Well guys its getting closer! I'd say this area is around 90% finished. The tunnel runs equivalent in length and layout compared to what's seen in the E3 videos. Still needs the hanging stalactites and rings placed in the engine. The stalactites placement will not be as accurate as the rest of the level, they are too blurred to make out all the position details. I'll try my best to place them. Also we have some black fog in the distance as seen in screens and videos. The only textures I did not make are the magma and magma walls. The pipes are made by rendering a model in an orthographic view than taking into Photoshop for touch up work and adding shadows under the pipes to give depth. I did make a little change to the level by adding pipe end caps that were not shown officially. The pipes ended abruptly before, so I thought it would be nice add the ends for a little extra polish. I may try another pipe endcap idea instead of the ones I have now. (not sure yet)
I know its not perfect, but its close enough for me. Anyways, I'm almost finished with this little area, at least to the point that was shown in the E3 videos. I'll be making the level larger with custom split off tunnels and platforming sections. But before I do that , need to quickly finish the magma texture animation. kind of jumped the gun in uploading the video here. Oh yeah, and the camera was set to loosely follow Sonic today. Normally its set to be locked on. 2 camera options will be available during the final game. ( I find locked on easier to control ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJj-jUW2gzY Edit: I forgot a few pieces of geometry along the left and right side magma pits..ahh well. Sadly this is a tunnel to no-where, when viewing one of the E3 videos you can see where the starting and the ending points are. ( end of geometry)
Oh yeah , try watching my video in 240P and than watch the 1996 E3 video(below)... (at 1:20ish) For my tunnel I'm using Fisheye and a greater depth for geomotry Vs the original level. I'm only doing this to keep everything consistent, since all levels have different depth scales. Also I have reason to believe that some sections of the E3 videos were sped up a bit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftNgzZ3Ovig
You guys are probably wondering about how We are handling the paths for AXSX. I'll give you a little behind the scenes look. The first step was to take the HEX data found with-in the Def files. Nekit coded a little tool to view and export the path data to a model. (Sample A) However there was a problem, the data exported had way too few vertex to form the proper shape for the paths. So I had to come up with a method to generate the shape that was represented in the Xtreme videos. (Sample B) (A quick run down of what had to be done) Step 1: Draw out a new spline, however placing each new point centered exactly in between the original points. Step 2: Convert the spline vertex to Bezier and than move and snap there handles to the original data positions to round out the shape. Step 3: Use a custom maxscript to further divide the shape into equal segments and also normalize the shape. Step 4: Watch the Jade gully PC video frame by frame to count the segments and pay close attention to where divisions are located to make sure my script was working correctly and to adjust division amount acordingly. Step 5: Set up a standard flat bridge model and place a bone between each segment. Step 6: Animate the new model along the spline path. ( lot of micro steps involved here wont go into details) Step 7: Step back and look at a job well done, the final result is not perfect but it is very close! (And sorry, You can't see the final result here. You got to wait for the next demo) Anyways that's it for the visual mesh, collision mesh is another story that I wont get into. ( as I'm to lazy) The code: NEW_PATH "BRIDGE_1" { Value 001,10 //Count Value 002,3276 //dt Value 004,"Boo\brig01a5" //Txtr Value 005,"Boo\brig01a1" //Txtr Value 008,192 //Radius Value 009,3 //RadiusType Value 010,60 //Flags Value 011,3276 //ActorDt Value 013,-33554432 //CamOffset Value 014,65536 Value 019,160 //Thickness Value 020,1627414528 //RenderFlags Value 021,1610612736 //RenderFlags HexDump "0100030081000000000100fe14000480040000b11300 00001500048004000023370000001800048004e2d7855e0000001a0 007800300c0077e0000001a000b80030e8d7aa100000017000c80031 e68fcc000000014000a800400208ddc00000016000880040000ffff0000 0019000880040000ffff0000001c000880041dedffff0000801c000780041dedffff" } EDIT: We also discovered that there seems to be 2 types of path data. perhaps the second works with an updated version of the original engine. Edit 2: I should have posted the path details months ago, just never got the time lol.
