General Project Thread & Feedback

Actually due to the way recording works, recording at 24 vs 16 (and keeping it that way throughout the whole production process) is a massive difference. After all is said and done and the music has been mixed and mastered then dithered to 16bit though, yeah, 24 and 16 is pretty hard to tell apart. :P

We're talking about professional studios, not people dicking around in FL with soundfonts. The dynamic range of something as unassuming as a wind or string instrument (or even voice) can go >30dB just due to many factors, and you want to catch all of it with as low a noise floor/quantization error as possible. 16bit is 96dB from floor to clip, and while it's possible and even mandatory at times in the past to squeeze the dynamics into an adequate recording (tape had far less headroom) there's so much else that can go wrong in the studio that you just don't want to worry about it. 24bit allows you to gainstage very very comfortably where you know you aren't going to clip yet are going to keep the noise floor really low.

On a semi-related note there's quite a bit of consternation at recording at 48kHz when you don't have to (I.e. your target media isn't film or DVD) since resampling from 48 to 44.1 introduces more problems than the original extra clarity is worth, but a lot of people record at 96kHz then resample to 44.1 OR 48, which f- things up a lot less.

 

Some of you know sound theory on a pretty deep level. Cool?

 

You're making it sound like I'm fishing for validation. Let me reassure you that internet forums really aren't my cup of tea for a captive audience.

[strike]I just like to make sure people don't keep spreading misinformation.[/strike] I just enjoy being a jackass.

 

Well I didn't say that. Nor was I specifically referring to you.

So what's this talk about not fishing for validation? Nice

 

I've held off answering this because I don't know to be quite honest. It's in LOst's hands right now. We are making progress on this, but I haven't personally dealt with this for about two weeks. I'm instead working on some new editing tools for the game.

 

Hmm, so from what I can gather, after LOst finishes the DirectX issues, the S2HD alpha will be *gasp* done? That's intense. Also, if you don't mind me asking, what became of Hill Top Zone?

 

Yeah, that's pretty much spot on Hamneggs. One of the curses of doing game development in your spare time is how when life throws a curve at any of our team members, progress slows down until things are back on track for them again. We just haven't posted anything in the way of updates recently because there's really nothing more to report. I'm seriously hoping this is our last hurdle before we can get the demo into everyone's hands.

 

A long time ago it was said that each unique gameplay object had to be coded. So, I'd suppose there will be more than just art, but a helluva lot less coding.

 

Our delays have nothing to due with gimmicks or gameplay refinement at this point. Like Saxman has already said, it's getting the sound to work properly that has become far more of an issue that any of us had anticipated it being.

 

I love this, though. You could just as easily give in to the impatient mob and release a version that just blasts poorly equalised oggs and call it a day (hey, it's still HD, right?) but instead you'll delay to get it exactly right, with no more than a mysterious smile and "just wait" to tide us over. That's not only awesome and shows a dedication that I can really respect, but it sets a gold standard for the Sonic community.

Spoiler

It also makes other slow-asses like me feel just slightly better about themselves. =P

Of course I can't speak for the S2HD team, but I did all the object coding for my SonicGMX demo (which included the objects from Scrap Brain) in about 5 days, so objects are not a huge workload.

 

I'm glad to hear your thoughts on it Mercury. Quite of a few of us working on S2HD greatly admire what you did with SFR.

As to the mysterious smile part... well, let's just say I'm eagerly anticipating the day when I can blow back the entire curtain and provide a detailed account of S2HD's development up to this point. I think it will make for a very enlightening read.

 

Not that I'm complaining, (I'm as interested in this as a playable anything), but do I read in this that a demo may be further off than we here have recently hoped?

 

It's typical of most any game, official or otherwise to have some sort of push back in release. In the case of S2HD, I think it wouldn't hurt to be pushed back. When this demo is put out, all I hope for is a stable release that contains no bugs (or only minor bugs, like ones in the original)

Just do your best guys, even if you wait until you have a complete, bug-free version of the entire game. It will be worth it in the end.

 

On the contrary, I think most people have been incredibly patient and considerate.