New switch texture doesn't work...

I recently figured out how using Wintex's texture editor works. I made a few basic textures, then I tried making a switch. I was surprised to find that by using the prefix "SW1," Wintex automatically saw it as a switch. I put my new switchplate patch on top of the patch WALL78_1, and then I made the other texture. I called SW1ELEV and SW2ELEV (for use in an elevator). It worked perfectly.

Today, though, I wanted to make a switch on a file cabinet. I did the process exactly the same way, and I ended up with SW1FILE and SW2FILE. But when I tried to activate the switch, the picture didn't change! I know the switch worked because the platform it was tagged to did lower.

One thing: for the elevator switch, the patches I used for the switchplate were called SW1ELEV and SW2ELEV, like the textures I ended up with. But with the second one, I didn't make any new switchplates; instead, I made new wall patches (the filing cabinet) and then added WARNA0 and WARNB0 onto them. Could this have anything to do with it? What did I do wrong?

I don't think its possible to create totally new switches in vanilla doom, you can only just replace the existing switches


however, if you are using a port like zdoom, or boom, or jdoom, then its possible to add new switches.

You can sorta make new switches in vanilla Doom. Suppose you have a 64x128 switch texture (let's say SW1GARG), you can edit the texture to be 128x128, place a 64x128 patch beside the existing patch and then use and +64 X offset to display the new switch graphic. Edit the SW2GARG texture in the same way with a new patch corresponding to the one you used with SW1GARG and wala.

netnomad312 said:

I called SW1ELEV and SW2ELEV (for use in an elevator). It worked perfectly.

OK, this is a wild guess, and it could easily be wrong, but I think BOOM, or maybe one of it's derivatives had a switch called SW*ELEV defined in its switches lump by default. If you are using that port (whichever it may be) then it was just happy coincidence that you gave your switch the same name as one that is supported.

By now, I’m sure you have worked out that adding a switch is not as simple as having a texture with SW1 at the start and a corresponding SW2 texture. The game engine needs to have the textures concerned defined as a switch. (See stphrz's description of how to get round this in vanilla doom.)

Of course, if you are using a boom compatible port, then you can use the SWANTBLS.EXE utility to define as many additional switches as you want. If you are using Zdoom, you can use the ANIMDEFS lump to define your additional switches and also do other fancy things like allocate different sounds to different switches and even have an off sound and a different on sound. Or maybe you might want to make the switch use more than just an on and off picture, but cycle through a short animation every time it is used instead (to make levers and dials seem more convincing for example).

I think Doom2.exe has several unused switches built in, maybe the ones from Doom 1 that weren't used in Doom2. I can't remember what their names are, though.

I'm not using any source ports at all.

I noticed today that the elevator switch no longer works. It used to, but it doesn't now. All I know is that in the editor, SW1ELEV and SW1FILE had the description tag "Switch OFF," and that SW2ELEV and SW2FILE had the tag "Switch ON." Also, the elevator switch used to work.

Archvile46 said:

I think Doom2.exe has several unused switches built in, maybe the ones from Doom 1 that weren't used in Doom2. I can't remember what their names are, though.

I don't *think* there are any unused switches. There certainly are a few switches in Doom2 that do not look like they did in doom1, but look like SW*BRCOM instead though.