A little explanation from NiKit regarding differences between the 2 Hex path formats. Header is always 12 bytes: 01 00 03 00 81 00 00 00 00 01 00 FE 01 00 03 00 - seems to be type and subtype. In never version it's just 01 00 01 00 81 00 - size of data in bytes, except header Each point is specified using 12 bytes in the old format If 9th byte is 01 (usually this flag is used if path is left to right): 14 00 04 80 04 00 00 B1 13 00 00 00 x u1 y u2 z u3 m1 m2 m3 00 00 00 x, y, z are coordinates, and u1, u2, u3 - unknown yet values (normals?). They are not float part of coords, as otherwise the bridge points placement would be wrong. m1, m2, m3 can possibly somehow control Sonic's movement or path animation and become * FF FF near the end of data. Last are usually 00 00 00, except the penultimate point where it's 00 00 80 If 9th byte is 00, there is one more byte before the begining of coords, usually 80: 80 14 00 11 00 0F 00 80 3D 0A 00 00 u1 x u2 y u3 z u4 m1 m2 m3 00 00 As you see, in this case there is only two null bytes near the end, which can possibly be for padding, as they are omitted for the last one In the new format (01 00 01 00 header), there is 12 more bytes in the header, only though 4 are used and rest is padding: 08 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 is n of points and 04 00 - n/2 points' data is not padded to 12 and each point occupies only 8 bytes: 80 31 80 11 80 38 00 00 u1 x u2 y u3 z 00 00 --------------------------------- Sample of the 2 formats. Def file#1 is Jade_01 BRIDGE_1: 01 00 03 00 81 00 00 00 00 01 00 FE 14 00 04 80 04 00 00 B1 13 00 00 00 15 00 04 80 04 00 00 23 37 00 00 00 18 00 04 80 04 E2 D7 85 5E 00 00 00 1A 00 07 80 03 00 C0 07 7E 00 00 00 1A 00 0B 80 03 0E 8D 7A A1 00 00 00 17 00 0C 80 03 1E 68 FC C0 00 00 00 14 00 0A 80 04 00 20 8D DC 00 00 00 16 00 08 80 04 00 00 FF FF 00 00 00 19 00 08 80 04 00 00 FF FF 00 00 00 1C 00 08 80 04 1D ED FF FF 00 00 80 1C 00 07 80 04 1D ED FF FF This next format can be found in multiple Death Egg .def files. PTH0252: 01 00 01 00 52 00 34 00 00 00 00 BA 08 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 31 80 11 80 38 00 00 80 31 80 0F 80 38 00 00 80 30 80 0E 80 38 00 00 80 2E 80 0C 80 38 00 00 80 2B 80 09 80 38 00 00 80 27 80 09 80 38 00 00 80 24 80 0A 80 39 00 00 80 24 80 11 80 39 00 00 80 24 80 10 80 39 EDIT: Now if anyone cares to take a crack at finding the actual padding for the paths so that I would not need to manually do it in 3DS max, Than I think we would have a more accurate result. Contact Nikit or myself and we can set you up with source code for the exporter. However this may not be possible because the padding formula may be housed in the actual game engine which reads the hex. ( to bad we don't have the original engine) But you never know ! (This could be something that was over looked, and engine may not be necessary, this is just a guess)
Poor Sonic on top of the world... Blissfully unaware of Sonic 06 approaching. Hey Sonic, enjoy your future! It's gonna be great! Oh also, the guy who started this thread, Andrew75, started another thread. Pretty much a 2.0 of this one. Sort of a recap. Project AXSX (Beyond 2013 Topic) http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=31255 Not sure what will become of this thread.
Close and archive it ? lol Also Sonic X-treme as it stands today has a few collision issues just like Sonic 06. Dudes.........Time paradox ! Well at least they aren't nearly as bad. Maybe Sonic can make like a DeLorean and fix that shit !
Simple Sonic CD Metallic Madness Past Pipe_Set_A built for a friend. It will later be modified and used in CD Remix as well. (lacks textures, just tossed on a quick max material with high specular)
