Author Topic: RE: Sonic CD (Sega CD) (Read 149633 times)

DarkWolf · « **Reply #75 on:** May 16, 2007, 07:53:23 pm »

I used to use Genecyst to get around the problem (it dumps every color in the VDP as its own palette index in an 8-bit PCX), and I even found a work-around with Gens Kmod that was slow, but worked. However it relies on savestates and that won't work for Sonic CD.

However, I've e-mailed the creator of Kmod to see if I can get the source to play with. I'm not a great C or C++ programmer, so I can't promise anything, but I may be able to pull something off.

TerraEsperZ · « **Reply #76 on:** May 16, 2007, 08:00:56 pm »

That would be nice! What I'm wondering is if the black shown when a layer is removed actively displayed by the game engine or if it's simply because the emulator displays black by default unless the ROM says otherwise. If the former, being able to change that "neutral color" at will would be a huge help. Obviously, it's not going to happen thanks to me (I have no hacking/coding skills whatsoever) but if you want to give it a try, I for one would be eternally grateful

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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

TerraEsperZ · « **Reply #77 on:** May 17, 2007, 07:18:11 pm »

Okay, I'm looking for advice (for a change):

In the various Tidal Tempest stages, the water level tends to go up and down at very specific points; once you reach specific points horizontally, the water level changes and if you go back a single pixel, it will return to its previous level.

Anyway, so far, on the two maps I've completed, the water level was either static or changed right in the middle of a wall so the water surface doesn't look broken.

However, in other maps it changes right in the open, meaning that if I show the different water levels where they are exactly, it would mean showing two water surfaces right next to one another and it kinda looks stupid, as if the water was just hanging there in the air like a wall of water.

Should I still go for accuracy (and thus a stupid look) or should I look for a nearby physical separation like a wall and use that to "buffer" the disconnection? I know it's a question of choice, but maybe someone will have an argument I haven't thought of.

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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

TerraEsperZ · « **Reply #78 on:** May 17, 2007, 10:22:38 pm »

*First post updated with Sonic CD - Tidal Tempest, Zone 1 (Good Future)*

I decided to go ahead and used a nearby wall to separate the water levels near the "Goal" sign post, since normally the water changes just as you go over the hole to the left of it. I'll see if that method works as well in future maps.

Enjoy this level, as mapping it was a gruesome and frustrating process. I had to assemble all the screenshots with the black removed (which was replacing the background) but in the same move eliminating the black from every tile in the foreground and all the sprites. Then, through various methods (manual editing, masking, color replacement), I manage to re-add all the black that was needlessly removed. At least I think I did, but I'm bound to have missed a tile here or there; I can't even tell anymore after combing over every inch of that map for the last 3 days.

The worst thing is that the background is so busy that it's hard to tell what's in front and what's in the back. Anyway, enjoy it and feel free to point out any mistake.

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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

MagnetiC · « **Reply #79 on:** May 18, 2007, 07:05:21 am »

Using a buffer like the walls seems like the best option I think, it would probably look a bit weird otherwise.

You did a great job with that black-on-black problem, that's exactly what stopped me from finishing Pocky & Rocky. I ran into the same problem with King Arthur's World once I reached the underground levels and even VSnes couldn't help me this time. Luckily I was able to hack the rom with a snes palette editor and can now change the background color. I don't know a lot about hacking though and couldn't find any tools specific for the Sega CD, so lets hope DarkWolf is successful.

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Ignorance is bliss.

marioman · « **Reply #80 on:** May 18, 2007, 07:18:13 am »

The water level height fix looks good. I think that changing it at a wall is the best way to do it. If it is any consolation, I do not think that there is any water in the game outside of Tidal Tempest.

TerraEsperZ · « **Reply #81 on:** May 24, 2007, 07:10:39 am »

I came very close to losing about 7-8 hours of work yesterday, as one of the SDRAM module of my computer crapped out on me while saving my work, corrupting my work file in the process.

Had I not taken the habit of always saving two copies of the file I'm working on, I would have been forced to pretty much restart this map from scratch. At least it explains why my computer kept slowing down without any reason over the last few months, though it sucks since I'll have to buy some new RAM tonight; Win XP doesn't run for shit with only 256 MB.

