Linedef type 252

A sample of a shatter block.

Linedef type 252, Shatter Block, is a type of floor over floor block which will shatter upon contact, whether the player is spinning or not. Upon shattering, it generates the bustable block sprites, produces crumbling ambience (sound sfx_crumbl), and hides inside the floor of the sector it is in. This allows it to be respawned after it is shattered by raising it back up to its former height.

Setup

The flats, floor height, and ceiling height of the FOF are determined by the flats, floor height, and ceiling height of the control sector, and the sidedefs of the FOF's walls are determined by the sidedef of the control linedef.

The light level of the control sector will determine the brightness of the shadow cast by the FOF. If the light level of the control sector is lower than that of the target sector, then it will cast a dark shadow. If the light level of the control sector is higher than that of the target sector, then the FOF will illuminate the area below it. If the light level of the control sector is equal to that of the target sector, then the FOF will not affect the light of the area below it.

If Flag [6] / Not Climbable is checked, this block can only be shattered when struck from the bottom. If Flag [9] / Solid Midtexture / Effect 4 is checked, this block can be shattered by a pushable Object. If Flag [10] / Repeat Midtexture / Effect 5 is checked, a linedef executor will be activated when the block is shattered. In this situation, the tag of the trigger linedef of the linedef executor to activate is determined by the length of the control linedef.

Respawning

Because shatter blocks turn off FF_EXISTS when shattered, effectively making them disappear completely, they must be respawned by turning on this flag again. The most convenient way of doing this is using the Make FOF Disappear/Reappear (linedef type 445) linedef executor with Flag [6] / Not Climbable applied, which will immediately make the FOF reappear when executed. The Make FOF Disappear/Reappear linedef should have its front X texture offsets match the tag of the FOF's target sector in-level, and front Y texture offsets matching the tag of the FOF's control sector.

To create a timed respawning effect, the FOF's control linedef should be given Flag [10] / Repeat Midtexture / Effect 5 and given a length that corresponds with the tag of the trigger linedef (e.g., Continuous) to execute the Make FOF Disappear/Reappear linedef, as this then allows the FOF's destruction to execute the linedef. The Make FOF Disappear/Reappear linedef itself should then be given a delay using the Upper Unpegged flag – a back sector for the linedef is then needed to determine the delay in tics, which corresponds to the sector's ceiling height.

Alternatively, Lua is also capable of turning back on FF_EXISTS in the FOF's flags – this requires searching through all FOFs located in the FOF's target sector to find the one you want.

Example code using "sector" as a sector_t variable, and "rover" as a ffloor_t variable, and turning on FF_EXISTS for any FOF if it is not already applied:

for rover in sector.ffloors()
	if not (rover.flags & FF_EXISTS)
		rover.flags = $1 | FF_EXISTS
	end
end

Sample

Example file: ex_ld252_fofshatterblock.wad (MAP01)

How to use

You may load this file into your favorite map editor, such as Zone Builder. Select MAP01 as the map to load. You may also load this file in the game: Save ex_ld252_fofshatterblock.wad into the addons folder of your SRB2 directory. Start SRB2, go to the Addons menu, and then select ex_ld252_fofshatterblock.wad. Start the game in Single Player mode. Press the Console button (~), and type in the command MAP MAP01 to access the example map. When you load this file in the game, it replaces Greenflower Zone Act 1.