Sonic Generations Hacking (and More!)

It can also crash if it doesn't have the .material files in the same folder. (Game's materials, not the exported Ogre's ones)

 

Wouldn't it be easier to work this out if I just sent you my model?

 

That's kind of alot to ask of someone. If you'd like, I can try walking you through it over IM. PM me for more info.

 

With CPKREDIR though, that can hardly be considered a downside. No more a downside than Classic Sonic Adventures, really.

 

Again, back here to show more stuff I have found this week about Generation modding for those lazy to search:

- Final Rush Port Preview : here.
- Tropical Resort Act 1 Port: here.
- Sky Rail Port with Rails!: here.

 

Would it be too much trouble to have the .dae file extension automatically added when converting .models to the .dae? Also, it seems it can't convert terrain-models. I tried renaming them to just have .models but SonicGLvl either crashed, or the model was blank when imported in 3ds max, any version (2010-2013). Also, would it kill ya to have the ability to convert more than one .model at a time? :v:

 

I have a question, what is the problem when I imported Sweet Moutain when I get to the second act part, when I go so far out or spawn out anywhere further the game just automatically crashes.

 

You may have to add "TerrainGroupSubsetLoadCollision" for it.

 

Nah, the issue was he had some leftover crap from GHZ200, like the Batabata and stuff. It's solved now.

Also, for whoever saw Dude's new video, you might be happy to know I've worked on a GIA Merger for SonicGLvl, which is completely automatic. It merges lightmap textures that are small enough, into bigger textures. This helps a lot on fighting the issue of GIA not loading due to a high texture count, and it's very similar to the approach Sega used. For example, 10 nodes merged into a single lightmap:

This is done by the editor, not the renderer. The renderer just needs to dump the corresponding lightmap per node, the editor takes care later of the organization.

The left-over black space is just due to having to be a DDS, which only supports power-of-two textures. If the scene has a high node count, this isn't an issue, since the map tends to get filled quite quickly. Generations uses a meta-texture info file for describing the size and positions of these textures. Heck, now that I have this thing figured out much better than before, who knows if there's a chance I might try importing the GIA into SonicGLvl as well.

 

Here is a new video on my upcoming mod. (A combination of Sweet Mountain and two Super Mario Galaxy stages.)



So far, the basic terrain is almost complete. (I just have to polish it)

Anyways, I still have a long way to go in terms of the mod.

(Oh yeah, the mod itself is more of a proof of concept.)

 

Is this supposed to be like a big open-world level? I really like the idea of exploring what's normally just background decorations for the levels. If that's the case, then are you going to do something to give the player a general direction to travel, such as signposts with arrows on them, or something the player can see from a distance and can aim for, like a big beam of light shining on the goal? It's a neat idea, I'm just worried it would be too easy to get lost. I kind of lost my sense of direction just looking at the video, although I could be wrong and that could just be from the editing.

 

Sort of, the level is definitely wide and exploration heavy, but I'm actually doing a tier-path system in a similar vein to the Classic Sonic games. (So, I guess it is open-world in that sense.) You are spot on with the background decorations though.

Anyways, the video was actually just me running around the stage like a complete idiot. The reason for it was that I was testing out the controls of Classic Sonic in 3D, and I hadn't added enough springs to finish the level. Also, I used the free version of Fraps, which records stuff for only 30 seconds. (So, seconds of gameplay suddenly disappear since I have to constantly worry about pressing F9.) There is also the fact that the camera hasn't even been worked upon, and the close default camera is highly confusing in a multi-path stage. I also did a few crazy moves like jumping all the way to another path in the video. So, the video is, in total, not a good indicator of the stage's direction. In fact, I only made it to prove that the project was not dead.

Although, enemies can definitely help as indicators of direction too.

 

So, wild theory time since I'm on a bit of a hiatus from working on anything modding related til I'm done with my exams in a week or two.

