/vr/ - Retro Games

>>6462762
You weren't going to get all that much more realism with 1995 era computers, the goal still remained from 1993; has to be reasonably playable on a 386 shitbox.
Looking at Downtown, it was stripped down from its earlier variants, the wharfs and coast were turned into alleys, and there probably were never any sidewalks for any of the buildings because that would be too many extra visplanes.

You could probably revamp the concept for this level to better show off more realistic locales, but it would come at the expense of nonlinearity and more abstract features, things which are better suited for Doom.

>>6021854
>there's nothing even in Doom 2's "attempts" at making a city that are even remotely as realistic as that
Not for a lack of trying, Downtown was gonna have a set of docks but those were cut out. Sandy would probably have loved to have done some sidewalks and roads for the map too if it wasn't for the fact that they had to make sure the game had to run at a decent FPS on computers at the time.

>>5932149
Even Odyssey Of Noises conveyed a city better just a year later.

Downtown though, the thing is that they had to make sure that even a shitty 386 computer could get at least 20fps at all times, so maps would have to be cut down and altered, or redone entirely, otherwise the game would just be playable for a lot of customers, which is a problem.

If you've ever seen the beta version of Downtown, it was more detailed, the alleys in the back of the level were originally supposed to be docks by the water, for instance.
I don't know if Sandy ever intended to have sidewalks and proper streets in this level, but if he suggested it, the idea might have been nixed due to adding too many visplanes at any one place. Again, 386 computers, even if in hindsight they might have been able to make it look better, they also wanted to fit their gameplay in there too.

>>5932162
>>5932170
What I remember from Hellbound was that it actually had some pretty good layouts inside the buildings, the streets are just there as an open space between the real meat of the level, and for the occasional open battle, and is part of selling the intended style of the map pack. The .wad is built strongly around levels looking like they're properly connected, the entrance of the level you're in is always designed to look like the exit of the previous level (barring map 01, of course), it all makes it feel like a continuous journey.