Talk:Spectre

Infighting and invisibility
In the code, does a spectre's partial invisibility actually randomize ranged attacks by other monsters, like a blur artifact does, or does it only affect rendering? Ryan W 20:01, 31 December 2007 (UTC)


 * A spectre's invisibility affects ranged attacks against it the same way as when the player is invisible. This is because a check is performed against the target's flags for MF_SHADOW, which is assigned to spectres and to an invisible player:


 * in function A_FaceTarget:

 if (actor->target->flags & MF_SHADOW) actor->angle += (P_Random-P_Random)<<21; 


 * in function P_SpawnMissile:

 // fuzzy player if (dest->flags & MF_SHADOW) an += (P_Random-P_Random)<<20; 


 * This might not be easy to witness during gameplay since a spectre only has a melee attack and thus has to be REALLY close in order to piss off another enemy. At that range, attacks are more likely to hit.


 * Interestingly, on a side note, it seems projectile attacks are designed to be twice as accurate as "bullet" attacks as angles are left-shifted one extra bit for the latter. Zack 00:55, 2 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Wow, that's excellent! Many thanks.    Ryan W 01:17, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Untrue statement
No, it's nothing like it. It's just a black pattern against the seethrough background. There is no distortion at all. "like a lens which distorts the area reflected through their translucent bodies" 84.0.117.209 16:35, 15 June 2008 (UTC)


 * A definite "yes"/"no" answer is very difficult in this case, because we can't examine the source code of Doom95, and because there are so many different hardware configurations to consider. That said, persons who know how to do "external" video captures (like for console speedrunning) are welcome to contribute a screen shot or two.   :>     Ryan W 22:05, 15 June 2008 (UTC)     EDIT:  hmmm, this article has changed quite a bit since I read it last.  Doom95 is not relevant (sorry about that).  But you could still be right, because no code citations are provided to support the "lens" analogy.  The effect, if there is one, is very small anyway as can be seen here: the white vertical lines under the "T" in "EXIT" stay vertical the whole time.    Ryan W 22:15, 15 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I kind of like what the description says, because I do get that impression when seeing partially invisible sprites. What we could do is emphasize that it gives the impression of distortion... although to a point it already does, by using "like". Saying "a hyena looks like an ugly dog" does not mean it is an ugly dog or looks exactly like one. Who is like God? 20:23, 18 June 2008 (UTC)