It's pretty clear this game isn't getting any more support apparently, at least on PC, since some of the issues have already been reported several times, and while it would be easy to fix, they just seem to ignore it. So, what I wanted to propose was gathering up the info and do what lots of other games do... an unofficial fan patch for the regular game. Some easy fixes I can think of:

• The Walljump sticking to the wall bug fixed
• The Chemical Plant Zone "ConstantFrame" object removed from the layout, which is the main cause for the sudden framerate drop in the stage.
• Logo removal(optional)
• No HUD(optional)

Seeing as the Rogue's mission bug kept being reported in the other thread, perhaps actually modifying the level layout with SonicGLvl a bit can help track the issue of the crashing. I think it would just be neat to point any newcomers to having the PC version to a compilation of general fixes we can do... WITHOUT modifying the game's code itself of course.

What other (doable) fixes can you guys think of? Layout fixes are an idea, but that should be Sonic Team's job for preventing speedrunners from breaking their stages, not ours. :v:

EDIT: Google Doc opened for this exact purpose, editable by anyone.

 

Maybe changing/replacing that damn scripted spring in GHZ1, the one with the rightward arc at the top. If you accidentally fall off the platform, the script is a tremendous hindrance to getting back on, since you have no control over the jump.

 

I opened up a Google Doc that anyone can edit if you want. Let's do a little compilation in there!

Google Doc for Fixes List, editable by anyone

 

Yeah layout fixes would be dumb. I mean let's face it, if you're speedrunning, then either you aren't going to use the patch, or you weren't going to abuse any glitches in the first place. (though frankly it would be dumb to speedrun with the patch either way, unless it was really significantly different from normal gameplay; you can't make modifications to the game and still have a fair competition.)

In terms of other fixes, the biggest fix I'd want is fixing Spikes. This is probably one of those ones that isn't possible at the moment, but in case it is, but the spikes are incredibly buggy - they can randomly clip through walls, and if you spindash over a corner with them then it's really random whether Sonic will actually stick to the wall or fly off it. Plus on the PC version I recall having trouble jumping off the wall at all sometimes.

Aside from that just these come to mind:

- In Seaside Hill Modern's second 2D section there's a fan on the top path right before the wall jumping section. If you stick to the wall to the right of the fan then sometimes you pop through it.
- In Planet Wisp Modern right at the beginning it's possible to clip inside the trees.

 

Good idea on this Dario, I'll add all the fixes I can recall that can be easily done.

 

Someone mentioned increasing the performance on lower-end systems. Now this reminds me, some people claimed that Dragon Road performed(in the non-laggy areas with objects of course) better than a Generations stage on low-end systems. I think this might be partly to my optimized Vertex Size format(in contrast to the not-optimized-at-all vertex size used by Devil's Details, which even includes skeleton data on static terrain...), which decreases it about 30-40% memory usage.

Only reason against this is because it would turn out to be a really big patch, so it might as well be optional. But regardless, I'm curious as to if this is the case. So if anyone with below-average performance(30-40 fps constantly or worse) wants to help me test out a repacked Green Hill Zone Act 2 for example, let me know. Testing out for an FPS increase/decrease would be the point of it. (And the memory limits would have to be tweaked too, since less memory usage = increased terrain loaded count)

 

When I play the game with one of my USB controllers, it has an interesting problem where sonic sometimes quick-step's to the left side on his own. Normally, it's not really bad at all and I've managed to play through the regular game just fine without any issues.

However, in the Dragon Road demo, I can't do the water section with that controller because he'll constantly quick-step to the left and run into one of the walls and drown. I managed to get past that part using a different USB controller, but it would be nice if there was some remote possibility that this problem could be fixable. Any thoughts? Everything is fine up until the water portion of the level, where he starts doing that even if he's on one of the islands. Unplugging the controller and plugging it back in won't solve it. (Well, he stops moving when the controller is unplugged, at least)

 

Pretty sure this is a problem with the code in the game itself, not something easily fixable like this. It only affects DirectInput, so the easiest solution is to use a 360 pad, x360ce, or a ps3 pad set to xinput mode.