Doom beta screenshot on the wiki

While reading around the Doom wiki, I came across this screenshot: http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/File:Betalostsoul.png

I've played the Press release beta version before and I'm positive I've never seen that level in the beta.

I'm curious where the screenshot came from, because I've seen alpha/beta screenshots of the game from what I thought were all the sites existing, documenting the pre-releases. And is there a separate version of the pre-beta around?

The screenshot only displays the Beta lost soul, not necessarily one of the actual levels. The fact that the screenshot is at 640*480 (with an earlier version of it being 640*400) makes it highly probable this was taken on a source port, so the level could be just about anything (it appears a modified version of E1M2's or E3M7's outdoors though).

Oh, I see. Thanks for the reply and info on that.

I think that's from the MBF beta emulation feature. Either that or just a DEHACKED mod on some source port that used sprites and graphics extracted from the beta.

It also does look like an early version of Mt. Erebus. Don't know if one actually exists though. :P

That is definitely an early Mt. Erebus (E3M6)

That presice area actually exists in the release level. I'm thinking it's MBF's emulation feature (in a port that supports high resolutions -- I didn't think the original did)

MBF supports 640x400.

Or it's also possible that it's from a mod. But also it could be just a different version of MBF, anyway. (notice the different sky texture)

I am just gonna guess with others that it's from a mod that replaced the originals with the beta lost souls.

EDIT: Wait, that sky...that is a recolored F_SKY1 flat made into a sky patch.

Yeah it could just be a mod. They still look cool though lol

It looks like a recolored Doom Press Release Beta sky.



In doompres.wad I found a flat F_SKY3, which looks a bit like a blue F_SKY1. There seem to be many sky patches in the wad (SKY1, SKY2, SKY3, SKY4, SKY5A0, SKY5B0, SKY5C0, SKY5D0), but XWE displays them as raw data and SLumpEd crashes. So it is quite possibly a sky from the beta. The only levels in it are the early E1M2, E2M2 and E3M5.

The blue sky is from the alphas.

I checked the alphas and found no sky textures in them. The blue sky comes from the Press Release Beta and is named SKY3. I was finally able to extract the patches using DeuTex.

Looks like Doom was supposed to have an animated sky.



I have compiled a wad with all the beta skies, for those who want to use them.

Download

It would've been cool if they included that animated sky in the release. They probably didn't because it could've raised Doom's system requirements. It reminds me of the lightning effects seen in Hexen.

Xtroose said:

I checked the alphas and found no sky textures in them. The blue sky comes from the Press Release Beta and is named SKY3. I was finally able to extract the patches using DeuTex.

Looks like Doom was supposed to have an animated sky.

...

I have compiled a wad with all the beta skies, for those who want to use them.

Download

Cool - thx

I spotted E3M6 right away, only because I hate that level.