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RE: Sonic (discontinued)

Discussion in 'Fangaming Discussion' started by Xeeynamo, Jun 25, 2017.

  1. Xeeynamo

    Xeeynamo

    Member
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    After 5 years I decided to share to my favourite community one of the projects which I was working.

    The project was called RE: Sonic; it involved me, Xeeynamo, as programmer and another member of our community, STHX, as pixel artist.

    [​IMG]

    We decided to re-create Sonic 1 and 2 from scratch after the Sonic CD '11 announcement by Taxman. The remake involved enhanced graphics, cross-platform support and cross-game support (like merging Sonic 1 and 2, import character or levels from other Sonic or platform games).

    The engine was written in C++ using Visual Studio 2010 / 2012 and it used OpenGL 2.1. It is called libXeEngine and it was a very old version of what XeEngine is now.
    This Sonic game featured:
    • 2x graphics
    • Sub-pixel camera movement
    • Enhanced animated palette
    • Better parallax effects
    • Rotations
    • Transparency
    • Better physics using IEEE float instead of fixed precision
    • Build-in level editor

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]


    And this is a video to view the game in action:

    http://youtu.be/-nMyjdjWD8Y

    This is the source code and the assets:
    https://github.com/Xeeynamo/RESonic

    I have no documentation on how some things worked; even now I do not remember how to import levels or make them running properly.
    I used part of Sonic CD '11 resources and a very little portion of code from Sonic 2 Saxman's engine for the parts that I did not understand from the disassembly.
    Please notice that every kind of 2x graphics was done by STHX. I asked his permission before to share with you the entire stuff, but please mind that everything was not done by me.


    Plus, I want to give my best thanks the entire community to give me the opportunity to grow up on the technical aspect. Without SonicRetro probably my interest about game development, since I was kid, would disappeared. I hope that one day I will be able to offer a product that you will enjoy.


    Q: Why did you decided to re-make everything?
    A: I find that ROM hacking is too limited. It was hard to add new graphics, new enemies or import new characters. Re-making Sonic from scratch allowed me to have the flexibility to do everything that I wanted without much limits.

    Q: Why did you never post this before?
    A: Because I am basically a lurker: I don't like talking very much, I was insecure to post something very incomplete and I had some problems with English.

    Q: Why did you abandon this project?
    A: The decision was made by me after seeing the Sonic 1 remake reveal. Very mixed sentiments involved me after that announcement, then I decided to put on standby everything and do something else.

    Q: On which are you working currently?
    A: Maybe some of you does not care about this; with everything that I learned from Sonic's disassembly and with the framework which RE: Sonic was build, I spent those 5 years to create a new framework, a new engine and a new set of tools which I am using for a completely new game.

    Q: Will you ever offer another chance to RE: Sonic?
    A: Probably yes! A full edition of Sonic 1-CD-2-3K with the ability of cross-combining elements from other platforms was in my mind since I was 7 and 10 years before I learn about programming and the discover of SonicRetro. With my current engine and set of tools I am able to create, import, export resources and play them very easily. I am still finding a perfect mix of programming abstraction and performance to have the power to mix everything. One of my plans is to emulate a strict portion of routines of the original ROM form the engine, instead to port the enemies scripts.

    Q: On what have you worked on Sonic the hedgehog world?
    A: I helped on retrun RSDK unpacker. I made a semi-working RSDK script disassembler for Sonic CD '11 years ago too, but I never though that was a good idea to share it. If someone is interested about it, I can post it here.


    PS. After that I written everything, I knew that this is what I should done years ago.
     
  2. I like the subtle visual upgrade to some of the GHZ assets in the last picture! Maybe you could set this up as a Github and get more people involved? Open source Sonic projects are very rare and haven't succeeded much, but I think this has mostly been due in the past to poor direction or shaky leadership.
     
  3. Clownacy

    Clownacy

    Tech Member
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    ...it is on GitHub.
     
  4. nineko

    nineko

    I am the Holy Cat Tech Member
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    I always like when some fellow Italian does something good.

    ... but shouldn't this topic be in the Fangaming section instead of E&RE?
     
  5. Oh, shit. That solves that then.
     
  6. Xiao Hayes

    Xiao Hayes

    Classic Eggman art Member
    This all is really interesting for me, as I was thinking to do a similar thing, and on C++ too. I haven't started my project yet since I'm busy with other projects of a different kind, but we could exchange some ideas and maybe help each other. Well, I'll need help that's for sure, but that's a different question. :v:

    That's too bad, but not a big issue, having the source code there. Plus, you're making that new engine, so maybe that isn't necessary at all.

    Same goes for me, I feel the same both with ROM hacking and when using tools like GameMaker.

    I'll probably wouldn't have programming still in mind if it wasn't because this site's given me the hope of making my own sonic games.

    Again, we share similar feelings. I didn't join this community before because of that except maybe the english part, but I don't feel glorious about that either.
     
  7. Xeeynamo

    Xeeynamo

    Member
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    I have mixed ideas about this. Currently I have a new version that runs on an updated version of the XeEngine. It does not have parallax and character animations implemented, but physics is better and it has a full object management system implemented.
    The problem is that XeEngine and its tools are closed-source and not publicy available. I should re-write everything once more using SDL or another cross-platform framework.


    Since this involves heavily reverse engineering and it has built-in editors, I though that the best place to put this was that section.


    If more people are interested to re-boot this project, I can definitively do it!
     
  8. Xiao Hayes

    Xiao Hayes

    Classic Eggman art Member
    Sorry, remaking the old games is the only thing I'm not interested in; the C++ engine and the support for higher resolution graphics are the main selling points for me, no matter which project features those. Since you've put RE: Sonic as open source, I'll take a look to it as reference material for learning, but I still want to do my own stuff.
     
  9. If you did and had it be open source I'm sure I could occasionally submit high-def sprites. You wouldn't even have to open source the engine, just the art, though having a team help you program the games would probably help it get done faster.