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Sonic 1 Color Contrast

Discussion in 'Engineering & Reverse Engineering' started by TheInvisibleSun, Aug 31, 2012.

  1. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun

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    Sonic 1 Color Contrast



    Current Version: Beta 4.3 Beta 5.95 (see this post)

    Includes GHZ, MZ, SYZ and FZ.

    Dr. Eggman has somehow stolen almost all of the colors (and music) from South Island, and Sonic himself! It is now up to Sonic to return them to where they belong, and restore the island to its colorful musical self.

    Sonic's mission is to find the various Color Monitors hidden in each stage. Upon finding them, the various colors and music of the area will begin to be restored to the zone, and he can then proceed to the next act. Collecting every Color Monitor in an act will also allow for Sonic to access the Special Stages to collect the 6 Chaos Emeralds. It is rumored that the Chaos Emeralds grant the power to restore all the colors of an act at once; collect them all to find out! Each zone (except Scrap Brain Zone) includes a hub stage, in which Sonic must pass Acts 1 and 3 to continue to the next zone. Finding any one of the Color Monitors is required to get through the current act, but you can explore the stages to find them all!

    The aforementioned Color Monitors include:


    *C' (3x): Returns the normal colors to the stage. Each stage includes three of these to track down.
    *'Sonic': Reverts Sonic's colors back to normal, and grants 1 extra life.
    *'Goggles': Returns all underwater colors to normal, including Sonic's. Labyrinth Zone and Scrap Brain Act 3 only.
    *'Music': Changes the background music back to normal.
    *'Cycle': Returns all of the cycling palettes (like Green Hill's waterfalls) to normal. There are none of these in Marble Zone.

    Note: Only finding one of these is required to complete the Act.

    Other helpful Monitors include:

    *'Super Ring': Gives you 10 rings.
    *'Speed Shoes': Increases Sonic's speed.
    *'High-Jump Shield': Increases Sonic's jump height, as well as protects him from one single hit.
    *'Restart': Returns Sonic back to the start of the stage.
    *'Invincibility': Makes Sonic invincible for a short time.

    If you want to leave an act early, Hold A, then press Start when paused to return to the Hub Stage from any act. However, using this will cost a life if you have more than 3, and the Color Monitors you have collected won't be saved, so use wisely!

    Explore the zones to find all of the Color Monitors and unlock hidden secrets and extras!

    Current Features

    • -Every one of the designated 'Color' Monitors function properly in each relevant stage
      -There is therefore a 'new' palette for each stage and Sonic
      -New low-def tracks for each zone



    Planned Features (To-Do-List)

    • New Special Stage Layouts

    Screenshots:
    [​IMG] [​IMG]
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    Old Screenshots:
    [​IMG] [​IMG]

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    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    7-9-13 Update Video


    Update Video for GHZ (the Hub area, Acts 1 and 3)


    Video of the new color monitors

    1-5-13 Update:

    Video of Special Stage palette changes:


    Restart and Music Monitor Video:


    Video (Labyrinth and SBZ 3):


    Original Palette Change Monitor Video:


    Beta 4 Download:

    Beta 4.2

    Beta 3 Download:
    GHZ Demo

    Beta 2 Download:
    Beta 2
    Beta 2.1 Bugfix Build
    Beta02.3 Music

    Test/Beta Release 1 Download:
    Download
    LZ/SBZ Fix-Fixes Lamppost glitch, and LZ Underwater palette is changed.


    Credits:

    KingofHarts - SYZ1 Layout, and Miscellaneous help/fixes. Also created Sonic Triad, an excellent and very useful palette editor (and so much more!).
    Vladickomper - Several boss DLE fixes and miscellaneous help.
    GenesisFan64 - For the PalLoad\\\\\\_Loop quick loading subroutine.

    Special Thanks go to:

    MarkeyJester (Various guides and fixes, and miscellaneous bug fixes/help)
    redhotsonic (For his various guides, miscellaneous help and feedback)
    Selbi (For his Basic Error Fixing Guide, and the Sonic 1 TCG)
    PsychoSk8tr
    HighFrictionZone
    Mercury (Helped with signpost bug fixes and created ReadySonic, the source of more than a few fixes)
    MainMemory (For SonLVL, and all other associated tools)
    FuzzBuzz (For the SonicOneMusicEditor)
    Xenowhirl (For SonMapEd)
    Cinossu (For some initial coding help)
    XtremerSadiq
    VadaPega
    God (For allowing me the ability to do something like this)

    .........all of the Sonic Retro Wiki in general, and all of you who have supported this project so far!
     
