Post Your Graphics/graphical Needs Here

[Mike_k]

This was an idea of mine earlier, I mentioned it to madskillz, and posted it a few times but it doesn't look like the post ever went through... hmm, anyway. When sonic builds speed, the screen should action-blur the screen. How? Just 'OR' re-copy the screen buffer to the left one, two, and three pixels depending on how fast he is going.

-Mike

[Raiser]

I don't know if I like the idea of blurring the screen very much. I've tried playing Sonic CD on my dad's old laptop, and it was almost unplayable due to the motion blur from the laptop's crappy screen. I can't vouch for everybody, but I like to see where I'm going and what I might run into, instead of hitting an enemy that I couldn't see coming. The Ti 83's screen is blurry enough when updating as it is, so I'm sure we'll get the desired effect while hopefully still being able to see where we're going if we don't add a blur at all.

[DigiTan]

Most likely, the LCD will do it's own burning unless the batteries are brand new.

'OR' copying could still be used if we decide to use artificial sprite layers. That would let us draw Sonic "behind" objects (especially loops) just like in the Genesis versions. Plus it wouldn't take very much time or memory to include.

[tr1p1ea]

Simply ORing the sprites wont be good enough as if what you want him to be behind has any white in it sonic will show through. You will need to have masks for such layers.

[DigiTan]

They actually used that for the scaffolding sprites in Zone 5. It could make a nice visual effect.

[Raiser]

We also need something for the underwater parts. We can't exactly put a coloured filter on the screen like the Genesis games did, so we'll need some sort of wavy effect.

[Mike_k]

[tr1p1ea]

You could probably just shift each row in accordance with a small lut of offsets. Might be fast enough. I take it thats what ben did.

[Raiser]

I'm trying to get some of the level artwork done, but I need some input on what levels there should be. Are we going to have external levels? If so, will they support custom tilesets? What levels should be included with the main game? I'm working on Green Hill Zone right now, and Bridge Zone. Gotta have Bridge Zone.

[AlienCC]

I like the idea of external levels, it opens up a certain level of flexibility. What does everyone else think?

--AlienCC

[Raster]

[DigiTan]

Since we're using RLE/ZCP compression on our levels, any on-calc editor would need to have compression capabilities. This might be easy or hard depending on which method we're using or if both types are used.

For the game, I figured we can have external levels, then have the game come with a "pack" of levels that go in the same sequence as the genesis and/or game gear versions.

[Madskillz]

[jvdthwip]

With external levels, you could have Sonic 1 in a pack of levels, and then release Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 as level sets, rather than different programs.

[alexrudd]

External levels would definitely be the way to go, but the problem is:
Are you guys up to the challenge? From what I know, it would be somewhat difficult.

[DigiTan]

I think calling them Sonic 2 and 3 might land us in hot water with the fans unless we use tilesets from those games too; but I'm behind the idea in general.

UTI and DS tell me external levels aren't as tough as they sound anymore. Mirage OS supposely sets up the VAT functions, and I can use my savegame code from RW to do the same for our TI-82 versions. The thing that's still making me nervous is the level code and how we're going to decompress these 8K levels without a gigantic buffer.

[Raiser]

Yeah, the levels are going to be quite large. Not only that, but there's usually 3 acts for each Zone. I figure it'll keep the filesize of the levels themselves down if we have the level art in its own file(s), and have the levels themselves simply be files telling the game to paste certain tiles from the tileset in certain spots. That way we would only have to compress and store the level's art one time instead of three.

I like the idea of releasing new 'official' level packs to cover the other Sonic games, but we'd still have to update the game itself, as the other games support different actions, enemies and events that the first one did not. Not only that, but people would probobly want Tails/Knuckles in Sonic 2/3. I could draw them, so it's really up to the programmers to decide if they should be added.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's get a simple engine and a couple of levels together first, then worry about extra features later.

[DigiTan]

I'll try to see if there is a way for use to decompress levels on the fly. If we plan our levels out carefully, we should be able to get well over 50% compression with RLE.

[edit]

Also, the physics code is ready for a tilemap. I'll send out the update (plus notes) sometime this weekend.

[Adm.Wiggin]

Doesn't Ion have a function designed for external levels? Last I checked, I thought it did...

[Madskillz]

it does...ionDetect

I plan on using that for right now...I have to talk to Digi though.

I saw SniperOfTheNight here a while back, I wish he would post. Wasnt he making the story of the old Sonic TI game?