Doom 3D Replicas Project

[Xury46]

Hello everyone,

I'm a long-time lurker, first-time poster.
I'm making 3D replicas of the classic Doom weapons!

 

I was inspired by some of the incredible detective work in this forum that lead to the discovery of the original toys for the classic Doom weapons.

Huge thanks to @Jasper Carmack (previously known as "Blackmantis") and @Nootrac4571 in particular for posting so many awesome photos that got me jazzed up to do this project.

It took a little over a year, but I finished gathering all of the known toys, and I've begun making 3D models of them through a variety of methods that result in 3D replicas accurate to approximately 1/32nd of an inch.

There's so much potential for this project, but I've made enough progress now that I feel comfortable sharing the project publicly.
I'll start by sharing some fancy renders of the first two weapons that I've completed.
 

The TootsieToy Dakota Shotgun:The Rambo M-60 barrel attachment:

 

Let me know what you think!
The rest of the weapon models are on the way (it's going to take a while though).

Edited September 9, 2022 by Xury46

[Ludi]

Very cool! I like the "plasma gun". I've never seen the original parts this close up!

[Xury46]

Thanks!
It's super cool to see all of the toys in-person. Especially the weird ones like the "plasma gun" haha.
I have more pictures in my ArtStation post for the Plasma Gun: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/KO0edr
You can see how the toy compares to the 3D model.

[Nevander]

This is amazing and something nobody has thought of! 3D replicas for the TOY versions. Since they're 3D models, it will be possible to use them in GZDoom to replace the sprites and will be accurate!

[skaags]

Incredible work! 

[Xury46]

Thank you both for the complements.

My ultimate goal is to make game-accurate versions of the models so that they can be used in GZDoom and other source ports.
Along the way I realized that this community would really like to have access to the toy-accurate versions as well.

When the project gets closer to completion I will turn loose of the models so the community can make some awesome sprites and other creative works.
I want to be careful with this so that there's no confusion as to where the models came from. I also want to make sure the models are released with a license that doesn't conflict with any potential use cases. (Don't worry they will be free, it will likely be some kind of creative commons attribution license).

[Metal_Slayer]

These look very cool, definitively faithful to the originals, but I don't think putting those on GZDoom would make them look exactly like the original sprites, because these went through camera distortion and stretching, besides, some of the more recent 3D model packs already are kind of based on the toys. And even if you managed to getting them to look right and animate everything including the hands, they wouldn't look so different from most HD packs out there. The only thing you could do that nobody has done before would be putting it on the Doomsday source port to take advantage of some of the features it has for HD 3D models like adding extra animations and such. There's also a lot of potential for modding for other games like Doom Eternal and doing some 3D printing. But it's great stuff, keep the good work.

[BigMetalhead]

This is really cool stuff. Awesome work!

[Xury46]

You're absolutely right, camera perspective and offsets play a huge role in the way the original sprites look. Simply rendering them in 3D won't make them look exactly the same without extensive adjustments that likely aren't possible in GZDoom. It's already a challenge to line up the models to match the sprites inside of Blender. I accept the fact that they won't look 1:1 with the original sprites, but I think it will be awesome to give it a try knowing that the models are as accurate as possible. At least then, any discrepancies happen because of the accuracy, not because of random artistic choices.

[Nootrac4571]

Amazing work! I was going to ask if you wanted help with anything but it doesn't look like you need it. I have a fairly detailed 3ds Max file of the HUD sprite visible area of the BFG I could dig out over the weekend if you like.

[dasho]

Really hurts my head looking at what appears to be a backwards trigger when taken out of context.

[Xury46]

Yeah the trigger is backwards haha. Actually, when you think about it, the whole thing is backward except for the trigger!

[Xury46]

7 hours ago, Nootrac4571 said:

Amazing work! I was going to ask if you wanted help with anything but it doesn't look like you need it. I have a fairly detailed 3ds Max file of the HUD sprite visible area of the BFG I could dig out over the weekend if you like.

Thank you!
I appreciate the offer, but you've actually already helped tremendously with your thread about recreating the BFG sprite.
It actually directly inspired my 3D replicas project, and my own BFG model is well underway:

 

Edited September 10, 2022 by Xury46

[David12]

6 minutes ago, Xury46 said:

Thank you!
I appreciate the offer, but you've actually already help tremendously with your thread about recreating the BFG sprite.
It actually directly inspired my 3D replicas project, and my own BFG model is well underway:

 

Wouldn't the "BFG" be inset and not extruded?

[Xury46]

Yes, the text in that image is going to be used as a Boolean object to cut away part of the gun which will result in an inset. But it's not finished so that hasn't been set up just yet. 

[Xury46]

Just in case people missed the links in the original post, you can view the 3D models for these online:
Shotgun: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/the-doom-shotgun-tootsietoy-4a7e015e391640db8f393af0789909b4

Plasma Gun: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/the-doom-plasma-gun-rifle-rambo-m-60-toy-27cac23c5feb4ea28669569b2b3f4824

 

 

 

[Nootrac4571]

Any updates on this project? I'm excited to see your BFG when it's done!

 

Also I'm very interested by:

 

On 9/8/2022 at 7:35 AM, Xury46 said:

variety of methods that result in 3D replicas accurate to approximately 1/32nd of an inch.

 

Can you give any more details about these methods? My own attempt to do the same thing was just by talking lots of photographs and using a tape measure; certainly nowhere near 1/32 inch accurate. Are you using calipers? Or photogrammetry? I had a bit of a go at it with a photogrammetry app on my phone, but it really didn't like the flat shiny surfaces.

 

Anyway, I hope you're still working on this, the stuff you've made so far looks great.

 

 

[Xury46]

On 10/11/2022 at 3:45 PM, Nootrac4571 said:

Any updates on this project? I'm excited to see your BFG when it's done!

 

Hey, sorry for the radio silence. It's been a busy time for me and I've been trying to find the time to get back to work on the BFG.
No proper updates yet. The sneak peak of the BFG that I showed screenshots of was made primarily by referencing pictures other people had taken (I referenced your photos a lot). I've improved my methods since then and also gained access to the toys so I can measure them properly. I'm starting to dive back in and redo all of the necessary work on the BFG to bring it up to the same quality as the other models. :)

Speaking of technique, my methods include:

• Using calipers (this is the primary method which I would say gives me the 1/32nd inch accuracy).
• Photogrammetry (this proved to not be very useful, since the models come out pretty janky)
• Taking the toys apart and scanning them with their flat surface up against my scanner (just a regular 2D scanner)
• Taking lots of high resolution photos.
• Bringing the photos of the toys directly into Blender and aligning them as needed for referencing complex areas.
• Bringing the original sprites into Blender to help compare to the way the models should look (not super helpful because I can't seem to match the camera angle, position, focal length, and frame offset correctly).
• And now, most exciting of all... I bought a Revopoint MINI 3D scanner. (It's not a magic solution, and I'm still learning to use it, but I think it will be very helpful as I ramp up on working on this project again!)

Unfortunately, I haven't made as much progress on this project as I had hoped to lately. Working full-time in the game industry has made it hard for me to want to spend any time in front of a computer when I get home from work at the end of the day. But, I'm dedicated to finishing this project no mater how long it takes! I hope to have some better news for everyone soon.