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Sonic 2 HD

Discussion in 'Fangaming Discussion' started by Canned Karma, Mar 28, 2012.

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  1. Ritz

    Ritz

    Subhedgehog Member
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    "Photoshop vector", "No brushes involved"? So, uh, pen tool and gradients? That sounds even more finicky! Make that your next blog post, do a quick and dirty demonstration of your general rendering technique. I've got to see this.

    Also want to hear more about this development company setup. Are you guys actually sharing an apartment or something? Feel free to postpone this project immediately in favor of an original IP, just 1) no phone or tablet games, and 2) make sure LOst isn't the one coding it.
     
  2. scanline99

    scanline99

    Passing By Member
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    As CN said, when I say "paint" it's not actually using soft edged brushes (thankfully, so you can breathe a sigh of relief - I'd die too!!!) - it was a collective term, sorry to have given off the wrong idea. It is a vector technique developed to closely recreate the aesthetic of the classic concept art as well as to preserve our sanity when animating the assets in-game. It's a laborious and time-intensive process, but when it comes to animating, it is far more forgiving than straight up painting - the animation would boil like crazy otherwise. As CT says, his skills were employed to actually hand-paint the island and clouds for the background as it was agreed his style would help to mix things up and create a greater level of interest in the whole composition - it's certainly the icing on the cake :).

    To underline, CN and Vincent have been very much by my side working on the other assets, and this is not something I 'saved' single-handedly, it's always been a team effort. Together we had hoped to create a certain level of finish for the game and fingers crossed, it came off.
     
  3. MathUser

    MathUser

    3rd top wiki contributor Researcher
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    Pretty fun. Gonna be rough waiting two years for the chemical plant zone demo.
     
  4. RGX

    RGX

    Animator Member
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    Before I comment, lemme provide my specs for research purposes.

    OS: Windows 7 (Professional)
    Processor: Intel (R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9550 @ 2.66GHz 2.67 GHz
    Installed memory (RAM) : 4.00 gb
    ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3670

    I was able to run the game in full quality with no issues, no lag whatsoever. There was a few instances of the game not loading though and I was getting black screens but simply restarting the application resolved the issue. I'm just upset I wasn't able to run the game in full-screen, I tried right clicking and selecting "Direct 93D fullscreen" but the option was faded. Is it because my computer can only go up to "1366x768"? I would really like to be able to play in full screen.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Alrighty then, I gotta say I'm "beyond" impressed. Calling the art beautiful is an understatement and my god the smooth animations... Not to mention the title screen.

    @scanline99 You are the man, no doubt about it. I was not expecting that type of animation quality, I love it to death.

    BTW excuse my ignorance, I haven't been here a while, is Vincent still doing the sonic in-game artwork? I would like to give him my props too.

    Lastly, I love all the little flairs of style added such as the title screen, new level introduction, the animations given to inanimate objects such as the trees and how the the "total score" at the end of the act glows when the fanfare goes "Ka-ching".

    Terrific job guys.

    One final question. Is everything being done completely by scratch? Were all the community-made assets scrapped?
     
  5. Ritz

    Ritz

    Subhedgehog Member
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    [​IMG]

    You guys really don't want to tell me your "special method", do you! Hold on though, I've got it: You are still using Illustrator, but you're masking gradient meshes with objects and warping them between frames so you only really need to render a sprite once, right? But you're still using blends for the edges, right?
     
  6. Gambit

    Gambit

    Sonic 2 HD Staff - Level Artist Member
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    If Illustrator has been used recently by anyone it was probably me back in fall of 2010 to block in the basic shapes of the corkscrew so I could take those and shade them with Photoshop. Other than that I don't think anyone's really touched it. In fact I never exclusively used Illustrator for my work on the project to begin with.
     
  7. Fred

    Fred

    Taking a break Oldbie
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    Sonic 3 Unlocked
    Actually, the uncurl happens when you cross the bridge object immediately after. There's no good reason why this should happen, so it's actually a good fix.

    Anyway, played it, and it's about on par with my expectations. It feels about as good as the original, and the graphics that don't look dumb are actually decent, but all the artistic licenses taken and the general lack of consistency make playing the original a better alternative.
     
