SonicGMI (Sonic Generations Mod Installer) v1.1 RC6

This makes mods so much easier to use! Awesome!

A couple suggestions for GMI's interface:

- As of now, you can't hit "Save and Play" until you uncheck and recheck "Enable Mods". Should be allowed by default if a mod is checked.
- It would be nice if you could sort mods by the headers.

 

If you didn't realize this already, they ARE actually sorted alphabetically... by the names of the folders within your "mods" folder. Took me a bit to figure that out. :v:

 

The presentation of the new FxPipeline renderer is interesting. It makes me wonder if we could make different shaders that AREN'T just Unleashed and Generations...

Of course, I can show why you NEED the shaders on in the GMI.



Can anyone say Virtual Boy?

If you'll notice, it actually causes some things to disappear. There's no boost trail, and enemy projectiles are invisible (see Chemical Plant Zone and Sky Sanctuary)

I actually think this is pretty funny to use. I might just play the whole thing to see how fucked up some of the levels can get.

 

I'm not sure if this is the right place to report this bug in, but I think it is. I found a very minor shader bug with a tree in Seaside Hill (gasp!). It's a bit trivial, but a bug is a bug.

FxPipeline Renderer with custom shaders

Spoiler

Generations Renderer without custom shaders

Spoiler

 

>Download the SonicGMI file
>Notice a new version of the fxpipeline renderer dated yesterday

Wow, I really need to start using the update feature on SonicGMI.

EDIT: Also, set Speed Highway to a custom song, decided to pick another song, selected Change Music again, and crash.

 

Well, either it's suddenly not triggering, or the new version of SonicGMI fixed the problem I had with the Dragon Road demo locking up on exiting a level from the pause menu.

 

Didn't fix the infinite loading screen problem for me. Here's what I did:
1) Download brianuu's Unleashed Ultimate Pack;
2) Update SonicGMI and FxPipeline Shaders, check: Sonic Unleashed Jason Griffith Voice, Sonic Unleashed Style Sonic, Unleashed FxPipeline Shaders, Sonic Unleashed Result Music, Startup Logo Removal;
3) Run the game, play and finish Green Hill Act 2;
4) Try to play Chemical Plant Act 2: infinite loading screen.

Unchecking "Sonic Unleashed Result Music" makes the problem go away, so it may as well be a buggy mod or something.

 

Oop, nope, there it goes. Got it to trigger. Wasn't triggering on the non-FXpipeline version, but it certainly happened on FXpipeline.

That being said, the first time I noticed the lock up problem back in August, it wasn't on the FXpipeline version, so there's that, at least.

 

Tried to get it to trigger four times; three times in a row, and then once quitting the game and reopening it. Hasn't happened... yet.

 

I tried using this new version. The "infinite load screen" still happens (though it seems to happen a bit less often than it used to.)

Even though you weren't asking that to me, I can confirm that the "infinite load screens" only happen when SonicGMI is being used to load any mod which modifes any of the .aax files in any of the sound .cpk's.

I doubt that it has anything to do with how the actual game handles .aax files. Back when modders HAD to re-create the .cpk files (back when CPKRedir didn't exist,) I never encountered that specific type of problem.

 

I'm guessing that's something for Joe to do, because the AAX files in the Dragon Road mod aren't in Sonic Generations for me to do a simple copy/paste job.

 

Yep. Both the original (un-altered) .aax files, along with same-length custom .aax files (as in, the exact same loop points) still can cause the "infinite loading screens."

Also, for reference, the only time that I've ever seen altered music crash the game (not counting ridiculously broken non-sound files) was with the Dragon Road demo. I almost never use stage mods, and I've only seen 1 music-based crash throughout the entire time that I've been playing the game (not counting non-mono/different length boost tracks, which have no relation to this problem.)

I'd honestly hope that we won't have to resort to that.

It's entirely possible that some mod-users won't read the instructions (whether by ignorance, mistake, or not understanding the language that the instructions were written in,) and end up over-writing their old .cpk's without backing them up first.
Even for the users who know what to do, having to manually re-name the .cpk files whenever you switch mods can end up being a hassle (unless they got used to doing it back in the pre-CPKRedir days, like I did.)

 

I've been wondering something, actually. For me, a lot of the time (yet not all, with no discernible pattern), when returning to the hub world, the wrong 'zone's music plays for a bar before swapping to the right one. In some Youtube videos, this doesn't occur, while it does in others. I'm thinking there could be something making those files in particular take too long to load, making the game's (extremely unorthodox) hub world music playback code freak out resulting in this glitch-out, and if so, it -could- be related to the above infinite loading screen problem. I've also (*DISCLAIMER*) anecdotally noticed the infinite loading screen happen to me more often than not if I exit a level just as it starts, as opposed to playing through or playing for a while.

Next step would be to pin down if it happens with custom hub music only or any custom music. Might be a complete red herring but eh, worth exploring.