My Archvile

[Mithran Denizen]

How many mods actually do use the archvile's flame sprites for something else? I think I recall Doom Raider using them in the imp death sequence (which wouldn't really look any worse if it were a red aura either), but what else does so?

Freedoom will never be entirely visually compatible with the mods that mess around with the frames of monsters, so I don't see how this could be any worse. Anecdotally, in a project that I'm working on there are new sprites added to the attacks and deaths of some monsters, which causes the monster to flash between appearances when used in Freedoom. Similarly, ZDoom palette translations that I've used for some sprites and textures look like shit in Freedoom, as nothing is really colored closely enough to the originals to be compatible. I can think of a couple of similar cases off the top of my head:

-The change to a blue BFG shot and a red combat armor (as well as the blue-red invulnerability artifact) makes OpenGL dynamic lights settings intended for Doom II look stupid in Freedoom. Hell, if the map author placed any of these items (or the megasphere) in an area specifically according to color (which I've always liked to do), this is ruined with the Freedoom sprites. Likewise, any mod that changes the monsters' blood color to match the blood in the death frames will make the Freedoom cacodemon and baron of hell spurt goofy colors that aren't actually in their death frames at all.

-The Freedoom revenant's fireball looks nothing like the real revenant's rockets, so any mods which reuse those frames as attacking missiles will be changed. (I recall a couple of old mods that made the revenant rockets work as stand-alone homing missile-type enemies, via DeHackEd.)


Regardless, it would seem much more important to keep the art assets as internally consistent as possible, as opposed to just aping Doom(2) completely. Though a handful of projects may use the flames outside of the archvile's attack, most wads will only have the archvile itself attacking, and making that attack the best fit for the monster should be a higher priority than worrying about some fringe-case compatibility. The monster being drawn in this thread looks much more suitable for some kind of 'psychic' attack as opposed to fire.

Anyway, even if the attack isn't flame-based, it needn't 'break' compatibility with anything that reuses the sprites for fire; something like that red aura around the monster in the attack preview could also pass for an ethereal fire if drawn right.


(Please note that I don't actually feel all that strongly either way on the issue, despite the wall of text. :P )

[esselfortium]

wesleyjohnson said:

One Freedoom intent was to be usable as a replacement for the id IWAD for running PWAD. That should not be damaged.
Should make sure your sprites are the correct height and width to match the engine height and width, as that cannot be changed (no dehacked allowed). The current revenant is too tall and walks through doors with its head in the doorframe.

The actual Revenant in Doom2.wad has significantly taller sprites than its defined height; the problem isn't specific to FreeDoom.

[Ferk]

Sorry for ressurrecting this, but these sprites are amazing for the archvile. I didnt notice them before and was impressed when i saw this. It looks cooler than Doom's archvile.

If Urric is no longer working on it, did he at least post his progress (like the walking from all angles) somewhere so his work can carry on?

[Catoptromancy]

In the last 6 years, nope.

[everennui]

Dude! That's an amazing monster.

Make your monster how you want and fuck anyone who gets in your way. No use spending a hundred or so hours on a monster only to be disappointed because you wanted to satisfy a small niche of people who contributed nothing to it. I think the electric attack sounds amazing. If that's what you want to do, do it.

...if you're even still alive.

[Voros]

everennui said:

Praise and encouragement

Guy hasn't responded in 6 years, I doubt he's here now.

[raymoohawk]

i contacted him last year, he told me i could work on it, but only after he worked some more on it. unfortunately he stopped answering my messages months ago, so i am unsure if he has changed his mind

the last update he made that i know of is this:



i got the impression from our conversation that he was redoing the monster in the cleaner style you see above

[Death Egg]

The brain bit above the arm could use normalization, it probably was supposed to look like muscle moving but instead looks very jumbled.

[Ferk]

The original images have already expired since the last time I posted, that's also what I was afraid of.

So... he didn't share his progress with anyone?

 

I don't mean sharing the status, and I know it was 6 years. I mean actually sharing the original images in its latest version with compatible license so someone can carry over.

 

Me, myself, could give it a try, even if I'm not a very experienced spriter.. I think even an amateurish version based on this work would be better than the current flame bringer.

I really like this concept for the archvile and it would be a real shame to see it vanish. It's in the kind of style that I'd love to see freedoom follow.

 

I tried with the wayback machine but could not retrieve the old images from this post: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/52718-my-archvile//*

Edited November 4, 2017 by Ferk

[funduke]

3 hours ago, Ferk said:

The original images have already expired since the last time I posted, that's also what I was afraid of.

[...]

I tried with the wayback machine but could not retrieve the old images from this post: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/52718-my-archvile//*

Try this link:

http://s24.photobucket.com/user/UrricHammersong/library/asd?sort=3&page=1

 

Greetings

Funduke

[Ferk]

2 hours ago, funduke said:

Try this link:

http://s24.photobucket.com/user/UrricHammersong/library/asd?sort=3&page=1

 

Greetings

Funduke

Thanks, that worked.

Though the images he posted are probably not all the work he did.

 

Just to make sure it doesn't disappear I'll also upload them here, using the new forum upload.

I extracted some of the frames from the photos he took of some of the sketches and so.

 

Edited November 4, 2017 by Ferk

[Ferk]

Urric has kindly offered his work for the community to complete it!!

Also thanks to Z0k for the communication.

Quote

Hi!

 

Here is my Archvile folder, the most important files are the photoshop ones, which are psd extension, whoever check those files is going to decipher how is sort of the psd files but i dont think that would be a trouble, i hope this help a lot the community, and of course i hope i get credit for my work.

 

cheers!

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tYXRIR-UHWzo3zXaA8I5MLimyxf7PtiC

 

Actually, he offered the files quite some time ago, but I was hoping to be able to piece it together a bit more before posting here.

I've opened a PR to include Urric's archvile. The attack doesn't have all the rotations but it's still a huge improvement over the current archvile, imho. I really like Urric's concept.

Edited March 14, 2019 by Ferk

[RonLivingston]

A very wise piece of artwork