Is it possible?

[limpbizkitfannickelbackfan]

Would it be possible to entirely re-skin Doom with hand-drawn textures?
I personally have never seen a mod attempt this, everything has always been the same 16 bit pixel art we're familiar with
(aside from Brutal Doom but that mod is super complicated)
If I were to just hand-drew smooth sprites and textures and replace the old ones in the files using slade, would that even work?
Does Doom have serious limitations even on modern source ports like GZDoom, or do most modders just not bother with this idea?

[TheCyberDruid]

FreeDoom is pretty much what you describe: https://freedoom.github.io/

 

It replaces everything that has a copyright with a copyright free alternative. So yes, it is possible.

Edited April 11, 2022 by TheCyberDruid

[Pixel Fiend]

Why wouldn't it be possible? It's just hard to imagine it looking good. Will you share pictures of your drawings?

[limpbizkitfannickelbackfan]

Just now, game said:

Why wouldn't it be possible? It's just hard to imagine it looking good. Will you share pictures of your drawings?

Oh, I haven't drawn anything for this yet. I am a pretty bad artist, I only plan to do this later as I improve my art.
The best drawing I can show you is this Fred Durst drawing.
Yeah, it kinda sucks, it's kinda cool, it's just whatever,
I plan to get better with this style and do it more digitally. Then I'd wanna make sprites like this.
Again, this is nothing specific. Just a shower thought that I had when I was not showering at all but actually walking about my living room.
Yeah, guess it's not really a shower thought anymore. More a room-pacer thought.

 

[limpbizkitfannickelbackfan]

4 minutes ago, TheCyberDruid said:

FreeDoom is pretty much what you describe: https://freedoom.github.io/

Yes and no. It still strikes me as pixel art. Granted, it's much smoother, but still pixel art.
My thought is to replace it with smooth, non-pixelated drawings. 
The graphics would look closer to Alien Hominid than it does Doom.

[CoolerDoomeR]

Yes, it's possible, and i suggest you to re-skin guns too.

[TheCyberDruid]

5 minutes ago, limpbizkitfannickelbackfan said:

Yes and no. It still strikes me as pixel art. Granted, it's much smoother, but still pixel art.
My thought is to replace it with smooth, non-pixelated drawings. 
The graphics would look closer to Alien Hominid than it does Doom.

 

Okay, I understand. You can use higher resolution images that wouldn't look (that much) like pixel art. Here's an example (still not hand-drawn, but you should get the idea of what is possible): 

 

[limpbizkitfannickelbackfan]

1 minute ago, TheCyberDruid said:

 

Okay, I understand. You can use higher resolution images that wouldn't look (that much) like pixel art. Here's an example (still not hand-drawn, but you should get the idea of what is possible): 

 

Oh, wow, and this would work on Doom2 with GZDoom?

[TheCyberDruid]

7 minutes ago, limpbizkitfannickelbackfan said:

Oh, wow, and this would work on Doom2 with GZDoom?

 

I'm no expert, but I would say yes. Here's an example for GZDoom that you actually try: https://www.moddb.com/mods/doom-hd1/downloads/gzdoom-hd-texture-pack1

[Jayextee]

It's entirely possible, but the sheer amount of work required is prohibitive.

[limpbizkitfannickelbackfan]

Just now, Jayextee said:

It's entirely possible, but the sheer amount of work required is prohibitive.

Little did you know, you're talking to someone with no dayjob and way too much time on his hands.
I know some day I can do this.

[Jayextee]

You're talking to someone who's hand-drawn an entire platform game worth of assets over the past three years, and is still doing so. Which is a game that doesn't have between five and eight rotations for almost every animation of like a dozen enemy sprites.

I wish you the best of luck. ;)

[limpbizkitfannickelbackfan]

2 minutes ago, Jayextee said:

You're talking to someone who's hand-drawn an entire platform game worth of assets over the past three years, and is still doing so. Which is a game that doesn't have between five and eight rotations for almost every animation of like a dozen enemy sprites.

I wish you the best of luck. ;)

And I shall have the best of luck.

[Maes]

I see the ghost of mac53 is still haunting these forums. At least this time it's not just sprite upscaling...

[limpbizkitfannickelbackfan]

7 minutes ago, Maes said:

I see the ghost of mac53 is still haunting these forums. At least this time it's not just sprite upscaling...

I am unfamiliar with mac53. What's the story?

[Peccatum Mihzamiz]

Check this out: somebody hand drew some sprites and textures and made one of the cutest wads ever :) https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/j-l/kewk

[ReaperAA]

3 hours ago, limpbizkitfannickelbackfan said:

The graphics would look closer to Alien Hominid than it does Doom.

 

This is the closest thing I can find:

 

[Silhouette 03]

46 minutes ago, ReaperAA said:

 

"video"

 

It would be really cool if there was a MSPaint texture set with the same color palate as the mod in the video. Something similar to the texture set used in the DIY project. A set like that would be a lot of fun to map with.

[rita remton]

4 hours ago, limpbizkitfannickelbackfan said:

Would it be possible to entirely re-skin Doom with hand-drawn textures?

 

perhaps something like [this]? afaik, the wad is still in the making, though.

 

[limpbizkitfannickelbackfan]

4 hours ago, rita remton said:

 

perhaps something like [this]? afaik, the wad is still in the making, though.

 

HOLY SHIT YES THANK YOU

[Shepardus]

5 hours ago, rita remton said:

 

perhaps something like [this]? afaik, the wad is still in the making, though. 

 

I wasn't expecting much upon entering this thread, but that's genuinely really cool!

[Maes]

On 4/11/2022 at 2:36 PM, limpbizkitfannickelbackfan said:

I am unfamiliar with mac53. What's the story?

 

Well, take it from here.

 

In all these years I've never seen a hi-res re-spriting project doing the full pull, and usually the progression goes something like "I'll hand-draw everything from scratch" -> turn out that's  A LOT of work -> "OK, I"ll use 3D models" -> Ooops, turns out you need to be a professional 3D modeler and it's still a lot of hard work -> "Fuck it, I'll just rescale the sprites with a filter and call it a day" -> Why not use an OpenGL port that does that automatically anyway?