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3D blast assets?

Discussion in 'Engineering & Reverse Engineering' started by Andrew75, Nov 5, 2012.

  1. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Today a friend of mine (Master Emerald) brought something up that seems very interesting.
    I don't know if this was talked about in the past here on Retro.

    "Imagine if traveler tales archived sonic 3D blast zone models and released it in full 3D today"
    "It had a simple scenery but charming still"


    In my opinion, I think this would actually make the game into a very very good sonic game.
    and break away from just being a so so game because of its shit controls.

    Has anyone ever hacked 3D blast Saturn ( extracted the tiles) , or attempted to track down the assets used to produce the pre rendered textures?

    If so please let me know ASAP, as we could easily drop them into Sonic GDK and make a fun game.
    (Would be using the custom GDK engine for this (GHZ 2.5D ) and Yes GHZ 2.5D supports full 3D movement)
     
  2. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Wow, well over 200 views and no opinions? Guess I started a Dud of a topic here.
    Anyhow, I've gone ahead and tracked down a few of the art team members to see if they have any top secret dev info or lost treasures.
    Not sure if I'll get a response.
     
  3. MainMemory

    MainMemory

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    I tried looking at the PC version's files again because of this, but all I found is you can make out some bits of sprites if you load GFX1A.PC as a 32x10000 raw grayscale image...
     
  4. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Thanks for looking into that for me.
    Earlier tonight, I was informed that there was a level editor for the PC version.
    No luck in finding it.

    Having the PC or Saturn map layouts would help quite a bit.


    Hmm seems this topics turning into a hacking topic, should we move it to the proper area?
     
  5. Would the Genesis version level maps help at all, even as placeholder stuff? (Unless I'm misunderstanding and the Saturn/PC version was actually real 3D maps that you simply intend to port into GDK) I downloaded the level maps from the Genesis version a while back from Spriter's Resource, wanting to experiment in RPG Maker with isometric graphics instead of top-down (using parallax mapping), so I know that they have it.
     
  6. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Sprite resource only seems to have a few tiles from the first area.
    But yeah, the Genesis version would help since its the same layout as the Saturn version which used 2D tiles too. (just a little more fancy)
    Saturn special stage was 3D though.
     
  7. Azookara

    Azookara

    yup Member
    I'd just say that using the whole "Sonic 3D: No Flickies" thing while designing the levels to be a good bit longer than they are without flickies would be enough to make a decent version of the game.

    ...Although admittedly, yeah, seeing Sonic 3D in actual 3D would be cool too.
     
  8. TheKazeblade

    TheKazeblade

    "Our Life is More than a Side-Effect" Member
    Honestly, I never minded the Flickies in this game. Taking them out would make for a pretty boring game, because really, there's not a lot of challenge in the existing level design that would give a problem to the player if they weren't afraid of losing the Flickies that they had at the time. The Flickies are the only thing that offer challenge. You probably could make a decent isometric platformer from this, if you did, like you said, develop more level, but removing the Flickies would make the game cease to be S3DB, which would be kind of besides the point.

    I would be super pumped to see this in 3D, though. I have nothing to offer as far as technical knowledge, or anything, but I wish you luck, and would love to see this product come about :)

    I'm sure you'd rather use original elements of the game, but are you opposed to just using a ripped version of Classic Sonic from Generations?
     
  9. MainMemory

    MainMemory

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    I have never heard of such a thing existing.

    I am trying to figure out the file formats, but it's difficult when the code is unlike any other Sonic PC port except Sonic R (also a Saturn port), which has similarly resisted attempts at decompilation.
     
  10. Okay, so I remembered wrong and it wasn't Spriter's Resource that had the maps I was playing with. Go here instead...

    http://www.soniccenter.org/maps/sonic_3d_blast

    Not the Saturn version, but still full level maps for every level in the game (I think... I don't think I've ever actually finished this game.)
     
  11. Mastered Realm

    Mastered Realm

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    We saw those maps yesterday. They are not 1:1 pixel size... While those can be used as a base for the basic level geometry, all the details got lost.
     
