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***Tech Demo First Release!***

Discussion in 'Sonic 2 HD (Archive)' started by LOst, Sep 16, 2008.

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  1. LOst

    LOst

    Tech Member
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    New Tech Demo release: http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=12292





    S2HD is like a dream come true!

    Sonic really needed to go back onto its glorious roots - and I honestly never imagined we could progress so fast in less than one year with this fast pace.

    This has been possible only thanks to every talented and motivated contributor, past and present, which shared the same beloved memories of pure enjoyment with Sonic The Hedgehog 2 we had.

    Yes, Sonic 2 HD will set many standards as it aims to be much more than a carbon copy version of the original. For instance, it will be the first time a genuine Sonic game will run at FULL HD – cinemascope resolution, Multiplayer Online Competitions, New Levels, unlockables and much more.

    So, stay tuned and note this date as the real birthday of Sonic 2HD - we'll start to amaze you from now on.

    - Vincent



    Tech Demo Download

    Needed D3D DLL Files



    Please note this is pre-Alpha, so expect it to be full of bugs.

    Please report any problems or issues you have experienced, along with your full system specs!

    Fullscreen needs a monitor that supports 1280 x 960 resolution to work. If not, it will show a black screen because its looking for a resolution that it cannot find. (We still need to fix the fullscreen for others resolutions).

    We just pushed into the demo as much content as we could and we are exhausted now! So please expect a full FAQ tomorrow.





    BASIC CONTROLS

    Move the keyboard to move Sonic on the floor
    S=Jump
    A=Negate Gravity
    Down+Jump=Spindash

    The 3 versions are not the same
    Please try all three of them - each has a diff. zoom (It's just a Zoom Effect, the game will be seen at the 4X Res). I suggest to try S2HD_TechDemo_4x.exe first. We included the smaller 1x and 2x resolutions because level scrolling is still being developed - so the idea was to give everyone space to move around by having a smaller Sonic in a bigger level. Also, full screen may not work for some in this work in progress demo. Please report your system specs if this is the case.

    TRICKS
    Wait the main title screen for more than 10 seconds will put in the secret Credits Scene.



    =======================================

    SONIC 2 HD TECH DEMO CONTENTS

    =======================================

    1. System Requirements

    2. The Sonic 2 HD Project

    3. The History of Sonic 2 HD

    4. Joining us & Contact Information

    5. Legal Disclaimer



    =====================
    1. System Requirements
    =====================

    We are testing these early engine builds with the highest
    quality settings during development, so as to estabilish
    the required specs to run at the "FULL HD" (1080p) resolution.
    Low resolution compatible specs will be included in the next releases.
    This tech demo could run at almost full speed on slower PCs,
    so please note that these specs are not at all final. Please
    report bugs or any other issues in our release thread on the Sonic
    Retro forums.

    The recommended system requirements are as follows:

    -----------------------------------------
    Graphics card:
    -----------------------------------------
    - 512 MB graphics RAM.
    - The graphics card must be able to render multiple 3d primitives
    with post pixel shader effects (Direct3D 9 and Pixel Shader 2.0 compatible)
    in "FULL HD" (1080p) resolution at a rate of 60 frames per second.

    -----------------------------------------
    CPU and RAM:
    -----------------------------------------
    - 2.4 GHz
    - 2 GB RAM


    -----------------------------------------
    Operating System:
    -----------------------------------------
    - Microsoft Windows XP SP2 32-bit
    - Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2 32-bit
    - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultra Edition 32-bit
    - (DirectX 9.0c or higher)


    -----------------------------------------
    Joystick/Gamepad:
    -----------------------------------------
    - Something DirectInput compatible with 8 buttons or so.



    =====================
    2. The Sonic 2 HD Project
    =====================

    The S2HD project is a Sonic Retro open community endeavour. Its purpose is
    to remaster Sega's classic Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with high definition (HD)
    graphics and music, whilst at the same time precisely preserving the original
    gameplay (that continues to set quality standards to this day).

    S2HD will not be limited only to presenting a beautiful graphical and musical
    version of the original. New features that were not present in the original
    will also be made available. Some examples are especially the online multiplayer
    modes and extra levels.



    =====================
    3. The History of Sonic 2 HD
    =====================

    The idea of creating a high definition version of Sega's classic Sonic the Hedgehog 2
    first appeared on a website called "Alchemist Defined". An artist calling himself
    Billy had drawn an incredibly impressive piece of artwork, which showed Sonic about
    to fight the last boss of the game in the "Death Egg Zone". The low-resolution sprites
    were richly brought to life in this phenomenal piece of artwork: both the background
    and the characters had been completely remastered. A number of video gaming websites
    quickly discovered the image and were soon showing it off on their homepages.
    The question had been posed; "What would Sonic 2 look like in high definition?"

