Melee feels jerky and unresponsive

[ice44]

This is an issue I've had with Doom Retro for quite a while now, but gave up on.

I'd like to ask you if you could take a look at the melee behavior and contemplate revamping it so it plays like vanilla Doom.

[bradharding]

This has been reported before, and for the life of me I can't figure out what's causing the problem. If anyone has any idea, please let me know, as I continue to investigate... 😣

[JNechaevsky]

I'm not exactly sure am I right or not, but for me, it feels like there are two possible cases:

1. Horizontal auto-targeting is working much more strict. You need to aim close to the "center of the monster" to punch it.
2. Thus, looking direction is changing much less often while attacking.

Melee attack range seems to be fine, though.

[bradharding]

Thanks for the info Julia. I've poured through the code, starting with A_Punch(), but no luck yet...

[JNechaevsky]

No problem! Another things that comes to mind:

• Monster's radius (i.e. it's "principle" of working)
• Calculating of monster's bounding box

[VGkav]

Can't you test on old Doom Retro versions Brad? To see where it started?

I do remember having trouble hitting monsters a long time ago in DR but I thought it was like that in vanilla.

[bradharding]

Can't you test on old Doom Retro versions Brad? To see where it started?

No, I haven't tried this yet. It looks like I'll have to. To be honest, I'm having trouble noticing the problem.

[VGkav]

Is there really a problem? I can punch to death the 3 imps in the outside area of MAP01 without taking damage.

[bradharding]

Is there really a problem?

Exactly. One thing that may cause people to think there is a problem is the way blood is generated on contact. Blood is spawned at different positions when compared to Vanilla DOOM.

[ice44]

I must disagree here, there is definitely an issue with hit registry and accuracy.

[VGkav]

For larger enemies or for smaller, too? Punches or chainsaw?

[ice44]

For larger enemies or for smaller, too? Punches or chainsaw?

All the above. Doomretro's melee altogether is wildly inconsistent.

[JNechaevsky]

Hm, noticed another thing: in DR, killed enemy immediately becomes non-solid, while in vanilla there is a very short moment before removing MF_SOLID flag.

In other words: in DR it is possible to walk through falling on the ground dead monster, while in vanilla monster becomes non-solid only after hitting the ground.

It does not seems to be related to this case, but... Could it make a sense when killing more than one monster in melee attacks?

[bradharding]

in DR, killed enemy immediately becomes non-solid, while in vanilla there is a very short moment before removing MF_SOLID flag

I was waiting for someone to notice this! 😁 Very early on in DR's development I made this change, liked it, and it has stayed. It allows for more fluid movement imho, and in DR I don't need to worry about demo compatibility.

I believe it doesn't affect this issue in any way though.

[JNechaevsky]

Ah, heh, yeah, it definitely brings some blaze, especially in thin map ares with chainsaw. :)
It slightly feels non-vanilla, but for God's sake, it is necessary to understand that not every game aspect should be preserved strictly as vanilla!

@ice44 could you please explain as wider as possible what exactly feels wrong and how it should feels?

I start to get a feeling that I may be wrong in my very first suggestion, or I'm thinking in wrong direction...

[ice44]

@JNechaevsky Your first suggestion is pretty much spot on, Horizontal auto-targeting sounds like the problem, The hit area is extremely narrow relative to say, Chocolate Doom.