Mimicking the rendering pipeline through HLSL/GLSL wouldn't make it any trickier to get running on various hardwares at all. The opposite, in fact, because you'd be creating an abstraction layer.
I figured they were custom. I had seen people online claim that it was the return of "the Saturn Sonic model" in multiple places, but they did not seem to match up with the Jam, 3D Blast or R model(s). Thanks for the clarification!
It's quite the opposite really... By coding their own 3D renderer in software they're in full control of every pixel blitted, while offloading the 3D work to the various 3D cards in existence could cause inconsistent results across different setups. I don't think they've gone as far as emulating the actual pipeline used in the Saturn though, they're probably just mimicking the overall look of Saturn polygons.
With modern OpenGL or DirectX, you are in full control of every pixel your video card draws. I mean this in a literal sense, that's precisely what the fragment shader is for. Anything you can do in software, you can do in hardware, because the modern rendering pipeline for GPUs are fully programmable. There is, actually, very little difference in practice between writing a software renderer these days, and running the same logic on your GPU, only faster. If one targets the GL ES profile, there is no real inconsistency across different setups. That's the point of the ES profile, it's a subset of the core profile for improved compatibility. General tip - write your application using a GL ES profile, then maintain a desktop build using proprocessor definitions using the GL Core profile. You're guaranteed for your program to work on virtually every modern device that way. Use SDL2 for context maintenance, and you're good to go.
9 days to go! Have a feeling this final week and a little bit will be aognising. Just want to play the game now.
Rightt??? The wait always seems to get harder the closer you get. Especially with this game, as I don't think I've ever been hyped for a game more than I am for Mania Just 9 more days! We can do it~
The "true to Saturn" remark in particular applies to how the 3D course is done by manipulating 1 or more roto-zoom tile layers, adjusting the settings on each scanline to create a perspective view in a similar manner to Mode 7 or VDP2. The sprites and polygons are then rendered seprately using a matching 3D matrix so they all line up together in the resulting image. The rounded blimp background in Flying Battery Zone also uses a similar scan line trick. The majority of the graphics are done with the Retro Engine's software renderer - the GPU is only really used to render the pixel output and employ optional filters.
Appreciate the detailed reply. So the model polygons aren't necessarily quads or skewed sprites or, as someone else said, lacking floating point precision or anything exotic of that sort?
The 3D software renderer supports tris and quads, but it doesn't use the same distorted sprite method since scanline based rendering is faster. All math is in fixed point, and there's no Z buffer to speak of. All in all, it makes you appreciate how trivial all that stuff is now with GPU rendering haha.
Why not? It's relevant and interesting, the discussion is only as petty as you make it. There's never been a better time to reevaluate the series against its competitors of the time- you can be sure everyone else on the internet will be doing it after release. Yoshi's Island's full title is Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. It's easily the best 2D game in that franchise if we're not accounting for SMB3's influence and iconic design.
I think it's a pointless discussion because which game is better is a matter of opinion, and this is a Sonic forum of all places, which game do you think will win 99% of the time if we try to compare the two? Go have this discussion in a neutral place of the internet and you might end up with a reasonable perception of how the 2 games/franchises are perceived by the public in general (unfortunately, I think Mario wins out there...), but here? Totally pointless.
This back-and-forth is starting to become an actual distraction when we had a real discussion going before, but I will say that the point of the conversation was (or should be) less about what we think and more about what everyone else thinks, and why. The Kotaku comment was the opening salvo, expect more dissent after release. There's enough Sonic Was Never Good out there that the long-term perception of this game is still up for debate. I don't have much stock in the conversation personally, but seeing it get shot down with "ungh opinions stop" is pretty irritating.
Holy crap, so you did bring back the jitter-y look D: Well! I guess it just makes it more true to what it aims to be
The reason why we have been discussing SMW is because people are saying it's outright bad and that Sonic is supremely better. It's obviously absurd, because SMW is a great game. I probably take it for granted that people on Sonic Retro are fanatical Classic Sonic fans :v: It's not strictly on topic with Mania, but half the stuff in this thread hasn't been either. Not sure why so many people in this thread are being such tryhards on being on topic :v:
Do you think the special stages are decorated based on in-game levels or simply randomly? There's definitely a Green Hill one but past that they look a little ambiguous
It looks like Sonic CD, where each of the seven special stages has a distinct layout and theme, but they're not randomised.
