Are there tools to help make textures not look so repeating? Where can I find PSP 7.04 or newer but older than 8? and a few other doom/boom editing related questions...

[poisonhead]

I've got a few issues/ideas regarding making graphics for Doom. One is that I'd like a program that would randomly throw pixels around, for example like I've got this 32x128 patch that's otherwise great wall texture but you'll see the repetition and it's a chore to shuffle pixels around by hand in graphics editor. I know no program could probably do 100% usable results straight away but I'd gladly do the cleaning up instead of shuffling every damn pixel manually to make a longer texture out of it trying to make the repetition look less obvious. I actually was looking for something similar two decades ago after seeing Doctor Katz. I wouldn't mind trying my hand in some squigglyvision style animation. Maybe this also helps to tell what I'm looking for (sorry that english isn't my first language, I'm partially mentally impaired, tired and also slightly intoxicated), a software or something to shuffle the pixels randomly a bit to break the repetition/stillness of the exactly same picture. Do any exist? (free or cheap)

 

Also where might I find an old but newer than 7.00 Paint Shop Pro? I just didn't like the interface of PSP 8, then it got totally bloated and heavy, I kept (and ATM keep) using PSP 7.00 because it's so fast, easy and has almost everything I need. I saw some texture guide which had pics of PSP 7.04 and it had tools specifically to help create repeating tiles. I would LOVE to get my hands on that instead of manually trying to do it with different tools or using some slow online website thingie to try and create looping textures...

 

Speaking of online and other tools, are there any to help convert images to Doom palette? I find it hard to believe that no Doomer has ever done anything like that. It's sometimes really tedious to convert and image. Often color temperature matters and I was wondering are there any guidelines, info or tips regarding that? So far I've been mostly randomly adjusting temperature, saturation, color levels etc hoping to get an usable result, a bit too often having to settle for grayish, brownish or reddish image.

 

Part of me would wanna hop on to the ZDoom train (currently Booming it) but it would feel a bit silly because doesn't it allow bigger and truecolor textures? (and pk3 so I wouldn't have to fight with XWE?) I've already struggled to convert thousands of textures & flats to Doom size and palette. Was just wondering if there's any tools to help me. 90%+ of my time goes to textures. Also quickly, about audio, I wonder if there's any difference which software is used to downsample stuff to Doom "quality"? (0,8-22khz, 8bit, 64kb max size) I'm using a decade old version of Goldwave. Hard to get sounds not sound shitty, especially one off sounds and the like because

of I don't remember the term but that causes noise.

 

And I use XWE. Haven't managed to get Slade work on my ancient half broken Win7 laptop for some reason. So I don't wanna hear about use Slade's function x and y etc. I've been meaning to take a look at SlumpEd, does it allow to create wider skies? I know with Slade you could have 1024px wide (360 degrees) patch using four textures, I haven't found a way to do that with XWE. I also thought that would it be possible to simulate that at least partially in Boom using sky transfer? (or what's it called where you can set any texture to be the sky, I love that!).

 

Big thank you in advance and sorry my incoherent style, I've got a fever and am a tired foreign substance abuser with less than perfect brain but I just love Doom editing, it's almost the only thing in my life.

 

I first wrote this text two days ago but forgot to post it. ATM I'm making space/tech base corridors and don't just wanna loop one 128x64, 128x128 or even 256x128 texture but have some software shuffle the pixels around (to simulate dirt, grime, differenting lighting, just it not being the 100% same pic). I know no software could probably produce instantly usable ones but there must be a better solution than to push every pixel manually? Sometimes I use PSP's "add noise" function but it's really random and needs steps to get the colors into the right range. I was also thinking are there sites that would have some cool overlays? I found one transparent cracked wall one and applied it semi-succesfully to have one variation of my texture but I want more (can't even remember the name of the site I got it from - same applies to many borrowed assets, I just hope their makers forgive or contact me should I ever get to publishing stage). Also gotta try to see if I can frankensprite any doors which reminded me, could some tell a stupid person what's the easiest and working way to have transparent and non-rectangle shaped doors in Doom/Boom? (I know that you can somewhat fake non-rect shaped doors by using transparent texture infront of the Door, already did it once but was wondering if there's any tips/tricks and I've seen DW guide for transparent Door but couldn't comprehend it all the way and was thinking if Boom has any

additional options?
 

