Sprites Doom 2 Minor Sprite Fixing Project - v2.0 Release (updated 11/28/22)

[DELUXE]

Here are the fixes for the gib, serpent, and FDTH frames.

 

fixes.zip

[Cire]

Thanks, I'll check it out in a short while when I get home! 

EDIT: Was there a reason for not including the fixed PLAYG1 frame?

Edited February 14, 2018 by Cire : PLAYG1 question

[DELUXE]

The "fix" I made to it wasn't actually a fix. The "error" I saw was simply a blank space.

[Cire]

Oh, I see. Thanks for notifying!

[DELUXE]

Found an error the Imp gibbing frames. TROOS0, T0, and U0 all have X offsets of 26, but they should b 27 to match up with the previous frames.

[Linguica]

[DELUXE]

Apologies if the post was a meaningless bump. I've been finding many mess-ups in various IWADs (especially HacX), and have decided to make a to-do list to keep track of them all. Also, the inside of Homer's mouth turns from red to black to green at about frames HOMEF0 through HOMEI0, probably a palette conversion error.

[Revenant100]

18 minutes ago, DELUXE said:

Found an error the Imp gibbing frames. TROOS0, T0, and U0 all have X offsets of 26, but they should b 27 to match up with the previous frames.

Where do you see a misalignment here? The Imp's gibbing frames are all aligned to its remaining foot stump which never moves throughout the whole sequence.

[DELUXE]

Frames O through R are from the project, the rest are from the IWAD. The final three frames shift slightly to the left.

 

imp.zip

[Revenant100]

I'm not sure which version of the sprite fixes WAD you're looking at, but it's definitely not the latest v1.9. There are a few issues present in your example WAD which have already been addressed.

[DELUXE]

Yes, I was using the beta2 version. Didn't even realize that the file was updated, I guess this is a lesson in perception. Nice to know that it's already been resolved.

[Triple_sSs]

I was looking at the Doom Wiki page for the player and I just saw this bit in the trivia section:

 

Quote

By mistake, the boots of the player during the gibbing death animation are dried in blood, similar to the zombies.

 

Huh. I never actually noticed this before.

Having the boots bloody in the 3rd frame would make sense, and having some blood on them on the 2nd frame might be more accurate, but to have the boots bloody like the zombies in that 1st frame certainly looks like a mistake.

Do you think this is something that could be fixed for the project?

[Revenant100]

The Shotgun Guy was the first of the Zombieman/Shotgun Guy/Player human sprite set to have its gibbing animation be created, so the dried blood on the Player's boots does indeed appear to be a carryover from him. However, the Player sprites, in addition to being the first in the human set to be created, is also by far the most refined of the bunch as it continued received the most care and attention after the other humans were basically finalized. (In fact, I've been using the Player sprites as the benchmark standard for the other humans sprites since I started this project.) These refinements include the gibbing animation as the Player's gib sequence contains a scant few improvements not seen in any of the others.

 

For this reason, the blood on the boots looks to be a deliberate artistic choice. Someone, almost certainly Adrian, probably decided to err on the side of bloodiness rather than clean it up considering the purpose of the animation. Hence, while it's a small inconsistency, it's not truly an error or oversight as they knew exactly what was there. They simply chose to leave it as-is.

[_bruce_]

Lots of great work - props!

[kb1]

On 3/2/2018 at 11:43 PM, Revenant100 said:

The Shotgun Guy was the first of the Zombieman/Shotgun Guy/Player human sprite set to have its gibbing animation be created...

I'm just curious: how did you figure that out? I'm sure the answer will be fascinating!

 

On 3/2/2018 at 11:43 PM, Revenant100 said:

 

For this reason, the blood on the boots looks to be a deliberate artistic choice. Someone, almost certainly Adrian, probably decided to err on the side of bloodiness rather than clean it up considering the purpose of the animation. Hence, while it's a small inconsistency, it's not truly an error or oversight as they knew exactly what was there. They simply chose to leave it as-is.

I would guess that you've run into more than your share of decisions about what the id guys intentions were. Some might question those decisions, but I'm probably not alone when I say that I really appreciate your pain-staking effort and attention to detail. Each individual cleaned-up frame would go unnoticed, but the collective effort is a work of art in it's own right. Thank you!