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2021
  2. ashthedragon

    ashthedragon

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    This is a very nice idea! Well done! The restored palette green hill reminds me a lot of Sonic 1 for Master System. I love it, aah, nostalgia...
     
  3. redhotsonic

    redhotsonic

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    You mean something like I did in my old S2R?

    [​IMG]




    Had a play, it's a good start. Now, I know it's only a test/beta but nonetheless, I will throw my views in. I did notice a weird bug.


    In any Labyrinth acts, once you've passed a checkpoint, if you die or drown, you've had it. The game stays blank for ages and ages, and eventually, this message pops up:

    Seeming as it only happens in all Labyrinth's, but also happens in Scrap Brain (act 3 only), it seems to be a water issue.

    In Regen, when looking at the VDP debugger, you can see the art and palette fading, then it immediately appears again and starts fading, and repeats this cycle for ages, until that error comes up (the error message is when the game has truly crashed).



    Speaking of checkpoints, when you die and restart the level, the palette has gone black and white again. You might want to make it remember the colour state when you die. Unless you're going to put more than 1 of each monitor about. The reason why, is for example, if you put the S monitor near the beginning on Marble act 1 and restore the colour, hit the 1st checkpoint, then die, you're not going to be able to get that S monitor ever again.


    Anyway, Scrap Brain act 3 is yellow, and act 1 and 2 hasn't changed at all (talking about the foregrounds here). Any reason why they're not black and white? Or just not got round to it yet?





    As for the black and white palettes, Sonic's palette needs improving. He doesn't look too bad in water, but out of it, he doesn't look too good. Also, Marble and Labyrinth's palette could do with an improvement, especially Labyrinth's underwater palette; it's almost pitch black in there!


    Also, some colours are still present when in black and white. Like the purple on the Jaws badnik in labyrinth, and orbinaut in Star light. It also appears that all palette rotations are still in colour, no matter what mode.



    Anyway, as for the idea and story, I like it. It's a new unique twist to the game, and look forward to seeing more in the future.
     
  4. dsrb

    dsrb

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    Or however Mercury made it so that the signpost/Robotnik only appears if Sonic has The One Ring.
     
  5. redhotsonic

    redhotsonic

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    Psychosk8er had a monitor near the end with a breakable wall. If you hadn't got the emerald, you couldn't break the wall and the monitor would restart the level. There's many ways of doing it =P
     
  6. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun

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    Yeah, something similar to that. I happened to come across the event (as in, stage resetting) by accident when playing around with the Level_LoadPal Routines, so I decided it would be nice to implement it at some point.


    Hmm, I wonder why this is happening...

    Didn't notice that before; gotta figure out how to do that.

    For Scrap Brain, I was toying with the idea that Robotnik's base would be flooded with color (as he stole it from everywhere else). That's why Act 3 is vibrantly shining like that (and why the water/waste is more polluted and darker than usual). Acts 1 and 2 are just unfinished/undecided right now.


    I'll see what I can do to fix those palettes. However, Labyrinth's Underwater was somewhat intentional, to add an element of difficulty/urgency.

    Thanks for catching those stray colors (though I'm wondering how I missed them). As for the palette cycles, I haven't gotten to them yet; I fear that they will be a bit more complicated to deal with than the normal palettes were.

    Thanks for the great feedback! I'll try to get to those things you noted when I can.
     
  7. MarkeyJester

    MarkeyJester

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    Excellent start, I love a hack with original ideas, it's what seperates the good hacks from the boring ones.

    Can I say though, would you consider having the colour change occur on individual colours rather than entire palettes? I feel that there would be more playability with more monitors to find, and more colours to restore, it'll make the gameplay more of a challenge, and with more monitors to find, it will increase the chances of the player finding at least one monitor, and feeling as if they're making progress enough to continue playing (replay value!).

