Pistol sprite frames

I bumped into a weird thing. It seems to me that in the original Doom2 and in ZDooM only the first 3 frames of the pistol sprites are used. (They are: PISGA0, PISGB0 and PISGC0.) When the pistol is fired, the frames seem to cycle through A0-B0-C0-B0-A0. (The firing frame is in there as well, named PISFA0.)

If this is correct, then why are there 5 pistol frames? The two additional ones (PISGD0 and PISGE0) are not used. I checked FreeDoom, even they have supplied 5 frames, but again, only the first three are used.

Am I doing something wrong? (That is, I'm supposed to be seeing all 5 frames, but something is corrupted on my end.) Or are those two frames are really extras?

I think they are extras, but maybe used a one point or time. I'm not complaining, because that's extra sprites for whatever I'm working on.

ravage said:

I think they are extras, but maybe used a one point or time. I'm not complaining, because that's extra sprites for whatever I'm working on.

I've done a lot of work adding sprites to WADs intended for Zdoom, and this may well work with other ports too. It doesn't actually matter if the sprites stop at D, E, P, Q, Z or whatever, you can add more onto the end of a sequence.

eg the POSS series of sprites go from POSSA to POSSU, but there is nothing to stop you adding POSSV, POSSW, POSSX etc on to the end in your PWAD, and then using Dehacked to make a frame use them. The only problem I have found is if you leave gaps in the sequence (eg if you added POSSW, without adding a POSSV as well).

See this page on my site for more...

http://www.btinternet.com/~Enjay001/doomsprites2.htm

You can normally find that under the "Doom General" button on my site's menu.

Main entry page...

http://www.btinternet.com/~Enjay001/

Thanks for the feedback Ravage and Enjay. However, neither of you has confirmed what I'm saying... If I'm correct, then this has to be a very little known fact. There's gotta be a couple of veterans out there who would know this. ReX, for example (hi), you have also supplied 5 frames for the pistol sprite in Darkest Hour, but the last two frames are never shown.

Am I right? Or am I missing something?

Csabo said:

Am I right? Or am I missing something?

OK, I'll try and answer this time :-)

I think you're right.

I certainly became aware some time ago that there were extra pictures in the pistol sprite set when I replaced them with what I thought was going to be a nice smooth animation but some of my pictures simply weren't shown.

As far as I can tell, PISGA0 is used in 4 frames (10, 11, 12, 13) , PISGB0 in two (14, 16) and PISGC0 in one (15). PISFA0 is also used in one (17). From what I can see using the dehacked frame table and what I have noticed when replacing sprites, PISGD0 and PISGE0 are never used.

I know what the first 3 frames are there,(10,11,12) They're the ready, lower and raise frames for the weapon. So you know I know.