Hey, just an idea I thought of in IRC, but I decided to throw it here to see what you guys think: Themed Signpost Checkpoints :D Examples: Green-Hill-style Zone: Normal Checkpoint Circus-style Zone: Circus-style Checkpoint Underground-style Zone: Underground-style Checkpoint, etc.
<!--quoteo(post=272983:date=Jan 26 2009, 10:35 PM:name=Cinossu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Cinossu @ Jan 26 2009, 10:35 PM) [/quote] Those are really nice! Perhaps we could make them work like in Chaotix? When the box is broken, the item icon floats up into the air flipping, then fades away into mere pixels. I think it'd work quite well.
<!--quoteo(post=273061:date=Jan 27 2009, 01:14 AM:name=Chimpo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chimpo @ Jan 27 2009, 01:14 AM) [/quote] I get a feeling of Adabat's Jungle Joyride from this image, and this is a good thing, as JJ is a beautiful level. All I can think of for "Mandatory green level" is somewhat like Adabat, but less water and a bit more jungle and beach. Of course, more concept art will need to be made to show what I mean (Of which, if I get chance, I may do some...). The other one that you did that reminded everyone else of the jungle level from Heroes doesn't really suit the beach level idea in my opinion.
Yeah, those frozen springs could trick the player to think that they will help him but it would just waste his time.
<!--quoteo(post=273061:date=Jan 26 2009, 08:14 PM:name=Chimpo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chimpo @ Jan 26 2009, 08:14 PM) [/quote] I like it, but are those GRIND RAILS or regular pathways?
<!--quoteo(post=273358:date=Jan 27 2009, 09:45 PM:name=synchronizer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (synchronizer @ Jan 27 2009, 09:45 PM) [/quote] I like it, but are those GRIND RAILS or regular pathways? [/quote] I was going to ask the same thing. I really hope they aren't grind rails...
I don't think grind rails would be a bad idea if used only a few times, akin to the twisting loops in Emerald Hill.
They're pathways. The idea was to get rid of a bit of foreground so you can see more of the background.
<!--quoteo(post=272991:date=Jan 27 2009, 12:50 AM:name=Matwek)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Matwek @ Jan 27 2009, 12:50 AM) Not too keen on the lightning at the moment[/quote] I dunno.. I think the Sonic 3 ones capture the shields perfectly, to be honest. <!--quoteo(post=273132:date=Jan 27 2009, 05:29 AM:name=Flare)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Flare @ Jan 27 2009, 05:29 AM) </a>[/quote] There's only one thing I don't like about your springs.. they're too dark. :P Too much dark grey and black. <!--quoteo(post=273229:date=Jan 27 2009, 03:12 PM:name=Xeric)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Xeric @ Jan 27 2009, 03:12 PM) ..? :P I'd had that idea too.
<!--quoteo(post=273415:date=Jan 27 2009, 10:32 PM:name=Cinossu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Cinossu @ Jan 27 2009, 10:32 PM) ..? :P I'd had that idea too. [/quote] Yes, that's exactly what I meant. Nice work~ ;D
Fluid animation is nice, but don't get too carried away. We don't want to end up needing over a gig of free RAM just to store the global art (this includes the player sprites that're in an entirely different thread, and anything else)
The term "art file" bothers me, since the sprites are stored individually, the file isn't loaded and stored in RAM verbatim. But each extra frame adds up, and the art is already stored 8bpp instead of 4, so each frame will take up twice as much space as anything in the Genesis games, and once loaded in during gameplay, they're certainly not compressed
Wait, how gimped are we talking about here? Will we not be able to reach the animation quality of the Sonic Advance games without needing a gig of ram?
8bpp would mean 256 bytes for 1 frame. Let's say there's 11 items per character (10 rings, invincibility, speed shoes, normal shield, bubble shield, flame shield, lightning shield, super, random, 1-up, robotnik), meaning 2,816 bytes for all. With the spinning and fade per item, it's 16 frames each, meaning 45,056 bytes. Approximately 45kb of RAM for the "fluid" items. While that's quite a large difference (1500% larger), I don't think we'll be pushing a gigabyte anytime soon. Edit: Including each character's item multiples in there too (normal shield, 1-up) would mean 15 items (3,840 bytes), then 16 frames (61,440 bytes). Again, I don't see this adding too much overhead, to be honest. Double Edit: If I've done the math wrong here, Stealth, please correct me. Each frame of animation for this is 16x16.
The math is right, and a gig is sort of an exaggeration just to illustrate my feelings on excess. Pushing like 32mb total RAM usage would be bad enough
There is a point where we realise that our PCs weren't made in 1996, Stealth. I see what you're getting at, and it's both admirable and I approve of it, but seriously? 32MB is like a tenth of what some modern games use, so I fail to see why even (picking a figure out of the air) 100MB of RAM usage for the final finished product would be the end of the world.
To be fair, I'd hardly consider 100MB appropriate RAM usage for a game whose precessors ran using... what, 16kb of work RAM? A 2D Sonic game—or any 2D platformer, for that matter—should not be taking such a ridiculous amount of RAM under any circumstances. If the amount of RAM the game uses up is something we can control, then we should definitely try and do so. I'm all for fluidity in animation, but game performance is just as important.
