Making Graphics Like it's 1993

#1

Post by sklopec » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 10:46 AM UTC

Making Graphics Like it's 1993
staniks.github.io

Re: Making Graphics Like it's 1993

#2

Post by rob74 » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 11:50 AM UTC

This is taking a lot of inspiration from Doom, but the actual raycasting engine is more like Doom's predecessors, the most well-known of which is probably Wolfenstein 3D: perpendicular walls, constant floor and ceiling height. Wolf3D didn't have textured floors and ceilings because of performance reasons, but several other similar games had them. Doom and IIRC Duke Nukem as well used a BSP engine which was much more flexible (walls could intersect at any angle, variable floor and ceiling heights), although the levels were still "flat" (you couldn't have several "stories" inside a level, e.g. you couldn't design a bridge that you could walk over and under).

Re: Making Graphics Like it's 1993

#3

Post by trumpdong » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 11:52 AM UTC

For some reason I irrationally like the posterization effect that's created when something is darkened to almost zero.

Re: Making Graphics Like it's 1993

#4

Post by sgt » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 11:56 AM UTC

Really cool. It's also something LLM's are ridiculously bad at, so you kinda have to do it properly.

Re: Making Graphics Like it's 1993

#5

Post by scrumper » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 11:58 AM UTC

rob74 wrote: post #2

This is taking a lot of inspiration from Doom, but the actual raycasting engine is more like Doom's predecessors, the most well-known of which is probably Wolfenstein 3D: perpendicular walls, constant floor and ceiling height. Wolf3D didn't have textured floors and ceilings because of performance reasons, but several other similar games had them. Doom and IIRC Duke Nukem as well used a BSP engine which was much more…

I thought at first it was just a skinned Wolfenstein 3D. Which is grossly unfair. A lot of work here.

Re: Making Graphics Like it's 1993

#6

Post by nticompass » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC

I respect the amount of work that goes into projects like this; I can't wait to be able to play it.

Re: Making Graphics Like it's 1993

#7

Post by mysterydip » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 12:05 PM UTC

As a fellow 3d-engine-with-foolishly-unreasonable-constraints developer, I love the detail in the explanations here and seeing the process you went through.

Re: Making Graphics Like it's 1993

#8

Post by xyzsparetimexyz » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 12:05 PM UTC

It'd be more interesting if you made a similar looking game using modern APIs imo

Re: Making Graphics Like it's 1993

#9

Post by Grumbledour » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 12:17 PM UTC

rob74 wrote: post #2

This is taking a lot of inspiration from Doom, but the actual raycasting engine is more like Doom's predecessors, the most well-known of which is probably Wolfenstein 3D: perpendicular walls, constant floor and ceiling height. Wolf3D didn't have textured floors and ceilings because of performance reasons, but several other similar games had them. Doom and IIRC Duke Nukem as well used a BSP engine which was much more…

Later on, in Shadow Warrior, you could even do that, i think they used portals to implement it and i remeber it was a pain to set up in the editor.

Re: Making Graphics Like it's 1993

#10

Post by rob74 » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 12:22 PM UTC

I just noticed that this might be one of the rare shooters with a female protagonist: the cat has a calico pattern, and those are almost always female (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calico_cat).