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  1. In Topic: Saxman's Sonic Boom engine

    27 February 2015 - 12:16 AM

    I recently got the title screen completed, except for one thing: the logo wants to scroll with the background! I have compared what I have with the Sonic 1 disassembly, and I am not finding anything unusual about my implementation. Any volunteers for looking at my code and trying to figure out what's wrong?



    View PostDigitalDuck, on 16 February 2015 - 10:32 PM, said:

    Only done a preliminary playthrough so only brief findings, so here goes, in order of appearance:

    • SEGA screen is skippable.
    • Title screen does not contain background or Sonic, and emblem scrolls.
    • Title card for each zone is from Sonic 2.
    • Title card displays garbled version of Sonic 2 zone name.
    • Music for each zone is from Sonic 2.
    • Art mappings for many objects are broken, most notably springs, end-of-level bonuses, and breakable blocks in MZ.
    • Sound effects for many objects are broken, using Sonic 2 sound effects.
    • Palettes for many objects are broken, possibly uniquely those that used to share Sonic's palettes.
    • Spindash present - if this is supposed to be Sonic 1, it probably shouldn't be.
    • Speed caps present, spike bug not - don't see any problems with this, but just pointing it out.
    • Special stages aren't present.
    • Pushable blocks do not appear; neither do blocks that drop from the ceiling (renders MZ1+3 impossible to complete).
    • Lava flow in MZ2 does not appear.
    • Rexon bug present - destroying two Batbots in MZ2 quickly enough from the start can sometimes cause the game to crash (stupidly I didn't get a savestate).
    • Something's off with the girders in SLZ. They're either aligned incorrectly, or scroll at the wrong speed, or something similar; they seem to cover the screen in different areas than they used to.
    • SLZ boss doesn't drop spike balls.
    • Defeating SLZ boss causes girder graphics to be overwritten.


    And just for fun:
    • Level select is deformed the way the background should be.
    • SYZ, LZ, SBZ are mostly objectless and crash shortly after starting.
    • Debug mode only contains ring and monitor.


    Most of these should be already known, but here they are anyway.


    Thanks for testing! That's quite a thorough list you've provided. I will have most of those fixed by the next demo. I plan to have at least two more demos before it's finalized.


    View PostSodaholic, on 17 February 2015 - 08:51 PM, said:

    One thing you might want to consider as far as more S1-like gameplay goes would be implementing an option to use the alternate, more lethal spike behavior. Specifically, where you can die if you get hit again while still showing the pain animation.

    Though not entirely related to S1, could I suggest adding in a double-tap to look up/down option like in SCD? I liked it so much better than having to sit there holding it like in S2.


    Because I consider the spike behavior to be more of a bug than anything, I am leaning against it. Unless of course anyone feels it makes the port of the game less legitamite without it. Or unless anyone thinks it makes for a good "feature" to have in hacks.

    I would actually very much like to add the double-tap look up/down style of Sonic CD. I've been considering that and a few other minor things out of the world of Sonic CD. No promises, but if I find the time to insert it, I will.

  2. In Topic: Saxman's Sonic Boom engine

    16 February 2015 - 08:07 PM

    I'm part of the way into porting Sonic 1 over to the Sonic Boom codebase. Click the link below to check it out:


    ==== Proof-of-Concept ROM ====


    I need bug testers! This will have a lot of bugs, no doubt. Some are obvious, while some will be less obvious. No matter how obvious or not obvious they are, please report them here. The goal here is to try and collect as many problems as I can. I may miss some things. You, the community, can help make sure I see everything I need to see.

    This conversion contains three ported zones:


    Green Hill Zone
    Posted Image

    Marble Zone
    Posted Image

    Star Light Zone
    Posted Image


    So, get testing! :)


    EDIT: I should mention that to complete Marble Zone, you WILL need debug enabled.

