That looks outstanding, Paraxade. I wasn't really expecting Wave Ocean's non-Mach Speed level to flow so nicely, but the changes you made make it look really enjoyable in Generations. Definitely downloading. I am curious, though. How did you made the collapsing boardwalk work with boosting where brianuuusonic could not? OneWayFloor?
There's a bunch of components to the whale chase section. Making them not break when you boost on them is pretty simple; there's a DamageType value called TruckOnly that makes the object invulnerable to anything except the GUN Truck (though they can still be broken through events as well). The whale itself is a GhzGiantBatabata, which means it always stays a set distance away from Sonic, so to actually break the bridges I have a series of EventCollisions set up on the bridge that causes them to break as you go. Each of them also has a custom DebrisTarget set to give the illusion that the whale is breaking them instead of just spontaneously breaking. The second half of the chase is a bit different, because I wanted the whale to keep going after Sonic hits the spring to enter the next section instead of continuing to follow a set distance, which meant I couldn't reuse the same method to break the bridge there. The whale is still a GhzGiantBatabata; I found a mode for it that appears to be unused that makes it simply follow along its spline regardless of how far away from Sonic it is, so I didn't need to make another whale object. To break the bridge there, you simply pass through one EventCollision at the beginning that then actives three EventSetters, which then break each piece of the bridge in sequence, each one timed slightly after the last one. My mod's actually the reason brianuuu's making all these improvements to his lately. It was supposed to be a secret up until I released it, but a video leaked out and brianuuu caught wind of it, so yep.
Now THAT's how you port Sonic 06 stages! I certainly can't wait to see what else you have in store, Paraxade.
Excellent, excellent work there Paraxade. I'm not a huge fan of the spring chains, though I understand they're pretty much necessary thanks to less than stellar level design in the original. You really have done a great job making this stage work in Generations, and fixing all the stuff about it that simply didn't work.
http://I.imgur.com/Lp4xUts.jpg Remember to always check your load order kiddos. I always accidently the pipeline shaders though it never stops being entertaining. :specialed: This is much more fun than I thought it would be thanks to all the liberties taken to make the stage work. Best touch was the double loop giving you a view of the rest of the stage and also making the whale section work. Only way it could be better would be to somehow toss a blend the machstage portion with Shadow's portion but not make it drone on.
Ok, that confused me for a few minutes, but I think I get it now. The red tint is caused by using FxPipeline without the Unleashed FxPipeline Shaders mod. As for missing the rest of the level, you're supposed to use Wave Ocean FxPipeline on top of the regular Wave Ocean mod. The FxPipeline one doesn't contain anything except #ghz200 and #pam000; it's just supposed to override those specific files while you load the rest of them from the regular mod. That sounds uhh... a little bit easier said than done. Honestly, the mach speed section and Shadow's section not being included is definitely the biggest complaint about the mod I've heard so far (mostly on YouTube), and to tell the truth I really don't get it. The mach speed section might have played ok, but it would have totally wrecked the pacing because it's designed so drastically different from the main section. Shadow's section is even worse... it has no structure or endpoint and it doesn't lead anywhere. I mean it's not even used in the original version of the level! I know the stage is short, but I don't think padding it with those sections would have been a good idea :P Anyways, very much appreciate all the kind words from everybody! I really want to try making an original level soon. Working on Wave Ocean did a good job of highlighting both how frustrating and limiting it is to work with geometry that wasn't even designed for the game (ahae;ha;hehe;g cameras), and how easy it'd be to reuse assets from other games to make a totally new stage out of them. I know I asked before and didn't get many responses, but if anyone feels like offering up some level layout concepts or concept art for a stage based on an 06 or Unleashed level, that'd be awesome; I'm terrible at that stuff and it's hard to get started without any ideas. :P I'm thinking it'd be pretty fun to work on Windmill Isle or Dragon Road.
I know that I accidently didn't load all the proper things. I just decided to record before I closed it so I could share the result of my fuckup. :P
Now THAT is how you do a port. Great work, Paraxade. I'd love if you would to continue porting some '06 stages. But you know, giving each your own twist, like you did with this one. Finish that Kingdom Valley that I believe you were doing a few months back. Perhaps throw in a less buggy White Acropolis (and more interesting). You know fix the small annoyances like you did with this one. Great work, man. Really. EDIT: Ok, so I've just tested the mod out. First time I booted the game up... I love what you did with Green Hill Zone altough it's kind of hard to see with the invisible ground (even the music was playing): After I changed the load order it all worked out, but it is still sort of weird considering I didn't had any stage mods loaded up. Just a couple that affects only Sonic and the fxPipeline. So I booted up for the second time, making sure the Wave Ocean stuff was at the top of the list, with the Wave Ocean fxPipeline on the top. Now it worked like a charm and boy dare I say it, but it feels much better than the video could show. The water shaders, the GIA, everything. I mean it's Wave Ocean there is only so much you can do without changing a ton of things. I loved how the whales throw you high up in the sky much like the giants in Skyrim, I love you the bridge broke while Sonic was chasing. Just wish there were more to it, but I'm glad we got something better than what was at the table so far.