    The "Sonic Retro" community had always taken a keen interest in all things related to
    Sonic's classical era. On December 6th 2007, a member of this community
    called "Athelstone" found Billy's image and excitedly posted it in the General discussion
    forums, while asking the very same question - what would it be like?. The thread was
    soon moved to the "Creative Works" section of the forum.

    Three months later, on March 8th 2008, a member of Sonic Retro called "Vangar"
    created a discussion thread asking for a game engine he could use to start work
    on such a project. The thread gained a surprising amount of interest! Many members
    of the community quickly began to post concept images of what the game ought to
    look like. To begin with, fans would merely apply graphical filters to the original
    low-resolution graphics. A member called "Yarharhar" then posted an image of a
    completely remastered Sonic, along with a method describing how he had drawn it!
    It was not long until a member of the community called "Vincent" was so inspired
    by Yarharhar's effort, that he took it upon himself to begin remastering a whole
    set of Sonic's character frames. Sonic 2 HD had begun!

    However, the most difficult tasks still lay ahead of the project. How would we
    organize ourselves to achieve this goal? What game engine would be used to make
    it a reality? One possibility was to use a modified Genesis emulator, which would
    display the graphics from the original game ROM in high definition. However, it was
    decided that this would be far too limiting for the project. This is because the
    bugs and slow downs from the original game would be replicated, rather than fixed
    and improved upon. It would also be impossible to expand upon the project if its
    foundation was just an emulator.

    Another possibility was to use a custom made engine that had already been created.
    A member of the community called "Taxman" had already created a popular Sonic
    engine called "Retro Sonic". Unluckily, the physics in his engine were not yet
    close enough to the original genesis series for it to be used (despite the fact
    that Taxman's engine boasted an incredibly impressive level development kit for
    designing original Sonic levels). It was likely that Taxman would eventually perfect
    the physics in his engine - but rather than wait for him to accomplish this, the
    community thirsted for the Sonic 2 HD project to move forward.

    After a time, a staff team had been formed. Since Vincent had already remastered
    many of Sonic's frames, he became the project leader and the lead artist.
    A member called "SANiK" had even created an online database, which allowed
    contributors to upload all of their artwork, while members "Athelstone" and
    "Blue Streak" coordinated some of the community's contributions while giving
    suggestions and guidance to other project staff. Eventually, the administrators
    of Sonic Retro granted us our own community forum for the Sonic 2 HD project -
    but we still didn't have an engine!

    Members of the community were starting to cast doubt upon the project - was it
    really going to become a reality or not? Then, out of the blue, a long-running
    member of the community called "LOst" privately informed the project staff that
    he had already been developing his own engine for a number of years and would
    like to be a part of the project. The staff were astounded at the accuracy of
    his physics, since they were based upon Sonic 3 (which fixed many of the bugs
    present in Sonic 2's physics). We finally had an engine! On September 15th 2008
    the first technical demo of Sonic 2 HD was released - Sonic has returned!



    =======================================
    4. Joining us & Contact Information
    =======================================

    Want to help us? Are you an artist or skilled musician? You're welcome to join us!
    Please register at the Sonic Retro forums at http://forums.sonicretro.org and
    click on the "Community Projects" section. Please read our contribution rules
    and guidelines first before posting an example of your work in the relevant topic.
    If your work is of a high standard, it is likely that you will be invited to join
    our staff. We need:

    - Character / Enemies artists: To remaster sprites of characters and enemies
    (the use of vector programs like Illustrator or Flash is preferred).
    - Background artists: Drawing either backgrounds to be used as Level Tiles for
    levels or menu screens.
    - Concept artists: To throw together mockups of what the project should be aiming
    to artistically achieve.
    - Music composers: Either Real instruments or Synthetized music, our engine finally
    accepts .OGG audio files. All remasterings must follow the original Sonic 2 tunes.
    - Artists to draw an opening and ending sequence.

    If you want to contact S2HD Staff, just send us a private message on the Sonic Retro forums.




    =====================
    5. Legal Disclaimer
    =====================

    "Sonic 2 HD" is in no way affiliated with Sega® or Sonic Team®.
    The copyrights of "Sonic The Hedgehog" and all associated characters,
    names, terms, art, and music thereof belong to Sega®. All registered trademarks
    and copyrights belong to Sega® and Sonic Team®. "Sonic 2 HD" is a non-profit
    endeavour created by fans. No financial gain whatsoever is made from project efforts.
    No intent to infringe said copyrights or registered trademarks is made by contributors of
    "Sonic 2 HD".
     
