[Andrew75]

Today a friend of mine (Master Emerald) brought something up that seems very interesting.
I don't know if this was talked about in the past here on Retro.

"Imagine if traveler tales archived sonic 3D blast zone models and released it in full 3D today"
"It had a simple scenery but charming still"


In my opinion, I think this would actually make the game into a very very good sonic game.
and break away from just being a so so game because of its shit controls.

Has anyone ever hacked 3D blast Saturn ( extracted the tiles) , or attempted to track down the assets used to produce the pre rendered textures?

If so please let me know ASAP, as we could easily drop them into Sonic GDK and make a fun game.
(Would be using the custom GDK engine for this (GHZ 2.5D ) and Yes GHZ 2.5D supports full 3D movement)

This post has been edited by Andrew75: 05 November 2012 - 05:29 PM

[Andrew75]

Wow, well over 200 views and no opinions? Guess I started a Dud of a topic here.
Anyhow, I've gone ahead and tracked down a few of the art team members to see if they have any top secret dev info or lost treasures.
Not sure if I'll get a response.

[MainMemory]

I tried looking at the PC version's files again because of this, but all I found is you can make out some bits of sprites if you load GFX1A.PC as a 32x10000 raw grayscale image...

[Andrew75]

Thanks for looking into that for me.
Earlier tonight, I was informed that there was a level editor for the PC version.
No luck in finding it.

Having the PC or Saturn map layouts would help quite a bit.


Hmm seems this topics turning into a hacking topic, should we move it to the proper area?

[Kharen]

Would the Genesis version level maps help at all, even as placeholder stuff? (Unless I'm misunderstanding and the Saturn/PC version was actually real 3D maps that you simply intend to port into GDK) I downloaded the level maps from the Genesis version a while back from Spriter's Resource, wanting to experiment in RPG Maker with isometric graphics instead of top-down (using parallax mapping), so I know that they have it.

[Andrew75]

Kharen, on 06 November 2012 - 04:31 AM, said:

Would the Genesis version level maps help at all, even as placeholder stuff? (Unless I'm misunderstanding and the Saturn/PC version was actually real 3D maps that you simply intend to port into GDK) I downloaded the level maps from the Genesis version a while back from Spriter's Resource, wanting to experiment in RPG Maker with isometric graphics instead of top-down (using parallax mapping), so I know that they have it.

Sprite resource only seems to have a few tiles from the first area.
But yeah, the Genesis version would help since its the same layout as the Saturn version which used 2D tiles too. (just a little more fancy)
Saturn special stage was 3D though.

[Azukara]

I'd just say that using the whole "Sonic 3D: No Flickies" thing while designing the levels to be a good bit longer than they are without flickies would be enough to make a decent version of the game.

...Although admittedly, yeah, seeing Sonic 3D in actual 3D would be cool too.

This post has been edited by Azukara: 06 November 2012 - 01:50 PM

[TheKazeblade]

Azukara, on 06 November 2012 - 01:44 PM, said:

I'd just say that using the whole "Sonic 3D: No Flickies" thing while designing the levels to be a good bit longer than they are without flickies would be enough to make a decent version of the game.

...Although admittedly, yeah, seeing Sonic 3D in actual 3D would be cool too.

Honestly, I never minded the Flickies in this game. Taking them out would make for a pretty boring game, because really, there's not a lot of challenge in the existing level design that would give a problem to the player if they weren't afraid of losing the Flickies that they had at the time. The Flickies are the only thing that offer challenge. You probably could make a decent isometric platformer from this, if you did, like you said, develop more level, but removing the Flickies would make the game cease to be S3DB, which would be kind of besides the point.

I would be super pumped to see this in 3D, though. I have nothing to offer as far as technical knowledge, or anything, but I wish you luck, and would love to see this product come about

I'm sure you'd rather use original elements of the game, but are you opposed to just using a ripped version of Classic Sonic from Generations?

[MainMemory]

Andrew75, on 06 November 2012 - 12:22 AM, said:

Thanks for looking into that for me.
Earlier tonight, I was informed that there was a level editor for the PC version.
No luck in finding it.

I have never heard of such a thing existing.

I am trying to figure out the file formats, but it's difficult when the code is unlike any other Sonic PC port except Sonic R (also a Saturn port), which has similarly resisted attempts at decompilation.

This post has been edited by MainMemory: 06 November 2012 - 03:40 PM

[Kharen]

Okay, so I remembered wrong and it wasn't Spriter's Resource that had the maps I was playing with. Go here instead...

http://www.soniccent.../sonic_3d_blast

Not the Saturn version, but still full level maps for every level in the game (I think... I don't think I've ever actually finished this game.)

[Master Emerald]

We saw those maps yesterday. They are not 1:1 pixel size... While those can be used as a base for the basic level geometry, all the details got lost.

[Lostgame]

I had actually started doing this at one point, making a 3D model of Green Grove zone, but it was harder than one would think, 'cause it doesn't quite work in true 3D like it does in 2.5D/isometric.

[Andrew75]

Lostgame, on 06 November 2012 - 06:44 PM, said:

I had actually started doing this at one point, making a 3D model of Green Grove zone, but it was harder than one would think, 'cause it doesn't quite work in true 3D like it does in 2.5D/isometric.

Hey show us what you have.

MainMemory, on 06 November 2012 - 03:38 PM, said:

Andrew75, on 06 November 2012 - 12:22 AM, said:

Thanks for looking into that for me.
Earlier tonight, I was informed that there was a level editor for the PC version.
No luck in finding it.

I have never heard of such a thing existing.

I am trying to figure out the file formats, but it's difficult when the code is unlike any other Sonic PC port except Sonic R (also a Saturn port), which has similarly resisted attempts at decompilation.

Dude, keep at it !
Also what about using an emulator like yabause as a stepping stone to extract game data?
Would that be a possibility?

EDIT:
I was abele to use the VDP1 viewer in Yabause's debug menu to view some textures, not all were available, and only some of what was on screen was shown,

here are a few I saved out. This would be a real pain to do 100% with the emulator alone 1 texture at a time.

This post has been edited by Andrew75: 06 November 2012 - 07:13 PM

[Kharen]

If anybody could recommend a good Saturn emulator, and explain the process to me in simple terms on what to do, I could possibly help get the textures from that.

(Also, I've been wanting to find a Saturn emulator anyways and didn't know what to look for... 2 birds, I guess.)

EDIT: Didn't notice the comment about "Yabause". I'll take a look and see if I can run it. Still need explanation, though.

[ashthedragon]

I remember playing a Blitz Sonic version of Green Grove a long time ago...I think I remember who did it..I should ask him the next time I see him. That it, if my memories aren't falling on me and it wasn't green grove.