Basic Questions & Answers thread

Good luck with that, the camera speed cap is so it never needs to write more than one row of 16x16 tiles. Then again, in the S tube Sonic definitely moves a lot slower than the speed needed to break that (the only place that comes to mind where I can get the camera triggering that in Sonic 1 is in the large U sections in Spring Yard zone), so...

 

I'm experimenting with a way of using a humongous speed boost that like... triples your speed. Think Sonic Unleashed, Ring Energy meter and all.

 

I'm editing MHZ Act 2 and most of you should be aware of this that the palette changes numerously in the game, though is it possible to change the palettes around. Is this done in hex or is there an object on the level I must change?

Thanks

 

I am trying to write a deformation code, and there are a few commands I don't understand:

asl, asr
and
lsr, lsl
ext
swap

Also, what's the format of the deformation code? I know you have to move $F73A to d4, ext it, asl it by some value, and then what?

 

http://68k.hax.com/ is a good place to learn about these commands.

 

So now I have two Questions.

First: I followed the guide for starting with dissambely. The problem is, I use the QuickMan SonED2 Projects for editing, now everything is fine, but Green Hill Zone graphics are all messed up. Could someone help me?
Second: Is there any possible way to change the music? I see the .bin files for the sounds. Also, what can I do with .vgz files?

I would be happy if someone answers my questions. :D

 

First: SonED2, good. But how about hacking Sonic 2? Most people seem to come in hacking Sonic 1, which is getting boring (to me, at least).
But if you want to edit green hill zone, you need to merge some files. Watch a video for merging the files here: LINK

Second, XM4SMPS. It can be used to turn XM into the .bin format for the Sonic 1 driver. VGZ files are recordings, you can use a plugin for winamp to listen to them, or use a program named XM play.

 

I guess that's because the Sonic 1 disasm is a lot more complete and easier to deal with than the Sonic 2 one, thereby everybody goes to hack Sonic 1. Considering that we already know how to port a lot of features from Sonic 2 into Sonic 1, there's little point in choosing it.

 

Not to mention the path swapper malarkey. I spent 5 minutes with an S2 disasm, then went straight back to S1 when I couldn't work them out XD

 

I would like to have a word with you.

Also yes, we can port most Sonic 2 features to Sonic 1... if "we" encompasses Tech Members. I don't see too many Sonic 1 hacks with crossing paths. :P In general I think (read that word carefully before replying) the hardest thing for newbies to start doing in Sonic 2 that isn't so much the case in Sonic 1 would probably be dealing with SonED2 in general: that set of chunk IDs you memorized to edit Act 1 now only works for one more act instead of two (Emerald Hill / Hill Top, Chemical Plant / Death Egg, Metropolis, Labyrinth / Scrap Brain all nonwithstanding >_>), less ground is covered with each placed chunk, there's three times as many chunks to memorize, and not everything that's solid appears to be solid due to the two different planes (although the idea is to eventually turn this into an advantage). But hey, you can make as many loops and tubes as you want without touching the ASM code except to get the second plane working in single-plane levels. :P And yeah, once you get into the assembly, the lack of comments and labels makes it a different beast than the Sonic 1 code.

tl;dr: For the sake of level design, Sonic 2 is tougher than Sonic 1 but allows for more ambitious layouts, and dammit I didn't make labeled path swappers for nothing.

 

Of all the features you could have choosen, you chose a really bad one - it can be done already in Sonic 1, it's just a matter of playing with the two collision layers, it's just that no level in Sonic 1 does that >_> Then again, there are even tutorials in how to port the spindash and such, so don't come and say only techies can do it.

 

^ Hey, I'm just choosing what I notice most.~

Also I wasn't implying that spindash in Sonic 1 was reserved for techs, I worked on Sonic 1 Pixel Perfect before and we slapped it in. >_> I also know about the speed cap tutorial and the like; I'm talking more along the lines of object porting. Looking back, that makes no sense in the original context of how this debate started, but it's what I had on my mind so .

Really, it doesn't bother me if people use Sonic 1, Sonic 2, hell, use MMF. I just didn't want Max scaring anybody away from Sonic 2 on the grounds that path swappers ruin it forever when they were documented long ago by various people and I'd made visual representations for them nine or so months ago.

 

Alright another problem...

I have a problem with the background of Green Hill Zone... The Deformation... See for yourself:

-Image Removed-

So my question is... Is there someway to fix this? Please help me...

Thanks

EDIT: I found another way to deal with this...

 

I'm trying to work with the Sonic 1 "S" monitor in ASM. I'm trying to make it act like the S monitors like in the Sonic CD (510?) beta (I know, so original!). However, every time I go to build, my s1built.bin goes down only to 128 bytes and won't run. All I did so far was copy from the invincibility monitor above it. This is what I have:

Code (ASM):

1. Obj2E_ChkS:
2.         cmpi.b  #7,d0       ; does monitor contain 'S'
3.         bne.s   Obj2E_ChkRings
4.         move.b  #1,($FFFFFE2D).w ; make Sonic invincible
5.         move.w  #$4B0,($FFFFD032).w ; time limit for the power-up
6.         move.b  #$38,($FFFFD200).w ; load stars object ($3801)
7.         move.b  #1,($FFFFD21C).w
8.         move.b  #$38,($FFFFD240).w ; load stars object ($3802)
9.         move.b  #2,($FFFFD25C).w
10.         move.b  #$38,($FFFFD280).w ; load stars object ($3803)
11.         move.b  #3,($FFFFD29C).w
12.         move.b  #$38,($FFFFD2C0).w ; load stars object ($3804)
13.         move.b  #4,($FFFFD2DC).w
14.         tst.b   ($FFFFF7AA).w   ; is boss mode on?
15.         bne.s   Obj2E_NoMusic   ; if yes, branch
16.         move.w  #$87,d0
17.         jmp (PlaySound).l   ; play invincibility music

I think it's the second line, "bne.s Obj2E_ChkRings" that's causing me problems, but I'm not sure how to fix it. I've tried modifying it to branch to Obj2E_ChkEnd, and when that didn't work I tried branching it to the last part of this routine: Obj2E_Delete, but no matter what I do, it doesn't seem to want to build.

 

Obj2E_ChkEnd is right, but the size of the branch might be wrong. Change bne.s to bne.w

 

Try changing

Code (Text):

1. bne.s Obj2E_ChkRings

to

Code (Text):

1. bne.w Obj2E_ChkRings

EDIT: Hanoch beat me to it.

 

Alright, I just tried it and my file still isn't building right. There's another line that might be giving me problems

Code (ASM):

1.  bne.s Obj2E_NoMusic ; if yes, branch

Obj2E_NoMUsic is ABOVE Obj_ChkS

Would that cause problems?

 

It should be obj2e_chkend.
The problem is:

Code (Text):

1. tst.b ($FFFFF7AA).w; is boss mode on?
2. bne.w Obj2E_NoMusic; if yes, branch  ; change this to bne.w

That.

 

...lolwut

 

I'm trying to find a way to view the image files in Sonic Rivals 2. I think they're in PSP_GAME/USRDIR/STREAMS. STREAMS is a folder that contains a file named CARDSLARGE.STR. It's the largest file there, so I'mm assuming it's the images for all the cards. I'd like to look around in there, but I don't know how to open the STR file. Has anyone else fooled around with this before?