  12. Lostgame

    Lostgame

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    I had actually started doing this at one point, making a 3D model of Green Grove zone, but it was harder than one would think, 'cause it doesn't quite work in true 3D like it does in 2.5D/isometric.
     
  13. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Hey show us what you have.


    Dude, keep at it !
    Also what about using an emulator like yabause as a stepping stone to extract game data?
    Would that be a possibility?

    EDIT:
    I was abele to use the VDP1 viewer in Yabause's debug menu to view some textures, not all were available, and only some of what was on screen was shown,

    here are a few I saved out. This would be a real pain to do 100% with the emulator alone 1 texture at a time.
    [​IMG]
     
  14. If anybody could recommend a good Saturn emulator, and explain the process to me in simple terms on what to do, I could possibly help get the textures from that.

    (Also, I've been wanting to find a Saturn emulator anyways and didn't know what to look for... 2 birds, I guess.)

    EDIT: Didn't notice the comment about "Yabause". I'll take a look and see if I can run it. Still need explanation, though.
     
  15. ashthedragon

    ashthedragon

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    I remember playing a Blitz Sonic version of Green Grove a long time ago...I think I remember who did it..I should ask him the next time I see him. That it, if my memories aren't falling on me and it wasn't green grove.
     
  16. JaxTH

    JaxTH

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    Jack shit.
    3D Blast: No Flickies is actually pretty damn fun to play.
     
  17. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    Its simple really,
    Use 3 emulators, one for each job.
    I use usually use Satourne to rip the larger VDP2 textures,( although it can rip the small ones as well, but its slower process than Yabause)
    However, when I try to boot 3D blast with that, It always says disk incompatible. ( no VDP2 texture access fro 3D bast sigh)

    Yabause does not seem to display the VDP2 textures for some reason on my computer, but its good for ripping the VDP1 textures( smaller ones).
    and
    SSF is good for capturing map layouts for 3D blast , it does not allow for saving textures out, you'd need to save screens 1 than stitch them together in photoshop,
    you can also disable graphics layers in SSF which is useful. ( remove all the sprites like sonic rings and badnicks)

    for texture ripping.
    I prefer Yabause instead of Satourne, which has a few useful features like save stats for going back to capture animations that are one timers,
    Also Satourne does not seem to offer a save texture feature so u need to do a print screen key screen capture.

    for animations, sprites, and textures its a little tricky as timing is very important,
    you cant just rip the animations all at once , you've gata click on the top menu bar to trick the game to pause on the correct frame you'd like to rip.

    heres how I do it, in Yabause:
    Quickly click on any of the drop down menus File (threw help) choosing one so that the drop down does not block the sprite view.
    (So I can see the frames of animation that the emulator pauses on.)
    You will need to be very quick using bursts of 2 rapid fire clicks at a time.
    Start with the menu is in the down position,, than quickly click again to unfreeze than ever faster second click to refreeze the game.
    You can than scroll down to the Debug menu and VDP1 or VDP2 options to go into the texture saving tools.
    than you will need to scroll down to the texture u want to save and save it, this is an annoying long process which takes much patients.

    basically thats it.
    have fun ! lol
    Oh yeah and one more thing all textures are not always rip-able, it depends on what the Saturn is currently displaying on screen,
    even with that you cant get everything shown on screen.

    Anyhow I really would not prefer getting the assets in this manner as we wont be able to capture things that are hidden on disk ,
    It would take days to do just a few levels.
    Normally I would just go ahead and do this the long way as shown above, but I have so many things going on at the moment to take the time.
    to many projects to little time.

    I think It would be best to get ahold of the Genesis maps just for layouts sake, and the Saturn stuff for background, props and texture style reproduction.
    Or just 100% Saturn, so that it can be available for anyone who may need it in the future.


    [​IMG]
     
  18. Overlord

    Overlord

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    For the record, here's a link to it, try it out: Sonic_3D:_No_Flickies
     
  19. Andrew75

    Andrew75

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    I've started Act one just in case anyone else is attempting the slow emu way.
    Man this is going to take forever !
    [​IMG]
     
  20. TheKazeblade

    TheKazeblade

    "Our Life is More than a Side-Effect" Member
    Thanks, I'll give it a go :)