Sonic X-treme - Point of View - Info + help required

I see, alright then. Here's an idea I had: what about coding a new level viewer, for specifically the older DEF files that as I just discovered, the current ones can't open? Unless there's something extra I'm needing to do. I'd like to try using them as direct references for remaking the maps in other games. When all is said and done, you think what we have actually has the potential of being more of a full on "complete" game?

 

I would like to report a game-breaking bug...



Alright, it's more of a hack than a glitch!

Thanks: http://www.spriters-resource.com/other_systems/bug2/sheet/45902/

 

Hahah, nice XD Is this actually real? you replaced the sprites with the ones from Bug! in the actual engine?

 

@o@

YES!!

Not only did my buddy and I get the midnight release of Dragonball Xenoverse, but I can get Sonic Xtreme too?!!

DUDE, THIS NIGHT CAN'T GET BETTER!!!

Thank you Jollyroger, you're my *hero*!!!

 

I've got to somewhat load FRESH.PCX from PackageX on the engine:



I took almost 3 hours to understand more or less how this baby works, its very buggy a crude, but works. I've been able to easily load other levels too, but correting and figuring out the textures on hand is like hell (thats actually why i've chosen this level, it has only two floor textures XDDDD)

Andrew and Jolly, this work is wonderful, i never though i would test this game in this life, you guys are amazing!

 

Nice work on getting other levels to load in it, you'll have to write about how to do it, so that others can do the same. Pretty cool though, actually didn't realize that it would be that fairly simple to load the PackageX layouts into it.

Is it as simple as changing the names of the corresponding DEF and PCX, or is it a bit more complicated than that?

 

I Already tried this but it didn't work ,Hope we'll get few Guides on it soon ..£
EDIT : By the way,here's a video

 

to andrew75, hey do you still happen to have thoes old riped saturnSDK models of sonic and metal sonic? and possibly the other riped texturers? i was thinking of trying to see if i could replicate project condor

 

allso ive been thinking, combine both jet set radio and sonic together and you get one fun game

 

Oh, yes...

I must confess that the health counter was added in Photoshop (only because there is no precedent in the source build - to my knowledge, at least), but the actual character and ring animations were swapped with those from a ripped BUG! sprite sheet as part of what can only be described as a crude hack on my part. With a bit more time at my disposal, it would be interesting to see just how flexible this demo can be using simple PCX file edits, as the format is responsible for virtually everything that is seen during gameplay, including all level textures and objects.

P.S. Is the background layer supposed to be invisible?

 

I have no words, people at Assemblergames, this, this made my day, my year, and well... the day I put another Saturn buid of Sonic X-treme a big circle will be closed.

 

Sadly Many block types are not supported in build 037 for levels like crystal frost.
With some tweaking you should be able to get some of the .def files from the Package X leak to work. but all block types are not supported by build 037 like x shapped blocks and blocks that scale relative to sides.
However some of that can be worked around if you know how to translate block scales between .def files.

Here is some info about creating actors.

Some other collision issues can be Kind of sort of fixed like the Waterfall and badnik collision push issue by replacing the Cubes with actors. When setting up a new actor in the def file just copy the ring actor code and paste it just below and give it a new name like Badnik and than load the badnik's texture on the new actor.
(Actors currently have no collision, so they don't get in Sonic's way when running around the levels. I was going to replace them before the release, but ehh the rings were the only real game breaker.
you'd also have to replace the pixels that represent the cubes in the .pcx map file with the newly created Actors threw the .pcx map file.
Example:
//========================================================================================
// This is the BADNIK Actor!
//========================================================================================
NEW_ACTOR_TYPE "Badnik_001" //Add your custom actor name.
{
Value 001,"SLICER" //Texture Name
Value 002,40960 //Scale Range:0 -> 65535
Value 007,1 //MainActordCount Range: 0 -> 15
}

************************************************
***************BONUS TUTORIAL TIME! *************
************************************************
In photoshop Load the Level_01.pcx
Now go to Image---> Mode ---> Color Table than save out the pallet as an .act file.
Next bring up the Swatches if already not set as a tab. by going to Window ---> Swatches.
Next load the .act file and replace current color swatches.
Find the rings pixel inside the .pcx file. (The rings color is # is 606098, this is so you know which one it is)
In the swatches pallet its the 10th row over from the left and 8th color row down.
The next color after the ring will be your next actor if you chose to set one up inside the .def file. ( and so on )


Circled is the rings actor Index color as seen placed in the map.

