Looking for a night time sky box image

Could someone please help me out- preferably one with a moon in it that I can download. Thank you

How about this?

Preferrably a dark sky with stars and a moon (like the one in Phobos)

where did you get that Memfis that is cool

Here's one I cobbled together some time back from Duke 3D graphics -


(1024 x 128)


Here it is again with an unusually large moon -


(1024 x 128)


If the moon itself is looking a bit odd to you, here's an antipodean version -


(1024 x 128)

DuckReconMajor said:

where did you get that Memfis that is cool

First sky from Sacrament.

I'm guessing skies of this length can't be used in Vanilla Doom 2?

Yes you can. You have to split the sky up into 4 256x128 patches, then change the texture entry for SKY1 to be 1024x128 then fill in the patches.

1024*128 skies can be used in vanilla Doom 2 -- as seen in Final Doom: TNT Evilution. The patches themselves must be 4x 256*128 (so split these graphics up) but the texture entry itself can be 1024*128.

(EDIT: Ninja'd by DuckRecon, but hey - we're both correct. :P)

I'm afraid I don't understand. What do you mean by "patches"?

When you put each fouth of the sky into SLADE and convert it to doom gfx right click it and say add to patches there those are your patches

then get your texture lump and find sky1 make the size 1024x128 and add the patches (they're whatever you named them when you added them) then arrange them to make your long sky

GoatLord said:

I'm afraid I don't understand. What do you mean by "patches"?

Patches are image lumps that are used to create textures. Many textures have only one patch, while a few (like CRATWIDE) are assembled like a patchwork quilt - which might be where the term came from.

;TextureName	Width	Height
;*	PatchName	Xoffset	Yoffset
CRATWIDE    	128	128
*	BCRATEL1    	0	64
*	BCRATEM1    	40	64
*	BCRATEM1    	32	64
*	BCRATEM1    	48	64
*	BCRATEM1    	56	64
*	BCRATER1    	96	64
*	BCRATEM1    	88	64
*	BCRATEM1    	80	64
*	BCRATEM1    	72	64
*	BCRATEM1    	64	64
*	GCRATEL1    	0	0
*	GCRATER1    	96	0
*	GCRATEM1    	48	0
*	GCRATEM1    	40	0
*	GCRATEM1    	32	0
*	GCRATEM1    	72	0
*	GCRATEM1    	64	0
*	GCRATEM1    	56	0
*	GCRATEM1    	80	0
*	GCRATEM1    	88	0

The vanilla engine can handle a 1024 pixel wrap-around sky texture but not a 1024 pixel-wide patch, so the patch must be broken down into smaller chunks and re-assembled as a texture, like so -

;TextureName	Width	Height
;*	PatchName	Xoffset	Yoffset
BIGSKY    	1024	128
*	BIGSKY1    	0	0
*	BIGSKY2    	256	0
*	BIGSKY3    	512	0
*	BIGSKY4    	768	0

Hope this helps.

What's the limit on textures for this sort of thing?

What do you mean? For sky? As far as I know since it's repeating to fill 1024x128 space, that will be as big as you can make the sky. I don't know why you'd want to go bigger, unless you are trying to do high res, which I know isn't possible in vanilla.

No, I meant, for floor/ceiling textures, would I be able to use patches to make a very long texture so that there's less repetition?

The sky is an exception. It's a wall texture that is projected on a cylinder which is displayed instead of a flat.


Actual flats are 64x64 bitmaps, and there is nothing you can do about it in vanilla. If you want to avoid repetition, you'll have to cut your floor (or ceiling) into various areas with different textures. For example, the large demon head teleporter at the end of E1M8 is made up of four different 64x64 sectors, each having their own flat.

But even this method has its limits, because in vanilla you will get the infamous "visplane overflow" error (the game abruptly quitting with an error message) if you have too many different visplanes in sight. A visplane being a unique combination of flat height, texture, and light level currently visible to the player.

For floors and ceilings you're limited to 64x64, the only way I know of getting around that is by reducing a more detailed image to a set of tiles (as I did in this joke map), though in vanilla you'll soon hit the visplane limit.

I think there's a general size limit of 64kB for textures which has something to do with the way they're buffered in memory, and it looks like Gez has jumped in ahead of me to answer how Sky textures get around that limit.

GreyGhost said:

(as I did in this joke map)

Hah. Is this the text in sky that you were talking about in the picture thread?

No, that was for another project.

What is the limit for wall or "middle" textures?

The main limitation that comes to mind is that whatever you use for a mid-texture should only contain one patch.

DuckReconMajor said:

You have to split the sky up into 4 256x128 patches, then change the texture entry for SKY1 to be 1024x128 then fill in the patches.

Even though this is true for vanilla DOOM, most source ports like PrBoom+, ZDoom, Legacy, etc. allow for one giant 1024x128 texture, right?

I'm still confused. What exactly do I do when I open up SLADE? How do I use it to add my custom sky, which I've just finished? I separated it into four bitmaps but that's as far as I know to do.

Load the bitmaps into your wad (archive->import files). Then right click them and do "Gfx->convert to", then of course do convert to "doom gfx (paletted)", make sure you set "converted graphic" to "Doom", also select your transparency options (if it's a sky I'm guessing you'll probably want transparency off), then convert all them shits.

Then remember to right click these and do "Gfx->add to patch table".

Then if you dont have a texture lump yet do "import from base resource" which you may have to set (I think this is what you do, it's the only way I can get it to work, if I'm wrong please correct me). If you've got it already just go to your texture lump. Find "SKY1" (or whatever sky you're doing). Adjust the size at the bottom. Then remove whatever patch is already loaded and do "add new patch to texture" and find your patches in there. Then arrange them into your texture.

Vordakk said:

Even though this is true for vanilla DOOM, most source ports like PrBoom+, ZDoom, Legacy, etc. allow for one giant 1024x128 texture, right?

Yep. That now seems to be the case for limit removing ports, though there are a few I haven't tested.

GoatLord said:

I'm still confused. What exactly do I do when I open up SLADE? How do I use it to add my custom sky, which I've just finished? I separated it into four bitmaps but that's as far as I know to do.

Not to detract from DuckReconMajor's explanation, sometimes it is better to see this done in pictorial form.

Kappes Buur said:

Not to detract from DuckReconMajor's explanation, sometimes it is better to see this done in pictorial form.

Thank you so much for this. Bookmarked for next time someone asks.

I appreciate the link, but I followed the instructions exactly several times and the same thing kept happening. I would select "add to patch table," but the "No texture definitions found" box wouldn't come up.

Try Archive->Texture Editor

GoatLord said:

I appreciate the link, but I followed the instructions exactly several times and the same thing kept happening. I would select "add to patch table," but the "No texture definitions found" box wouldn't come up.

That suggests you already have a TEXTURE lump, so you can skip a couple of steps. Resume at "Save the map" and check that the texture lump contains a full set of Doom2 textures. If it's only your sky patches and Slade's dummy texture - close the texture editor tab, delete the PNAMES and TEXTURE1 lumps and go back a few steps to "highlight patches and 'Add to Patch Table'".