That sounds absolutely fantastic! I was wondering what he's been up to ever since the show ended... Seriously, though. The part of your description that got me the most interested was the bit about not getting stuck in walls anymore. (That's happened to me far to many times in Starlight Zone.) I'm a touch curious about something. You started the engine by "translating" the original Genesis code into GML, right? (I'm assuming this because I think it's you who has the thing with the original coding and the equivalents in GML.) Does this mean it would be possible to port it back the other way again and put your engine directly into the original Genesis games? Just an idle thought.
No, actually. AeStHete began many years before I learned anything about ASM, and started by "eyeballing" the original games. Eventually - around the time I posted the Sonic Physics Guides - I was unhappy with the results and found out to use emulators to learn the real physics values from the classics. The collision system used by AeStHete has gone through dozens of iterations; I tried to solve all the same problems Yuji Naka did while totally unaware of his solutions. While I was mostly unsuccessful until I learned ASM and was able to look at the master's code, my attempts did give me a lot of insight. Very recently, because things just weren't coming together fast enough, I made the decision to try and make a direct port of the classics' engine just so I could get AeStHete out the door, even though that would mean having all the flaws of the originals. That's where that ASM to GML guide came from; I started it while doing the conversion. However, during that process I had an epiphany about how to do collision, with my novel methods coming together with the wisdom of the classic games. Thus, all previous attempts can now be considered nothing but research, and AeStHete is now using a collision system that's completely original. Unfortunately, no. Maybe an ASM God could pull out some amazing tricks to apply some of AeStHete's methods to slightly improve on the originals... but as it stands it's way too RAM intensive to run on the Genesis. On another subject... Between doctor / dentist bills and the rising cost of living, I have toyed with the idea of taking donations now and then. I basically work on AeStHete full time, so it would be quite helpful. However, I never felt comfortable doing so, considering that folks have been waiting for the engine since 2009 and I still haven't been able to deliver anything. Maybe once the first bits and pieces of AeStHete start to be released, I will set up some kind of informal pledge system. I have a bunch of old video game stuff that never sold on eBay that I could use as rewards, too. That's always seemed like too much of a headache, but who knows.
Go Mercury! Yeah, I noticed in GMX that Sonic took slopes and curves (what there was of them) very smoothly! I'm very happy with this having an improved collision engine. Doesn't sound like it will bring anything less than good :D This'll be wicked indeed.
Couple of questions: Are basic objects like springs, lightposts, and switches going to be pre-implemented? Is our artwork going to have to be on a palette ROM-esque format, or just good ol' .png files? How "hackable" will Sonic's physics/moves be? (read: will I have to undo all your hard work abstracting GM's tools just to get to the part where I can add a homing attack?) Will you consider adding a few "example" scripts for things like badnik behavior and switch events/listeners? Does it actually work at this point in time, or are some elements of that screenshot unimplemented/critically broken/mocked-up? How likely is a monetary donation from yours truly to get a prerelease version into my hands?
My question is, why Game Maker? (I know why not MultiMedia Fusion 2) I know it's easier than writing a full engine from scratch in C++ or what ever language you would have used.
I was the best option in 2006 when I started and had very little programming experience. Since then I've learned the ins and outs of GM so thoroughly and made so much progress that I didn't want to throw that out and cause further delays. Once the GM one is released, I will be free to port it to C++ but in the meantime at least some users can benefit from it.
Here's a really big question: which edition of Game Maker will be required? Will we be able to use the free version, or do we need one of the paid versions? If it's more complicated than this (e.g. some features won't work, etc.), please elaborate.
Obviously I haven't seen AeStHete... but based on the complexity of the program alone, and some of the features needed to be used to properly emulate the Sonic engine... which includes, but is not limited to the use of extensions, and various commands exclusive to Pro/Registered version, I think its a given, you will want/need a registered version to run the program. 8.0 to be exact. It will need to be ported for use with 8.1 ... which will be pain in the ass due to one of the extensions used.
^ KingofHarts is right on the money. Although... Depending on how much you care about palette effects, this won't matter too much.
I DID want to ask one more thing about this. Would it be at all possible to use palette effects for ONLY certain things? (ie palette cycling effects?) I want to use AeStHete for Sonic's collision... BUT outside of that I'd really prefer use of my own sprites... So would it be possible to only use palette effects for certain things when needed, and NOT use it for other things? I remember you talking about palettes being an option earlier, but don't remember if you mentioned anything about THIS exact scenario.
Sure, you'll be able to pick and choose what has palette effects. Although nothing is stopping you from using custom Sonic sprites either way... you won't be limited to 16 colours or anything even if you do choose to use palette effects.
Sorry, I've been getting away from the computer a lot lately, trying to pace myself so I don't burn out on it in the final hours. I'm under a lot of pressure! =P I'm still working hard on it, though. Right now I'm working on the initial interface users will see; starting a project, etc.
No pressure. I'm sure we all know that it's no piece of cake developing something as amazing as this will seem to turn out. Please take your time, and don't get too stressed out working on it!
Thought I'd drop by to give a quick update. I did promise a video of it in action soon, after all. However, I've been chewing over a lot of the feedback on this thread and in conversation elsewhere, and I've decided to make some more major improvements to the AeStHete project. As such, I don't want to make a video yet, because if I made it now it wouldn't reflect the workflow of the finished product. So what kind of improvements? Well, the current state of AeStHete, for all I've accomplished, is still sort of half-assed. It's just sort of a template game that has to be "hacked" by the user to work, and it's not intuitive at all. I find myself quite often having to explain that "No, it won't let you make a Sonic game with no coding knowledge" and similar things. So - I've decided to solve this by just going the extra mile and making AeStHete a full IDE for making Sonic games. Users won't have to worry about knowledge of Game Maker or anything complicated. There's a lot more I want to say, giving details on the cool ways it's going to work and the progress that I've made in this direction, but it will have to wait. I'll be very busy over the next couple of weeks with real life things; appearing in court, etc.
That's a breath of fresh air for many, I'm sure... BUT it would still be open source, yea? I mean... one could still dissect it if they desired, yea? (HINT: I've no idea what IDE is...)
Wow, this is pretty dang wicked news. Before you know it, all Sonic fan games will be made with this!
