The Origin of Texture-mapping in Games

This article is concerned with the first 3D texture-mapped computer games to appear on Western computer-game machines.

In the sphere of 3D graphics a texture map is an image that is applied to polygonal surfaces of 3D objects in virtual space. Texture maps are subject to a material layer which defines the nature of a surface (e.g., its reflectivity or real-world material composition, such as wood or metal).

Thus, the applied texture map takes on the properties of its underlying material as well as the shape of the polygonal surface; that is, the texture map automatically wraps around or is mapped to the surface. Naturally, the texture map is auto-subject to perspective -- but from a coding point of view that is easier said than done.

The object of texture-mapping is to increase graphical realism and give the illusion of increased geometric complexity. Supposedly, this adds to "immersion".

Texture-mapped games were preceded by flat-shaded games which were preceded by wireframe games such as FS1 Flight Simulator of 1979.

Note that some flat-shaded games employ dithering or pattern-filling to add "texture" to surfaces, but that is not texture-mapping. That said, such techniques often yielded impressive results.

Textures can also be used to deform surfaces to which they are mapped, but I am not concerned with bump-mapping in this treatment range, which focuses on early t-mapped games.

Early texture-mapped games were software-rendered via CPUs (1991-96), but by 1997 texture-mapping was commonly hardware-accelerated via dedicated GPUs, which became practically necessary when running polygon-pushers in SVGA resolutions.

By "render-field", I mean the screenspace that is actually being updated by the rendering engine. The render-field can also be referred to as the render-space, drawspace or viewport. The render-field is distinct from borders and UI elements; an exceedingly important distinction to make! Yes, the 3D game displays in 320x200, but how big is its render-field? Tell me that!

Render-field dimension reduction is sometimes based on hardware restrictions. Other times, UI elements are necessary for interaction. Sometimes UI elements are drop-away.

If I append "sprite-scaler" to an entry then that means the computer game is not rendering objects or actors in 3D but rather scaling, rotating and animating 2D sprites. Doom of 1993 is a prime example.

Likewise, if I append "Fully-3D" to an entry then that means the objects and actors that appear on the interactable part of the render-field are 100% 3D polygonal; perhaps only with 2D explosion cores, particle effects and/or horizon-map.

As far as I'm concerned, if the objects and actors are rendered in 3D on-the-fly as per floors, ceilings, walls and terrain; if the 3D objects and actors seamlessly adhere to the 3D world-space -- that's a fully-3D game.

Up/down looks are NOT a prerequisite for 3D-hood: some 3D games do not WANT them. Do you want to look up/down while driving a Formula One racer at 200 mph? "Oh, look at the clouds!" Dead.

It should go without saying, but fully-3D games are usually more authentic and realistic than those that employ sprites. In addition to their crude and unbelonging appearance, by their very nature sprites can never scale, rotate or animate in harmony with 3D world-spaces; they are always out of sync, no exceptions.

It depends on polygon-count and countless other factors, but i80386DXes generally software-rendered texture-mapped geometry at 30 FPS in 320x200 render-fields.

In the early 90s the 386DX was the entry-level CPU for running texture-mapped games. No DX, only SX? Slideshow for YOU.

30 FPS was actually an acceptable framerate in the early-to-mid 90s. For example, Doom ran at 35 FPS on 11-MIP 386DXes and Quake ran at 40 FPS on 190-MIP Pentium 100s.

Computer-game journalism retroactively romanticizes early 3D-game framerates; they think everything has always been "60 FPS" -- but the simple truth is that most gamers were playing at low framerates until the advent of GPUs.

Number of texture-mapped computer games currently chronicled (incl. different versions): 56.

This document was last updated on the November 20, 2024.

1991 Texture-mapped Games

I would like to preface this chronological coverage by declaring that texture-mapping is overrated.

In the early 90s, instead of tiny texture-mapped render-fields with 2D sprite-scaled objects and actors I would rather have seen large flat-shaded render-fields with 3D objects and actors.

The increased processing power of early-90s CPUs should have been employed for flat-shaded games with increased fidelity, geometric complexity and framerates (and physics) rather than for texture-mapping in smaller render-fields than even flat-shaded games of the 80s.

Texture-mapping was and still is a massive resource hog and storage-space hog -- for practically zero gain. And in too many cases t-mapped games look even worse than flat-shaded ones from 1987.

The obsession with texture-mapping uglified computer games and reduced their graphical clarity; it took away from advancements in fidelity, physics, lighting and geometric complexity. Indeed, texture-mapping devolved computer game graphics.

