Questions about the HUD in Sonic 2...

So, I've had some questions about the HUD in Sonic 2. In my hack I've wanted to rearrange and re-style the HUD to look more modern. However, since the HUD does not have a single mappings file and instead has multiple mappings files, I can't exactly do that reliably...

...which brings me to my questions:

1) First and foremost, is it possible to change the HUD into a normal object with an ID?

2) If the above is possible, I'll go a little further: Is it possible to have that object be able to maintain functionality if the individual parts are moved around (I was thinking possibly with subtypes but I'm unsure)?

 

Sonic The Hedgehog had the HUD originally controlled by an object (via SST), Sonic The Hedgehog 2 decided on directly writing the sprite data into the sprite table to save on needless processing time.

Yes, you may have the HUD displayed as an object, and yes, it's main functionality (art flushing, time control, etc) can be maintained separately despite the sprite pieces themselves being controlled via an object.

 

You don't need to make it a normal object, I've been able to extensively modify the HUD with dynamic elements in a hack without changing it into an object, you just have to look at how it sets up the mapping it displays and duplicate it.

 

I'm with MainMemory... IN FACT, I'd argue that Sonic 1 hackers doing extensive stuff with their hacks would wanna do the same to their HUD and make it a non-object entity.

 

I'm not sure exactly if it was Sonic 1 or Sonic 2, but I remember opening up the HUD mappings in there, and shifting them left/right until they were at my desired screen positions. Of course this meant trial and error, but if you just wanna move stuff around, that'd be the easiest way to do it.

 

The best way (or the way I found best anyway) was to open the mappings in SonMapED (or a relevant mappings editor), save (or convert it, whatver) into an ASM format. So now you have it in ASM, not BIN.

Then you can edit the mappings in ASM. When I first started to learn mappings for things like this, I just changed a bit here, saved, see what had changed, etc. After I knew what did what, I made comments showing this represented y_pos, this represented x_pos, etc. A bit like what Irixion suggested.

 

There's also this.

 

From what I remember (and it may have changed since I last looked at a recent disassembly) the mappings for the HUD in S2 were never split and always remained in ASM for within the disassembly. As RHS said though, you can split these out and modify them as you need to and add any elements you want without turning it into an objecthe. As MainMemory said, you just need to look at how the mappings are set up. Back when I did my time travel hack, I modified the HUD to contain all the elements I needed to display without converting it into an object. It's actually pretty simple.

 

No, all the mappings except the springs' have always been binary, except in the case of the title cards and score tally, which was changed recently, and the MapMacros branch of the GitHub disassembly that I linked to part of there.

To be more on topic, it is entirely possible to have HUD elements using completely separate mappings than the score/time/rings/lives (I even have DPLCs for some things in my current hack, which are processed in HudUpdate).

If you need to convert mappings to another format, you can use the tool I made.