[flarn2006]

I've noticed that in Sonic Adventure 2, several areas are only shown during cutscenes, such as

Spoiler

the control room for the Eclipse Cannon

. And I'm not talking about pre-rendered video either. Several regular (not pre-rendered) cutscenes take place in

Spoiler

the Eclipse Cannon control room

. However, when I look at the level codes (here and here) they aren't listed. A little help please?

[Sintendo]

A little help with what? You can't load them with the level code, because they're not levels.

[flarn2006]

Sintendo, on Jan 4 2009, 01:07 PM, said:

A little help with what? You can't load them with the level code, because they're not levels.

AFAIK, the level codes basically tell the game what map to load. The cutscene areas are most certainly stored in the same way, even though they are not playable levels, so it should be possible to access them as if they were.

[Polygon Jim]

No.

They aren't levels. Levels and cutscenes are not stored the same way.

[flarn2006]

Polygon Jim, on Jan 4 2009, 04:39 PM, said:

No.

They aren't levels. Levels and cutscenes are not stored the same way.

I don't mean the cutscenes themselves, just where they take place. For example, some cutscenes are in levels, like at the end of the boss fight vs. Bigfoot, when Sonic first meets Shadow, that boss level is loaded, and the cutscene plays out there. All of the cutscenes in Sonic Adventure 1 are like this, where internally a certain level is loaded where the cutscene plays out. You can see which level is loaded if you look in Sonic Adventure DX: Preview. Like when

Spoiler

Eggman takes the emerald Sonic got from Casinopolis

a cutscene is played in Station Square, more specifically the Casino area.

But some cutscenes in SA2 aren't in playable levels, such as the example I gave of

Spoiler

the Eclipse Cannon control room

. In the ones with playable levels, it loads the level and plays the cutscene. I'm sure it does the same thing with the other cutscenes, just as long as they aren't pre-rendered videos. Perhaps it loads some small area outside the boundaries of a playable level, like when

Spoiler

Eggman first unveils the Egg Viper

in SA1, or as a non-Sonic example, the opening cutscene in Grand Theft Auto III, which takes place in the so-called "ghost town."

[Polygon Jim]

No.

The cutscenes are not the same as a level.


SADX is not the same, as the cutscenes take place in playable levels, the SA2 ones do not. They are in a different folder in the disk image called event, and stored differently, IIRC.

This post has been edited by Polygon Jim: 04 January 2009 - 09:39 PM

[Blanche Hodapp]

Please stop posting with spoiler tags, it gets rather annoying, and we've all played the game.

[muteKi]

Well, not all of us have, but it's not like any of those who haven't care very much at this point. Besides, someone not yet initiated with the game wouldn't have much spoiled from what you've got posted.


I'm a bit surprised there's a distinct difference between the stages and cutscene areas; if it had a PC version it might be possible to swap files. I know DC disc images are finicky toward hacking, though, so it wouldn't work well in that regard.

[Dude]

Polygon Jim, on Jan 4 2009, 09:38 PM, said:

No.

The cutscenes are not the same as a level.


SADX is not the same, as the cutscenes take place in playable levels, the SA2 ones do not. They are in a different folder in the disk image called event, and stored differently, IIRC.

This man is correct.

Due to wonderful things like sonic running in place, and excessive data, sonic team decided to make the cutscenes completely independent. Its cleaner to do it that way. However this backfired on them when they ported the game to the gamecube and suddenly had over 9000 models to update instead of 1.