I wanted to point out, to those of you who haven't scrolled down and read the whole control set, that there are test shields using the keys 2-6 on the keyboard. You can jump and press the right-mouse button to activate that shield's special ability. Note that shield 2 is the normal shield which doesn't do anything but protect you from one hit!
Another thing to notice are the cheat codes toward the bottom of the booth page, which do various things. They are the same codes that worked in older versions of BlitzSonic Freerunner, plus one new one called the Spider Sonic cheat which lets you walk on walls.
Be sure to read the complete control set as there are numerous special controls, including the I key to change HUDs.
Also, there is a WIP guide, written in html, included with the engine to get you started on how to modify the config files!
Impish, on 06 August 2012 - 07:44 PM, said:
8-Bit Dragon, on 06 August 2012 - 04:37 PM, said:
SAGE 2012 is upon us, and BlitzSonic Freerunner engine is now available for download! You can find it at the
Sonic Worldrunner forums in the announcements, or at the BlitzSonic Freerunner Engine SAGE booth. Questions and bug reports are welcome, as I'm trying to get this engine's source organized so that the engine will work as a great base from which to make better mods and to build the Sonic 3 Adventure game.
Another thing I wanted to bring up was the name. Apparently the name is a little too close to Sonic Adventure 3. I chose the name "Sonic 3 Adventure" because it describes the game nicely - its Sonic 3, 'adventureized', but it may cause some confusion. So if there are any suggestions for a name change they are certainly welcome.
S3K Adventure. Doesn't matter If you aren't planning to do the "and Knuckles" part, but it keeps it separate while still getting you meaning across. Either that or "Sonic the Third: Adventure!" but that sounds ridiculous (pick that one).
Thanks for the suggestions. I like the S3K Adventure more than, umm, 'Sonic the Third'. lol
Doing all the stages in Sonic 3 is going to be a lot of work, so will all the bosses and badniks. If I get far enough along that I feel I could manage to produce the Sonic and Knuckles stages, I would consider changing the name to S3K Adventure.
Kharen, on 07 August 2012 - 01:41 AM, said:
I played this one, and had mixed expectations. For one thing, I loved the idea to everything you were doing. The only big issue I had was the fact that you were using the BlitzSonic engine to do it. True, it's the only 3D engine other than SRB2 that my pathetic little laptop can run properly, but the physics and controls were so off that I found nearly anything I played utterly uncontrollable. Even looking on YouTube, I found that plenty of other people seemed to have the same problems I had, even resorting on a disturbing frequency to a flight cheat to repeatedly put Sonic back on the level, and yet nobody seemed to mention it. It had just seemed to become an accepted problem with the engine itself that nobody seemed to want to bother with fixing.
I'm ecstatic to say that you seem to have fixed all of the problems I had with BlitzSonic entirely. I played through both test levels, and actually enjoyed the controls and was able to have a good time. All the previous levels I had tried to play before left me deleting them within ten minutes of starting them up, but I played though your little playgrounds repeatedly, enjoying all the little aspects that I wasn't able to tolerate before. I really love what you've done, and I can't wait until you update with some actual levels. I'd like to see what kinds of level design you can come up with now that you have an enjoyable, functioning engine that works the way it should.
Of course, I'm not going to just gush on and on about the engine. There are a couple very minor issues that you can tweak to make this work even better. First off, the camera controls are odd. I admit, I'm using a touchpad instead of a normal mouse, but there are still some things you can do to improve this. The controls feel a lot like Sonic Adventure, and if you remember, that game would have the camera rotate automatically to show you the general direction to go next. If you could have the camera move in a default pattern to hint at which directions to go, the levels would be much easier to navigate. This would be even more useful regarding your hollow tree. I had a very difficult time trying to climb up it, and would appreciate if you would either have the camera automatically point Sonic at the correct angle that simply pressing forward would result in a successful climb, or if you could put in speed boosters and just use them to automate the segment in a similar manner as the whale attack in Sonic Adventure. The tree was very difficult to climb, and once I hit the top, camera control issues resulted in me falling right back down.
My only other real complaint is that the Homing Attack doesn't seem to home in on enemies very well. It takes the proximity of a target as more of a suggestion than anything else. If you could make the lock-on work a bit better, it would be more useful. As it is right now, it doesn't seem to have that little snapping feel the Sonic Adventure games have when you hit the Homing Attack button, you know? In the official games, Sonic would dart directly at an enemy and have a satisfying feel of impact, as well as a sudden snap back to the offensive the instant you hit the button to attack again while on the rebound from the previous attack. This game just doesn't seem to have that same feel, and the Homing Attack seems like more of a half-hearted nudge in the vague direction of the target.
As it is, this is very fun to play and much more functional than any other BlitzSonic engine I've ever seen. If you can just make these slight tweaks to it, you've got something amazingly perfect on your hands.
Thanks for the review! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. I'm trying my best to refine it into an engine that can be used for a real game and that's just what I wanted to hear!
The camera system is something I'm going to be working on soon. Things like scripted cameras and path following are somewhat complicated since I'm also trying my best to make it easy to edit, and to develop some sort of workflow to make it easy to incorporate into every level. I could quickly code a simple camera system to fix some issues, but it wouldn't be anywhere flexible enough. Once I figure out a decent way of coding a scripted camera in, I'll fit these special areas with cameras as soon as I build them. Also, you can test the path following with the F9 key. If you walk up to the rings at the bottom of the hollow tree, just press F9 and Sonic will follow them up the tree. It only works once, and Sonic can still fall if you touch the controls, but its a start to the kind of automated loops and gimmicks you see in SA/SA2.
The homing attack seems to be the biggest complaint I'm hearing. I planned to have a homing attack that would weaken the more you use it, and recharge gradually. But from what I hear, people seem to dislike the way Sonic just darts into the general direction of the target. I will change this to a true homing attack soon because I think you and everyone else are right, in that it doesn't have the same impact as a real homing attack. The only thing left to decide on, is the rebound. I was thinking of having Sonic jump straight up as he does in SA2, rather than rebound like the classic games. Perhaps I should make an option to switch between both?
This post has been edited by 8-Bit Dragon: 10 August 2012 - 07:33 PM
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was that you have to convert your mesh to tris before exporting. I thought this was kind of unusual for such an advanced engine. I thought for sure UDK would support quads, or convert within the engine. I know its a great engine, but I just can't get past some of these quirks.
