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Sonic R Hacking

Discussion in 'Engineering & Reverse Engineering' started by MainMemory, Dec 1, 2009.

  1. RibShark

    RibShark

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    It's in the "MS Windows DDK" (wnet) type library:
    [​IMG]
     
  2. MainMemory

    MainMemory

    Kate the Wolf Tech Member
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    Sure, why not. Thanks.
     
  3. CheatFreak

    CheatFreak

    Catgirl expert. Member
    Any progress on this? The new lighting- or I guess well, lack thereof in the Direct3D mode of Sonic R, along with the lack of lighting in ports that are derived from this version was always something I hated about Sonic R in general, so I'd love to see this brought back in the form of a mod for the Mod Loader.
     
  4. InvisibleUp

    InvisibleUp

    friendly internet ghost Member
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    So, I've been working on that menu thing I was talking about a while back, after taking a break for a month or two. Here's what I got!

    GFYcat Link

    With that done, having a level/character editor that just opens up the game to whatever I need it to should be super simple. Of course, it also acts as a regular menu (which would be mush prettier if I gave it more than crappy placeholder graphics) that's much faster than the standard menu.

    GFYcat Link

    The nice thing about how I have this programmed is that any mod installed after mine can call certain functions in my DLL via GetProcAddress(). They can then insert their own options (which can call functions or set variables) into an existing menu or replace menus entirely. They can also define a custom menu layout with it's own input and draw functions, which should allow for a lot of flexibility as far as appearance and function. In theory you could do stuff like a Sonic Rush style character select or a Sonic Adventure 2 style level select pretty easily.

    I'm not quite ready to release it just yet (I still need to add a feature and polish up some stuff), but I think this will open up some cool possibilities.
     
  5. InvisibleUp

    InvisibleUp

    friendly internet ghost Member
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    It's been two weeks so I'm going to bump this.

    I've released JSONMenu, a total rewrite of the menu system. Like I mentioned in the last post, it's designed mostly so that other mods can expand upon it and provide their own menus and options. For instance, mods for various debug screens (like a character animation viewer?) or fancier time attack displays or whatever can just hook into this and get integrated into the game's menus. More importantly, though, I can launch the game into any state I want from the command line, which will make development a LOT easier.

    For a fun demonstration of what this can do if I actually put in the effort to make something pretty, I've recreated the Sonic Rush intro (sort of, I cut a few corners) as a new title screen for Sonic R. In theory I could also render characters or track parts or rotating textures or whatever to the screen as well, but I haven't tried that yet.

    From here, the plan is to take the various font and graphics functions from that and make them their own library, some sort of "libcore" if you will. This "libcore" should track and manage all the textures, sound effects, characters, tracks, etc. so that any mod can add to and read from the list and everything turns out relatively nice and easy. I really want to take my time making sure I got the plumbing down solid before I do anything crazy, you know?

    (Oh, and before I forget, @CheatFreak: I got stuck on the lighting thing because I for the life of me can't find the existing color blending code. I'd have to sit down and trace where all the color data goes from the track file to memory to the screen, which I suppose would be easy enough to do...)

    So, your thoughts?
     
  6. McAleeCh

    McAleeCh

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    Finally had the chance to check this out - nice to be able to play the game in widescreen and at higher resolutions, even if it does break some of the menu/logo screens a little at the moment! It's been a great excuse to bust out Sonic R again after all this time - currently going through grabbing all the Emeralds again before trying to unlock the remaining characters. = )

    One question - having converted my version to the '04 version using the patch from earlier in this thread, and playing with the ADX music mod through the Mod Loader, I've noticed some of the tracks (such as the stage music/intro fanfare) seem to have a few seconds' delay before they start playing. I don't remember this being the case with the original '98 PC version, and from looking at videos it doesn't seem to be the case in the Saturn version either - however, from videos it does seem to be the case in the Gamecube version. Was this a change made for the 2004 versions of the game, and if so is it possible to revert it to the original '98 PC/Saturn behaviour? Feels really weird having to wait a few seconds for the music to kick in after starting a race rather than it playing pretty much as soon as you can start moving - ditto for having the opening fanfare still playing during the "READY? SET? GO!" announcement.
     
  7. SpaceyBat

    SpaceyBat

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    Freedom Planet 2
    That JSONMenu is excellent stuff. Can it support displaying 3D models such as, for example, the racers in a custom character select screen? Also, does this pave the way for custom HUDs during gameplay?
     
  8. Chibisteven

    Chibisteven

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    I think it was changed because of the hang it tends to produce is a bit long making one think their PC possibly froze as it locates the next track.
     
  9. Xinus

    Xinus

    Member
    Soo. I've been working on a thing.

    [​IMG]
    With InvisibleUp help i hope i will be able to get those in game. right now I'm getting some... questionable results..
    [​IMG]
     
  10. RDNexus

    RDNexus

    Member
    I'm not sure if I can talk about it, Mods are free to delete this post if that's the case.

    I've been thinking about this since yesterday...
    Is there a chance that GameHut's latest Sonic R video could be taken as a showcase of the prototype models in a way potentially interested modders could use the video as a manual of sorts on how to remodel the final models into their "original" version?
     
  11. Xinus

    Xinus

    Member
    but..... that's exactly what i have shown in previous post? maybe i didn't do a good job at recreating the models i dunno. but here's a comparison between my recreation(left) and original(right).

    [​IMG]

    Now I'm looking at it.. i think I'm gonna touch up sonic's mouth a little.
    Also it's not like I'm doing a crime or something. i just think that those models that were shown off are really nice looking and it would be cool to have them in game.
     
  12. RDNexus

    RDNexus

    Member
    Sorry, my post wasn't exactly directed at your previous post.
    But it actually caused me to think about such possibility.

    And after what you said, I went to compare your models with those shown in the video.
    Looking quite good so far, keep it up, I'll wanna see more of those.
     
  13. ICEknight

    ICEknight

    Researcher Researcher
    ...Maybe somebody should privately ask him for the models and just release a mod without saying who leaked them to avoid any improbable copyright infringement problems?

    Just sayin'.
     
  14. Overlord

    Overlord

    Now playable in Smash Bros Ultimate Moderator
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    Please don't start pestering him for dumps that he doesn't have the rights to, we're lucky to be getting as much as we are.
     
  15. RDNexus

    RDNexus

    Member
    @Xinus's endeavors are so far the best choice we may have to get those proper models into the game.
    It might be better to cheer on @Xinus or help him in whatever one may be capable of.
     
  16. InvisibleUp

    InvisibleUp

    friendly internet ghost Member
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    One thing to note is that the PC version uses higher polycount models than the Saturn version. This video does a decent job at showing the differences off. As far as recreating the prototype models from the video, it wouldn't be 100% accurate but he shows enough angles that you can probably get decently close, if you put in the time and effort like Xinus is doing.
     
  17. Xinus

    Xinus

    Member
    Modelling is finished https://twitter.com/xinus22/status/1035614410423914496
    now i dunno. let's hope InvisibleUp cracks open all the secrets of this game.
     
  18. RDNexus

    RDNexus

    Member
    Great job, @Xinus, they look great! Let us see when you release those models xD
     
  19. Xinus

    Xinus

    Member
    Okay there ya go. https://yadi.sk/d/FEigaCjf3akdaD
    do whatever you wan't with these. i included C4D and FBX formats. and also besides the T-Posed versions it includes versions that were posed to work with Sonic R in case anybody would want to make some edits and import it into the game.
     
  20. RDNexus

    RDNexus

    Member
    Tried to download it... It gave me a virus alert...