[Revenant100]

4 hours ago, kb1 said:

I'm just curious: how did you figure that out?

The later frames of the Zombieman and Player gib animations contain parts of the Shotgun Guy's black clothes and elbow pad strap that id (again, probably Adrian) overlooked when they recolored and edited the Shotgun Guy's gibbing for the other characters. The Imp's gib animation actually contains leftover parts from both the Zombieman and Shotgun Guy, indicating it was created last out of this bunch having been based on the Zombieman's gibbing.

 

 

Most of these inconsistencies shown here have been fixed as of v1.9. However, having looked closely at these gib sequences once again, I do see a few other minor instances that I missed, so that's a few more fixes for the eventual 2.0.

[kb1]

It amazes me just how much sprite reuse was done. I must also admit that it worked on me - I never noticed any of it. Adrian and Kevin are master pixel pushers! I think, in general, making any sprite work look good when resized in a game like Doom takes a specialized skill above just being able to draw. There's moire patterns and aliasing that must be avoided, all the while trying to provide a feel for depth and light shadowing. And, especially in low-res Doom, there's not a lot of pixels to work with. Impressive, indeed.

[_bruce_]

Agree - both are top notch artists and a vital part of the game's success.

 

[Evolution]

The megasphere has 4 frames like soul and invul. Unlike those however, MEGAC0 (3rd frame) shifts the face area one pixel to the right. I checked spr19 and noticed there's already fix frames to replace unwanted green pixels for A0 and D0. In-game, with my edit over the top of sprfix19, it looks more correct imo. I shifted most of the C0 image one pixel to the left, and then filled about 10 now-missing pixels with the same ones from the previous frame B0.

 

See for yourself with a clearer view: load up d2m30 by itself and then with '3-spr19evomega.wad' from spr19evomega.zip

 

Doom2 Megasphere

 

Evo Megasphere

 

Spr19+Evo Megasphere

 

[NightFright]

Hmmm... I always thought the megasphere face is supposed to look to the right a bit. However, when I see Evo's version now, it looks better. This would be a quite visible change however, so it may need to be discussed. Personally, I'd be OK with implementing this.

[kb1]

7 hours ago, Evolution said:

The megasphere has 4 frames like soul and invul. Unlike those however, MEGAC0 (3rd frame) shifts the face area one pixel to the right. I checked spr19 and noticed there's already fix frames to replace unwanted green pixels for A0 and D0. In-game, with my edit over the top of sprfix19, it looks more correct imo. I shifted most of the C0 image one pixel to the left, and then filled about 10 now-missing pixels with the same ones from the previous frame B0.

 

See for yourself with a clearer view: load up d2m30 by itself and then with '3-spr19evomega.wad' from spr19evomega.zip

 

Doom2 Megasphere

 

Evo Megasphere

 

Spr19+Evo Megasphere

 

Nice find, and nice fix Evolution! Your fix looks right, and the original looks so much like a sprite offset problem (even though it's not), that I think everyone who likes the "Minor Sprite Fixing Project" will approve this.

[Evolution]

Thanks. I'd also suggest that the left side of the mega lacks detail too. Look at the frames: there's a lot of animation going on all the way to the right edge while four lines on the edge side pretty much stay the same.

[Revenant100]

12 hours ago, Evolution said:

See for yourself with a clearer view: load up d2m30 by itself and then with '3-spr19evomega.wad' from spr19evomega.zip

 

Doom2 Megasphere

 

Evo Megasphere

 

Spr19+Evo Megasphere

 

That's a good catch. While it does appear to be an offset inconsistency at first glance, I think it's worth examining the whole lineage of the Megasphere's artwork to grasp the larger picture. It's no secret that the Megasphere's face is just the Mancubus', so I've matched the frames here:

 

MEGAA0 => FATTD1

MEGAB0 => FATTG1

MEGAC0 => FATTI1

MEGAD0 => FATTH1

 

The matching face is not so much of interest but rather the relative visible offsets. There's not much to say when looking at the original doom2.wad Mancubus sprite offsets since, like what much of this project has already addressed, they've been horribly mangled by some auto re-centering process. However, it just so happens that the offsets of the Megasphere's face are actually quite close to matching the cleaned up offsets of this very Sprite Fixing Project. I don't think that's mere happenstance either.