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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

TerraEsperZ · « **Reply #82 on:** May 24, 2007, 06:41:30 pm »

Godamnit, it wasn't only one of my RAM that gave out, but my hard drive seems to have died as well

I had been thinking about buying more RAM for a while, and I had a 160 GB HD that I bought over a year ago that I had forgotten even existed, so that wasn't so bad. It even gave me the opportunity to install a special Win XP package made by a french team that incorporates all the service packs, security patches and updated Windows components right from the start. So it got me moving. But damnit, apart from my map folders I don't have anything backed up!

There are so many things that I never even bothered to backup it's not even funny! Various games, movies, comics, ROMs and music albums... There's also the personal stuff that I'll never get back like all the pictures I took with my digital camera. Ah crap this sucks so much I feel like crying

...

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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

JonLeung · « **Reply #83 on:** May 24, 2007, 07:24:47 pm »

I had a computer hard drive crash on May 13, 2005...I remember the day because it was Friday the 13th. My brother had used a defragmenting program, setting it to run overnight. It was not THE Defrag, but some third-party thing. When it seemed stuck, he reset the computer - and that's when things got screwed up.

We paid $60 to a computer store for a recovery, but they couldn't fully restore the files. Now there are thousands of file fragments in our "Old files" folder, sorted by file extenstion but not with any of their old filenames intact - they just have numbered names - some work, some are corrupted, and some don't seem like anything at all. There are 100 MB images that when viewed look the same as when they were 68 kB.

It's a sad thing, but every now and then I sift through the so-called "digital wasteland" and find some gems that I can salvage. Still-usable images or MP3s, etc.

Good thing I'd backed up a lot of stuff before that, but there is still lots I haven't been able to get back at all. So I know how it feels.

TerraEsperZ · « **Reply #84 on:** May 24, 2007, 09:18:19 pm »

Well, it's over. I tried to fix the damaged partition with XP's recovery console, and it did a really poor job: the defective 24 GB partition was replaced with a functional and empty 10 GB one.

Thankfully, I happened to make a backup of my map folders about a week ago, but it still means I'll have to re-do between one and three maps... In addition to all the other stuff I'll need to track down again; hopefully, not too much of it will too rare as to be lost forever

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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

TerraEsperZ · « **Reply #85 on:** May 27, 2007, 10:31:16 pm »

Well, considering I've lost every single ROM on my old hard drive *including* Sonic CD, it's going to be a while until I can continue this.

Consequently, I'll most likely be finishing existing maps that JonLeung has been asking for for over a year

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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

marioman · « **Reply #86 on:** May 28, 2007, 07:07:02 am »

Well that stinks. HD crashes are not fun. Good luck on finishing this one.

DarkWolf · « **Reply #87 on:** May 28, 2007, 07:24:24 am »

My latest computer has a RAID 1 volume which I use to store my important files. It's somewhat expensive, but worth every penny.

TerraEsperZ · « **Reply #88 on:** May 28, 2007, 10:55:34 am »

Well, in french we tend to say "Cordonnier mal chaussé" which literally means "badly shod shoemaker, and as an IT tech I was really neglectful in terms of backing up my data, so I kind of deserved what happened to me.

Anyway, since I'll be redoing the two (well, one and a half) maps I lost as soon as I find the ISO again, I shouldn't have a new map until the end of next week at the most.

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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

TerraEsperZ · « **Reply #89 on:** July 20, 2007, 08:54:51 pm »

*First post updated with Sonic CD - Tidal Tempest, Zone 1 (Bad Future)*

I finally started mapping this game again, and with Maxim's modification to GensKMod which replaces the black in the background with a unique shade of purple, it's so much *easier*! No more masking and separating black by hand

So I redid (and finished) Tidal Tempest 1 (Bad Future) which was lost in my HD crash; I redid the Past map as well since the masking I did by hand wasn't perfect and finally, I updated Palmtree Panic 1 (Present) because I had missed a couple of invisible platforms (because they were invisible, duh).

I'll be redoing Tidal Temptest 1 (Good Future) to correct my masking mistakes and I'll finally be going foward with new maps

Oh yeah, and considering how much work I've done so far, I'll most likely finish the map headers this weekend and post the original maps here instead of half-size, color-reduced previews.

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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me