    Hell actually, that gives me an idea, what if you were to have "hint arrows", what I mean by this is that in the level there are multiple arrows pointing to where the monitors are hideen, but each arrow only displays using one colour in the palette, and obviously, you won't be able to see that arrow until the colour it's using has changed from black/white to colour, so the more monitors you hit, the more colours restore, the more hints are revealed, you could create complexe puzzels out of it.

    I would love to see new layouts as the stock Sonic 1 layouts are no good for a potentially good idea such as this, but I see you've got that on your list already, so I am pleased all around. I hope you find more time to progress on this.
     
  8. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun

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    This is a very interesting idea; a similar thought did cross my mind before, but it was in the earlier stages when I was still figuring out the code. I might do something like this further on.

    This is another very cool idea. I like it!
    Thanks for your great ideas Markey. I really appreciate the feedback on this! I wish I had more time to implement the more complicated things sooner, but for now I'm gonna stick to fixing bugs and other minor fixes, so that my university courses can take higher priority.

    Speaking of that:

    For Labyrinth, I edited the underwater palette, but I'm not sure how dark it should be (as before the background was pitch black and very dark).

    Does anyone prefer these instead?:
    A)
    [​IMG]

    B)
    [​IMG]
     
  9. redhotsonic

    redhotsonic

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    If you're thinking of taking this idea on board, can I say to only make 4 monitors for each palette line? Making too many for too many different colour sets will just make the game tiring. Either that, or leave it as it is.



    That looks better IMO.
     
  10. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun

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    Figured it out. I put a new set of subroutine in a location (right after Level_LoadPal) that messed with Level_LoadPal's lamppost functionality. I fixed this by moving all of those new subroutines there to underneath the actual Goggles monitor code space (and then subsequently jumping to instead of branching to the several PalLoad3_Water's, as they were then too far to branch to).

    I'll be updating the link soon. New link is up.
     
  11. redhotsonic

    redhotsonic

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    Muhahahahaha, I come with another problem to your hack! =P


    Goggles monitor no longer seems to work in the latest build.
     
  12. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun

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    Yeah, I made a stupid mistake with it's code. Bug Fixed, Link Updated. (I have very limited internet availability, so it took me forever to get a connection and update it.)

    *EDIT*

    New Palette for Sonic:

    [​IMG]

    Thoughts?
     
  13. redhotsonic

    redhotsonic

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    He looks much better, although I still think he could be better. He just needs a bit more shading. Instead of all his shades of blue being black, just make more shades or dark grey. I know it's a challenge getting lots of shades of black/grey, but it might be worth looking into.
     
  14. RetroKoH

    RetroKoH

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    I can generate accurate greyscale palettes with Triad. Should I do this and send them to you? Could save the trouble.
     
  15. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun

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    I tried this, but it looked kind of strange; I guess I'll give it another try soon.

    Sounds interesting. Can you send me a screenshot of the results of some of the palettes they generate? (Preferably Marble Zone) Usually, I prefer to personally handle and tweak the colors, but this sounds like quite a useful function for a palette editor...

    Come to think of it, can Triad edit real time? Sounds crazy, but that would certainly be helpful with the cycled palettes (HivePal can get annoying sometimes with this).
     
  16. flamewing

    flamewing

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    For real time palette editing, I think you need Tribeam's palette viewer/editor lua script running on Gens rerecording; I don't think anything else can do that.

    Edit: added quote to account for page break.
     
  17. RetroKoH

    RetroKoH

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    Yea... Triad CANNOT EDIT in real time. In the tile editor screen, you can see the palette and the drawn tile together, and the tile/palette editor are packed together in the program.
    That's the best I can do. If I knew how to do it in real time, I could, but as flamewing stated, you'd need the Tribeam Real Time editor... which I highly endorse... great piece of work.

    BUT, I CAN send you some screens of it in action greyscaling. It can also do Color inversion and other effects if you have any use for it. If you are interested I'll send you a private copy.
     
  18. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun

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    Shoot me a PM with the screenshots; I'm quite interested in this.
     
  19. RetroKoH

    RetroKoH

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    Will do. Just need to fix something with the greyscaling effect first. The method I am using to greyscale is not 100% to my liking. When I go on my break from work I'll hit you up and show you what I've got so far.
     
  20. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun

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    Tried it out, but it messed with the title card a bit too much it seems. Gotta figure out a way around that.

    Darkening the eyes seemed to help.

    [​IMG]