Actors undefined scaling

Some actors in Duke Nukem 3D have undefined scaling, which can cause a variety of issues.

Most enemies in the game are hard-coded to have the xrepeat/yrepeat forced when the map is loaded. However, there are some exceptions for this.

Additionally, some level editors may also force the scaling of sprites with a specific tilenum.

Hard-coded actors

The xrepeat/yrepeat values for the RECON (Recon Patrol Vehicle) and EGG (Protozoid Slimer Egg) are not set anywhere. As a result, it's up for the level designer to decide which the size the enemies should have. This also prevents these actors from being respawned, as opposed to being preplaced in the level.

In the original 3 episodes of Duke Nukem 3D, the scaling for the RECON and EGG sprites varies. The RECON sprites found in E3L2 are significantly larger than the other levels. Some levels intentionally randomize the size of EGG sprites.

The 4th episode added in v1.4 has standardized the scaling of RECON and EGG sprites to 40-40, which can be interpreted as their "canon" size.

Like the TANK (Pig Cop Tank), the RECON graphics are downscaled compared to the regular PIGCOP (Pig Cop) enemy. Therefore, a scale of 40-40 will cause the driver to appear much smaller than intended. It could be assumed Chuck Jones rendered the TANK sprites using the same scaling as the RECON, therefore a scaling of 60-60 could also be applied to the later.

Useractors

The Pig Cop Tank (TANK) and Protector Drone (NEWBEAST) are defined using useractor, and the scaling is not hard-coded, but is set in the CON script instead.

As a result, if the level designer has the sprites for these enemies with inaccurate scaling, they will be appear as such before they see the player.

The NEWBEASTSTAYPUT and NEWBEASTJUMP sprites do not set the scaling, and will respawn with scale 1-1 instead.