A Change of Plan

[75]

its possible to be telefragged by a newly spawning player.

sv_unblockplayers is a fairly recently added feature to zandronum that prevents telefragging, it's on on my servers and I highly recommend that anybody who runs coop servers to turn it on as well.

Hmm... hey Arch, what map format is TLQ currently in? The last public beta was a Hexen format, has that changed? If not, have you ever considered switching to UDMF? You can do SO much more with it.

UDMF has serious problems in zandronum due to buggy fractional precision vertex coordinate support. Non integer vertexes cause invisible blocking walls, HOMs that only show up in opengl, other HOMs that only show up in software, strange collision with walls, etc...

It's not impossible to use but it can cause some really strange and difficult to find bugs. After using UDMF to make most of the maps in chex pack, I regret using UDMF and I have no intention of using it again for zandronum (despite the great features it has) until the non integer vertex bugs are fixed. zDoom should support it fine, though.

GzDoombuilder supports a mode that allegedly restricts vertexes to integer coordinates, but from my experience with it those vertexes still manage to slip in, especially on diagonal linedefs.

[arch129]

Are you gonna bring back the cereal people since the story's not very central anymore? I was a bit disappointed when you said you were making them into humans, half the fun of Chex Quest is the ridiculous in-your-face advertising everywhere.

The characters will be cereal people again.

Hmm... hey Arch, what map format is TLQ currently in? The last public beta was a Hexen format, has that changed? If not, have you ever considered switching to UDMF? You can do SO much more with it.

I'm unfamiliar with UDMF. I've read 75's post about his problems with the format, can you tell me what kinds of stuff you can actually do with UDMF?

[MajorSlime]

K, as far as the non-integer vertex's, just make sure you don't make any -_- The only times I've ever ended up making some is when I cross two lines. It'll automatically make a point in the middle, which most often is non-integer. Its an easy fix though; just drag it around after you've created it to re-align it to the integer grid.


As far as the features, UDMF supports full texture/flat manipulation. By this, I mean you can scale, rotate, and offset both walls AND floors/ceilings any way you want. (Except for rotating wall textures. Can't do that). Linedef actions are a bit easier, as instead of selecting from a drop down how you want it to be activated, there are a bunch of check boxes. In other words, one linedef action can be activated multiple different ways. You can also tag linedefs like you would actors, so you don't need the Line_SetTag (or whatever it was called) action special anymore. There are a bunch more features, such as individually setting fog colors/intensities in different sectors, alpha channel manipulation, sound properties, etc.


Easiest way to see for yourself is to create a new map in UDMF format, edit a sector, and you'll see a third tab in the edit box. Check that out; it has all the options/etc. Most of the same options exist for linedefs via a new button next to where you edit the sidedefs. The only downside I know of is that with the non-integer vertex's. Although, honestly, its rather easy to avoid... Just make sure to jiggle any vertex created by the intersection of two lines.


Also, do you like the scripts I made?

[75]

I've had to jiggle most of CTF03... several times over. Admittedly it's a pretty complex map, sector-wise but it took a really long time to fix and I still find bugs. Mostly happened in the stair areas, I think it depends on how you draw the maps.

Probably a good compromise would be to draw the layout without linedef actions or sector actions in hexen or doom format, then copy/paste that layout into a window of DoomBuilder using UDMF and decorate / detail the map in UDMF.