Sonic Worlds Delta 1.3 Released

[LakeFeperd]

@Tech

I encourage the use of the 0.5 build because it's the easier one to be opened.

let's face it, there is people that doesnt even know how to opem RAR files.

At first they will not know about the extensions and how to install them.

0.5 is just more, simple to get working, and fixing its glitches is an awesome way to learn more about it.

But, yeah, Azu's stuff was almost aways getting on my way.

oh, and i have a litle tutorial on how to get Detla and 1.3 working.

if i knew the differences between those builds and 0.5 i could address some of those in the guide, but they seems very similar to me.

[Techokami]

I encourage the use of the 0.5 build because it's the easier one to be opened.

let's face it, there is people that doesnt even know how to opem RAR files.

Well A) I can link people to the free, open source program 7-Zip which allows for extracting RAR and 7z archives, or just provide the same package as a ZIP. ZIP version of 1.3.1 [16.4MB]

At first they will not know about the extensions and how to install them.

Should be as easy as copying and pasting the files? I'll add that to the readme file in Dependencies.

0.5 is just more, simple to get working, and fixing its glitches is an awesome way to learn more about it.

I'd rather see people studying good, working code and experimenting with that, rather than fixing something that's broken. But that's just me; some people learn differently!

oh, and i have a litle tutorial on how to get Detla and 1.3 working.

\:D/

if i knew the differences between those builds and 0.5 i could address some of those in the guide, but they seems very similar to me.

A lot of the core movement code itself wasn't modified, nor was the frameworks initially laid down by Damizean. But, some changes include a different way of handling active object collisions and interactions using fixed values, a way to link objects together to make them move as a group, platform sinking, a very different and more authentic Mecha Sonic boss, subsystems for handling audio better... all on top of fixing glitches present in 0.5 that your guide fixes (or doesn't in some cases! Did you know Sonic bounces the wrong way sometimes when taking damage? Or that he doesn't change direction after hitting a horizontal spring while the player is holding forward?)

[LakeFeperd]

the reason why i didnt used delta for BTS in the first place was because i couldnt open it, i didnt even knew i had to install any extensions, and them, where do i find those?

trust me, i was a newbie about 1 year ago and you was a newbie a long time ago. so, you probably wont understand what i'm saying.

But in the end, it doesnt metter which build you use, as long as you make a game, which is pretty much world's purpose.

[LarkSS]

I've always worked on Delta with the intent of making it a better Sonic engine, given that in the end Worlds started as an engine meant for Sonic games regardless if other people might warp it into other things. I understand people will have their own ideas of what they want to do with the engine which is why we did our best to make sure that objects can just be pushed outside of the frame to make them not spawn or execute their code. Newer builds are also focusing on encapsulating additions properly so removing content is as simple as deleting their containing group and the related objects.

I suppose starting from a clean build has its advantages, but I also feel it has its share of issues. First of all, Delta is still primarily the core with a few gimmicks and badniks worked in. The additions serve as guidelines that should be followed when coding for a pleasant experience and for efficiency (I still tend to copy/paste existing code and just modify it.) Getting rid of this for a clean build would send new developers blindly forward, and if they don't understand Worlds in the first place then they are bound to code against the Worlds design and end the day wondering why coding is such a pain or why their framerate performance is dropping so significantly. For the developers that do grasp Worlds however and want to do their own thing entirely, stripping the features they don't need out of Delta should be a good learning experience. And no, I don't agree that looking right at the core engine even if it's bare-bones is a good way for beginners to learn. If they are clueless then they should look at existing code, modify, try adding something from scratch, and then try understanding the underlying engine.

[Felik]

I figured out my problem with SW crushing. Silly me I should've looked into event editor. Apparently my window control object has different version and instead of whatever events were in the event editor they all present as blank events. Which is strange because I'm pretty sure I have the latest version of that extension. Could you please tell date of creation of your version of the extension? Mine is 24 jan 2012 (it's called "kcwctrl.mfx").

