How to Use Hi-Res Textures in jDOOM
(Continued from page 5.)

Another option is to use 64x64 24 bit PNG files as flats. Doom Builder 1.53 will display them fairly correctly.

In either case, it’s not what’s really in the PWAD that will show in the game. You’ll want to use PNG files similarly to the way we did textures. The only difference is “flat-” must precede the flat name. So, if we created a flat called flr_foo between the FF_START and FF_END markers in a PWAD, our PNG equivalent would need to be named flat-flr_foo.png. All PNG files for textures and flats need to be located in the /data/jdoom/textures folder. DOOM’s engine, and therefore JDOOM’s engine uses a 64 pixel grid for all flats. If you have a 128x128 PNG file that will become a flat, it will scale to fit the 64x64 grid. For the sake of completeness, let’s create a custom hi-res flat.

First, let’s put in the required entries:

(Click on image for full-screen view.)

Now, let’s import a simple placeholder Flat that uses the DOOM palette. For my example, I’m going to resize (resample) my hi-res PNG file and make it a 256 color bitmap that uses the DOOM palette. It might not look pretty, but at least it will show up in XWE.

NOTE: I could just put in the PNG file between the markers, as Doom Builder would display the PNG flat, but other editors may not support PNG files. So, let’s just do it this way for now

First, we use Entry from the File Menu and load the BMP that will become our DOOM-standard 64x64 floor (I loaded the DOOM palette on this image in Paint Shop Pro). I then used CTRL+U or CTRL+D to move the lump between the FF_START and FF_END markers:

(Click on image for full-screen view.)

There’s one additional, important step that you need to do so that XWE understands that it is a true DOOM flat. This step is really only necessary if you used a 256 color PCX or BMP file that utilized the DOOM palette on Entry | Load. You need to highlight the entry and from the Image File Menu, choose “Save as Doom Flat.”

(Click on image for full-screen view.)

This changes the entry to a 4096 byte-length entry that DOOM will recognize as the appropriate lump for flats.

(Click on image for full-screen view.)

NOTE: I have noticed a small issue with XWE version 1.12. Sometimes it will actually make your FF_END marker the flat, changing that marker from zero bytes to 4096 bytes. I have no idea if this is something I am doing wrong, or a bug with XWE. If that’s the case, simply delete that FF_END entry and make a new one, or change the length to zero bytes. You may have to try to make your TUT_FLR a DOOM flat again. Not a huge deal, just a bit strange. Including working on this tutorial, it’s happened to me only once before.