Now there is just 1 issue with replacing the badniks with actors in this map, The Badnik is produced by 4 pixels within the .pcx map 2 wide and 2 high.
you may have to tinker with the scale a bit to get something close, or divide up the actor texture into 4 segments and load the new textures in the .def file than apply to 4 actors.
Anyhow this is just to help some of you get started in any modding projects you may have planned. Wish I had time to wright up full on and detailed tutorials of my adventures with the .def files. there are a lot of things that can be done!


Useful information from an older post.

So yeah I've been looking threw a lot of the .def files in both Jolly's Leak and HXC's leak, I Found some comfortable parameters within both leaks. The HXC leak parameters however did not work out of box, since that engine used different coding attributes. I had to multiply or divide the parameters by even numbers. So with a marriage Between both types of parameters the results are very close to what was shown in the E3 video footage.
Things that were tweaked include :bounce effect, air drag, run friction, jump up and down gravities, and a few more.) ( Sure its not 100% authentic but , at least its more comfortable to play than lets say jumping half way up a level with single bounce, or floating down to the ground slowly for 30 seconds. or having the camera right up in Sonic's face. ( for you guys who want something untouched, I think that it may be best to release 2 level packs separately so you can have something to play and something in original state.)
Now, onto the rings and objects news. Many of the levels are using Actual cubes with odd cube collisions for rings and other props like badniks. These can be passed threw from the back to the front, but they have a force that pushes sonic making levels virtually not at all very fun to play threw)
What Jolly has asked and that I've already started was to take Actors (like the rings actor) as found in older .defs and get them moved over to the newer .defs that lack the Actor section.
Thank God that the engine can still load up the actors ( although some broken)
First we need to tell the .def to load textures, than the pallet, than after the Cube section definition area, we need to add the new ring definition code.
Inside the Actor's parameters we can tell It do the following:
Bubble, FollowEdge, Follower, PingPong, Static, or leave it blank and the actor will have no collision.
Some of these seem broken at the moment, Follower and static seem to be reversed actions, and bubble does not work,
The real follower has an interesting action ,( I can not reveal that at the moment, You all will have to wait for future videos)
I've also made a small chart that tells us which color to use for the .pcx layout image maps when drawing Cubes and Actors. The engine uses the index of the color to lay out the objects and not the color itself.
(color is only important for the artist's to use it as a visual when designing layouts. What I mean is for example we could change the color of the index chart in Photoshop and the engine wouldn't give a shit another words)
C starts the cube actors and A starts the Actors pallet index color.
Please note since this image has been screen captured , its color attributes are not the same as a real indexed color and can not be used when editing a real .pcx map file. ( yes I learned the hard way)

 

Borman
yay!!! I will play in it, cuz GTA V moved again.

 

Yeah, is a bit more complicated than that, actually just changing the PCX file loads the level, but with all the textures and blocks misplaced and from the level that came with the engine.



This level is actually JADE1.PCX from PackageX, loading the textures and info from the original Level_01.DEF

The harder part is to change the textures and make then load at the level, i need to do a little bit more of research before, but i can write down how i did it to you guys. At moment i am not able to load the level using the original DEF file. I figured out what is causing the crashes, but even knowing how to make them go in the game, there are some parameters on cubes that don't seen to be implemented at version 37 (the oldest file from PackageX is for version 40). To make FRESH.PCX load somewhat correctly, i actually modified the Level_01.DEF the load the textures indicated by FRESH.DEF.

If you guys want, i can share the modified DEF to run FRESH.PCX

Hey andrew, Yeah, there are some maps pretty advanced on PackageX, i'm gonna play with the older levels first and learn more about the cubes. Theres the value 023 that seems to be not implemented and causing cubes to not appear with the original DEFs. There is documentation on how cubes are handled and what their values do?

 

Oh yeah, also would you be so kind of making tutorials? (I know it may be tough, but im ready!)
And andrew, will you release the Gold Tile level?
EDIT:We do have permission to distribute links?

 

Heh, cool. Hadn't thought about doing that, but it's entirely possible apparently. Could you show a video of it? would be funny to see.

