Full weapon graphics not shown?

I remember a long time ago, when I downloaded a Doom editor and looked at the graphics, that the shotgun, chaingun, rocket launcher and BFG (and quite possibly one or two other weapons) were "longer" vertically than they appear in the game. Here are a few such examples I took from the Doom DS website.





Notice on all three of these weapons, you're seeing almost as much twice as the amount you do in the game (particularly with the chaingun). Even with the HUD removed, you don't see this much of the weapons in-game. Why is this?

real guess is that they didn't want to cover all screen. The 'bfg' name on weapon 7 might be a silly reason as well.

I think the biggest reason is that because the gun sways, it needs to be able to always touch the bottom of the screen without lifting. So, you actually do at SOME point see most of the weapon, but it's usually on an upswing of the weapon bob.

The Full legnth chaingun is very impressive.

I wish I could find a full length shotgun image. I'd have to download a proper editor and see if I can find it...

Anyways, about the weapon bobbing explanation...I don't think that works, because when the weapon bobs, it doesn't move up anymore than it already does. It dips DOWNWARD, and sways to the left and right.

My guess is that some of these graphics were created at a relatively early stage in development, before it was fully decided exactly how much of the weapons should appear on-screen. There was little point in actually removing part of the images once they had been made, so the graphics in the iwad include parts that are never actually seen on-screen.

Is there any way to play the game with the full graphics shown?

Copy the sprites into a new PWAD and adjust the sprite offsets upward?

Bloodshedder said:

Copy the sprites into a new PWAD and adjust the sprite offsets upward?

I tried that once but didn't work. I'm sure it does though, I just screwed up.

Mancubus II said:

I think the biggest reason is that because the gun sways, it needs to be able to always touch the bottom of the screen without lifting. So, you actually do at SOME point see most of the weapon, but it's usually on an upswing of the weapon bob.

Actually, when not moving the weapon is at its most visible position.

The gun length doesn't really effect the swaying motion of the weapon when you move, since the weapon sways downwards. My guessis that they simply made it bigger just incase their weapon wasn't big enough. Somehow, they ended up being too big and so had to lower the frames. Also, there are a handful of weapons frames that are not used by Doom and Doom 2 but are still in the wad. You'll notice that the pistol has 6 frames, but the game one uses 4, and the BFG has a backwards "recoil" frame that is also not used.

Actually i made a pwad that let you see the entire weapon. Didnt turn out well because it took up half the screen and my crosshair became useless. Seemed like it would look cooler but it looked really bad. Back to Doom 64 weapons for me.

The only practical way you could have the whole weapon showing and not have it take up too much of the screen is if the actual resolution of the weapon on-screen was reduced. Not decreasing the original resolution, but just the one that you see when you play. At 800x600 and above, this would mean no loss of quality.

GoatLord said:

The only practical way you could have the whole weapon showing and not have it take up too much of the screen is if the actual resolution of the weapon on-screen was reduced. Not decreasing the original resolution, but just the one that you see when you play. At 800x600 and above, this would mean no loss of quality.

True, but it would be strange since your weapons would "shrink", in a sense and eventually (as you got to really high res) to be iddy biddy sprites that you can barely make out. I think ID just made them bigg, then found out they were too big, and lowered them. In doom2, For example, the Super Shotgun is just the right size for the screen. I think id learned that from making doom 1 weapons too huge.

While we're on the subject, why do the weapons look so much bigger in Doom 95 than it does in the OEs and source ports?

ultdoomer said:
While we're on the subject, why do the weapons look so much bigger in Doom 95 than it does in the OEs and source ports?

They are resized by the engine for the 320x240 and 640x480 screen ratio (though they could well have left the normal appearance for the standard ratio.)