Basic Questions and Answers Thread

Thanks. Working perfectly now!

 

Question for MarkeyJester

With MEGAPCM installed...


Go_PSGIndex: dc.l PSG_Index ; XREF: sub_72926
; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
; PSG instruments used in music
; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PSG_Index: dc.l PSG1, PSG2, PSG3
dc.l PSG4, PSG5, PSG6
dc.l PSG7, PSG8, PSG9
PSG1: incbin soundpsg1.bin
PSG2: incbin soundpsg2.bin
PSG3: incbin soundpsg3.bin
PSG4: incbin soundpsg4.bin
PSG6: incbin soundpsg6.bin
PSG5: incbin soundpsg5.bin
PSG7: incbin soundpsg7.bin
PSG8: incbin soundpsg8.bin
PSG9: incbin soundpsg9.bin


does all this go unused seeing that MegaPCM has it's own DAC system?

 

I may not be MarkeyJester, but I know that those are PSGS and MegaPCM is a DAC driver, so if you remove the PSGs, the music won't sound right. They aren't unused.

 

Small issue I am having with Sonic 2. In Metropolis Zone only, when CPU Tails respawns he isn't able to stand on the floor and proceeds to keep falling down forever. I'm not sure where to look in order to fix this. I have scoped around the TailsCPU routines but don't see anything helpful. I am using the 2007 Xenowhirl disassembly. 

 

actually this was suppose to be 2 questions, for vladicomper & marky, Vladicomper made MegaPCM. Marky created the addressed music, which was going to be my 2nd question. I noticed the sound coding was different & i was wanting the spindash rev too. Everytime i went for it I failed. any suggestions?

 

Pretty much what Ralakimus said, The PSG and DAC are seperate types of sound (generated by seperate sound chips in fact). It might be possible that one or two of those PSG instruments have gone unused by the original Sonic The Hedgehog title, but generally speaking, this isn't dead data. It is functional, used, and neccessary for PSG sounds.

Maybe you're confusing PSG with PCM?

 

Have you been sticking some solid-switch tags (like for loops) at all? I know MTZ has a primary collision but no secondary.

 

I haven't edited the level itself at all. All I have done is follow quite a few of the Sonic Retro tutorials, that being all of the bug fixes and notably the S3K Ring and Priority Managers.

Edit: I have discovered that this also happens in Oil Ocean

Found out the cause on Retro, it was the combination of 2 guides to do with fixing speeds. 

 

Yeah, OOZ has no secondary collision either. Until we know what you've done since you noticed this happening, we can't help much as I've never experienced this. Do you have a back up when it was fine? If so, follow these guides, but one by one, then as soon as you notice it failing, then we can go from there.


But, you could cheat and copy the primary collision and replace the secondary one with it (so you have primary OOZ and secondary OOZ being exactly the same), but this should be used as a temporary solution.

 

I decided to redo everything and the issue hasn't showed up yet. However an issue with my own code is causing a similar issue to the scattered rings.

I changed Badnik Explosion so that a ring would be dropped instead of the animal.


Obj27_Init:
addq.b #2,routine(a0) ; => Obj27_Init2
bsr.w JmpTo2_SingleObjLoad
bne.w Obj27_Init2
_move.b #$37,0(a1) ; load Obj37 Ring
move.w x_pos(a0),x_pos(a1)
move.w y_pos(a0),y_pos(a1)
move.w parent(a0),parent(a1)
move.b #2,routine(a1) ;++ set routine to #2 (Obj37_Bounce)
move.b #8,y_radius(a1)
move.b #8,x_radius(a1)
move.w x_pos(a0),x_pos(a1)
move.w y_pos(a0),y_pos(a1)
move.l #Obj25_MapUnc_12382,mappings(a1)
move.w #$26BC,art_tile(a1)
jsr Adjust2PArtPointer2
move.b #$84,render_flags(a1)
move.w #$180,priority(a1)
move.b #$47,collision_flags(a1)
move.b #8,width_pixels(a1)
move.b #-1,(Ring_spill_anim_counter).w
move.w #0,x_vel(a1)
move.w #-$300,y_vel(a1)
tst.b (Water_flag).w ; Does the level have water?
beq.s + ; If not, branch and skip underwater checks
move.w (Water_Level_2).w,d6 ; Move water level to d6
cmp.w y_pos(a0),d6 ; Is the ring object underneath the water level?
bgt.s + ; If not, branch and skip underwater commands
subi.w #$E,y_vel(a0) ; Reduce gravity by $E giving the underwater effect for the rings
+
bsr.w JmpTo2_SingleObjLoad
_move.b #$29,0(a1) ; load obj29
move.w x_pos(a0),x_pos(a1)
move.w y_pos(a0),y_pos(a1)

This code causes rings to fall through the ground once dropped. Does it have something to do with move.b  $47?