I wasn't complaining, I said the only real way I could see it better is if you could somehow do that and not make it seem so out of place, which is a pretty difficult task in and of itself if you're going to work with the existing assets. As for more original stage ideas, Windmill Isle is packed with easy detail fillers and it would probably be easier to build out areas in a more blocky city trope compared to Dragon Road. Though there are a bunch of assets you could turn into level geometry that goes unused in Dragon Road such as those huge spiraling towers that dot the landscape and appear in the end. You could instead take the hub world assets and the literal dragon themed roads and make a much larger village stage out of them.
As much as I hate to admit it, Brian's shoddy port of Wave Ocean did have the interesting idea of seamlessly transitioning to the Mach Speed section, and I can't help but want to see that somehow realized with the quality you actually put into your work. Personally, I was hoping you'd do some more 06 work, to be honest. You made Wave Ocean something incredibly fun to play, so I'd love to see what you could do with other levels.
I still think somebody needs to port all of FFXIII's stages into Generations. They were hallways, so it'd be like Unleashed Wii but longer! I know it'd probably be terrible but that's why I want it.
Meh, honestly it'd probably be a lot harder to port most of the rest of the levels. I decided to do Wave Ocean because it seemed like it would be easy to port relatively quickly, and it was (I started less than two months ago; ~6 weeks of actual development). But for the other levels... most of them it'd be a lot harder to make them work. I have no idea where I'd even begin with Dusty Desert, for example. In 06 the sand is water. Seriously, it's literally water with a sand texture on it. It even splashes if you fall into it sometimes. That'd be pretty weird to recreate, but really what else could I do with it? (No, I don't think lava sand is a particularly good idea.) Or for another example, I don't know how I'd make White Acropolis's board section not completely broken with boost gameplay, and the end of the level has tons of holes that would need filling up with new layouts. Even Kingdom Valley requires so many more workarounds and level layout modifications than Wave Ocean did; there's a lot of sections that I'm still not sure what I should do with them, which is the reason I didn't finish it ages ago, and honestly I think even what I already have right now isn't as good as Wave Ocean. Not saying it can't be done well, or even that it's totally out of the question that I'll do them in the future. Some of them seem like better fits than others (Tropical Jungle). It seems so much more appealing to make my own level from scratch though, especially since I want to try to become more competent at 3D modeling. :P Maybe it'd be nice to work on some original stages and try out a couple more 06 ports on the side since so many people are asking for more of them, dunno. Yeah, I know that wasn't exactly what you were saying, I guess I should have been more clear that I wasn't responding to you specifically. It's just something I see a lot on YouTube. Sorry. That's pretty much what I'm thinking about Windmill Isle/Dragon Road; I'd rather do Dragon Road, but Windmill Isle seems like it'd probably be a bit easier, and both of them seem fun. Hell, maybe I should try a classic stage... that'd be something different. Actually, I'd love trying White Park from Sonic 4 as well, that'd make for a nice classic stage. Too many ideas. :P
So uh... I hate to bump this topic with a self-quote re-asking a question that is clearly more of a request than a question, but... Well yeah, that's exactly what I'm doing, actually.
Since we're throwing out ideas, I was just thinking the other day how it'd be kind of neat to have a mod that swapped some of the times of day of the regular acts with those from the missions. It'd be fun to play in City Escape at sunset or Sky Sanctuary at night, or it'd mix up the visuals at least. It'd be like a modern day palette mod.
I think that has been done, hasn't it? I'm certain I've at least seen other people talk about it before.
I know at least one mod that's done this to Windmill Isle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yqKZJdbsYs I'd love to see a full suite of Unleashed and/or Generations stages that have time of day changes like this. Seaside Hill at night, especially.
I wonder how hard it'd be to pull this off. Is it as simple as throwing GIA from a mission into a level? If I had more time I'd try it myself even. I think these are all the in game variations, most are for Classic oddly enough GHZ 1 - Night and Sunset SS1 - Night SH1 - Morning, SH2 - Sunrise CE1 - Sunset SH1 - Sunset RR2 - Sunset PW2 - Snow (PLEASE This one) Obvious levels like CPZ and CC didn't have time of days since it'd kill the mood. Am I missing any though? EDIT: That tropical coast music actually fits really well in that level