If you learn anything from my f-shaded and t-mapped articles, it should be this:

Form + fidelity + framerate = the eye of the patrician
Texture-mapping + color depth = the eye of the peasant
Fully-3D polygonal = patrician
3D + sprite-scaled = peasant

Refer to my Wing Commander Overview for more patrician-peasant comparisons.

Catacomb 3-D IBM PC 1991

Catacomb 3-D: The Descent was released by id Software for IBM PC MS-DOS in November of 1991. Catacomb 3-D is notable for being the first texture-mapped computer game to be released. Coded by John Carmack, John Romero and Jason Blochowiak, Catacomb 3-D displays in EGA 320x200, but its render-field is only 265x144px.

Notable as well is Catacomb 3-D's employment of wall-destructibility and strafing.

Sprite-scaler.

1992 Texture-mapped Games

Ultima Underworld IBM PC 1992

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss was released by Origin Systems in March of 1992. Ultima Underworld was developed by Blue Sky Productions for IBM PC MS-DOS.

Running in 256-color VGA at 320x200 resolution, Ultima Underworld requires at minimum an i80386SX CPU, 557K of free conventional RAM, 480K of EMS RAM and 256K of vRAM. UU also requires 8 megs of hard disk space.

Ultima Underworld is notable for being the first texture-mapped computer game to be developed and demonstrated.

Chris Green coded the texture-mapping algorithm employed by Ultima Underworld's 3D rendering engine, which updates its geometry in a piddling 172x112 render-field.

Note that some flat-shaded flight sims featured 640x350-based render-fields in 1987/88, but their polygons were not texture-mapped. Thus, they don't get praise from the mindless masses even though their fidelity and framerates far outstripped UU, five years before UU came out. Moreover, UU's texture-mapping was outstripped within a few months whereas 640x350-based render-fields were not outstripped for seven years.

It was the flat-shaded EGA flight sim that was cutting edge, not these early t-mapped games.

What would you rather play in 1992?

A flat-shaded 16-color EGA UU with a 640x350-based render-field
A texture-mapped 256-color VGA UU with a 172x112 render-field

Wait a moment. Would you perhaps even prefer wireframe 640x350?

Think about how much more readable text + stats are in 640x350/400 as well... but they always go for color over clarity, don't they. In computer games with lots of text + stats...

That said, Ultima Underworld is also notable for featuring 3D up/down looks before id Software's games, but that's because id Software were focused on raw action, not looking around slowly. Besides, Cybercon 3 of 1991 was the first 3D game to feature up/down looks, not Ultima Underworld. And anyway, UU doesn't feature proper mouse-look control. Instead, you use on-screen arrows to move about and number-keys to look up/down. Awful. I'd rather not have to deal with up/down looks at all. Such a chore without mouse-look.

And this is why 2D Dungeon Master of 1987 is simply a better first-person game than 3D Ultima Underworld of 1992, even though half a decade separates them.

Like I said, OVERRATED. You'd rather be playing 2D flip-screen cRPGs that look better, play faster and have larger drawspaces.

Ultima Underworld is a cumbersome, exceedingly ugly and massively overrated cRPG whose low-res and warped 3D viewport can actually nauseate players, both literally and figuratively. Think twice before you play it.

Sprite-scaler.

Legends of Valor IBM PC 1992

Synthetic Dimensions released Legends of Valour for Atari ST, Amiga and IBM PC MS-DOS 3.1 in 1992. Legends of Valor was designed by Ian Downend and Kevin Bulmer. Ian Downend programmed the IBM PC version and the 3D NSR System; Paul Woakes and Graham Lilley programmed the ST/Amiga versions.

Legends of Valor requires an Intel 286 CPU, 640K of conventional RAM and 8.3 megs of HDD space. Legends of Valor displays in 256-color VGA 320x200 (192x100 render-field).

Sprite-scaler.

Wolfenstein 3D 1992

Wolfenstein 3D was released by id Software in May of 1992 for IBM PC MS-DOS 3.0. Programmed by John Carmack, John Romero and Jason Blochowiak, Wolfenstein 3D runs in 256-color VGA 320x200.

Note the untextured ceilings and floors. Max 305x152 render-field. In-game, the render-field can be tailored from 64x32 minumum to 305x152 maximum.

Sprite-scaler.

Wolfenstein 3D requires an i80286-12 MHz CPU and of 570K of free conventional RAM. It can also utilize EMS/XMS RAM.

The six-episode Wolfenstein 3D was distributed on 1x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskette, 2x 3.5" 720kB DD diskettes or 4x 5.25" 360kB floppy disks and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Wolf3D installer. The install size is 2.6 megs and consists of 14 files.

Wolfenstein 3D audio supports AdLib, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro and Disney Sound Source. Control-wise, Wolfenstein 3D supports mouse, keyboard and Gravis GamePad.

cf. Castle Wolfenstein Apple 2.

