Project AXSX, A Sonic Xtreme re-creation project

[OverbounD]

Looks great Andrew! Keep it up, I cannot wait to play this one day.

[Riseodvi]

This seriously looks awesome. I've always wanted to play Xtreme, and GDK is a great way to build this. Think there'll be a demo for SAGE Act 2 or no?

[Miru]

You're making some pretty darn good progress, I can tell you that. I, for one, can't even really properly add a new enemy for Sonic to fight in my Sonic GDK game. 

[Andrew75]

You're making some pretty darn good progress, I can tell you that. I, for one, can't even really properly add a new enemy for Sonic to fight in my Sonic GDK game. 

I had to use Kismet to set up my enemies in AXSX and GHZ 2.5D

Also here is a small update for you guys ! 

First the old temporary Bumpers (You probably seen em in videos)

And New bumpers complete with chrome effects and 360 Degree spinning animations. (The old ones have the same spinning animation)

Edited July 8, 2014 by Andrew75

[Assassin-HeatBeat]

ARG MY EYES! They're on fire! WHY?! Cause this is Byoutiful. This looks amazing and I hope it see's the light of day.

[Pulse0]

I honestly think that Sonic Xtreme should stay dead It was a bad Idea from the start and remaking it is wasted effort, and waist of good talent. I'm not here to cause a rise or start up trouble but its Xtreme is not a good idea, it wasn't then and still isn't now. I may not know code but I do know gaming principles. 

Not to mention Especially b/c of the fish eye lens I could just tell this game will give eyestrain and  some people motion sickness, strobe sickness and in worst cases - seizures - but I hope it wont come to that.  

I do like your ambitions, I do like that this game is coming together despite the inherent problems you wont be able to get away from in this format. However I feel and strongly SUGGEST that you turn this project in another direction. Using what you've accomplished so far, to create a unique unseen experience.

best of luck to you all 

[OverbounD]

An argument can be made that Sonic Xtreme would not have been a good game. But this isn't a carbon copy, for one thing the physics in AXSX are far better and the graphics are too. Considering he's spent 10 years pouring his heart and soul into development and tons of people are looking forward to this fully realized Xtreme recreation. Your strong suggestion that he change the entire project is laughable.

[Felik]

I was starting to think I am the only one who thinks that original was shit and this remake is not making me excited in the slightest because you're trying to recreate an experience that wasn't going to be good in the first place.

 

But you have passion for this thing and made a lot of work so suggesting anything would be pointless. Also this project seem to have quite an audience.

[OverbounD]

Given that this game has physics modeled after the Genesis games, I think of it as a very close replica to 3D Sonic game staying close to its 2D roots. While the gameplay of Sonic Xtreme looked pretty lame the graphics style wise I liked better than Sonic Adventure. This is my most anticipated fan game project.

[Guest Mr Lange]

The original game did look like shit, but as said, this is far more than that. The western influences are being filtered out a bit and the game is being significantly enhanced. Andrew has compiled an incredible amount of source data from the scraps of the actual game, and he's already come so far that I think he should go all the way and complete it. Even if Sonic Xtreme was destined to be a terrible game, it's still a rather significant and mysterious part of Sonic's history that's worth exploring.

[Pulse0]

Laughable yes, valid yes as well.

[Andrew75]

Got 2 bits of news regarding the project! I wont say what they are quite yet. Nothing as huge as Sega pickling up the game or anything like that. but rest assured its not bad news.
 

Well there is one bit of bad news, This exciting (Project Secret) will cause the project to miss the Sage event. Sorry guys. 

It would have been nice to make a release at Sage. But i feel that i should wait to make a release, because i'd really like to make a nice first impression on players . releasing the original levels is not really that impressive as they are very outdated, and not very fun, and do not showcase the work that has been put into the gameplay engine.

 

I'll make an announcement when i'm sure if this big news thing is going to happen or not.

Edited July 10, 2014 by Andrew75

[Andrew75]

For the first time in AXSX history !

We have Engine lighting ! 
We can now use engine lighting, However shadows do not work with Fisheye.... so I produced a Material shader with which can be used to hand paint lighting over multiple blocks and textures on the fly. When combined with the engine lighting we can hand paint shadows on the ground matching the engine lighting for walls and ceilings. (Anotherwords producing a faked shadow that looks like a wall is projecting it onto the ground.)

 

 This image shows only engine lighting, notice the lack of shadows on the floor.  (Walls appear as if they have shadows but that's just polygon shading from a directional light source.)

 

 The next 2 images shows 100% hand painted lighting and no game engine lighting. They were just tests produced during shader development.  (bloom can be disabled for the actual gameplay if we want)

Edited July 18, 2014 by Andrew75

[SonicFan2010]

Wow! That may be an improvement over the original Sonic X-Treme.

