TEXTURES patch cropping

[Nightfall]

I don't know about others but I find TEXTURES massively useful for texture compositing, i.e. making textures out of other textures. All I need to do is essentially describe what I want the texture to look like in a text editor, reload GZDoom Builder and the new composite is sitting there ready to be plastered everywhere.

Suppose I want a composite texture with one bar METAL2 and one bar GRAY1, all that's needed is a description:

Code: Select all

Texture "ASDF", 64, 128
{
	Patch METAL2, 0, 0
	Patch GRAY1, 0, 64
}

and it's ready. Contrast if I had to edit the texture in e.g. GIMP instead. The speed and ease of use provided by this method makes composite texturing a viable method for detailing areas.

However, suppose we want for example TEKGREN2 with a WOODMET1 rusty metal bar. Well that can't be too hard, except that the metal bar we want is embedded 16 pixels down inside the WOODMET1 texture, which means we can't just stitch the two textures together because then it looks completely wrong.

With current capabilities we'd have to use a dummy texture to get the desired result:

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Texture __MYTEMP, 64, 32
{
	Patch WOODMET1, 0, -48
}

Texture ASDF, 64, 128
{
	Patch TEKGREN2, 0, 0
	Patch __MYTEMP, 0, 96
}

What I'd like to have thus would be a crop feature for this so parts of patches can be composited, e.g. in our case:

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Texture ASDF, 64, 128
{
	Patch TEKGREN2, 0, 0
	Patch WOODMET1, 0, 96 { Crop 0, 48 to 64, 80 }
}

This would instruct the engine to use a (0,48) to (64,80) crop of the patch instead of the whole patch. This would give more options for composition.

[NeuralStunner]

As someone who uses compositing a lot, I would like this feature as well.

[wildweasel]

This would certainly cut down on the need for "pre-cropping" textures to use in other texture entries. I find when I'm working with Textures, I have to create a lot of "scratch" entries whose only use is being layered into other entries.

[Major Cooke]

Agreed, and TEXTURES is especially useful for saving on space when dealing with dual wielding weapons.