Random Levels Project

Discussion in 'Showroom' started by DigitalDuck, Apr 28, 2017.

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  1. DigitalDuck

    DigitalDuck Active Member Member

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    Okay, thanks. Can't seem to actually open it, but the RAM dump is in there so I can get everything I need.
    Super Sonic appears in Sonic Colours Random Levels, releasing in the 34th century.

    In all seriousness, I don't have any plans for Super forms at the moment.
     
  2. Greenknight9000

    Greenknight9000 Well-Known Member Member

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    Also, you should add the option to choose the length of a zone/act
    the ones that would go on to, for example: 15 minutes should be long and 10 minutes medium, etc
    a complaint is that there are WAY too many "3 springs and a spring to get you higher up so you don't fall into a pit" moments, it slows down the gameplay
    (i wonder if Special Stage generation would be possible, THAT would be awesome, but pretty difficult)
     
  3. DigitalDuck

    DigitalDuck Active Member Member

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    Already planned, with a number of options between two minutes and two hours.

    Yes, the problem with this is the lack of data. I created 36 acts of Green Hill Zone to use as a basis, but I'd need to do a couple of hundred to get any real variety out of it. I'll see what I can do to solve this problem, though.

    Special stage generation is easily possible; good special stage generation is difficult, and I'd rather use my time improving the general level generation.
     
  4. Gemini2003

    Gemini2003 Something about the Caravan buggin' you? Trialist

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    I really like this hack. Usually, the levels I get are decently playable, but they go on for WAY too long. Eight whole minutes of randomized Green Hill Zone is what I got once. Wasn't exactly DIFFICULT, but it was something.
     
  5. Chris Highwind

    Chris Highwind Newcomer Member

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    Oh hey, MegaGWolf made a video on this hack, so you know it's hit the big time!

     
  6. DigitalDuck

    DigitalDuck Active Member Member

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    Status update:

    [​IMG]

    When starting the game, you're presented with a series of menus to help customise your game to your liking. Not all of them work right now, but they will.

    You might notice the length is given as 1.7km - this is because I've also implemented a distance tracker:

    [​IMG]

    Possible level lengths are 500m, 900m, 1.7km, 3.3km, 6.6km, 13km, and infinite. For comparison, the three acts in v0.1 are 6.6km, 13km, and 26km; the original GHZ1 is 300m.

    I've also fixed a number of bugs: checkpoints should no longer prevent the level from loading; signposts should load when they're needed, and only when they're needed; the demo now locks Sonic's controls, and pressing START ends the demo and returns to the title screen; and the ring counter holds four digits and is capped at 9999.

    There are other changes to the way the level generation works behind the scenes. I've done some preliminary work and Labyrinth Zone looks like it'll have a lot more variety than Green Hill Zone does. I'm also working on fixing the most annoying parts of the Green Hill Zone generation (yes, I'm talking about those three springs) and adding things that should've been there in the first place. There's still a bit more to do, but I'm happy that it's coming along smoothly.

    I also streamed a complete playthrough of the release version a few days ago, and I've uploaded the recording to YouTube. I wouldn't watch it unless you really want two hours of Green Hill Zone, though. :v:
     
  7. Greenknight9000

    Greenknight9000 Well-Known Member Member

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    HOLY SHIT YOU CAN CHANGE THE LOOKS OF THE GAME?!
    Do you think it would be possible to create custom level art (like draw different grass in game) cause that'd be cool, of course that'd be extremely difficult to pull off but is it possible?
     
  8. DigitalDuck

    DigitalDuck Active Member Member

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    Possible, yes. Feasible, no.

    I'd have to draw a ton of different art (I'm not an artist in the first place), and the end result would just not be worth it. I did the palette change and day/night cycle thing because those took next to no time to do while helping to keep things fresh; changing the art is a lot more effort for not much more gain.
     
  9. Greenknight9000

    Greenknight9000 Well-Known Member Member

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    ah, ok
    say, to celebrate the new Sonic Mania trailer do you think you can have different abilities?
    Sonic 1 - Just run, jump and roll!
    Sonic 2 - Spindash
    Sonic CD - Super Peelout
    Sonic 3&K - Possible multiple shields AND instashield
    Sonic Mania - Dropdash (if you need some sprites, i will give)
     
  10. DigitalDuck

    DigitalDuck Active Member Member

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    I'll be sticking with the abilities that are currently in the game.
     
  11. Pineapple Arse

    Pineapple Arse I ironically hate cold temperatures. Member

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    hmm, maybe I can make some sprite edits for you :v (but you will import them)
     
  12. DigitalDuck

    DigitalDuck Active Member Member

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    It's still much more work than it's worth. The effort would be better spent, for example, creating a few "intermediate" zones between GHZ and MZ so they can be swapped around at strategic times, making a seamless transition from one to the other. And even then, that's beyond the scope of what I want to do at this time.
     
  13. DigitalDuck

    DigitalDuck Active Member Member

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    Status update:

    I was fully expecting to be done with Labyrinth Zone by now, but I'm not even close.

    Firstly, somehow I landed a short-term job over the last month that's taken most of my time. Which is a good thing for me, but a bad thing for S1RL.

