Lets start with the following definition:
// Now what is a visplane, anyway?
//
typedef struct
{
fixed_t height;
int picnum;
int lightlevel;
int minx;
int maxx;
// leave pads for [minx-1]/[maxx+1]
byte pad1;
// Here lies the rub for all
// dynamic resize/change of resolution.
byte top[SCREENWIDTH];
byte pad2;
byte pad3;
// See above.
byte bottom[SCREENWIDTH];
byte pad4;
} visplane_t;
And we'll start by clearing up some of the more simpler parts of it:
height
is eitherfloorheight
orceilignheight
picnum
is an index number for a texture to use when drawinglightlevel
is the sector lightlevel, this is used to scale up/down the texture brightness (via a palette)
Those three items are checked against to determine if a plane can be merged or if a new one is required.
minx
and maxx
are the indexes to the start and end of the plane within the
top
and bottom
arrays. Where top and bottom contain the values of where in
screen space the spans/columns to be drawn start/stop. It can be visualised like
this when looking at the framebuffer:
bottom[SCREENWIDTH] is the top of the screen, starting at y == 0
_0___1___2___3___4___5___6___7___8___9___10__11__12__13__14__15__16__17__18__...
0| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
1| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
2| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
3| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
4| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
5| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
6| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
7| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
8| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
9| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
10| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
11| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
12| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
13| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
14| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
| ...
top[SCREENWIDTH]
R_RenderSegLoop
sets the values in the arrays by iteraating over the wall start/stop
range. For a ceiling it would insert in to bottom[SCREENWIDTH]
at the index of
a value in the range start/stop, a value which is where the wall column top ends.
Thus an array of bottom[-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,2,1,0,1,2,3]
would mean that the following
ceiling is drawn int he framebuffer:
bottom[SCREENWIDTH] is the top of the screen, starting at y == 0
_0___1___2___3___4___5___6___7___8___9___10__11__12__13__14__15__16__17__18__...
0| -1, -1, -1, -1, FF, FF, FF, FF, FF, FF, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
1| -1, -1, -1, -1, FF, FF, -1, FF, FF, FF, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
2| -1, -1, -1, -1, FF, -1, -1, -1, FF, FF, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
3| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, FF, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
4| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
5| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
6| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
7| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
8| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
9| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
10| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
11| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
12| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
13| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
14| -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
| ...
top[SCREENWIDTH]
You could envision this as looking at a squre pillar in E1M1 perhaps, where the top
of the pillar looks like this, where the dark areas are the ceiling, which are FF
in the above example: