Sonic Z-Treme

[itsstillthinking1999]

As someone who has created 3d models i know who hard it is making detailed textures from scratch. I mostly used pre made textures and when i made xtreme models i simply copied assets over to make life easier.

[mindslight]

The same thing happened to me, but in a different way
When I started to develop the Jo Engine, I used a lot of SGL functions and many people says that it's not an homebrew, just an SGL wrapper.
I don't agree with that, because if you used the SGL, you are in the same conditions as the developers in 1995.

Do you think the developers had time to rewrite everything ?
Of course not. It is already hard enough to develop a game.
In computer science, this has a name: Reinventing the wheel.

Furthermore, my primary goal is not to replace the SGL, but help people to create games on the Sega Saturn.
Otherwise, what is the purpose of replacing SGL ?

On the other hand, if you are interested in programming closer to the machine, there is an excellent library : libyaul

Today, I have enough backwards to replace the SGL not because it's not homebrew, but because I want a lightweight engine with only useful features.

That's the reason why I made an option on the Makefile (JO_COMPILE_USING_SGL) to let developers choose whether or not to use SGL features 

[Cerv3ro]

Hey XL2, i´ve probed the 0.035 v in my Saturn and let me tell you...this is something f... awesome. Really a great work you are doing with this engine.
I want to let you here my impressions:

The demo has no music and sometimes the sounds effects are missing, for example when you collect a ring or hit an enemy.

When jump, the sound doubles. I have tried to turn on the 60 Hz mod in my Model 1 Pal Saturn and this effect is corrected but some grafic bugs appears and some issues with the frames that goes down.

IMO, the colours are very intense and bright, maybe with less pure colours the game looks better, is only an idea.

Also i´ve noticed that you can swith between 2 different cameras and hud. Interesting.

In the first level the water don´t hurts you but it does on the second one.

i´m looking forward to your progress.

[XL2]

Thanks !
For the music, it's included, make sure you use the cue sheet and your img burner supports it, else convert to .wav.
The sound issue is known, I'm having issues with Jo engine sound play back which causes issues and crashes when I use the function to use whatever channel is available, so only 1 sound is being played, max 2 in some cases.

I never used a PAL Saturn, so I don't know, but the framerate on NTSC Saturn should be at 60 fps around 95%. I didn't have time to improve my engine in time for Retro Barcelona, so I couldn't do better. I am working on fixing this.

For the camera and HUD, those are debug functions "hidden" when you press L+R and other buttons. They lead to some issues, so avoid them.

For the water, it's not a bug : the second level's water is supposed to be freezing cold, so it hurts Sonic.

For the colors, I'm using the original assets from Sonic X-Treme, so I can't do much. Try playing with your TV's settings until you get a good image.

What graphical bugs did you get? I think the clouds could lead to issues, but I haven't tested enough to know.

[itsstillthinking1999]

ver .35 on my Saturn works perfectly with music and all (haven't had the time to record gameplay of it yet) and playing it on my Saturn the colors are fine. Like XL2 said you need to select the .cue when burning it (i use imgburn) otherwise it wont right the music files on the cd. You can also change the music files to whatever you want too. I have to say it again XL2 did an amazing job

[itsstillthinking1999]

Hey XL2 Just to clarify, the water effect in the new .35 build actually uses transparency right? Due to how much you have to correct me in the comments section of the videos i want to make sure i get all the facts right. Thanks

[XL2]

It's VDP2 transparency, which is easily supported by the Saturn. The problem is with vdp1 (polygons).

[itsstillthinking1999]

Okay thanks, tomorrow afternoon im going to try and make a video on .35 and will send a private link to you so you can look at it and make sure its up to your standards. Really sorry again for all the errors i made

[XL2]

As long as you don't say you did this game, there shouldn't be any issues
For me v.0.035 is buggy and I'm having loading issues.
Can you confirm that crystal frost loads fine and you're not having glitches?
If so just post it public right away.
I'm changing my loading mecanism for faster loading (pre-swap endianness and not using buffers) and will integrate paletted sprites for extra VDP2 effects on polygons (such as transparency)

[itsstillthinking1999]

Yeah no clue what i was thinking with that "us" (think i was really tired that day)
Crystal frost work fine for me as the screen tearing was fixed for it in that release. Il also do a side by side comparison for the loading times

[itsstillthinking1999]

Also one more question XL2, there is a new Saturn site going up right now that rebuilds the Netlink Zone and also will have sort of a homepage for Saturn users. It will have a "News" section on the going ons in the Saturn scene. Like the new unreleased game that was recently dumped or new stuff in the homebrew scene. And me and the runner of the site where wondering if i could take some screenshots of the current builds and send them his way so update the page. The site is only really usefull when viewd on the Saturn so it be cool to take some screenshots into good old jpg 128 (like this https://web.archive.org/web/19970215191106/http://www.gamefan.com:80/download/saturn/sonic_x-treme/index.html) You can view part of the site here if your wondering
http://saturn.dreampipe.net/

[itsstillthinking1999]

Did another topic in the Radio Sega Fourms, any other places/ fourms you think people would enjoy it?

https://www.radiosega.net/forum/showthread.php?4188-New-Sega-Saturn-Homebrew-Sonic-Z-Treme&p=62028

[itsstillthinking1999]

Did another one in the sonic Stadium

https://board.sonicstadium.org/topic/22977-fangame-new-sega-saturn-homebrew-sonic-z-treme/

[itsstillthinking1999]

Because some asked for it here is ver 0.35 with my custom tracks i made
http://www.mediafire.com/file/vbmlybhsq58sgep/SONIC+Z_TREME+0.034+%28Custom+Music%29.zip

[XL2]

0.35 is super glitchy, so I removed it. I'm working on a new 3d implementation (again!) for more speed. It might take a few more weeks.