Ok, I've run into different problem now. When I try to redefine keys and press any button on my keyboard it just make this "ding" sound and does not set key. I can setup keys using mouse buttons and gamepad without any problem.

[GSF]

@Falkerr-Felik: Long shot, but maybe your key modifiers are "sticky"? Try hitting ctrl, alt, shift once to "unstick" them and try once more.

Just thought about it because when Alt gets stuck, I tend to get lots of "ding"s when typing.

Going to run delta on my mmf2 and check version in a minute.

EDIT: OK, no issues with my current, updated installation. As for my kcwctrl extension, I found this string with a hex editor:

CompanyName Clickteam FileDescription Window Control Object FileVersion 3,0,228,00 InternalName KCWCTRL

In windows, you can check this information about files by opening properties and selecting the Version tab. So I got version 3.0.228.0... what's yours? My modified date is January 24th, 2012 as well.

[Felik]

I'm not Falk

Also checking "alt" key was first time I did

Usually in MMF2 these kinds of things happen when some sort of dialog box or list object is in focus when it should not be.

Edit: Hm that's weird. What's your version of MMF2? Mine is "R255". Latest version so far.

Also key setup screen works well in games it is used in (Freedom Planet, Sonic Zero) but when I try to build application with given frame it still doesn't work.

[Asuma]

*exaggeration, but seriously Azu just did what he felt like and it made the engine a mess.

I see.

[GSF]

@Felik: Sorry! I swear I read Falk... When you skim over text stuff like that tends to happen. R255 here as well.

Hmm, you say you have problems when building apps? Remember that mmf2 build apps use "neutered" extensions (the mfxs without irrelevant dev data) to save space. These reside in the Data/Runtime folder. Make sure your versions of the window control in both folders (Data/Runtime/ and Extensions/) are the same. And never mix them - don't put a runtime version in extensions folder or viceversa.

I moved a few objects around and rebuilt Delta without issues.

EDIT: Minor thing I found when testing - with my "Start" key set as spacebar, I can pause with said key. But to unpause, I have to hit Enter, "Start" doesn't work.

[Felik]

@Felik: Sorry! I swear I read Falk... When you skim over text stuff like that tends to happen. R255 here as well.

Hmm, you say you have problems when building apps? Remember that mmf2 build apps use "neutered" extensions (the mfxs without irrelevant dev data) to save space. These reside in the Data/Runtime folder. Make sure your versions of the window control in both folders (Data/Runtime/ and Extensions/) are the same. And never mix them - don't put a runtime version in extensions folder or viceversa.

I moved a few objects around and rebuilt Delta without issues.

Unfortunately I have problems in editor itself too.

Could you please make a screenshot of events that are applied to window control object in event editor and show them to me so that I could reproduce them?

Edit: It seems that my window control is somehow bugged. It doesn't have all available actions that it should have. Looks like I have to reinstall MMF2.

[GSF]

Here you go. Window control events are present only in the mapping frame.

[Felik]

Here you go. Window control events are present only in the mapping frame.

[qimg]http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee299/TGM_02/PR/General/mmf2_delta_wctrl.png[/qimg]

Thank you so much for your help!

I've figured it out. Apparently I am retarded. Window control extension in the "extensions" folder is up to date meanwhile one in the "hwa" folder is 6-year old. Problem solved

I wish that rep button was still there.

[GSF]

Aha, so that was it. Yeah, I forgot hwa builds include a third extension folder.

[Techokami]

I see.

Basically, there's a structure in the events list, where code pertaining to the player goes in the Player group, common objects like checkpoints and breakable walls goes in the Common Objects group, etc. A consistent structure to easily locate things in the code, to add or modify.

