Big list of changes Unleashed over went...

For once I'm going to pull my finger out and help the community somehow, so I want to try and find every possible change we know about Unleashed.

First things first I check out our wiki.
http://info.sonicretro.org/Game_Development:Sonic_Unleashed
http://info.sonicretro.org/Game_Secrets:Sonic_Unleashed

The development area is just some notes on development, and the secrets are all based on stuff still in the game we can see or find but what about the other smaller things?

For a start going back to the video which sega released on ftp but shortly later removed has multiple changes from the final version we play, I know most of us know that some areas were unused but no where do we have notes on such things for others to read. http://www.sonic-cult.org/video/?vidfile=unleashed is the video in question.

Straight away we can see that:
Music is different, more retro sounding
Sonic seems to run much slower around loops and on straights when not boosting then in the final, which is faster even at lv1 speed
Sonic's boost wake has an animation and is white instead of blue
One or two odd looking areas which we never get to, or in the video have zero items and you never see these places regally, top of the tree for one.
The dirt sonic kicks up is much thicker and visible then in the final release.

Also the large renders we have seen of Sonic, http://www.sonic-cult.org/upcoming/unleashed/onm_art.png this image here being one of the first released is made of two renders added onto a background then lit in photoshop or something, as the exact sonic pose is also in a clean state and is spot on exactly the same pose, while they could have just posed the model and lit it that way the image doesn't seem to suggest that and it looks like they just edited the original clean renders, but the thing I want to talk about here is the werehog render, do we have a clean picture of him without all that black shadow added to his body and legs? Also that werehog lacks the white fur tips on his spines so they added that in between this image and the final release. It is hard to tell if the fur near his hands is already white tinted or not in this image.
*scratch that actually, looking close again the renders seem to be lit much differently, main difference being the shoes which have less of an obvious bump map on the white stripe and added dirt to the shoe, it's possible they wanted the werehog to be darker like a shadow, but it still doesn't explain why his hand and end of spikes area are not hinted white*

When it comes to this kind of stuff I think we should mention it, being such a big community to sonic betas we skip out things like this. But which area would the information be added to?

Just reading about Cray Castle, and:

"It is possible that "Cray Castle" actually refers to Savannah Citadel, though nothing has been confirmed. This argument is strengthened by the fact that Savannah Citadel is the only level with hints but no hint files."

What is this about no hint files but hints in the level? do you mean the hints you get in this level are loaded from the level files instead of a separate hint file? The wiki fails to explain such things.

 

There are tons of level differences in that video, I'll boot up unleashed later and compare the areas for the exact changes made.

 

This thought came to me earlier too, the first area for sonic is a large castle like building and you scale the wall, plus it's all sand and mud so clay is possible.

Holy shit :o

Also there is a funky invisible wall in mazuri which ripples and makes a jelly noise when sonic hits it, just as you reach the 2nd flat area with the mud, though I don't see why they made it as the only route you can back track is through a red boost ring, which would push you back out anyway. A cool effect none the less and the only place I seen it.

 

It must be for mazuri, the first half of the stage is past a massive set of buildings with lots of windows and they are all yellow like sand & mud mix, houses are made from it in certan countries.

Maybe the Cray files are left on the disc as the Mazuri stage needs them. If they were from a tech demo I doubt we would see them here.

 

Those invisible walls are in jungle joyride too near the first beach, I guess it's sega just trying to jazz up the whole invisible wall thing :P