 

is it possible to change the black background behind "GREEN HILL ZONE ACT 1"? If so, how?

 

The black "background" is actually meant to hide the loading process from you, and it's not a background at all per se. Basically, the last three palette lines are entirely set to black while the game loads a level, so you don't see incomplete art being drawn in front of your eyes. I guess you might be able to change it to another solid color, or use sprites which use a color from the first palette line to draw something. I don't know how Sonic 2 does its magic, to be honest.

 

Sonic 2's title card has three 'rectangles' using Sonic's palette line IIRC, and then triangle sprites(?) plopped on top. They all scroll in, and then out, and voila! Of course, this causes a split second issue when loading a level with water, as the underwater palette sometimes flashes on the titlecard.

Or something, it's been a while.

 

That happens with the blue oval in Sonic 1 as well.

 

I have a problem with my custom BG. I created a simple BG for my custom zone art (Green Garden, the same from Screens thread) and I edited the deformation so the mountains aren't broken in half (in S1 REV01 top mountains and waterfalls & grass section scroll-as-you-move with different speed). And it work fine, but after dying...



This happens. Part of background (it has the same height as the bottom scrolling-as-you-move mountains sections) is missing. It reappears after going to the right. So, how to fix this?

There's some maybe useful info:

• I'm using the REV01 BG effects
• My only change was changing "$FFFFF710" in Deform_GHZ_7 to $FFFFF718 (the same as in Deform_GHZ_6, I changed to make the top at bottom mts. scroll at the same speed).
• Not sure if important, but my BG uses only one chunk - $30. Maybe this will halp with something.

Thanks in advice.

 

dword_61B4: dc.l $700100, $1000100
dc.l $8000100, $1000000
dc.l $8000100, $1000000
dc.l $8000100, $1000000
dc.l $8000100, $1000000
dc.l $8000100, $1000000
dc.l $700100, $1000100The $700100 (actually 0070 0100) is the two Y sizes of each scroll speed, the 0070 is 70 pixels from the top, the 0100 is the 100 pixels below it.
You look like you have two extra blocks there moving at the same speed, SO! I'd change the 70 to 90 (an extra 20 pixels). However, I notice the bottom grassy section appears to be part of it, SO! If the 90 doesn't work for the grass section, try changing it to 100 (not that it'd be any better, the grass doesn't move consistently, it's all seperate scans).

The top $700100 is Green Hill Zone, the bottom is the ending (which also uses Green Hill Zone's background).

 

I changed that dword to

Code:

dword_61B4:	dc.l $1000100, $1000100	; GGZ (custom GHZ)
		dc.l $8000100, $1000000		; LZ
		dc.l $8000100, $1000000		; MZ
		dc.l $8000100, $1000000		; SLZ
		dc.l $8000100, $1000000		; SYZ
		dc.l $8000100, $1000000		; SBZ
		dc.l $700100, $1000100		; Ending (original GHZ)
		dc.l $8000100, $1000000		; TMZ
		dc.l $700100, $1000100		; BZ

but after dying the background is missing, exactly as before. With both changed and unchanged "Deform_GHZ_7". I did something wrong?

 

Is that code even used after following the REV01 background guide? It doesn't exist in REV01. Anyhow, after doing what you did, only less hackishly, I experienced the problem of that row's art being visibly overwritten as I moved through the level. I've been screwing with whatever code I can find and can't seem to shake the bug. Is it related?

 

I changed

Deform_GHZ_6: ; XREF: Deform_GHZ
move.l d0,(a1)+
dbf d1,Deform_GHZ_6
move.w #$2F,d1 ; '/'
move.w ($FFFFF718).w,d0
neg.w d0

Deform_GHZ_7: ; XREF: Deform_GHZ
move.l d0,(a1)+
dbf d1,Deform_GHZ_7
move.w #$27,d1 ; '''
move.w ($FFFFF710).w,d0
neg.w d0to

Code:

Deform_GHZ_6_7:				; XREF: Deform_GHZ
		move.l	d0,(a1)+
		dbf	d1,Deform_GHZ_6_7
		move.w	#$56,d1	; '/'
		move.w	($FFFFF718).w,d0
		neg.w	d0

so the mountains scroll the same, but after dying and restarting from lamppost, the BG is glitches as shown on my screenshot in previous page.
EDIT: Eh, I thinked that you don't know what I mean.

 

When I made your change to GHZ, I had to change that $56 to $57, or the water would move some of the mountain art.