In Worlds 0.5 it seems you lumped everything you added into a group called "Azu's Editions" and completely ignored this structure :/ Safety Shield Monitor and Safety Monitor Icon should have gone in Common Objects -> Monitors, Protection Shield (wait why does this shield have two names?) should have gone in Player -> Shields, "Crapthing" should have been called "Cutscene" and put in the Level-specific group (because it is a level-specific thing), Water Run should have gone in the Player group, Save Crystal should have gone in Common Objects, and Warp Engine should have gone in Gimmicks and Special Objects. And those last two remaining events should be merged into the proper events in the Monitors group. (from a stock 0.5 file, line 2336 should be merged into 1164, and 2337 should be merged into 1278. No need for redundant events!)

See? That'd make things far more neater and organized.

Or I could be completely wrong about your stuff, and it was probably just how you submitted your contributions to the engine at the time, and the maintainer didn't bother properly putting things in their place.

[Asuma]

Yes, that's how I did it for the submission and at the time, I hated navigating threw all that.

[Techokami]

Lark has been afflicted with a bad case of academia, so looks like I'll be the one presenting Sonic Worlds Delta V1.3.2.

DOWNLOADS! Please be gentle. If you downloaded before 11:33AM EST, please redownload. It fixes a bug with special stages.

Primary download [14.9MB][7z]

Alternate package [16.6MB][ZIP] <- Only if, for some bizzare reason, you cannot download and install 7-Zip.

CHANGELOG!

• Rename sounds for consistency and identification
  
• Make Teleporting use an Action of 45 instead of -1
  
• Add and apply FlagAllowDirection
  
• Make player shields invisible when entering a big ring
  
• Disable ghosts if player went into a special stage
  
• Hide some Big Rings in the level
  
• Replace fades to allow speed/color selection (e.g. special stage goes white)
  
• Create a debug-menu placeholder for special stages
  
• Create Special Stage handling framework
  
• Make all new Big Rings code from scratch
  
• Don't allow corkscrew mounting unless the player is on the ground
  
• Rotate Tails' tails with the corkscrew path angle
  
• Transfer corkscrew motion on incomplete dismount
  
• Optimize corkscrew using GimmickActions
  
• Apply angle logic to the corkscrew path
  
• Reduce stutter when entering a corkscrew (can't easily eliminate due to engine design)
  
• Clean up (optimize) corkscrew code
  
• Add FlagAllowFalling for optimized fall prevention (used with corkscrew)
  
• Add a death action to the camera that kills any active shifts
  
• Don't scroll the camera back to the player after boss defeat if the player is dead
  
• Detransform when dying or drowning
  
• Prevent the player from locking up against a wall while on a conveyor belt
  
• Fix speed transfer bugs with multiple conveyor belts
  
• Reuse stored conveyor belt data for performance
  
• Reduce conveyor belt Xspeed transfer when landing (simulates friction)

EXPLANATION OF NEW FEATURES!

FlagAllowDirection is in Player_MovementValues2 and it is set inside the group Object management -> Player -> Player Control -> Actions -> Manage Actions. This makes the actual code for changing direction go from being a massive blacklist of actions to a simple Alterable Value check. Keep this in mind if you are adding new actions. (Relatedly, Teleporting now has its own Action ID instead of using -1. Please don't use -1.)

Big Rings! I teased this earlier, and now you has it! Rings get an ID spread so that the rings get an increasing ID number based on the order in which you add the rings to the frame. Which rings are collected is stored in an Array object. This way, you can have as many of these things in a single level AND be able to save and load which ones have been obtained.

Custom fade colors! Yes you can now fade to another color in the main level frame. This replaces the built-in MMF2 fades. (Which is probably a good idea since some extensions don't play nice with them!) You can see the fade go to white from the example provided in the Big Rings code.

Special Stage Framework! It is a framework for handling which special stage to go to, and return from a special stage. You can get the emeralds in any order with this system, or with a simple tweak switch to requiring an emerald to try and get the next. However there is only a simplistic debugging "special stage" provided. What, you thought I was going to make you a special stage?

Bugfixes! Lots and lots of fixes. Lark is a coding god.

Enjoy this matinence release of Sonic Worlds Delta!

[Asuma]

I cannot move after exiting the special stage.

