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Sprite

A sprite, enlarged three times for visibility.

Sprites are two-dimensional images which are used to represent all items and enemies in Wolfenstein 3D and derivative works Spear of Destiny and the mission packs. They are projected into the game world so that they always appear to face the player, giving an illusion of three-dimensional objects. Later games in the Wolfenstein series were able to utilize much more complicated three-dimensional polygons, rendering the use of sprites far less important.

Wolfenstein 3D features 436 sprites, while Spear of Destiny features 421.

Technical information[]

In the original MS-DOS game, all sprites were 64x64 pixels. Instead of using formal transparency, the color #980088 is designated as transparent, giving all extracted sprites a purple background. Most non-boss enemies have a sprite for each of the eight directions they may be facing, for each of the Stand and Chase (and Path) states.

For example, here are the eight sprites for the Stand state of the Guard from Wolfenstein 3D:

SPR GRD S 1SPR GRD S 2SPR GRD S 3SPR GRD S 4SPR GRD S 5SPR GRD S 6SPR GRD S 7SPR GRD S 8

Mac Family[]

Later ports after the SNES used higher resolution, 128x128 sprites. However with the SNES, only one sprite for each state was created, so the enemies always appeared to face the player.

Trivia[]

Guardbutt

A sprite of a Guard, which has had all #980088 pixels made transparent. A small region between the Guard's legs appears to be glitched and purple.

Some enemy sprites have pixels which are colored #600064, which is similar to #980088 but not the same. These pixels are not made transparent, and show up in game as purple.

  • The purple pixels are normally meant for Mutant blood. Otherwise, it can be assumed that it is a mistake by the developers.


See also[]

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