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Blastfrog

Random texture discussion

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In earlier versions of Doom (0.5 specifically), many of the textures had different names, many with a two letter prefix and an underscore. Names included stuff like "JR_HUGE3" and "TH_GRAY7", and there were even some in the final IWAD like "SP_HOT1".

I just realized that those prefixes were the initials of the developers, so they must've been custom textures made by the mappers for their own maps.

JR_ = John Romero
TH_ = Tom Hall
SP_ = Sandy Petersen




Also, "TOMW2_1" suggests that Tom is the one who drew the computer terminals.

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Interesting, but I don't remember any starting with JR. Well, then again it's been a long while since I've dived into an IWAD.

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Clonehunter said:

Interesting, but I don't remember any starting with JR. Well, then again it's been a long while since I've dived into an IWAD.


TH and JR were in the alphas.

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Interesting fact: Doom 0.5's texture (not patch) format is fully compatible with the final. It was surprisingly easy to rip the texture definitions I needed for my TC. In fact, that reminds me, I may release my alpha texture wad made for my project once I'm done cleaning up some of the messier looking textures.

That also reminds me, I still need to make replacements for Dethz0r's alpha resource wad, since all graphical resources are damaged. (seriously, compare them to the graphics from the actual alphas, something screwy is going on with the resource wad's graphics vertically, besides the fact that it has pretty bad color loss)

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Sodaholic said:

... and there were even some in the final IWAD like "SP_HOT1".


Sandy Petersen is hot.

It all makes sense now.

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Any idea on the SW_* and the RW_* patch names who it might be?

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Marnetmar said:

SW stands for switch I believe.


Some of the patches aren't switches that I saw, as I saw a patch that belonged to STARTAN3 with a SW#_# prefix.

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Another interesting thing to note, id originally intended to animate the computer textures, seeing as there are unused patches in the press release beta's IWAD that show lines scrolling on screens and lights blinking. Even some of the circuitry glowed.

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Sodaholic said:

Another interesting thing to note, id originally intended to animate the computer textures, seeing as there are unused patches in the press release beta's IWAD that show lines scrolling on screens and lights blinking. Even some of the circuitry glowed.


id also intended scrolling floors, or that's my interpretation from the conveyor belt textures over nukage.

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Csonicgo said:

id also intended scrolling floors, or that's my interpretation from the conveyor belt textures over nukage.

I'll bet it would've been like Strife: the flat itself is animated to look like it's moving, but it's not actually scrolling, but it does move objects. I say this because inside the prototype IWAD are animated frames for the conveyor belt.

That, and it would've been simpler to implement that way anyway.

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Mr. Chris said:

Some of the patches aren't switches that I saw, as I saw a patch that belonged to STARTAN3 with a SW#_# prefix.



Maybe it stands for Star Wars? Isn't there a description of some episode setting in the Doom Bible that links the style to imperial base or something like that?

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Mr. Chris said:

RW_* patch names who it might be?

Don't the R prefixed patches belong to Doom 2? Such as RSKY*.

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Mr. Chris said:

Some of the patches aren't switches that I saw, as I saw a patch that belonged to STARTAN3 with a SW#_# prefix.


Patches and textures do not follow the same naming conventions. Generally, textures have more explicit names.

For patches, it's generally WALLnumber or Wnumber_number. W standing for "Wall" I suppose. SW would then be "Star Wall". Actual switch patches have names like SWnumberSnumber, such as SW1S0 or SW3S1.

The alpha also featured many PI (for pipes) and PS (for signs). Interestingly, the alphas featured some 4-way switches. Presumably, they were meant to be activated repeatedly.

Doom II features some RW patches, which presumably stand for "Retail Wall". However, not all R* patches are from Doom II: Doom 1 features the BLODRIP texture made of RP patches. ("Red Pipe" maybe? Their green version is TP.) RW patches are exclusive to Doom II.

Mostly, it seems like they went through several naming conventions along the way, probably as a result of many cooks around the pots each having their own idea of how things ought to be named and the names of patches not really mattering since the people who had to use textures referred to them by a name not necessarily related to the patch's name.

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Nobody commented about the animated computer walls, I assume nobody else found it interesting. So I ask, was it already known before I mentioned it that id was going to animate them?

Tetzlaff said:

Maybe it stands for Star Wars? Isn't there a description of some episode setting in the Doom Bible that links the style to imperial base or something like that?

That, and the STAR line of textures are called "star", so maybe they did make textures specifically trying to imitate Star Wars? Keep in mind, even the alpha versions had these textures in there (back when it would've been more fitting to make textures based on specs in the design doc, since Tom was still in charge back then)(though they did not have the actual versions of textures in the final, but it was still from the same source)

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Sodaholic said:

That, and the STAR line of textures are called "star", so maybe they did make textures specifically trying to imitate Star Wars?


It'd be a good idea to read the Doom Bible.

Each building has one of these, describing which style of walls are present, and the kind of feeling, mood, and detail I am looking for.
Styles
Old: mining colony original structures, made by Porta-Bild Inc, makers of the Snap-Snug line of generic economy pressurized buildings. Some of the shabby, Jabba places in Star Wars, Aliens. (Except looks stuck together.)
UAC: Bright shiny, high-tech buildings by StarStruct, Inc. 2001 and Star Wars’ Imperial stuff.

STAR stands for "StarStruct" and is meant to emulate the clean, sterile look of classic sci-fi. It doesn't list just the Imperial ships in Star Wars, but also 2001:

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Intrestingly with Heretic, Raven numbered the vast majority of the shareware flats and textures from 0 and the full version only flats and textures from 500.

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I always thought the STAR was short for starport. I also expected there to be a spaceship somewhere in the hangar.

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Sorry for the bump, but it's relevant.

I discovered recently that the STAR series of textures does indeed refer to Star Wars, not StarStruct. My evidence for this being the Jaguar version's name for these textures, "STWAR0x". SW and STWAR definitely point to the name being Star Wars. Not to say that they may not have been influenced by StarStruct as well, but it was certainly named after Star Wars.

Also, despite the tan variation being the most popular due to it's use in KDiTD, the textures were generally gray to begin with, as seen in the alpha versions. There were also indented areas of the panels that were removed later.

Note that the STAR series of textures was probably meant to emulate Imperial architecture.

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As I understand it, "StarStruct" is just the name for the fictional construction company Tom Hall made up.

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Sodaholic said:

My evidence for this being the Jaguar version

This would be very relevant if Doom had first been developed for the Jaguar and then had the PC version as a port. But it's the other way around.

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The 2001 screenshot definitely reminded me more of the STAR series than any Star Wars architecture every did, regardless. It's far too grungy to be something similar to some Imperial Star Destroyer.

Anyways, I'd take the Jagurar manual with a grain of salt, especially when held up against the Doom Bible.

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