Question regarding sprite rotations.

[Ghostpilot]

To make a long story shorter:
I saw this article about sprite rotations.

That inspired me to try to add rotations to a sprite that didn't have rotations from
the beginning. I picked the small stimpack as I already had a voxel model on disk for
that sprite that was created for the re-voxeling project a while back.

I used the voxel model for exact angle reference when I painted the rotations.
The neat program paint3d.net/]Paint3D allowed me to rotate the voxel model by exactly the
number of degrees necessary for that particular rotation.

Skipping ahead... I decided to paint ALL rotations for the stimpack.
By using the mirroring technique described in the page linked above
I narrowed the amount of sprites needed down to this:
STIMA1
STIMA9
STIMA2
STIMAA
STIMA3
STIMABAE
STIMA4A6
STIMACAD
STIMA5
STIMA7
STIMAF
STIMA8
STIMAG

After a brief battle with the doom palette I managed to put together
a WAD containing those newly created rotations with offsets mimicking
the original sprite offset.

I fired up ZDooM using my new wad, hoping to see my rotations as I
circled around a small stimpack in the entrance room of the first
level in DooM II. Alas... No rotations to bee seen.

I may be wrong about this, but my own theory to why I saw no rotations
is that the sprite named STIMA0 still exists and is found first, thus used.

Am I right about this?
If so, can it be overridden to use my new rotations instead?
I do not want to remove the original sprite from the DooM II Pwad.
That doesn't feel right to do.

Any ideas on how I can continue from here? What to try next.
Any input is appreciated.
/Ghostpilot

[Enjay]

No, if your WAD is properly setup, your multiple rotations should be shown in preference to the single rotation in the IWAD. Have you placed your graphics between sprite markers (S_START and S_END or SS_START and SS_END)?

[Ghostpilot]

Enjay said:

...Have you placed your graphics between sprite markers (S_START and S_END or SS_START and SS_END)?

[color=red]Hah![/color] I knew I must have forgotten something!
It was ages since I last made a wad for any DooM game, so
I just forgot about those sprite markers.

Thank you for the fast answer, by the way.

I'll get right on adding those sprite markers right away.
I will post here to let you know if it worked and how it looks.
/Ghostpilot

[Ghostpilot]

Quick question.
What is the difference between the S_START/END and SS_START/END sprite markers?

[Gez]

As far as ZDoom is concerned, none.

See http://zdoom.org/wiki/Namespace

[Ghostpilot]

Yay! It works.
It may not be a voxelmodel. But it's the best thing for now.
If I run DooM without any 3d models and in software mode, this looked surprisingly good.

But I ran into some unexpected results... As Expected.
I found out that that the default item direction when concerning items
without rotations is facing the map start position (or possibly following
some rules regarding north, south, east, west)

That causes the stimpack (with rotations) to be placed akwardly in some areas.
Not a "problem" as per definition of the word problem, but defenitly something
that could be annoying regarding visibillity of items in certain maps.

I will try to hack together a small collection of rotations for various objects I have
made voxel models for in the past to see if that looks ok aswell.

Now at the time of writing, I haven't got the time to upload screenshots.
I'll fix some screens when I have time if someone want to see.
/Ghostpilot

[andrewj]

As a mapper, I usually set suitable angles on all things, on the assumption that it may be truly 3D in some ports. I'm guessing most mappers are not that pedantic though.

[Ghostpilot]

andrewj said:

As a mapper, I usually set suitable angles on all things, on the assumption that it may be truly 3D in some ports. I'm guessing most mappers are not that pedantic though.

I have never made a doom map, so I wouldn't know.
Should I interpret that as you can set a "facing direction" for objects as you place them?

[GreyGhost]

You can.

[Ghostpilot]

GreyGhost said:

You can.

Since the appearance of 3d models, has someone updated the "item directions" in the regular doom maps?
Or maybe that can't be patched with an external addon and have to be updated directly in the pwad.

[Gez]

The system used by Doom does not let you patch levels, only replace them completely. So such a mod would in essence be a redistribution of all commercial levels, which is not allowed.

[Ghostpilot]

Gez said:

The system used by Doom does not let you patch levels, only replace them completely. So such a mod would in essence be a redistribution of all commercial levels, which is not allowed.

I see.

[Enjay]

andrewj said:

As a mapper, I usually set suitable angles on all things, on the assumption that it may be truly 3D in some ports. I'm guessing most mappers are not that pedantic though.

I do now. I didn't do in the past. Id certainly didn't bother.

[40oz]

andrewj said:

As a mapper, I usually set suitable angles on all things, on the assumption that it may be truly 3D in some ports. I'm guessing most mappers are not that pedantic though.

I've never took that into consideration. I think I might start doing that though.

[Ghostpilot]

As far as I know (I haven't read them all, I must admit) the information about setting angles on things are usually left out in mapper tutorials.

[Enjay]

Probably because it's pretty obvious in most editing dialogues:







right back to the earliest ones:

[Ghostpilot]

The very funny truth about that, is the fact that I have read a fair share
of older map making tutorials in the past, but never actually made a map.
If I had, I would have known. :-)

[Ghostpilot]

This is a quick 2.5 minute screenshot hack.
The screens were taken in a narrow corridor.
That's why the sizes are uneven and perspective
is not the same between the screens.

[Enjay]

Ghostpilot said:

The very funny truth about that, is the fact that I have read a fair share
of older map making tutorials in the past, but never actually made a map.
If I had, I would have known. :-)

I figured that. I wasn't trying to be smug when I posted those screenies (in case you thought that). You'd said that you weren't a mapper so I guessed that you might never have seen those dialogues. :)

[entryway]

Enjay, your DOSBox is outdated :)

[Ghostpilot]

Enjay said:

I wasn't trying to be smug when I posted those screenies (in case you thought that).

No, I didn't think that.
No offence taken.

The dialogs in those screens look a tad bit more user friendly
than my predjudice mind allows me to think they should look.
Perhaps I should loose my virginity in doom mapping sometime soon.
Who knows.

[Enjay]

entryway said:

Enjay, your DOSBox is outdated :)

Not any more it's not. Thanks for the heads up. :)