<!--quoteo(post=190601:date=Apr 25 2008, 04:36 PM:name=Vincent)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Vincent @ Apr 25 2008, 04:36 PM) For those who missed Tails frame. I did two versions: The first is "artwork" based ver The second is "sprite" based ver The character is open for any actual drawing, please feel free to use it as base.[/quote] Use the top version... I mean check out the Sonic 2 title screen
<!--quoteo(post=190958:date=Apr 26 2008, 08:36 PM:name=SANiK)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (SANiK @ Apr 26 2008, 08:36 PM) [/quote] Yes, I fully agree. While it is a good idea to remain as close to the actual sprites as possible, I feel it should be just as important to make sure the character's art is an accurate portrayal of the official art, which that first Tails image is. And I really think that one just looks cuter X3
I've always preferred the second image. The tall eyes in the first image would need adjustments, I don't like them as they are.
But the thing is, the tall eyes are the accurate portrayal of Tails, as his eyes look like that in the official art and even the title screen that was just posted. The original sprite may just not have as tall of eyes due to limitations.
I think we should be working towards a "maximum" resolution but allow the player to choose a lower one for whatever reason, and the game SHOULD definitely support any frame aspect ratio. The HUD should also always be X% of the distance from the upper and bottom left corners (as measured by the original), regardless of aspect. But, for example, my laptop's LCD panel is 1280x800, which isn't 16:9 (1.777 frame aspect ratio) but 8:5 (1.6 frame aspect ratio). If the game is only limited to 16:9 or 4:3 then we're going to be letterboxing/pillarboxing, and I don't think we should be doing that. Regardless of the resolution, the game should be filling up the entire screen, and the height of the viewport should always match the original, allowing more to be seen horizontally if you're running at something wider than 4:3.
I posted this at the Penny Arcade forums, but I thought it would be a good idea to bring it to the maker's attention. Feel free to ignore my opinion if it's not shared by you guys. Maybe I'm nuts, but I have a minor quibble with the way the Sprites are being drawn in this. It's not cartoony enough. I mean, Sonic is based on classic cartoon characters. Characters that always had inking lines around them. And for the most part, Sonic has inking lines in all the classic art for him. Which this is avoiding (which in part is giving it that "vector graphic" look). I mean, look at this: The first image is the sprite you guys came up with scalled down to a tiny level. The second one is that sprite with inking lines painted over. Or look at this: The same thing, but at a higher resolution. To me the one with lines looks more like the classic sega sonic. Am I just nuts? I mean, I love the work being done on this, but this is just bugging me.
Plus, if the characters were changed to look like that, then the stages and items would have to match that style. That would completely change the feel of the game, which is not what we want.
Having a wider view could be problematic for bosses. Idea: when entering a boss fight, have the screen get narrower until it reaches an aspect ratio of 4:3 or 10:7 (akin to 320x224), then widen back to full resolution when the fight ends. Moreover, there is an aspect ratio that is proportionally narrower than the others: 5:4 (1280x1024, which I use). In this case, the view would be cut on the left and on the right if it fills the screen vertically, and bosses that didn't originally scroll horizontally would now scroll. For that resolution, it would be better to fill horizontally and have black bars above and below, because a 4x zoom fits quite well anyway. <rant>However, I'm pretty sure it'll lag on my computer at that resolution (unless I get a better graphics card).</rant> Would it be possible to add 640x512 as a resolution choice, to keep the 5:4 aspect ratio? Do monitors even support this resolution? 640x480 would be stretched vertically if shown fullscreen, and I would therefore lose the HD feel. Anyway, I rarely run programs in fullscreen, as they tend to move my desktop icons around when changing the resolution, and that makes me angry.
I think this is definitely what we want to satisfy people with. We can have a max res of 1280x960 (as we're drawing now) and then support lots of lower resolutions with scaled sprites. However, I wonder whether the engine would have to scale down sprites in real time, because that would be a clear performance hit.
For the new people coming in: The test that is being applied is like so: 1) Make sprite that's 4x as big as original 2) Shrink sprite by 25% 3) Compare shrunken sprite to original - does it match? A black outline would fail this test miserably
I've been doing the reverse and blowing the original up to 4x. If people are doing it this way, make sure you downscale a vector format and not a raster format so that you won't lose detail.
You know, I have a solution to much of the bickering about graphic style - have the game come with the highres original-style graphics that many of us are wanting, but allow graphics packs that implement other styles of graphics. That way, the default style that you get when you first play the game is as close to the original as possible, but after the game is completed there can be effort put into more "enhanced" graphics that are not as accurate to the original game, and said graphics can be completely optional for those who want the original style - they simply don't have to download any other packs. Hell, doing that, you could also have mere nearest-neighbor-resampled versions of the original sprites (or even just use original sprites at original resolution) so that you can play ORIGINAL Sonic 2, in all it's pixelated glory, at any random resolution (widescreen or not).
I wouldn't want to see how much longer this would take than it already will if they were going to include multiple graphic styles, I think the original sprites and the new ones are pleanty. I don't think the community should bicker that much, I for one love the new graphics that will be used, and those should be the only ones used. If we could just fix Tails' weird problem I'm sure everyone would be happier, but until then, I think one set of sprites is pleanty.
So far, I can see 2 things that could make someone want to play this with the original graphics in a ported version: different aspect ratios and online multiplayer . However, I agree that graphics packs would enhance the game.
They would also lead to tons of little faggots coming in and making horrible MSPAINT versions of Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic 2 HD, and showing them off to their friends like they're hot stuff. No.
Unfortunately for you, you're not the sole arbiter of what goes on with this project. Let the faggots make horrible MS Paint graphic packs and then we can ridicule them and send them on their way just like we do now with shitty pallet-only hacks. You don't get to say "No" and prevent something from happening if those doing the brunt of the work decide differently than you. Just because it's possible to make additional packs after the project is completed does not mean we have to condone the shitty ones, we can always remove links to them if they don't have any quality. We can't stop someone from doing what they want on their own site, however, and as I said before that's up to them. If someone makes a shitty pack then they'll be ridiculed for making a shitty pack, just like all the amateur NES tile hacks that have entire sites devoted to ridiculing them. And that's the way things should be.