    Secondly, even when working on this all of my attention has gone to Green Hill Zone; as far as setting up the data for generation goes, at the moment it's incredibly unstable - removing those three springs that everybody hates has required me to completely rewrite the data collection algorithms to not get stuck all the time, and while they're becoming more stable, they're still not quite there yet.

    As for Labyrinth Zone...

    [​IMG]

    If you'd seen the screenshots in the previous update, you'll notice that I wanted an option to have bosses at the end of the act. I've removed this option - getting the boss to work right is incredibly difficult, and the end result is just an underwhelming wait before you can finish the level; the signpost is just a much better way of ending and it's much more reliable from a programming perspective too.

    I do have an idea for a replacement option, though. It changes things up a lot more - stay tuned for that.

    My current plan of action:

    On the 26th of July, I'm off to Japan on holiday; following that is the release of Mania, and I'm going to be busy towards the end of August. Essentially, there's a whole month where I'm not going to be able to work on this at all.

    Before I leave (probably around the 23rd), I will patch it up and release whatever I have at that point, Labyrinth or no Labyrinth. It'll definitely feature an improved GHZ, although whether it's one I can make changes to without it falling apart remains to be seen.
     
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  14. DigitalDuck

    DigitalDuck Active Member Member

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    v0.1.1: DOWNLOAD

    Controls - as Sonic 1, plus:
    - down+A/B/C while standing: Spindash (Sonic 2)
    - up+A/B/C while standing: Peelout (Sonic CD)
    - up while rolling: unroll
    - down or A/B/C while airborne: curl in air
    - A while paused: regenerate level (only loses progress since last checkpoint)

    ------------

    So, it turns out I got my dates wrong and I'm actually away this week. Today's pretty much the last day I can do anything for a while so I've just built what I have.

    As far as generating the data on my end goes, Green Hill Zone is 100% stable. I can make changes without the whole thing breaking now. I've made a few changes to the structure of the data and it's a lot easier to fix things as a result.

    The generation in ROM may not be 100% stable, but it should be better than it was. I tested Preset A at 13km and the whole thing worked without problems, so there is at least a fully stable level this time.

    Labyrinth Zone is going slower, and still fails to generate anything resembling a level so I've removed it from this version. I'll keep trying, but there are some significant problems that aren't trivial to fix.

    ------------

    New features:
    - Full options menu, with ability to choose between random and fixed-seed generation, different level lengths, different cameras, turning on/off certain monitors, starting palette, and how it changes over time, and turning on/off the music.
    - Distance counter to keep track of how far you've travelled.
    - Four-digit ring counter.
    - Goggles monitor. It does nothing.

    Fixed bugs:
    - Checkpoints no longer load already activated, so no longer prevent the level beyond loading.
    - Signposts no longer load earlier than they should.
    - Demo no longer locks Sonic's controls and can be ended with the start button.
    - Invincibility music plays when collecting the invincibility powerup.
    - Ring counter no longer overflows.

    Known bugs:
    - Dying with speed shoes causes music to stay at the faster speed until more speed shoes are collected. Invincibility music also continues after death.
     
  15. TheBlurCafe

    TheBlurCafe Welcome to TheBlurCafe! Member

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    I'm not sure you are allowed to triple post in a thread :/
     
  16. redhotsonic

    redhotsonic Also known as RHS Member

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    It's his own thread and he's posting for a good reason, so it's fine.
     
  17. DigitalDuck

    DigitalDuck Active Member Member

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    It was a fortnight between the last two posts, and five weeks for the post before that - and I've only been bumping to update on information (and in the latest case, a new download). Feel free to post more here to stop me from double/triple posting. :D
     
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  18. TheBlurCafe

    TheBlurCafe Welcome to TheBlurCafe! Member

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    Oh, my apologies for that then, I did not understand at the time.
    Again, my apologies.
     
  19. DigitalDuck

    DigitalDuck Active Member Member

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    Status update:

    As expected, not much has happened development-wise recently, but I'd still like to keep in the habit of updating regularly. I've been making the most of my time off before more work gets dumped on me later this month, so almost all the work on S1RL has happened in my head rather than in code.

    One thing I'd really like to get in for next time is playlist functionality. Choose which songs you want to hear, and the game will switch between songs as you play. This much is already implemented, but I'd like to port music from other games (because 17 tracks isn't much, especially when nine of them are non-looping jingles and one is invincibility), and also have some sort of display that tells you what's playing.

    I'd like to dripfeed a few more monitors into the mix as I go too. The aim is to not have the monitors deviate too much from what's already in there, but just add more variety to the way the levels are played.

    When I get back to working on it, the biggest focus will of course be on getting Labyrinth Zone levels randomly generating correctly. But there are other things I want to add too, because it's still missing a lot from a game design perspective, so there should be a lot to look forward to.


    I've been doing speedruns of the game, partly for the sake of testing, and partly because I can learn the route playing on my phone on the train.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    500m - 00:47
    900m - 01:22
    1.7km - 02:46
    3.3km - 05:28
    6.6km - 11:14
    13km - 21:22
    9999 rings - 49:39

    All were done using Preset A so I could learn where certain types of monitors are (or at least the ones I can reliably hit). I have only speed shoes and special monitors for the distance trials, and only shield and Sonic monitors for the ring trial.

    I also have video of the last two as I did them on stream a few days ago. I could've been faster for the ring trial but I was dicking about with the glitch by the breakable walls.
     
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