E1M1 Contol tower: anomalous texture?

While roaming around E1M1 on my current Mocha Doom pre-pre-alpha, I noticed that the ceiling of the "control tower" and pillar room (Green armor zone) had a green marble ceiling, which seemed unusual for E1, let alone E1M1.

I cross-checked it with ZDoom and, what do you know, it's actually supposed to be a green marble ceiling :-S

Can't say I really paid attention to it before, but it still seems very unusual for E1 (in fact, I can't recall any place other than E1M8 where marble textures occur in all of E1). Heh, Doom, you'll never cease to amaze me.

Edit: a quick glance revealed there are some marble floors and ceiling in E1M4 (mostly in nukage zones) but otherwise it's a flat/texture one would associate more with a consistent Hellish theme.

There's also some marble ceilings in e1m3. Probably others but I don't feel like checking. For whatever reason they decided it worked well enough with the base theme to not bother making a different green flat to take its place, I guess.

Yeah I just found that too. There's also a lot in e1m4. Even some on the floor near the yellow key. e1m6, by the blue key and the exit.

Yeah, I just started mapping recently, so I've been looking at the levels (or at least trying to) from a mapping perspective. I've been noticing the marble textures too. I've been pretty surprised by it.

I noted it long ago when I was attempting level imports into the doom press release beta (which does not have that flat). I found it odd that they didn't just recolor FLAT5_2 to make it green or something.

I'm so nerdy I had to check it as soon as I read this since my ZDL was already open on my computer and I launched a quick new game, heh.

I use that texture around BROWNGRN themed rooms all the time.

Quick look shows it's in E1M1, E1M3, E1M4, E1M6

To be honest, I think its this reason that I've never associated that flat as a pure marble one. It's a great utility flat.

marble in e1 isn't very rare as people have pointed out. It's actually quite common and signature even for e1. I've noticed this for a long time.

Does it bother anyone that there are tech textures used in E3?

It goes well with those green painted cement walls.

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40oz said:

Does it bother anyone that there are tech textures used in E3?

It depends on the context. The tekwall/skintek in Mt. Erebus makes enough design sense to me, but the single empty STARTAN room in the middle of House of Pain just looks silly, I think.

esselfortium said:

It depends on the context. The tekwall/skintek in Mt. Erebus makes enough design sense to me, but the single empty STARTAN room in the middle of House of Pain just looks silly, I think.

who brought startan/uac base to hell I wonder.

That "marble" flat, FLOOR7_2, is a sister texture to that dirty brown thing, FLOOR7_1. It's there in Episode 1 probably because it came with the shareware texture batch, without looking too odd. The real demonic marble flats are those starting with DEM*.

It's not to doubt that the Phobos base had some masonry as well. That green marble isn't the only stone you encounter. There are also STONE and (IIRC) STONE2 textures used there in space in those labs and whatnot.

On a related note, does anyone have a good idea about what kind of material the STAR* textures represent?

The Doom Wiki gives a partial answer:

The "STAR" part of the texture names is from "StarStruct, Inc.", a UAC contractor named in Tom Hall's original design document. StarStruct's design made for "bright shiny, high-tech buildings", reminiscent of the sleek style of 2001 - A Space Odyssey or, according to Hall, "Star Wars’ Imperial stuff".

There was a thread discussing that about a year ago:

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/45347-startan-series-what-are-they/

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That makes sense to me. I always considered them to be some kind of scifi plastic panels.

Fredrik said:

On a related note, does anyone have a good idea about what kind of material the STAR* textures represent?

The Doom Wiki gives a partial answer:

esselfortium said:

It depends on the context. The tekwall/skintek in Mt. Erebus makes enough design sense to me, but the single empty STARTAN room in the middle of House of Pain just looks silly, I think.

The ending of House of Pain looks cool, however. There are some tech references in E3M3 as well, but it still works in that way. The only thing that really pricks my eyes is the CEIL4_2 on the top of the central room in E3M7. And I don't understand the TEKWALL corridor on E3M8 either.
As for the FLOOR7_2 flat used in E1: it's more objective and understandable than DEM1_5 and DEM1_6 used in the episode and also quite useful when you don't want to make an eye-rape edging floor to either STARG1-2, or BROWNGRN, even some ICKWALL-s can tolerate it.

Fredrik said:

On a related note, does anyone have a good idea about what kind of material the STAR* textures represent?

I guess it's painted metal. Metal makes sense, to help absorb (some of the) cosmic rays.

@Cell: I like the E3M7 deep red and deep blue ceilings. In a way, they remind me of Wolfenstein 3d's ceilings, and they fit E3M7's detail-less theme.

The E3M8 TEKWALL corridor (and SKINTEK central shelter) might have something to do with the Spiderdemon's alien/tech theme.

esselfortium said:

It depends on the context. The tekwall/skintek in Mt. Erebus makes enough design sense to me...

Stop right there! Nothing in Mt. Erebus makes any sense design-wise.

And yet it's so much damn fun to play, I don't really care.

Wagi said:

Stop right there! Nothing in Mt. Erebus makes any sense design-wise.

Ala. I have seen that "sky erases background walls bug" on the top of one of the COMPBLUE Cacodemon ambushes from the ledge of the vine building, E3M6 was given a straight -1 in designing.

It's one of those strange textures that seems to function differently in different contexts. I noticed its placement a long time ago, and I've been using it in green base-themed sections for longer than I can remember. I think it works best as a ceiling, though it also does a good job being the floor of sladwall objects. It also works better in darker light levels; fullbright does indeed give it more of a marbly look.

... Right. It's as "marble" as "slad", "greenbrown" or even "stargreen". Since it appeared, can be used multifunctionally for various green texture edgings.
Comment: almost every E1 level does have this. Not only the four mentioned before. I suppose E1M8 doesn't but instead, there are DEM1_1-DEM1_4.
Whoa, infestions and hellifying start earlier than excepted!...

Cell said:

The ending of House of Pain looks cool, however. There are some tech references in E3M3 as well, but it still works in that way.

Like the extremly hellish episode Thy Flesh Consumed, E4M7 have tech-base as well.