Spectres against color overlays?

Weird question.

I'm not sure if this is an issue with my graphics card or the source port I'm using (prboom-plus) or if Doom has always been like this, but things such as spectres that use the fuzz effect are more visible when ever my screen changes color, for example when taking damage, picking up an item, or using a radiation suit or after picking up berserk. For whatever reason, it appears as though the black specks that make up the fuzz effect aren't effected by the changing color pallete, making them contrast better against the background, but when my screen is free and clear, they're a little better camouflaged against the background.

Sometimes when I take extreme damage my screen becomes completely red except for the spectres in my field of view, or when I'm faced with a bunch of spectres I'll intentionally grab a radiation suit I don't need or walk over a line of health bonuses to get a cheap advantage and see them better.

Has Doom always been like that or did I break something?

If you're using PrBoom+ (as opposed to GLBoom+) then it shouldn't be an issue with the graphic card. You can try to see if you can replicate the issue in Crispy Doom, or Eternity. I'm not suggesting ZDoom because it handles these palette flashes differently.

The spectres work by using a pseudorandomly darker level of the colormap of whatever color is behind the spectre (more or less). Rad suits and berserks change the entire palette, but use the existing colormap. So there shouldn't be any fundamental difference in how things look - it's drawing the exact same palette indexes, just that those palette indexes are a little redder, or greener, or whatever, when you are using an item.

Some graphics modes in PrBoom, though, replace the vanilla method with some sort of actual translucency effect, so it's possible it ends up working differently there.

Here is an example map. Proceed a couple steps forward to grab the Megasphere and get crushed. While taking damage and waiting for death, watch how well you can see the Spectre standing in front of you. Test it in different ports as you want to check for differences. So far I tested it with Chocolate Doom, PrBoom-plus and Zandronum, and haven't noticed any significant difference. Maybe it's a way too dark room, though.

PrBoom-plus software mode, 8-bit on left, 32-bit on right

I managed to snap a pic, is this what is supposed to be happening?

^ Looking at the screenshot closely, even the darkest pixels of the Spectre are still red, not grey, only somewhat darker than the surrounding red color, which would fit the abovementioned theory about COLORMAP-based darkening. So, I'd say yes, that's what is supposed to be happening.

40oz said:

I managed to snap a pic, is this what is supposed to be happening?

Exactly what renderer are you using? Color bit depth etc.

That spectre certainly looks out of place - if it's using red pain palette #8 or 9, everything should be extremely reddish and nowhere near that dark. It almost looks as if the game applied the pain palette to draw the image, but then when drawing the spectre, applied the normal palette to darken the extremely red pixels behind the spectre.

edit: the prboom-plus source code is kind of a nightmare to peruse but I see

#elif (R_DRAWCOLUMN_PIPELINE & RDC_FUZZ)
         tempfuzzmap = fullcolormap; // SoM 7-28-04: Fix the fuzz problem.

Which, while I can't be sure, makes me guess it is in fact applying the fuzz effect using the "normal" colormap / palette.