Alone in the Dark IBM PC 1992 I-MOTION Infogrames

1993 Texture-mapped Games

Doom IBM PC 1993 id Software

Sprite-scaler. 320x168 render-field.

Liberation Captive 2 Amiga 1993-94

Fully-3D.

Strike Commander IBM PC 1993

320x200 render-field. Fully-3D. Gouraud-shaded.

Frontier Elite 2 IBM PC 1993 David Braben

Fully-3D. 320x168 render-field.

IndyCar Racing IBM PC 1993

Papyrus Design Group released IndyCar Racing for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1993. Note the proper 320x200 full-screen render-field. And the texture-mapping is spartan and stylish. Awesome game.

Fully-3D.

1994 Texture-mapped Games

NASCAR Racing IBM PC 1994

Papyrus Design Group released NASCAR Racing for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1994. The upgrade to square-pixel SVGA 640x480 is huge. Huge, I say.

A full-screen, full-action, 100% 3D 640x480 render-field in 1994!

Runs at 30 FPS. Unbeatable.

NASCAR Racing is the Quake of auto-racers.

Fully-3D.

System Shock IBM PC 1994

Wing Commander 3 IBM PC 1994

Rise of the Triad IBM PC 1994

Apogee Software released the shareware version of Rise of the Triad: Dark War in Dec. of 1994 for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0/4GW Protected mode run-time. The full version was released in Feb. of 1995.

Rise of the Triad requires i80386DX2-40 MHz, 4 megs of RAM and 20 megs of HDD space. Rise of the Triad displays in 256-color VGA 320x200.

Heretic IBM PC 1994

Sprite-scaler.

Elder Scrolls: Arena IBM PC 1994

Sprite-scaler.

1995 Texture-mapped Games

Hexen IBM PC 1995

Sprite-scaler.

EF2000 IBM PC 1995

EF2000 was released by Digital Image Design in 1995 for IBM PC MS-DOS, Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0. EF stands for EuroFighter (NATOs EF Typhoon).

EF2000 features Beyond Visual Range combat (BVR), strategic 3D wargaming engine (WARGEN), virtual cockpit and 4 million square kilometers of texture-mapped terrain.

Windows 95 EF2000 requires Pentium 75 MHz, 16 megs of RAM and 20 megs of HDD space, but Pentium 120 MHz, 32 megs of RAM and 70 megs of HDD space is recommended. MS-DOS EF2000 requires i80486DX-66 MHz, 512K of conventional RAM, 8 megs of RAM (5 megs of free EMS), but Pentium 90 MHz and 16 megs of RAM is recommended.

EF2000 displays in 256-color VESA SVGA 640x400. 3D-accelerated via 3dfx or Rendition.

Employs math coprocessor.

Descent IBM PC 1995

Fully-3D (2D explosion sprites). Full-screen 320x200 render-field.

IndyCar Racing 2 IBM PC 1995

Papyrus Design Group released IndyCar Racing 2 for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1995. Square-pixel SVGA 640x480.

Fully-3D.

Need for Speed IBM PC 1995

Electronic Arts released Need for Speed for IBM PC MS-DOS/4GW in 1995.

3DO console port... eew.

Fully-3D.

Destruction Derby IBM PC 1995

Reflections released Destruction Derby for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1995. DOS/4GW.

Fully-3D playfield (2D digitized backdrops).

Screamer IBM PC 1995

Screamer was released by Graffiti for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1995. Screamer was coded by Antonio Miscellaneo.

The Screamer 3D rendering engine was coded by Antonio Martini.

Software-rendered. DOS/4GW.

Fully-3D.

Frontier First Encounters IBM PC 1995

FFE features complex geometry and procedural texture-mapping, but only a 320x200 render-field.

Fully-3D.

MechWarrior 2 IBM PC 1995

Fully-3D.

Star Wars: Dark Forces IBM PC 1995

Sprite-scaler.

Gloom Amiga 1995

A clone of Doom, Gloom was released by Black Magic Software in 1995 for Amiga 1200 030s. Here is a screencap of Gloom running on an Amiga 1200 030 on max settings in WinUAE. Screencaps were taken in 640x480, but I upscaled the image for viewing purposes. Gloom runs at a consistent 30 FPS, which is impressive for A1200 030. Gloom was coded by Mark Silby.

1996 Texture-mapped Games

Descent 2 IBM PC 1996

Fully-3D (2D explosion sprites.)

Strife IBM PC 1996

Rogue Entertainment released Strife for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 95 in 1996. Strife was designed by Jim Molinets and programmed by James Monroe and Peter Mack. Strife is based on the Doom engine.

