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Project AXSX (2013 and Beyond)

Discussion in 'Fangaming Discussion' started by Andrew75, Apr 25, 2013.

Are you interested in playing project AXSX?

  1. YES, count me in, I would love to play this game.

    261 vote(s)
    84.2%
  2. I may play the game, (not sure how I feel about it yet.)

    43 vote(s)
    13.9%
  3. Nope! Game looks like shit. I love only modern HD games.

    7 vote(s)
    2.3%
  1. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Last edited: Jan 8, 2022
  2. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Last edited: Jan 8, 2022
  3. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Last edited: Jan 8, 2022
  4. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Last edited: Jan 8, 2022
  5. RGX

    RGX

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    Love the works in progress! Like always, your project looks more promising with every update. Especially the movement and water physics. Sonic X-TREME wishes it was as polished as this.
     
  6. Faseeh

    Faseeh

    Member
    I can't wait for you to get done with the engine man. Really hoping you can be done with it soon :D
     
  7. Spinksy

    Spinksy

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    Awesome updates - genuinely ALOT more excited for this game than I have been for any (Sega) Sonic game in the last 8 or so years.

    From clips and gifs you have shown it looks to be as fun as classic sonic games always were and that is something I can't wait for!!

    How are the boss levels coming along?
     
  8. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Boss levels are 0 % in udk , wont start them until level engine is done. And when level engine is done, I'll need a break for a little while.
    I'm all about reaching a self set goal. When the goal is met than I switch over to another goal. Right now my goals are to get the original levels done, and getting the level engine complete and nothing else.
    (With the rare exception of assisting with The real Sonic X-treme, but again that is an intricate part of the above goal, gathering information, assets and having fun doing it since the real x-treme is a very important game. (for me anyways)
    When boss engine goal is set, than that's what 100% of my attention will go towards. ( and who knows by than a Boss leak could happen! And WOW! If that happened now, I don't know what I'd do... maybe explode !!!)
     
  9. LordOfSquad

    LordOfSquad

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    So looking at that level editor, how easy would it be for regular schmucks like myself to build their own levels? Or is it for internal use only? Apologies if it's been mentioned one way or the other before.
     
  10. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Do you mean AXSX Level editor ?
    Its not really AXSX's editor but its UDKs built in editor. And if you know how to use that than you're kind of set, there is a bit of a learning curve to use every aspect of udk's art pipeline but it isn't so hard if you stick with the basics.
    And there is also my workflow that I follow which is pretty much consistent threw out the project in how assets are made , brought into the engine and assembled than used in levels.

    We also have to consider that there are 2 types of geometry, A visual mesh that has no collision detection for Sonic and other actors, although there are a few ticks in some properties boxes that allow Sonic's shadow to be received on that mesh.
    Than there is an invisible mesh which allows for better collision detection for 45 degree ramps ( a smooth transitional geometry between angles) The collision mesh also handles the switching between Level rotations and non level rotations via a Material applied to specific locations on the collision mesh.
    When sonic touches Material A than gameplay is set to standard Sonic gameplay with classic like physics ect ect, and when Sonic touches Material B than we get level rotations mode with another type of gameplay and physics.
    There are a total of 6 material types at the moment, with plans to add 1 more type. I will not cover what they do as it would take forever! ( they are only related to level rotations and non rotations, but with mix and match elements for other technical aspects to the system, for example 1 type adds in 90 degree rotations)

    Edit: There is one important step!
    Before a release is made, I will be Exporting level geometry built out of blocks inside UDK out to 3ds max , at which point I use a set of Custom max scripts to remove every polygon that is inside the mesh to hollow it out, than I weld all the geometry together to form a single level mesh, and I check for holes in the mesh with a STL Check modifier,
    (I like clean mesh so I must have no holes !) Than I export it back to UDK so that we don't have 1000s of blocks inside the levels that can hit the FPS, its not the polygon count that hits FPS but the blocks themselves, (all the draw calls 6 per block x 1000s of blocks is a lot of draw calls!!) as where using a single Model with the same structure with lets say 20 materials total would be 20 draw calls, give or take a few.
    Lastly I r-assign the materials to the blocks! ( Sound fun yet?)
     