  8. Cerulean Nights

    Cerulean Nights

    Sonic 2 HD Sprite Artist Member
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    I took care of a large part of the in game sprites, including Sonic. That's not to say I didn't do it all myself, scanline99 provided the animation frames and helped with touch ups and Vince also helped where he could. Scanline99 took the liberty to remodel the look of the Sonic sprite based on the original artwork, and we went from there. I did the same with all of the badniks as well. They aren't simply pixel perfect tracings of sprites as they were when we joined the project, they are a re-imagining of how the sprites could have looked if they had the technology back then.

    And no Rtiz, Illustrator is not involved at all with my (or scanline's) art, unless you count the logo and that's for different reasons.
     
  9. RGX

    RGX

    Animator Member
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    Please forgive me, I didn't know.

    I'm glad to hear the in-game artwork contained group collaboration. Also I noticed that as well, I wasn't really fond of the pixel-perfect proportions of how the project was originally set up anyways. I'm really happy to see the quality in the animations and how smooth they are.
     
  10. Deef

    Deef

    Member
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    The http download kept crashing for me and the torrent took quite a while, but ok playing now.

    · It's immediately apparent that the black screens are too long. A loading icon would be nice imo. Although the time things take to load seems kinda random.

    · The title music and animation are superb.
    · The game accepts input when the window is not in focus.
    · Wow @ the demo play hehe.
    · The model was about the one thing that didn't blow me away, but it's fine.
    · The model animations however are great.
    · The EHZ remix is just amazing. Huge props, best EHZ I've heard by far.
    · Rings looks just perfect, but seem in need of some AA.
    · Waterfall animated so well too.
    · The glowing dots in the underground background was an excellent touch.
    · As was animating the trees.
    · And the animated bobbing flowers. All of these animated things deserve their own mention.
    · Springs look out of place in their simplicity.

    · Upon completing act 1, nothing happened. The score remained, the trees continued to rustle, Sonic was still controllable on the locked screen. Forever. Menu still works but menu selections have stopped working. That's all I can play, I have to Alt F4 out and then that can randomly hang as well.


    Main comments:

    All of the music is just wow, wtf. All of it. Edit - Hadn't been able to hear the boss music. Just checked it in the DATA directory and yeah, the missing verses don't feel so good. =/ Otherwise, Tee Lopes, incredible stuff.


    Bit sad that I can't get a nice framerate on my machine in a window. I know I'm comparing to a professional team but the Rayman Origins demo runs on my laptop at 1600x900 without a hiccup.
    Execution glitches - random long loading, slow closing if at all, level won't finish.
     
  11. Dario FF

    Dario FF

    Tech Support Hotline Tech Member
    Two things I wanna add:
    1. To get rid of the jaggies you should try linear filtering when scaling. Perhaps you're already using it, but it doesn't seem apparent.
    2. The resource loading code is just weird. When I opened it up this morning it didn't take anything to load at all(couldn't be windows prefetching since it was the first time I opened it since turning it on). It's really, really random. Once it got stuck in the act transition. And in another occassion eggman didn't even load in the boss battle. Just the car.
     
  12. Falk

    Falk

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    This should be a feature/easter egg. Bonus McDonalds level between zones.
     
  13. Deef

    Deef

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    Just a quick note in case anyone else got the problem of act 2 not loading.

    I selected Window -> Scroll (which actually worked) and the new act started up. Then I set the window back to normal.

    Edit - And now an invisible Robotnik for me too. Then I died, and even the above trick couldn't get act 2 to load again.



    Nice title cards though; really like them.
    I can't comment on the physics since I'm only getting about 17fps.
     
  14. SmashX5000

    SmashX5000

    Simply Smashing Member
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    I'm working on a cartoon based on the Genesis games called Sonic Boom.
    Not much I can comment on in regards to the physics or how the game handles, because I can't play it. The game loaded 1 sparkle on the title screen and that's it. Of course, my computer can't really run computer games at all, so I'm not surprised.

    Regardless, I watched some of the videos uploaded of it. Doesn't quite put me in a position to judge, but the physics just look a bit off. Still pretty good, but there were some things that just didn't look right to me.

