Beastiary; Doom Style; Divine Shadow error

Hi, the Divine Shadow wad seems to be missing decorates and won't load.

I saw your message in the Shoutbox before I saw this post, so I'll repeat the same questions here: is your version of ZDoom/GZDoom up-to-date? You can get the newest ZDoom here , and the newest GZDoom here . I've tried this out extensively before and after upload, and I guarantee it works fine.

Also, are you trying to run this in, say, Zandronum? Compatibility with Zandronum isn't guaranteed, since it's "behind" on certain ZDoom/GZDoom features.

Hi MagicWazard, I 'm using Zandronum 3.0 alpha, it's associated with Doom Seeker. I create game in Doom Seeker and play doom offline. I was using Zandronum 2.1.2 but had to upgrade to 3.0 because it kept getting errors loading some wads.,I can't use GZDoom because I'l get the infamous blue screen of death in Windows 7. Maybe I'll just try the ZDoom 2.8.1. from the link you gave me. I got the Divine Shadow monster to work using ZDoom 2.8.1. Thanks!.

SirBruce wrote: I can't use GZDoom because I'l get the infamous blue screen of death in Windows 7. Maybe I'll just try the ZDoom 2.8.1. from the link you gave me. Thanks.

"Infamous blue screen of death in Windows 7"? I'm not aware of GZDoom causing BSOD issues. I use GZDoom on Windows 7 myself (both desktop and laptop), and never have any problems apart from the occasional (recoverable) framerate hitch. Are you talking about Windows itself getting a BSOD, or just GZDoom? Either way, you might want to consider visiting the GZDoom site and posting a bug report. I would imagine that if Zandronum runs, then GZDoom should as well (that is, if you're using Zandronum's GL rendering mode, which is purportedly the same as GZDoom's).

If it makes you feel any better, I recently posted a bug report on the GZDoom forums about the 64-bit OpenGL 3 version not rendering correctly on my computer--and it came down to my graphics drivers being about 4 years old. (That's what you get for letting Windows look for the most up-to-date drivers, instead of doing it your own damn self.)

But either way, I can tell from your screenshot that the issue is that Zandronum doesn't support one of the action function flags used by "A_FadeOut"--specifically, the flag "FTF_REMOVE", which is only available as of the most recent versions of ZDoom/GZDoom. Like I said, Zandronum tends to lag behind ZDoom in terms of feature support, so run mods and add-ons at your own risk. Oddly, though, the error window is attributing this error to "Doom2.wad", which doesn't seem correct, since it's "divshadw.wad" that contains the DECORATE which is causing Zandronum to crash. That seems like another Zandronum bug to me. You might want to post that on the Zandronum forums and see if that's expected or not.

On another subject, I've notice the ZOMBIE PLASMA SCIENTIST won't show when I code it on a map. I tried different coding numbers but I keep getting the error icon. I've been using the Female Plasma Zombie instead. I have Time Imp and Snake Imp loaded in my Doom2 wad. I notice the Snake Imp takes on Time Imp powers. The regular (gray) Time Imp doesn't show at all...it takes the shape of the Snake Imp. Right now, I just using two Snake Imps...the regular Snake Imp and now the new Time Snake Imp. It just seems odd these two characters the Snake Imp and Time Imp conflict with each other when on the same wad. When I play with the coding sometimes the Snake Imp doesn't show....it takes the form of the Time Imp when you load both monsters at the same time. There's a power exchange.

Well, first of all, if you're actually inserting custom monsters and assets into Doom2.wad, don't do that. Any version of the game is designed to load external files without having to add them to your core game wad. If you start adding external files into your core game wad, you run the risk of something going bad or conflicting. If you have a lot of resources you're using, and don't want to load every one individually, at least create a separate wad file to hold them all. This way, if you do run into conflicts (which I can already tell you are), it's easier to fix them, and you still have a "clean" copy of your core game.

As for conflicts? For starters, the Snake Imp and Time Imp both use the same sprite names (SIMP). So, whichever actor gets loaded SECOND is the one that whose sprites will be used. Each actor will have its proper abilities, but they'll both look the same. You need to rename one set of sprites or the other so they don't conflict. (SLADE3 has a "Rename" function which makes this easy; click the first sprite, shift+click the last sprite, right-click, and select "Rename".)

As for the Zombie Plasma Scientist? If you're getting the error icon, this usually means that the editor number assigned to a Thing in your map doesn't correspond to an existing known class. When you drop a Thing onto the map, the game loads the correct actor by referencing its editor number, not its name. If it can't find an actor with that editor number, nothing will appear. Note that the editor number included with the monster is commented out (which is indicated by the double slashes //); so, if you're just dropping a Thing onto the map, then manually editing the number to match the number in DECORATE, the game won't actually find the monster since the editor number is commented out and therefore doesn't "exist". The easiest way to find out if this is the case is to hit the ~ key to bring up the console, scroll up, and look for an obvious error related to a nonexistent actor number, or something of that nature.

Thanks for the advice. I always create a backup wad in case something goes wrong with testing. When testing wads in a software platforms, I always close one program so they don't conflict with each other, for example Doom Builder and XWE (extendable wad editor). I've renamed all Tim Imp sprites with TIMP but the animation still came out as a Time Snake Imp. Next, I tried to find and replace SIMP with TIMP under the actor CSS (cascading style sheets) but still got loading decorate script errors I guess it's not really a big deal, I'll just stick with the Time Snake Imp unless someone else can cracked the coding. I was able to use the Plasma Zombie Scientist, I just used a different set of four numbers after the actor.

Changing sprite names in the actor shouldn't cause DECORATE errors, unless perhaps you forgot to put a space between the sprite name and the frame letter and/or frame duration. (For example, "TIMPA" instead of "TIMP A" would cause a crash.) You're welcome to post a link or example for troubleshooting if you like. Obviously, don't post or link to the entire Doom2.wad with your changes added; just post or link the basics necessary to demonstrate the problems you're having.

MagicWazard wrote: I would imagine that if Zandronum runs, then GZDoom should as well (that is, if you're using Zandronum's GL rendering mode, which is purportedly the same as GZDoom's).

Zandronum's GL render is older than GZDoom's current, as far as I know.