  11. Spinksy

    Spinksy

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    Ok that's cool, I only asked as I can't remember seeing much regarding the boss levels (which makes sense now).

    Keep up the great work, can't wait to play this!
     
  12. LordOfSquad

    LordOfSquad

    bobs over baghdad Member
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    I've never dabbled with UDK anything so I had no idea. Thanks for the info though!
     
  13. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Give Xak's Sonic GDK a try ! you may have some fun !
     
  14. Sparks

    Sparks

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    Oh man, I'm really digging these updates. It's funny to think how in the 3D realm, loops can be that easily trivialized and bypassed.
     
  15. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Since this level has been shown already from the leak, Thought it'd be okay to share the rebuilt level inside AXSX.
    Still working on lighting, background and other such tweaks. Also added in my own touches like translucencies on clouds, shadows and reworked the grass textures in the back so the outside edge pixels are translucent. ( Makes for a better end result vs the hard edged grass from before that had blue pixels around the edges)
    And before anyone asks this question again,,, No this is not a port of the level geometry from the original game, this has all been rebuilt by hand following the .def and .pcx map layout as a guide.
    [​IMG]
     
  16. TheKazeblade

    TheKazeblade

    "Our Life is More than a Side-Effect" Member
    Looking great, man! Amazing work as always.

    It's areas like this that really does make me believe that Sonic Lost Worlds was at least in part inspired by X-treme.
     
  17. synchronizer

    synchronizer

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    I have been looking through this thread as well as the X-treme prototype one. This is all incredible work!

    By the way, I thought that billboard graphics would always face the camera much like similar graphics would in N64 games (for example). Is that not the case here? It makes sense not to rotate the grass, but I am not so sure about the trees.
     
  18. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Yeah the trees did not rotate in the original for this specific level, I tried it and it just did not look good here. It was same with the other level props.
    Clouds will be billboards though, unlike the original.

    However ! In the other more modern levels from the HXC leak, many objects have billboards including trees, I've already set them up as such.

    EDIT: ~
    Is this billboard enough for you ? ( We should all be looking at the top of the frozen tree here) Sure its not done the way the original did billboards, but its close enough for me!
    (Level originally seen in the Later engine build of X-treme, rebuilt for axsx a few years back. It's to bad that engine hasn't leaked yet.
    And look there are even faked Quad polygon texture mapping for sloped blocks as a bonus !( As would have been seen on NV1 and Saturn)
    [​IMG]
     
  19. Shadow Hog

    Shadow Hog

    "I'm a superdog!" Member
    I'm a little wary of this, since one of the issues constantly plaguing modern 3D Sonic games is that Sonic turns on a dime, even at full speed (2K6 is egregiously bad about this, especially since it has near full air control meaning slowing yourself down in mid-air instead results in you spiraling about at full speed like an idiot). I always thought Sonic gameplay worked better when Sonic or other player characters have a lot of weight behind them - that it's not too hard to slow yourself down, but it does take a second to do so if you're at full speed.

    I know others have likened that to Sonic "feeling like a truck", but honestly, I'd rather have that than instantaneous turning keeping full velocity.
     
  20. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Sonics turning on a dime here works well for this game, its not like what we experience in the Modern games, the feeling is different.
    When moving directly left to right or up and down for example. It feels almost exactly like if you were playing the genesis games. As for the air controls, they are not bad. While playing, one does not spiral out of control like one would in 2k6.
    ( no mater if your running fast and jump to the side quickly and spin the stick around ,,, Sonic still has the classic feelings in all directions while in the air.) yes its like a truck
    If you like while turning you can always hit the breaks by pressing backwards to skid to a stop .. or slow down to make your turns.