 

I've somewhat documented values ect., however the documenting is scattered throw-out multiple .def files.
I did make a chart for AXSX to translate blocks and slopes between the multiple early. def files that don't work in any of the engines we have or the later engine that we do not have, But they wouldn't be of much use to you guys at the moment.
I don't have time to consolidate all the notes scattered about right now.

And there is a chart that translates slope types between version 037 and 040.
As for Package X type .def files Most of the information is locked away in my head. I did document how some of the Package X block scales are handled.

Anyhow , if you want to get the Package X levels to load properly, ( most blocks anyways) you will need to custom rebuild the package X .def files in the version 037 format.
using a translation chart. ( something that will need to be made up)

Here is a quick copy past of the chart I used for Package X re-construction of levels for AXSX
Its raw. Hope it helps start your very own chart! ( one that I lack time to put together for the community at the moment, will have time in the future, but yeah if you beat me too it than by all means please share with everyone.)
//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//AXSX Block Scales Cheat Chart Many Package X Blocks
//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

////start Block extrude from Bottom,Left,or Front ////

-1048592 87.5% of block visible

-2097184 75% of block is visible

-3145776

-4194368 50% of block is visible

-6291552 25% of block is visible

-7340144 12.5% of block is visible



////start block extrude from Top,Right, or Back ////

14679840

7339920 12.5% of block is visible

6291360 25% of Block is Visible

5242784

4194240 50% of block is Visible

3669960

2097120 75% of block is Visible

1834980

1048560 87.5% of Block is Visible

393216

524280

262140

131070

65535

32767.5

16383.75

8191.875

4095.9375

2047.96875

1023.984375

511.9921875

255.99609375

127.998046875

63.9990234375

31.99951171875

15.999755859375

7.9998779296875

3.99993896484375

1.999969482421875

0.9999847412109375

 

Here are how blocks are defined within the version 037 levels.
Total block size is 512 units, and each value is extruding 1 side of the block outwards from the center up to and maybe past 256 units.


Same thing for the slopes but by vertex points from the selected side that is defined.



//Slope Chart Ver 037
//REV 001
//01/07/2015
//By Andrew Bedell (AKA Andrew75)
//tuxmask75@yahoo.com
//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

//Slope looks like |\

//Ver 037=

Value 015,TOP //Slope direction

Value 016,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 017,-256 //Right Top Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 018,-256 //Right Top Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 019,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

//Slope looks like /|

//Ver 037=

Value 015,TOP //Slope direction

Value 016,-256 //Left Top Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 017,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 018,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 019,-256 //Left Top Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

//Slope looks like |/

//Ver 037=

Value 015,BOTTOM //Slope direction |/

Value 016,-256 //Right Bottom Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 017,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 018,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 019,-256 //Right Bottom Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

//Slope looks like \|

//Ver 037=

Value 015,BOTTOM //Slope direction

Value 016,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 017,-256 //Left Bottom Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 018,-256 //Left Bottom Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 019,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

//Slope looks like \|

//Ver 037=

Value 015,LEFT //Slope direction

Value 016,-256 //Left Bottom Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 017,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 018,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 019,-256 //Left Bottom Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Slope looks like /|

//Ver 037=

Value 015,LEFT //Slope direction

Value 016,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 017,-256 //Left Top Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 018,-256 //Left Top Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 019,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

//Slope looks like |\

//Ver 037=

Value 015,RIGHT //Slope direction

Value 016,-256 //Right Top Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 017,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 018,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 019,-256 //Right Top vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

//Slope looks like |/

//Ver 037=

Value 015,RIGHT //Slope direction

Value 016,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 017,-256 //Right Bottom Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 018,-256 //Right Bottom Vertex //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

Value 019,256 //Slope value Range: -256 -> 256

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Hey, Andrew, speaking of which, do you have any idea how I can fix the issue of the original TEST basically just crashing the engine when I try to load it up? Like I said, I DID do the name change to both the DEF and PCX exactly the way you wrote how to in the readme, but that's pretty much what happens when I try to actually load it.

 

Oops... I missed a step in the instructions !
Find below code inside the new .def and change test to Level_01
NEW_QUBIX "QBX0001"
{
Value 001,"test" //Layout Texture
Value 002,"SkyTxtr" //Background Texture
Value 005,Color(248,176,000) //Specular Color Range:0 -> 255
Value 006,Color(008,088,168) //Fog Color Range:0 -> 255
}