Sorry for this mess of a post and big kudos to any answers!

 

PS. I already asked this in my previous thread but are there other ways to get Boom to spell words in a room where flats consists of letters than to make some difficult voodoo doll conveyor thingie?

[Fraston]

7 hours ago, poisonhead said:

PS. I already asked this in my previous thread but are there other ways to get Boom to spell words in a room where flats consists of letters than to make some difficult voodoo doll conveyor thingie?

Not that I know of. However, the voodoo doll solution isn’t difficult, per se, it’s just very rigorous.

I haven’t done anything too intensive with them, but I do know how I would go about doing something like this:

 

Put every letter in their own sector, tagged from n01 or whatever to n26 (is a set of a hundred tags separate from the one’s you’ve used already), 1 as A, 26 as Z. 

 

For each word you want to spell, have a conveyer belt corridor with a repeatable player cross linedef that either raises to highest floor or lowers to lowest floor (one for each letter),  a repeatable player cross teleport line that closes a door at the beginning of the closet, and a teleport linedef that leads to the beginning of the closet.

 

with this method, there would have to be a small raised border around each letter (as high as you want the tile to be when it’s up), and a tiny sector touching the letter flat (as low as you want the tile to be when it’s down)

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by Fraston

[Kappes Buur]

http://www.oldversion.com/windows/paint-shop-pro-7-04

[poisonhead]

On 10/3/2022 at 9:07 PM, Fraston said:

Not that I know of. However, the voodoo doll solution isn’t difficult, per se, it’s just very rigorous.

I haven’t done anything too intensive with them, but I do know how I would go about doing something like this:

 

Put every letter in their own sector, tagged from n01 or whatever to n26 (is a set of a hundred tags separate from the one’s you’ve used already), 1 as A, 26 as Z. 

 

For each word you want to spell, have a conveyer belt corridor with a repeatable player cross linedef that either raises to highest floor or lowers to lowest floor (one for each letter),  a repeatable player cross teleport line that closes a door at the beginning of the closet, and a teleport linedef that leads to the beginning of the closet.

 

with this method, there would have to be a small raised border around each letter (as high as you want the tile to be when it’s up), and a tiny sector touching the letter flat (as low as you want the tile to be when it’s down)

 

 

A BIG thank you for so elaborate answer! :)

 

On 10/5/2022 at 6:35 AM, Kappes Buur said:

http://www.oldversion.com/windows/paint-shop-pro-7-04

 

Thanks but that's evaluation version... I guess there isn't a way to buy/register PSP 7.04? (I paid for PSP 7.00 during it's heyday but have lost all info and changed e-mail addresses and moved many times, so I'm pretty sure their customer service wouldn't help if they even care about such old versions)

 

But coming back to my previous post, surely _some_ kind of tools to convert graphics exist? And palette isn't the most challenge, I was thinking of trying to make some bad sprites, I remember a discussion which spoke of some tool or service that attempted to make the image appear like it's in 45 angle or sumtin like it? (obviously not working well but think would provide better starting point than scratch).

 

I also recently made a bad animation with PSP7 by pasting image2 on top of image1 and saving with image2 having 0%, 25%, 50% and 75% visibility (or whatever it's called). I was wondering if there's better ways to do this? Obviously the best would be to have a sprite artist but unless someone likes to try and make the eye open (and/or close) I'd appreciate it and also would be surprised if anybody hasn't done that already? I'd also appreciate some textures/flats that go well with this. Someone already made a lovely flat version of this eye. Would love to have stuff to go with it. Trying to do a hellish part of a level where I'll place my icon of sin (which has a new head, someone I truly hate *evil smile*).

 

Also I'm looking for ideas for or ready made animations of some sort of energy/electricity moving a bit like waterfall but not be water/fluid, just energy. I wanna have some moving energy inside my walls :)

[NiGHTMARE]

Smooth Textures II has animations for all Doom (1, 2, TNT, and Plutonia) switches, so hopefully its eye switch is good enough for what you need: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=72118

 

As for PSP 7.04, due to forum rules all I can say is that Google is your friend.