crown"
Inventory.PickupMessage "Crown"
States
{
Spawn:
TREA B -1
Loop
Pickup:
TREA B 0 ACS_ExecuteAlways(700, 0, 5000)
Stop
}
}

Regarding Inventory.PickupSound "xxxx/yyyy", what do xxxx and yyyy refer to?

I attempted to insert the names of sounds like DSPISTOL inside the quotes, but when I did, all I got was silence when the item was picked up.

Please remember that I have no experience what so ever with ZDooM or its protocols, so please be thurough when you explain. Pretend I know nothing, which, coincidentally, is exactly what I currently know.

How do I get that to play a custum sound? Does the sound have to be in the format DSxxxxxx?

[wildweasel]

The Inventory.PickupSound refers to a corresponding entry in the SNDINFO lump. In your case, here's what you'd add to the SNDINFO lump in your wad:

Code: Select all

pickups/crown DSCROWN

which aliases "pickups/crown" to the respective sound lump in the wad file. Then when you add the Inventory.PickupSound to your DECORATE item, you use the SNDINFO alias that you just made, instead of the lump name.

Though sometimes I wish there was a way to just directly specify the lump name through DECORATE and such, instead of having to define SNDINFO entries for everything.

[Graf Zahl]

Please remember that I have no experience what so ever with ZDooM or its protocols, so please be thurough when you explain. Pretend I know nothing, which, coincidentally, is exactly what I currently know.

This might be a good read then.
This as well. But better read the tutorial first.

[Enjay]

I attempted to insert the names of sounds like DSPISTOL inside the quotes, but when I did, all I got was silence when the item was picked up.

I know you probably don't want to use DSPISTOL in the final version, but to use existing sounds, check the SNDINFO lump in GZDOOM.PK3. Search for DSPISTOL (or the sound lump you want) and you'll find the "xxxx/yyyy" name for it.

In this case, you should find something that looks like this:

Code: Select all

weapons/pistol			dspistol

so the "xxxx/yyyy" name in this case is weapons/pistol but be aware, the same sound lump can be used for different sound names. Which, of course, is one of the advantages of the system.

[Boingo the Clown]

Many thanks to all, and thanks for being patient with me at this time.

I've gotten the sounds to work.

So far, so good.

[Boingo the Clown]

A couple more questions:

Does GZDooM support high res textures?

If so, where can I find out how to add them?

Also ...

Is it possible to improve the accuracy of the trooper's shot, and increase the damage it does?

[Nash]

Regarding high resolution textures:

ZDoom (and therefore GZDoom) supports high res textures through several methods.

First method: Through the regular TEXTUREx lump.

If you view TEXTURE1 / TEXTURE2 using XWE, you will see a "scale" parameter for all the textures. I can't really explain to you technically how the numbering system works, but putting in 16 will scale the texture in half, 32 will scale it 4 times smaller, 32 will scale it 8 times smaller, etc.

So if you have a patch graphic that is 256 x 256 and you want it to be scaled down to fit a 128 x 128 wall, you would put 16 into the X scale and Y scale values in XWE.

More detailed information on this at the ZDoom wiki (http://zdoom.org/wiki/). Go to Level Editing -> Wad structure, then click Texture.

Second method: HIRESTEX lump. This lump is GZDoom exclusive.

I don't remember the details as I haven't used this lump before. Check out the documentation (http://forum.drdteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=231) thread. Though I did read somewher that this lump was at one point disabled? Can someone clarify?

At any rate, you really ought to bookmark the wiki (http://zdoom.org/wiki/) and read everything there. It's the ultimate source for ZDoom editing reference. The rest that are GZDoom specific, you can get it through the GZDoom documentation (http://forum.drdteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=231) thread.

[Graf Zahl]

Is it possible to improve the accuracy of the trooper's shot, and increase the damage it does?

You'd have to create a new monster with DECORATE where you have the options you need.

[Enjay]

If you view TEXTURE1 / TEXTURE2 using XWE, you will see a "scale" parameter for all the textures. I can't really explain to you technically how the numbering system works, but putting in 16 will scale the texture in half, 32 will scale it 4 times smaller, 32 will scale it 8 times smaller, etc.

So if you have a patch graphic that is 256 x 256 and you want it to be scaled down to fit a 128 x 128 wall, you would put 16 into the X scale and Y scale values in XWE.

It's also worth highlighting how offsetting such a texture works because it confused me for a while - and there are now 2 options to try and combat the confusion.

By default, a texture will be offset by pixels in the original image. Therefore, if you have a 256x256 image scaled to be a 128x128 texture, as per Nash's example, and you give it an offset of 64, it will only be shifted by quarter of its width as opposed to a normal 128x128 texture that would be moved by half its width.

However, you can set an option to change the above. I'm not sure exactly how it's done in XWE (I use DeePsea) but it involves putting a value into the flags field for that texture. This option allows the texture to be offset by "world units" rather than pixels. So, again using the above example, an offset of 64 would move your scaled texture by half its width.

Option 1 allows for very fine control of texture offsets
Option 2 allows hi-res textures to be easily slotted in to replace existing ones or to behave as their effective size rather than their actual size.

[Boingo the Clown]

Okay. I've been playing with the high res textures a bit today, and I must say that I am pleased.

Here is a section of grey stone wall with a portrait of Hitler on it in DeiMWolf 0.9.0 (Legacy version): http://www.doomlegends.com/deimwolf/DWV090SS06.png

Here is the wall with 4 x the resolution: http://www.doomlegends.com/deimwolf/WIP004.PNG

I am continuing to use the DooM palette, since that is what I am used to using at the moment.

It will take me a while to convert all of the textures over, but I will do my best.

[Graf Zahl]

I am continuing to use the DooM palette, since that is what I am used to using at the moment.

Why don't you just allow each texture to have its own palette? You really don't need to remap anything and can keep it as optimized as possible.

[Nash]

Yeah, don't convert the textures to the Doom palette - GZDoom can handle textures with their own palette.

Though I've been using true colour textures lately.

[Graf Zahl]

IMO they waste too much storage if not absolutely essential. In most cases a 256 color custom palette is enough.