    I do have some things to say about the art and animation though. Firstly, Sonic's animations look kinda slow. Pretty dang smooth, but slow. The videos I watched, I felt like Sonic was going slower because of the animation. Smooth animation is nice, but you shouldn't sacrifice speed for smoothness. In particular, the walking animation looks like Sonic's going out for a leisurely jog. Anything with Sonic in a ball form looks a bit slower, but those aren't too bad.

    I do like some of the extra animation not done on Sonic though. The trees swaying looks nice, and the title screen is pretty slick... though Sonic's hand movements just look unnatural. Also, the extra frames in the spring jump animation was a nice touch.

    The boss battle, I liked how the machine looked, and some of the extra frames when Eggman gets hit, but the wheels don't seem to animate (and if they do, it's unnoticeable). This bothered me in the original game, but it was excusable in a 16-bit game. In an HD version, though, it stands out.

    Two things in the environment bothered me too: The clouds and the flowers. The flowers look so small. It creates a nice sense of distant between the foreground and the distant background, but it also looks like a giant gradient mess to me. The flowers should be bigger. I get that that might be a trivial thing to complain about, but in a project that has a lot to do with graphics, I feel it should be pointed out. Similarly, the clouds on the water look fine, but the ones higher up are too small and plentiful. I don't recall those being there in the original, and in all honesty I think it drags down the look of the level a bit. Again, minor thing but in a project where graphics are important, it should be mentioned.

    Overall, I like how the game looks and (based on what I've seen) how it plays, but there's room for improvement.
     
  15. ICEknight

    ICEknight

    Researcher Researcher
    I just waited a little longer and the second act started. Gotta be patient.
     
  16. steveswede

    steveswede

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    I don't know if this is due to my PC, but Sonic's spin speed of his jump appears to be the same no matter what speed you do it at.
     
  17. Deef

    Deef

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    Running on my machine I gave it 3 minutes. More to the point, it then loads the instant I select Window -> Scroll.

    Hey you can knock the item boxes onto different terrain. :D
     
  18. Guess Who

    Guess Who

    It's a miracle! Oldbie
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    I know I've been pretty negative on the project before, so I'd like to say that what has been presented here is outstanding. The animations are silky smooth and look so beautiful, and Tee Lopes is amazing as ever. The title screen, while I'm not a fan of how it deviates from the original, was animated and remastered so well that I can't even begin to complain. Title cards look magnificent and implementing S3K-style act transitions was a great touch. My only complaints really are a few physics things (mainly jump height - if this is based on S3 code, are you sure you didn't use Knuckles's jump height on accident? :v) and concerns about how the project has been run. Well, and the graphics engine seems pretty janky.
     
  19. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

    no reverse gear Wiki Sysop
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    Can I point out something
    [​IMG]
    one of the reasons your game looks a little bit flatter and blander than it should is because it is. It's palette changes like these which act against you. You had it spot on at #4 in my opinion.

    Sonic artwork constantly evolves. Things are tweaked upon entering the game so that objects stand out better in their environments. It was a design decision to get some purple in there - not because they couldn't get the colours they wanted.

    Cover artists base their work on what's seen in game, it isn't the other way around. Whereas the badnik art from the manuals doubled up as concept art (btw that doesn't mean copy those ones directly either because they were tweaked too), the Sonic and Tails stuff was meant for the covers. I'm fairly sure it was drawn after the game started production, not before.
     
  20. Lord Nero

    Lord Nero

    Resident Nintendo Hater. Member
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    Let's Plays, Work and Animation.
    Wow, im loving this black screen, best game ever.
    In all seriousness though, I've only been able to get this game to load up once beyond the title screen on Super Low Quality (then my sister came in and I had to close the game), havent been able to get it to load since beyond the title screen.

    EDIT: Alright, got the game to finally load up again, this time on both Super Low Quality and Low Quality. All 'n all, this game is freaking fantastic, but does seem to suffer from some physics issues that I'll leave the more tech saavy to explain, and im not sure if its just from my computer alone or not, but I also noticed some input lag here and there, but yet again, might just be my computer lagging and not the games fault.
    I look forward to continued releases, hopefully with better computer specs though, Low Quality only loads on the super rare, and Super Low Quality is just ulgy to every degree...
     
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