[Andrew75]

Actually if you look at the PC version of the game, you can see that it uses engine lighting and also darkens the ground blocks to simulate shadows, I believe the darkening was done similar to a voxel lighting system where the engine calculated where to darken floor tiles to match the engine light source direction using invisible blocks (or ghost blocks that existed in code only) that tell the visible blocks next to them in a specific direction: Hey you become dark god damn it!) What I'm doing is kind of a hacky manual method, Its a bit slower but it works!

[Pulse0]

Wow! That may be an improvement over the original Sonic X-Treme.

MAY BE? You gotta be joking with that comment the original was trash. Everything done here is more than a step up. (sorry I sound mean)

[BigBlue]

No need for apologies, I feel the exact same way. This is a definite improvement over the original.

[Andrew75]

Image of the now new diagonal shadows! ( colors could be a bit lighter in regard to shadows)

(A brief description just to communicate the just of it)
The diagonal shadows are a just a simple gradient black and white texture that is use as a mask to blend between the engine lighting and the hand painted per block face texture darkening effect.
I used just 1 diagonal mask texture that can be rotated using the value of vertex paint Alpha. (Values for the rotations are 0.125 0.375 0.625 0.875)
Anything between these values cause the mask to vanish and we can see the painted colors without the diagonal mask.
R G and B channel control 3 separate darken blending styles within the material  So we can get different types of blends to create the darkened effect. (keep in mind the painting on the mesh in RGBA as colors are not directly effecting the outcome of the color, the vertex colors are passed to the shader material which uses the values as 0 - 1 to do the blends there.
Depending on the value 0 - 1 the shadows can be very light or completely black.

Left wall and ceiling using engine shading, floor and right wall using faked shadows manually painted in on the fly)

 

 

Edit:
Anyhow this beats making 1000s of shadow textures, We can also change the block's material and the shadows will stay since the vertex colors stay put. very very handy !

Edited July 20, 2014 by Andrew75

[Andrew75]

First test level built 100% from blocks! (inside the level editor)
over 3600 block types to select from !

Edited July 27, 2014 by Andrew75

[Andrew75]

There may not be any new visual updates for you guys, Just letting you know we are still working on the project. Slowly but surely!
Xak's working on New enemy functions such as shooting and enemy AI. (will benefit Sonic GDK as well)
Josh is finishing up with new Sonic Sprite animation programing and fixes for Sonic.
I've been working heavily on level art and new layouts as well as bug testing, and keeping the guys busy.
Have most of the gameplay related to special stages planned out. Have been speaking with Shadix in relation to putting together a custom music track for the special stage.
Lastly....Chris Senn is interested in doing a few level layouts for the project as well.

[ThatGuyNamedChancey]

There may not be any new visual updates for you guys, Just letting you know we are still working on the project. Slowly but surely!

Xak's working on New enemy functions such as shooting and enemy AI. (will benefit Sonic GDK as well)

Josh is finishing up with new Sonic Sprite animation programing and fixes for Sonic.

I've been working heavily on level art and new layouts as well as bug testing, and keeping the guys busy.

Have most of the gameplay related to special stages planned out. Have been speaking with Shadix in relation to putting together a custom music track for the special stage.

Lastly....Chris Senn is interested in doing a few level layouts for the project as well.

Coolio! I have a question though: Is there a way to turn off the fisheye lens? Not that I hate it, but I don't want to become easily disoriented. 

[MalcomX]

Coolio! I have a question though: Is there a way to turn off the fisheye lens? Not that I hate it, but I don't want to become easily disoriented. 

I get where you're coming from but honestly I don't see the point of ever even having an option of turning it off. It's basically the main gimmick of the game.

[Andrew75]

Coolio! I have a question though: Is there a way to turn off the fisheye lens? Not that I hate it, but I don't want to become easily disoriented. 

 

Right now there is no way to turn it off.

[Andrew75]

It may not be pretty (yet), but We have .... Hang-bar!

Sonic is on the ride of his life !

 

 

Rotates left and right horizontally.

 

 

Anti gravity Handstands or die ! ( Sonic can jump back and forth between bars as the platform rotates 360 degrees vertically)

Edited October 3, 2014 by Andrew75

[Andrew75]

How about some screens of the water current gameplay features. ( test level uses temp GFX)
Josh has a few bugs to work out yet for this Sonic sprite animation here, but at least the base animation is in place !

Sonic spins as the water's current takes him away!

Custom Untextured version of the crystal spear model. ( this one was not used in game , but since you guys like beta stuff, have at it !)

Sneak peak at the new level props can be seen to the right! ( the crystal spears are actually green with a black metal rod, but the water tints everything too much to be able to see the nice texture details that were added.) (Tinting needs some tweaks!)