TEXTURE1 and different sky patches

[EvilNed]

Can someone direct me to a simple, basic tutorial for how I create my own TEXTURE1 for a custom .wad so that I can stitch together several 256x128 patches to form a skytexture?

[CorSair]

One word: Slade.

1) Open Slade and then your wad
2) Go to Archive and select Texture Editor. If you don't have TEXTURE1, Slade asks you format (Doom, Strife, ZDoom) and source (create or import.)
3) Now you got initial setup. On bottom, you can scale the real size of the texture, and left of it, creates new texture, arranges them or it can select new textures from file. On middle-right, you got the patches to make your skybox, and below it, it allows you to do some precision work with the patches.

That is, I did that only one time.

[ReX]

1. Use a lump editing utility such as SLADE for resource and wad editing. A "lump" is simply a name for the various entries in a wad. Therefore, a TEXTURE1 entry is a lump, and the 256*128 patch you'd be using for your sky is also a lump.
2. I am still learning the ropes of SLADE, so I will outline the steps using SlumpED, which is the precursor to SLADE. From what I've seen in SLADE, the functionality is very similar, but SLADE had support for additional graphic formats, etc. Plus, SlumpED is no longer in development (or, perhaps, even supported any more), while SLADE is fully supported. Therefore, although I'm using SlumpED to illustrate this example, you ought to be easily apply the same (or similar) steps in SLADE to accomplish what you want.
3. Open the wad you wish to edit. You'll need to insert a PNAMES lump and a TEXTURE1 lump into your wad. I assume you'll want to use the stock DooM(2) textures & patches in your wad. The simplest thing to do, in that case, is to open up DooM.wad or DooM2.wad (known as IWADs) in SlumpED/SLADE. The IWAD will open in a new tab. Select the TEXTURE1 & PNAMES lumps in the IWAD, use your mouse right-click button to list your options, and select "Copy". You'll find these lumps after the last entry, BLOCKMAP, for the maps. [Note that DooM.wad also has a TEXTURE2 lump. If you're using DooM.wad as your resource wad, then copy TEXTURE2 as well.]
4. Switch to the tab containing your wad, right click anywhere in the left pane, and select "Paste". You now have a wad with the complete, original TEXTUREx & PNAMES lumps from DooM.wad or DooM2.wad.
5. From the toolbar at the top, select "New Lump". A dialog box will ask you to enter the new lump name. Type the string P_START (or PP_START). You've created a marker that signals the beginning of your patch entries.
6. Repeat Step 5, but this time type the string P_END (or PP_END as appropriate, if you used PP_START). You've created a marker that signals the end of your patch entries.
7. Select (click on) the P_START lump; it will be highlighted. From the toolbar at the top, select "New Lump From File". Browse to your 256*128 sky patches, select them, and click on the "Open" button to insert your patches into your wad, and will properly be between your P_START and P_END markers.
8. Depending on the graphic format of your patches, SlumpED/SLADE may not automatically assign the "patch" label to the entry. The original 256-color bitmaps that were in use 10 or 15 years ago will likely be recognized as patches, but newer formats (even bitmaps) will not. Therefore, you have the option of converting your image to DooM GFX format, which will designate the lump as a patch. To convert your picture, select it, right click, pick "Convert To", and pick "DooM Gfx". Without such a conversion, the texture editor (see below) may not recognize your patch. In SlumpED this is definitely the case with JPEG format images, although SLADE can be made to recognize JPEG images.
9. Right-click on your patch, and select "Add to PNAMES". Your new patch is now in the PNAMES lump, and will be accessible in the texture editor.
10. Right-click on your patch, and select "Add to TEXTURE1". You now have a new texture, named the same as your patch.
11. Left-click on the TEXTURE1 entry, and all the stock DooM/2 textures will come up in a texture editor, with your new texture all the way at the bottom. Rename your texture if you wish, but for a wrap-around sky I would suggest you use the original texture name (e.g., SKY1, SKY2, or SKY3 in DooM2).
12. Say you want to replace the SKY1 entry. Select it, and change the size of the texture. In this case, you'll change it to 1024 * 128. [In SlumpED, the size boxes are at the top of the main texture editing pane; in SLADE they are at the bottom.] You'll see that the "outline" of the texture has become much wider than the original.
13. Pick the first patch (in this case RSKY1). In SlumpED you'd first delete the patch, and then press the "Add Patch" button to browse your patch list to find your first new sky patch. In SLADE, you'd simply select the RSKY1 patch and use the menu on the right of that pane to "Replace selected patches". Browse your patch list and pick the first of your replacement sky patches.
14. In SlumpED, press the "Add Patch" button, and repeat step 13 to insert your second patch. In SLADE, select "Add new patch to texture" and repeat step 13.
15. You'll see that your new patch completely overlays your first patch. You'll need to change the X Pos in SlumpED (X Position in SLADE). Put the value 256 in the box. You'll see that the new patch is now properly positioned and does not obscure the first patch.
16. Repeat steps 14 & 15 for your third patch. This time, put the value 512 in X Pos/X Position.
17. Repeat steps 14 & 15 for your third patch. This time, put the value 768 in X Pos/X Position.
18. All your patches ought to be in their proper positions. In SlumpED, click on any entry in your left pane (outside your texture editor). You'll be prompted to "Save Changes to TEXTURE1". Select "Yes". In SLADE, you can do the same thing, but there is also a "Save Changes" button in the lower right corner.
19. From the menu bar at the top, save your wad (or save as, as you see fit). You're all done.

[EvilNed]

CorSair & Rex!

Thank you both,

this should suffice nicely. I'll come back with any questions I have. Much appreciated indeed!

[EvilNed]

So I tried it out in Slade 3 and got it to work. But apparently it doesnt work on PrBoom?

Anyone know why?
Check the TEXTURE1 lump here

http://www.filmklubben.eu/wads/Nova24JanSkies.rar

[Gez]

PrBoom or PrBoom+?

The graphics are in PNG format, so they're probably not going to work in PrBoom. I know PrBoom+ supports PNG textures in GL mode (aka GLBoom+), but I'm not sure they're supported in software.

You have to select the patches and convert them to Doom Gfx format (it's the default choice when converting). Also, while you're there, you can go into the texture editor and delete the S3DUMMY texture, remove its patch from PNAMES, and then delete the patch itself.

[EvilNed]

Thanks a bunch, that's probably why then.