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Sonic Heroes debug screen

Discussion in 'Engineering & Reverse Engineering' started by Tom41, Mar 17, 2004.

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  1. Tom41

    Tom41

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    I posted this over at Sonic Classic, but didn't get any replies :) so I'm posting it here.

    Since nobody seems to have messed around with the debug subscreen in Sonic Heroes (GC), I thought I'd post this topic. At the moment, you can only get the debug subscreen up by using an Action Replay code, and pressing a button combination when the level starts up. Most of the information that comes up on the debug subscreen is pretty meaningless, however, I have tried to interpret some of the data.

    The top part of the debug subscreen is taken up by several lines, showing nearby objects and relative positions. Examples of things you might see include:
    LEVEL 0 POINT RELATIVE3 CUBE
    LEVEL 14 EASY HALF USER
    LEVEL 1 FIX RELATIVE USER

    The Level number seems to relate to the object number, rather than the game level. The next column shows what type of relation it is. Most of them seem to be named after people (game designers?):
    Ashland
    Takuto
    Saratoga
    Jones
    Klamath

    Others you might see are Point, Fix, Easy and Leave.

    LEAVE refers to when the camera gets locked to a fixed position but can still move up and down - such as when you lose a life.
    FIX is when the camera is locked down to a fixed position and cannot move until the fix is released by the game, such as when you're shot out of the cannon in Bullet Station.

    The next column shows what the relation of the object is - Relative, None, Half, or Three (?!) and the final column shows what sort of object is being referenced - Sphere, Cube or User.

    The bottom segment shows debug information about player 1.
    UTILITY seems to refer to looking around with the C-stick. When the camera is under user control, the UTILITY will say ON. Let go of the C-Stick and it'll change back to OFF (auto camera) a short time later.
    SURVEY - I don't know exactly what this refers to, but I think it's something to do with moving the camera left and right with the L and R shoulder buttons. Sometimes if you're near a wall and try to rotate the camera into the wall, SURVEY will change to DISABLE and the camera will stop moving. SURVEY is also disabled during segments where the camera is under computer control, such as cut scenes at the start of levels and when the game takes control of the characters.

    I've uploaded some screenshots of various stages of the debug screen on my server. Go to http://tomsonic.dyndns.org:90/temp/shdebug

    Debug1 - at the beginning of Rail Canyon. WTF is 'Incontinence' doing there?
    Debug2 - When you do a Team Blast, the Utility is disabled
    Debug3 - Lots of information here, when Amy is just about to use the Tornado Hammer on a pole.
    Debug4 - Going into the cannon in Bullet Station, again lots of information pops up
    Debug5 - When you lose a life, a 'Leave' comes up just before the Sonic logo iris-out.
     
  2. Quickman

    Quickman

    be attitude for gains Tech Member
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    omg porjcet
    Never let PACHUKA anywhere near a Sonic Heroes screenshot with "Incontinence" on it.
     
  3. LOst

    LOst

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    Hold back the politics plz.




    So that's Sonic Heroes, eh? Looks like a 3-d game from 2001 or something. At least they could have tried to use pixel and vertex shaders ;_;
     
  4. AeonicB

    AeonicB

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    You weren't the only one playing around with debug on Heroes.... I was all ready learning that on my own. :P

    BTW, from what I remember:

    Utility- I actually thought this to be the allowed use of the controls, period. (It also disables the Utility if you go into things like, lets say, the victory screen)
    Survey- It just tells what's going on with the camera. If survey is on, then it means that either the system or user is looking through the camera. If off, then that means the camera is in a fixed position. Survey will also be enabled at the victory scren (again)
     
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