Strife requires an i80486DX-66 MHz CPU, 8 megs of RAM and 70 megs of HDD space, but a Pentium processor is recommended. Strife supports SMARTDRV disk-caching up to 512K. There is 29 megs of voice-acting in Strife; the game will still function if VOICE.WAD is deleted.

Sprite-scaler.

Daggerfall IBM PC 1996

Bethesda Softworks released Daggerfall in 1996 for IBM PC MS-DOS 6.0. Daggerfall was designed by Julian Lefay and coded by Hal Bouma and Lefay.

Aside from its Great Britain-sized open world (which is mostly empty), Daggerfall is notable for its verticality, procedurally-generated dungeons and 3D texture-mapped automap, which can be panned, rotated and trucked.

Otherwise, just like Ultima Underworld of 1992, this is one ugly, clunky and nauseatingly boring computer game to endure. It is also dead-easy like its loathsome sequel, Morrowind.

Sprite-scaler.

Now look at the difference in 3D rendering between Daggerfail and other 3D games of 1996.

Quake IBM PC 1996

Gouraud-shaded. Fully-3D. Proper mouse-look control. 320x200/240 up to 1280x1024. Incredible.

F-22 Lightning II IBM PC 1996

NovaLogic released F-22 Lightning II for IBM PC MS-DOS in Sept. of 1996. F-22 was designed and coded by Randy Casey. You pilot the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.

Displaying in square-pixel 256-color VESA 2.0 VBE SVGA 640x480, F-22 employs page-flipping and a hazing routine that reduces texture-rendering demands. 41.3 megs of HDD space is required for full install (18.1 megs install is slow-load). 350 megs of FMV is read from the CD-ROM.

Fully-3D.

Shattered Steel BioWare 1996

Fully-3D.

Duke Nukem 3D IBM PC 1996

Sprite-scaler.

Tomb Raider IBM PC 1996

Core Design released Tomb Raider in 1996 for IBM PC MS-DOS/4GW Protected Mode Run-time v.1.97. Tomb Raider is a cinematic third-person action-adventure game. Coded by Paul Douglas, Tomb Raider displays in 256-color VESA SVGA 640x480.

Fully-3D.

NASCAR Racing 2 IBM PC 1996

Papyrus Design Group released NASCAR Racing 2 for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1996.

NASCAR Racing 2 maintained support for software-rendered aka CPU-rendered 3D, but also supported hardware-accelerated 3D via 3Dfx and Rendition graphics chipsets.

Fully-3D.

Grand Prix 2 IBM PC 1996

MicroProse released Grand Prix 2 for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1996. 640x480 render-field.

An absolutely amazing game.

Fully-3D.

Screamer 2 IBM PC 1996

Screamer 2 was released by Milestone for IBM PC MS-DOS and Windows 95 in 1996. Screamer 2 was coded by Stefano Lecchi.

The Screamer 2 3D rendering engine was coded by Antonio Martini. DOS/4GW.

Fully-3D.

Battle Arena Toshinden IBM PC 1996

Playmates Interactive Entertainment ported Tamsoft's Battle Arena Toshinden PlayStation versus fighter of 1995 to IBM PC in April of 1996. Battle Arena Toshinden requires an i486DX2-66 MHz CPU, 8 megs of RAM and 15 megs of HDD space. BAT displays its menus in 256-color SVGA 640x480 but the actual arenas are only 256-color VGA 320x200 (scaled by CRTs to 240).

Fully-3D.

1997 Texture-mapped Games

Screamer Rally IBM PC 1997

Screamer Rally was released by Milestone for IBM PC MS-DOS 6.0 in 1997.

3dfx Voodoo or software-rendered. DOS/4GW.

Fully-3D.

By 1996, and as it pertains to 3D computer games, MS-DOS / Windows had left console and arcade variants in the dust: even without factoring in vehicle, flight and space sims, Quake destroyed 3D arcade and console games all by itself.

Carmageddon IBM PC 1997

Stainless Games released Carmageddon in June of 1997 for IBM PC MS-DOS 6.2 4GW Protected Mode run-time and Windows 95 DirectX 3a. Recommended specs are Pentium 70 MHz, 32 megs of RAM, 2 megs of vRAM and 264 megs of HDD space for full install. Carmageddon displays in 256-color VGA 320x200 or SVGA 640x480 via hires.bat.

Carmageddon allows users to customize the following graphics settings: Car Complexity, Car Textures, Shadows, Wall Textures, Road Textures, Scenery Cut-off, Scenery Pop-up, Sky Texture, Darkness / Fog, Track Accessories and Special Effects.

Supports 3dfx Voodoo. Sprite-scaler.