  2. SANiK

    SANiK

    Tech Member
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    How it looks:
    [​IMG]
     
  3. Athelstone

    Athelstone

    Oldbie
    Lol, I love how this topic instantly has like 20 people viewing it.
     
  4. Vincent

    Vincent

    Sonic 2HD - Project Leader & Chara Member
    1,253
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    Sonic 2 HD
    Didn't even have the time to download it! LOL!!
     
  5. MK

    MK

    Hacker Oldbie
    310
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    New England, USA
    Secret :o o:
    Oh wow, this is an excellent first step. The are looks fantastic and the physics feel just like Sonic 2. Great job guys!
     
  6. Shade

    Shade

    Member
    dude I'ma cry


    please finish this project :)
     
  7. muteKi

    muteKi

    Fuck it Member
    7,847
    131
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    Sonic 2: Now in Glorious IWBTG-o-Vision
     
  8. Sik

    Sik

    Sik is pronounced as "seek", not as "sick". Tech Member
    6,718
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    being an asshole =P
    For the record, I started straight with a bug (I got Sonic propelled upwards and never returned back in the 4x stage). That isn't a good sign =P But at least it works even if sound doesn't, which is good (I'm not having luck with sound lastly).

    Also, two questions: 1) Why can you set X, Y, Z and Mode if the original game never used them? 2) Why is there a slot for a third player if Sonic 2 never supported three players? =P
     
  9. SANiK

    SANiK

    Tech Member
    413
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    16
    A = flip gravity...
     
  10. LOst

    LOst

    Tech Member
    4,891
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    Fast reply: In 4x mode, the A button switches between normal gravity and reverse gravity. About buttons, interface not finished, pre-alpha.
     
  11. muteKi

    muteKi

    Fuck it Member
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    Pretty good. I think this would feel a lot better if the framerate could be changed.

    Does each version only load a single area?
     
  12. Tweaker

    Tweaker

    Banned
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    The physics are spot on—great job! I'm loving the 4x version the best, it's just too bad that it's so small. :(

    The other two versions are interesting, but they confuse me. Those aren't planned resolutions for the game, are they? Like, are we going to have the option to play in them? Because it sort of makes everything feel really awkward. I almost thought the physics were wrong until I realized it was the massive frameskip; however, all things considered, drawing that much on the screen is much less taxing than I thought it would be! I bet if I closed all my active running programs it would run just great. :)

    The music is fantastic! I'm glad to see that scubaSteve churned out an even better version of Emerald Hill than he posted publicly. However, I was told my music would be used in the credits—why wasn't it? :(

    All in all, this is an excellent start, and a good demonstration that this engine can totally handle what we need it to in the long run. Kudos to all involved, and looking forward to future progress! :)
     
  13. drx

    drx

    mfw Researcher
    2,254
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    :rolleyes:
    It's a bit on the slow side. :P
     
  14. Mad Echidna

    Mad Echidna

    Gone Oldbie
    5,219
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    THIS DOES NOT RUN IN WINE. Q. HOW DO YOU MAKE AN ECHIDNA CRY A. SHOW HIM SONIC HD
     
  15. muteKi

    muteKi

    Fuck it Member
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    That was what I was trying to say in my previous post, basically.
     
  16. Baby Ghost

    Baby Ghost

    Put Tails in every game! Member
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    Epic! Amazing! Sonic frames that I never saw in the thread. Good job at those Vincent!
    The engine is great, as far as I know (haven't played the original in a while) it is perfect! Wish there'd been more to do though.

    Great first step! :)
     
  17. LordOfSquad

    LordOfSquad

    bobs over baghdad Member
    5,183
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    Winnipeg, MB
    making cool music no one gives a shit about
    This is cool.

    Yup.

    Looking forward to the final.
     
  18. Athelstone

    Athelstone

    Oldbie
    We included the smaller 1x and 2x resolutions because level scrolling is still being developed - so the idea was to give everyone space to move around by having a smaller Sonic in a bigger level. But no, mini-Sonic won't be in the final version I don't think ^^
     
  19. Flare

    Flare

    Member
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    WOW. I am surprised it would run so fluidly, feels like Sonic 2. Its really well done, and glad to see it.
     
  20. Tweaker

    Tweaker

    Banned
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    Oh, hey, I'm having a bit of an issue, actually—it seems I can't get full screen to work. If I launch one of the exes with the full screen option ticked, it'll keep me in windowed mode. If I use alt+enter to go full screen, I get nothing but a black screen; returning to windowed mode will have random parts of the screen blanked out in the window, meaning I'll be seeing the HUD and nothing else to the level. The game is functional while black and in full screen, but I can't see anything.

    I don't know if this is my graphics card or what, but I'm willing to provide details if need be.

    Oh, okay, cool to hear. :)
     
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