Project Announcements

I'll just add something.

If you need a rip of an original sprite which isn't present in the database yet, and you don't feel like taking a screenshot in your emulator (or said screenshot can't be easily taken because you need to e.g. disable a layer), feel free to ask me, either on AIM if I'm online (nineko84), in IRC (I'm in #retro rarely), or just PM me.

This is all I can do to contribute to S2HD since I'm not an artist :v:

 

<!--coloro:yellow--><span style="color:yellow"><!--/coloro-->Sonic Retro Community Progress Report[/COLOR]

After the overhaul of the S2HD subforum, very specific goals were created with the promise that the staff would be readily available to guide work done by the community for potential inclusion in the alpha release. Two and a half months was set as the timeframe, with extremely reasonable goals to achieve.

Here's what we've seen, here's what we haven't:

Character art—good submissions and revision work has been done on the Eagle. Although it wasn't assigned as a goal, the work done on the Chicken has also been impressive.

Badnik art—one attempt was made on the Rexon and nothing since despite directed feedback from Cerulean Nights; one attempt has also been made on the Spiker, with the same result as the Rexon. There have also been no submissions for the Zone boss. There has been more discussion over the Nebula, which is -not- one of the current goals, than for any of the other HTZ enemy art combined. Work on the Ghora's flames was going well up until the overhaul, and then came to an abrupt halt.

Level art—Work was started on the level objects, including the rock, the lift platform, the seesaw, the door, and the tree during March. In the past few weeks there have been no updates for any of them. The existing quality on the submissions so far, aside from the rock and the seesaw, leaves a lot to be desired. The tree has also generated its fair share of debate, but the top section of it is still very unpolished. Actual ground tiles, such as the S tunnel listed in the goals, have seen zero attempts.

Music—Mesmonium has created an excellent submission and is in the process of revising it. I would still like to see steveswede polish his piece some more as well.

You wanted this to be an open community project, but there's been very little actual doing on that front. Early on, when the excitement with the topics overhaul was fresh, this was not the case and we saw plenty of activity. Since mid-April, however, this has not been the case; with the exception of a few contributors who have provided pieces on a consistent basis, it's unfair to the staff for you to tell us you want to participate and then leave us as the ones to do all the work. Because make no mistake: we certainly can, and we will one way or another. But don't expect to get credit for work you haven't done.

We've given you goals that are appropriate and fit with the current level of progress toward the alpha release. That said, if you can't make these goals, let us know; we are open to re-evaluating some things if it will really make a difference in the community's progress. But, the staff is not about to just let this devolve into a 'do whatever you want on your own timetable' sort of deal.

Because of outside events delaying this progress report by two weeks, I am extending the original deadline of June 1st to June 15th. That said, whether HTZ makes it into the alpha or not is very much in your hands. I know the talent exists here to make that happen. I hope the community here uses the next few weeks well toward that end.

 

<!--coloro:yellow--><span style="color:yellow"><!--/coloro-->Progress Report - 6/19/10[/COLOR]

I'm not going to do a complete breakdown like I did last time because I really don't see a need for it now. There has been much more activity recently in the level art, thanks in no small part to MaximusDM's efforts and Test-Object coming back into the picture. These are just two of the people who have stepped up, and I'd like to thank everyone who has put their effort in over the past month. By all means keep at it.

Special kudos go to Synergy. He has single handedly created a working test build of the Special Stage and far surpassed our initial expectations. Job incredibly well done there, and things are just getting started in that area.

Character art, badniks and music are essentially in the same place they were at the last update. For the time being I am removing music as one of the goals. We have a contributor who wishes to remain anonymous at the current time who has submitted an amazing HTZ remaster and wants to refine it even more before it is made public.

So where does the project go from here? The same place it was before, but we're going to turn things up a notch in asset production. The community has been struggling to get things done for art, so the staff is now going to step in, and with full transparency start creating the same assets we put up as goals over three months ago. This means you guys are going to see the steps Gambit goes through with level art, Cerulean Nights' workflow for badnik creation (and if you're interested in making them and still haven't looked at the great tutorial he created then what the hell is wrong with you), and the method Vincent uses for his character designs in doing the small animals. At this point, everyone on staff wants to put Hill Top Zone into the alpha, and by showing everyone here the step by step methods we've been using I hope more of you who have been lurking will come out and post up your thoughts as well. Many of you have wanted to see our works in progress, and starting next week you will. More specifically, Gambit will be starting on the S tunnel metablock for level art, and Cerulean Nights will be doing the Spiker.

Andlabs brought up a good question about the code side of things. Here's what LOst has been utilizing so far:

Code system:
C++ object oriented optimized with disassembling and debugging.

Tools:
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 x32 and x64.

Libraries:
Direct3D 9
DirectInput 8
DirectSound 8
OpenGL 2.0 with frame buffer extension (became standard in 3.0)

Hopefully that information is useful to those of you with programming backgrounds that have been wondering if you'd have a way to contribute. Let me reiterate that as of this point, we are still in need of someone who can help us get the multiplayer segment of S2HD up and running. Right now we have ideas that we've been tossing around for it, but no actual work has been done on that front. If you have ideas, please send me a PM if it's something specific or just post up general ideas in this thread. For detailed questions I'll have to get feedback from LOst to give you definitive answers, but I'll definitely see what we can do to make things as simple for you guys as is possible on our end.

 

The end of the year is nearly here, and Sonic 2 HD is ramping up in a big way for 2011.
To get things started, we'll be updating our new staff development blog with information about the project on a regular basis, including the project history, staff profiles, project trivia, and of course information on what's being worked on for the next release!

I'd personally recommend adding another bookmark to your browser too. This one will be the source of some very interesting things very soon…
www.s2hd.sonicretro.org