 

What's on display here may not be an offset error but rather a closer reflection of the Mancubus' sprite offsets as they were originally set up before they were lost once the individual art tiles were imported, cropped, and automatically re-centered. You can see the Mancubus is meant to shift his head to the right (his left) slightly when he shoots his cannons as he begins leaning over to the side. In that case, the Megasphere's depiction of the Mancubus face is actually correct and suitable as a reference for further refining the Mancubus' own offsets as per id's original intentions. Unfortunately, the only concrete evidence that could prove this theory would be seeing the original monster art assets which are probably still in the hands of Romero, but we're not likely to see those any time soon. Nonetheless, this does give pause to the notion that the Megasphere is definitely showing an offset error in its frames.

 

I also want to mention that, in your edit, the little light reflection at the lower right of the sphere has been shifted over to the left too with the face. It stays in a static position in the Doom 2 animation, so it now jitters for one frame in your fix. That's the downfall of manual subjective art edits, as making a few will start piling up even more art edits to keep things right, hence why these fixes attempt to avoid them whenever possible.

Also also, there are other inconsistencies between the sphere power-ups as well, notably their individual offsets. None of them have matching heights (the Invulnerability sphere sits on the ground while the others float) or centers. One thing I mentioned a while back is that I wouldn't be re-centering all decorative and item sprites because, while they might have objectively measured centers, that wasn't necessarily id's intentions to make them so. I feel this Megasphere matter falls under a similar umbrella. The goal here has always been to address aspects to reflect id's original aims that were objectively or demonstrably lost, and that sometimes means retaining certain quirks and foibles. Some elements might seem off, but they're not really errors or oversights. Changing things to make them look "better" or "correct" is outside of the scope of the project as that becomes a general overhaul.

 

This is a whole lotta words to say that, while your offset edit makes the Megasphere animation look smoother, it's not necessarily taking care of an offset error. id's artists may have intended it look the way it did, and while hardly concrete, there's just a tiny inkling of evidence in the form of the Mancubus' own offsets. Additionally, the manual art edit here, as small as it is, is verging on the more extreme end of the art edits within the realm of this project.

[_bruce_]

Very interesting observation, Revenant100.

 

The face tilting in the sphere makes it more dynamic looking... like something powerful wanting out of it. The Fix does look GREAT too but fits more within a totally different context.

[NightFright]

I was also under the impression that a glitch like this would not have remained unnoticed by id back in the days and would have been corrected for sure. The green pixel removal on the Megasphere was subtle and OK, but if you remove that shift to the right, it's a significant and noticable art edit. It looks better when realigned, but it doesn't mean it was meant to be that way.

[HavoX]

2 hours ago, Revenant100 said:

It's no secret that the Megasphere's face is just the Mancubus', so I've matched the frames here:

 

MEGAA0 => FATTD1

MEGAB0 => FATTG1

MEGAC0 => FATTI1

MEGAD0 => FATTH1

I'm not surprised, it DID look familiar in the first place...

[Evolution]

Nice and informative reply, Rev. I was thinking along bruce's lines too - the face shift could be sheer 200/200 power of a raging soul desperate to get out and get revenge... I just had to see how it would look if it didn't twitch, once it came across my mind!

[kb1]

@Revenant100 I agree with your assessment, and I appreciate the project's goals and philosophy, and that you follow them. At the same time, I'm slightly conflicted - there are just a few small instances where I'd like to see things like this slip into the mix. That original wiggly megasphere has always caught my eye, but I guess it's supposed to, right?

 

Again, I don't envy your job here :) I feel you do it pretty darn good, including the mega. "As intended, to the best of our abilities" is the definitive way to go! Good call!

[Cire]

Just saw that there is Another widescreen Hexen Project here: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=59917

Maybe could be useful?

[Jon]

Hey, just to report, there's a little confusion/ambiguity about which is the latest version of SPRFIX19. The text  file for the version on /idgames is 11/29/17 even though the last update was 1/27/18 as per this thread title. I had to download it again and compare checksums to be sure I hadn't missed anything.

A feature request, could you consider including the .DEH file content as a DEHACKED lump in the respective PWADs? It would make it easier to mix and match with other PWADs and DEH files in some circumstances, e.g. vsmooth under chocolate doom.

 

Thanks!