[Techokami]

Seems like it's the fault of the built-in button object. I removed them and put in a "Press Z to win, press X to lose" system, and the bug vanished. Going to upload a fixed build ASAP.

EDIT: Both files are updated! If you downloaded 1.3.2 before this, please redownload.

[sonikku x]

I cannot go pass the title screen, and when I run the actual level, I cannot move Sonic in Worlds 1.3.2.

It's actually because I didn't put any input in the controller frame when I started it, and therefore I had to delete the data folder and paste it with the original to fix it.

My mistake.

[icaroscherma]

I don't know if this is the best place to post this, but since I haven't found a better one, here I go, anything wrong just delete the post and warn me via PM...

Guys, I'm a Computer Engineering, with a lot of free time, only playing LoL and developing games for fun, I want to help the development, and after a few years without using those GameDev Utils (CnC, TGF, MMF, MMF2...), I downloaded 3 versions of Sonic Worlds ~0.5, delta 1.2 and delta 1.3.2~ and studied how it works, searched some bugs and thought about what can I improve it.

The point is, I want to help, but first, I want to document it in the right way (with an help, an search, todo list, roadmap...) and see what is missing. So, where do I start?

Some thoughts:

1- Why dont use widescreen (16:9) resolution? (I'm not talking about HD resolutions, just one like 480x270 is enough).

2- What is the objective of SW? Make an Classic Sonic (1,2,3,Knuckles) Physics with ALL gimmicks? Implement more things? More Playable characters (Vector, Charmy Bee, Espio, Mighty, Amy...)? Which Special Stage should we "put"?

PS.: I did an remake of "Angel Island" last week in one widescreen resolution (480x270), now I'm thinking about an options menu, a good implemented achievement system...

Anyway, that's it... ;D

[Techokami]

1) We're using a 4:3 resolution by default since that's what the Genesis games used. You're free to make tweaks to things like aspect ratio for your games.

2) The objective of Worlds Delta is to create a general purpose Sonic game engine with gameplay physics similar to the Genesis games (like Sonic 3), that also provides several useful frameworks and examples for developers to use and study. If you want to add more gimmicks, actions, objects, playable characters... that's for the developer using the engine to do for his or her own project. The Special Stage is intentionally left a placeholder because it is up to the developer to decide and design his or her own unique Special Stage.

So, you want to help? Here's the best things you can do:

1. Report bugs! If you spot something that doesn't behave properly, tell us in this thread! We make maintenance releases with bugfixes.
   
2. Contribute additional gimmicks or objects! We might not incorporate them into the actual engine release itself, but even as a standalone release to the general public, these will help developers build better games. However, we could use a Prison Egg object that works with the existing end of level code...
   
3. Create useful frameworks that other developers would be able to utilize! You mentioned making an achievement system... we had one at one point but ripped it out due to being bloated and slow. If you can make one that's lean, fast, and doesn't require any extra extensions, I'll definitely look at it and consider it for inclusion.
   

[Asuma]

The achievement system that Lark made?

[Techokami]

The achievement system that Lark made?

Yep. Lark tried to refine it, but gave up on it. Removing it sped the engine up.

[Asuma]

Yeah, it did seem to just lag a little bit when getting an achievement.

[BlazefireLP]

Just played this and I have to say, this is some outstanding difference from the last version I played. This engine is incredibly accurate, relatively bugless "I didn't find any but 1 by the way" and overall it just generally feels like a proper Genesis Engine. I like all the minor tweaks and fixes that you've done, it does really show. The difference in feel is less than minor.

About that one thing I thought was a bug, I'm saying "thought" because I'm not actually sure if it is or not. When you are about to drown when near a SpecialStageRing, the counter and music still continues. I don't think this will affect the gameplay what so ever if it's fixed or not but above all else a minor nitpic. That's all I could find while playing it twice and I'm usually quite good at finding bugs too. Once again guys, excellent job guys! I'd recommend anyone using any previous version of worlds to port to this one as soon as possible.