DieHard Wolfers

[Metalor]

I saw this somewhere and I was curious on if there wasn't already a toggle in the SDL code to ignore certain wall textures to allow the horizon line to show instead of those walls with a special tile toggle.

If not, how would I go about programing this into the SDL code?

[Metalor]

I recently tried stitching this piece of code into the HitVertWall and HitHortzWall functions in WL_DRAW so that the parallax skies would stretch on into the horizon, but my efforts ended up with just an empty tile space that was basically an open floor tile.

::: CODE :::

    if(tilehit==AREATILE-1)
    {
        if(lastside!=-1) ScalePost();
        lastside=-1;
        postwidth=1;
        postx=pixx;
        wallheight[pixx]=0;
        return;
    }

So that didn't work, and I tried modifying it just a bit to this:

::: CODE :::

    if(tilehit==AREATILE-200)
    {
        if(lastside!=-200) ScalePost();
        lastside=-200;
        postwidth=1;
        postx=pixx;
        wallheight[pixx]=0;
        return;
    }

Which turned out to be basically the same thing, and netted me with the same result.

Can anyone help me figure out how to stretch the Parallax sky into the horizon? Any help would be much-appreciated.

[Tricob]

I'm not really clear what you're trying to do. Are all walls and sprites supposed to be invisible through the wall in question?

[Chris]

I didn't completely understand the question either (open "floor tile"... ?).
But here's a quick hack to make Wall 1 (Gray Stone) blank, and make the parallax sky go through it...

Open wl_parallax.cpp and change this:

::: CODE :::

        int texoffs = TEXTUREMASK - ((xtex & (TEXTURESIZE - 1)) << TEXTURESHIFT);
        int yend = skyheight; // - (wallheight[x] >> 3);
        if(yend <= 0) continue;

Then open wl_draw.cpp and add this:

::: CODE :::

void ScalePost()
{
    int ywcount, yoffs, yw, yd, yendoffs;
    byte col;

    if (tilehit == 1) return;

#ifdef USE_SHADING

Now scroll down to the ThreeDRefresh() function and change the order so that DrawParallax is run before WallRefresh:

::: CODE :::

//
// follow the walls from there to the right, drawing as we go
//
    VGAClearScreen ();
    DrawParallax(vbuf, vbufPitch);
    WallRefresh ();

    // random code removed   

//
// draw all the scaled images
//
    DrawScaleds();                  // draw scaled stuff

There are smarter ways to do this using more code changes, but let me know if I'm on the right track.

[Metalor]

Quote:

I didn't completely understand the question either (open "floor tile"... ?).
But here's a quick hack to make Wall 1 (Gray Stone) blank, and make the parallax sky go through it...

Yeah, that's what I meant. Make the Parallaxing sky appear through it and make the wall invisible, but still physicaly there. My current code does not do either.

I also tried out what you suggested and I ended up with the exact same results:

[img]http://tiny-brain.deviantart.com/art/Parallax-Sky-Bug-253163932[/img]

I got that result with my original code. It seems that all the code does is erase the wall tiles that would be there. However, it may be my fault. I'm setting the tilehit to 200, is that bad? (Is it a floor, or does that not matter at all?)

[Chris]

Metalor wrote:

Yeah, that's what I meant. Make the Parallaxing sky appear through it and make the wall invisible, but still physicaly there.

Ok, cool. I don't think it matters what tile you use... as long as it's a wall (1-63 in the original wolf3d). 200 would only go to the HitHorizWall/HitVertWall sections and work if you increased all the MAXWALLTILES code to have over 200 wall tiles too.

By the way, this is what the code above looks like when I tried it in a fresh copy of Wolf4SDL:




The see-through areas are the Gray Stone 1 walls (this is the left room after the brown area in E1L1).

[Metalor]

If that's so, then perhaps it is the wall texture itself. I'll try setting it to something lower and see if I can get better results.

[Metalor]

Yep, that did it. Merely changing the wall from #200 to #64 did it (I recently bumped up the max walls to something like 96). Thanks for you help, it is much appreciated!

[Metalor]

I do have one more question regarding Parallax Skies. I'm currently curious in adding a Parallax sky for the floor as well (so, Parallax Floors then). I've read the original code changes on how to do this, but I'm wondering how to implement it in SDL, and to allow it to function seperately from Parallax Skies. That way, I only have Parallax Floors on levels where I want/need it.

Any suggestions?

[Tricob]

I don't have such code with me, but thanks for mentioning this. I actually plan to try enabling a feature where both "parallax sky and ground" are functioning at once (I keep forgetting to jot it down so I'll remember). It might not work like the 16-bit tutorial; in my version of the code, the parallax sky can't be disabled without disabling the "parallax floor" as well. The parallax floor uses the 16 textures after the parallax sky textures.

In the past, DoomJedi had expressed interest in such a feature as well. It was for an abandoned Team RayCAST mod, though.

[Metalor]

Well, I just kinda want the feature because it works in like Space-esq levels or even in Floating sky cities or something to that effect. But I wanted to have freedom to just pick one 16 set or another without them having to be in any particular order within the VSWAP. One thing I noticed is that I haven't used the BottomRight corner in the Feature Flags data, so would it be possible to simply use that as a toggle?

Merely copy and edit the Parallax Sky data so that it activate under the Bottom Right and works on the floor instead? I know that idea may be plausible, I just don't know how to change the Parallax Sky routine to accomplish this.

[Tricob]

Metalor wrote:

Merely copy and edit the Parallax Sky data so that it activate under the Bottom Right and works on the floor instead?

I'm sure that's doable. I'm just not 100% sure how to get the vertical position just right, as I haven't fussed with that part of the code yet. The trick is getting it so that both parallax sky and floor don't appear one or two pixels apart on alternate resolutions (or overlap each other, either). Something tells the code to "stop" drawing after doing the last row of pixels for the parallax sky. A good strategy - IMO - is tell it *not* to stop there, but to keep going, only it starts drawing using the textures for parallax floor, not for the parallax sky. I could have it calculate the pixel coordinate for the parallax floor each time it draws a pixel for the parallax sky, but it'd be v-e-r-y slow.

[Metalor]

If nothing else, is there a way to simply stretch the Parallax Sky so that it will appear in both the sky and floor regions (Kinda like how Doom does it) so that you can make it appear like you're walking around space or something?

[Tricob]

I'm sure this can be done, but with the image 100% taller than it was before, it'll definitely look strange.

[Metalor]

Hmmm. Yeah, I dunno why, but I guess I assumed that the image would stretch both ways, but now that I rethink it, that wouldn't work right I guess. Not unless I cut the Parallax Sky's texture count in half. But then, it'd look weird on levels that wouldn't use it.