  3. In Topic: Saxman's Sonic Boom engine

    08 February 2015 - 04:04 PM

    View PostClownacy, on 08 February 2015 - 03:33 PM, said:

    Come on, you didn't check all the levels! Any level with an underwater palette makes SonLVL crash because of your splitting of the palettes between Sonic/Tails and Knuckles!

    Anyway, here's a fix for that, and a custom SonLVL definition for the ring format (surprise!).

    Speaking of, I've been meaning to bring this up: why did you go with a custom ring format? I get that by moving the 'orientation' bitflag, you gave the rings greater Y-range to cover that of your level layout format, but S3K does that and more. As you may know, S3K-format ring layouts specify each and every ring, with no grouping. So, there're no 'count' bits, nor is there an 'orientation' bit; X and Y get a whole word each. It also has the benefit of being easier on the RAM, like your level layout format, which gives you more rings for the same amount of RAM, again, like your format.


    No, I didn't check every level. At my job, this would have been a slap on the wrist. Thanks for catching that and providing a fix! I have been been working on (sort of) supporting the Sonic Boom layout via another INI definition, and I have it partially working, except the levels aren't resizeable. So I have more to do, but MainMemory tells me it can be done (at least the way I intend to do it). But, more on that later.

    Regarding the ring layout, that's an excellent question, and I thought about doing it several times. I opted for a custom format with the Sonic 2 methodology mainly because, although it is more RAM-heavy, it is faster as a result of that. Sonic Boom's custom level layout format is more CPU intensive (try playing Chemical Plant Zone with Sonic and Tails -- it gets very sluggish at certain points), and so I didn't want to make it worse. Instead, the plan I have is to eventually support doing the ring layout the Sonic 3 way, but only AFTER the Sonic 3 objects manager is in place. The Sonic 3 objects manager adds vertical scope, so it doesn't process unnecessary objects above and below the camera's vertical position. This would fix a lot of speed issues, and so the Sonic 3 ring layout method then becomes more reasonable from my perspective.

    But luckily, there's guides on how to do that stuff if people want it now and not later. :eng101:

  4. In Topic: Saxman's Sonic Boom engine

    02 February 2015 - 12:22 AM

    View PostMainMemory, on 01 February 2015 - 11:48 PM, said:

    It's the object definition for the Spring object. You can remove it from obj.ini, or change Common/Spring.xml so it uses the correct mappings.

    Ah, I missed that. Thanks!

    Okay, here we go: http://1drv.ms/1z4fOUV

    It is a set of INI files that will work with the latest version of SonLVL. It will use the /levels/layout/old directory for level layout, and the /levels/rings/old directory for ring layout. Until SBLF support can be created, we'll have to make due with the legacy Sonic 2 format. The good news is you can start designing with the legacy format now, and then use my SBC and RingConv tools (see first post) to convert your levels to SBLF. And then, when we get SBLF support, those files can then be used instead of the legacy files.

    I hope this is an adequate solution for the time being. I'm willing to help anyone with SonLVL setup if needed. It's not that hard once you figure out that the INIs must go in a folder inside your actual disassembly folder.

  5. In Topic: Saxman's Sonic Boom engine

    01 February 2015 - 10:47 PM

    View PostGT Koopa, on 24 January 2015 - 07:27 AM, said:

    I want to use this, really want to use this, but with my hour or two of fiddling with SonLVL I can't seem to get it to work properly. I did once long ago but I never really used the program much. Now the updater keeps giving errors and reinstalling the thing or following the guide while trying to mimic placement with the SB disassembly and the files provided. Maybe I am mistaken with what goes where or if it currently works with SonLVL in the first place.


    I downloaded SonLVL and the Sonic 2 2007 INI files. I modified the INI files to use the legacy layout files from the original Sonic 2. Despite this, SonLVL still gets stuck on one thing I have not been able to resolve, and I think it is something that may need updating in SonLVL itself if it is to have even partial support for Sonic Boom:

    Posted Image

    Sonic Boom doesn't use "s2.asm".

    Any workarounds for the time being?