Any tips for making textures?

[She-wolf]

Yeah I'm not entirley sure if this goes in this part of the board or not so sorry mods. Anyway I said to Ninja that as I now have my graphics tablet I coukd make some textures for his maps quite easily and I've had a few ideas for when I go back to uni and to my own computer but does anybody have anything that would be helpful? What is bothering me is I'm wondering how I'd make a texture that repeats as in say a water texture where one tile would have to join onto the next and continue the pattern. How could this be done easier without finding that they don't match when you put more of them together? I'm using the painting program that I got with my tablet, Painter Classic which serves my doodling needs reasonably. I know it's bitmaps that the final files have to be for use in editing which is fine as I can convert them into that format but what sort of sizes are typical textures? Ergh any information would be useful and it'd be quite cool if I make decent enough textures to submit them to some of the DooM sites.

[Frades]

Among a few other programs, i use a freeware program called Wally ( http://www.telefragged.com/wally/ ) to create textures and flats. It has a nice function that tiles the same picture together, so you can see how they will look tiled even while you're actually making the texture/flat. A very helpful thing, i might say.
Most common texture sizes for doom are 64x128 and 128x128. Keep in mind that texture height can't be above 128. There are also some 256x128 textures and then the small ones with lights and so on.. 16x16 and stuff like that. About flats (floors/ceilings) you should know that they must be 64x64, no more no less.

[DOOM_GOAT]

I use Paint Shop Pro 8. It has a user-defined automatic tiling function which subtly warps one or more edges of an image to make it tile perfectly.

[She-wolf]

I found something on Painter that lets me make pictures so that they continue over and will tile nicely. I'll try and make some decent ones and see how they go.

[Doom_Dude]

Originally Posted by DOOM_GOAT

I use Paint Shop Pro 8. It has a user-defined automatic tiling function which subtly warps one or more edges of an image to make it tile perfectly.

That doesn't always look right when you do the warpage (uhhh at least in most programs that warp-tiles stuff it don't). In Wally I sometimes shift the texture until the seams are in the middle and then use PhotoStudio's clone tool to fix the seam. Wally's clone tool sometimes makes a mess. heh.

[Aliotroph?]

That's why metal panel textures are so cool!

The answer is 2.

[She-wolf]

Hmmm well probably the best way to start I think is to make ones where there doesn't need to be any repeat going over onto each side until I get half way decent at making simple ones before making repeating ones. I would love a decent painting program but can't really afford it and realistically I wouldn't use an awful lot besides when I do get that rare time to paint and doodle and make stuff like textures.

[Tolwyn]

When using JDoom, your textures can be any multiple of 2
and can be 24bit or 32bit (24bit + 8bit alpha channel).

Flats can also be any square multiple of 2.

They can either replace original textures by their lump name, or you can place "placeholders" in a PWAD and use that for editing while having the real textures in \data\jdoom\textures or in a PK3 file with the same folder structure.

[Doom_Dude]

She-Wolf the easiest textures to design IMHO are the flats (floors and ceilings) and making tiled floors (as in square tiles) is really a breeze so I suggest trying to make a few. I like to draw a simple pattern of ......... ummmm say brown rust or somethin, then take 4 pieces out of what was made of 32 x 32 and place em side by side to make the 64 x 64 and you can turn the 32 x 32 to your liking then make the seams. Ugh it's easier to show than to explain. You can then do stuff like darken 2 of the squares in opposite corners.... Remember also that the Doom palette is limited and you'll have to apply the palette to your textures to make sure they'll look alright in the game.