Resident Evil: Behind the Mask [+Hazardous Battle]

[B.Zork]

Or dinosaurs in space?

this happen.

[AJM Ruler]

So Gemini, I think you explained earlier about getting an all new voice cast for this game.

While that is all cool and nice, I was wondering if you planned on having an option to keep the old voice actors as well? I know they were horrible, but there was a certain charm to them, and it would be nice to still hear them in your game.

[Chris' Boob]

I see you got 8 stealth zombies to essentially run at full speed



Awesome. Really hope stealth mode becomes a thing!

[Gemini]

I see how it would be fuzz messing around with the SEQ driver. I just hope that the audio will be somehow on par with the visuals, and I'm already blasted with what I've seen. Perhaps a audio PS1 master will join the project and see if you guys can get somewhere around as you mentioned.

I'm slightly tempted to give Sony's SEQ the boot and use Nintendo's SEQ instead (got already some code to play it on a PSX).

I stand corrected again. I was looking some videos of N64's RE2 and I forgot that the models were actually of noticeable lower quality of their PS1 counterparts. The same doesn't apply with some other models of yours, such as the Wesker who looks more like an early PS2 model than a PS1 one!

The N64 models are just like the original assets, the only difference is the textures really. They are rearranged to use a canvas of 4 KB (for example: 64x64 8 bit) because that's what the N64 uses to draw polygons.

Finally, I had this question regarding the re-design of the enemies for some time now. I'm surely impressed from what you guys have done, so I wanted to ask you if you have discussed how Hypnos is going to be. And to be more precise, I wanted to ask if you hopefully model him after the original monstrous sketch instead of the uncle Fester from Adams family on steroids.

He's going to stay pretty much the same, his model isn't that bad, but I won't deny any improvements if they are required. Incidentally, besides Mr.X with the green coat, Hypnos is the only enemy to use a one-skin mesh in his two final forms.

While that is all cool and nice, I was wondering if you planned on having an option to keep the old voice actors as well? I know they were horrible, but there was a certain charm to them, and it would be nice to still hear them in your game.

There is one huge problem why I can't use the original dub, other than quality: the script will be altered and new pieces added to it.

I see you got 8 stealth zombies to essentially run at full speed

Awesome. Really hope stealth mode becomes a thing!

I added some funky optimizations, so yeah, I can draw 8 stealth zombies slightly slower than with regular rendering + light source calculation. I haven't tested it all yet on real hardware, so no guarantees about smooth motion, but at least two accurate emulators seem to confirm this and my code is in general faster than CAPCOM's (and that can move 8 zombies fine). If the benchmarks are confirmed to be truthful, there should be still enough clock power on the CPU to execute the stealth code fine. *crosses fingers*

Speaking of the extra effects, I fixed the chrome effect:

It's now mapping the whole texture range, as it was intended to be. Minor oversights on vector data type mismatch can lead to funny effects (i.e. UV map junk). Don't ask about Chris' position and rotation, it's completely random and I found him like that while I was testing room jump for the other RE1 rooms I hadn't yet added to the conversion.

And Super Gold Tyrant:

Ok, this is not what it seems. This effect is what I originally called "crystal" and it was going to be used for rendering crystal and gems, but during debugging it eventually became a water reflection simulation (it's close enough to the Panzer Dragoon effect).

[RetroRain]

It's sad that the fans are putting out good stuff these days, while Capcom sits around and does nothing. The Team IGAS 1.5 mod, your mod, all of the quality fan-made Megaman games. Fans are putting out more stuff, and better stuff than Capcom can do, and Capcom has the money and the staff. It's just mind-blowing, totally mind-blowing.

But yeah, the project looks very interesting. One of the things I was hoping for, aside from the PSX-style backgrounds, was with the PSX-style backgrounds, the RE1-style of lighting, which made its way into the Chief's Office Room of the RE 1.5 Alpha Build. I'm kinda hoping for that style of lighting to be in the Team IGAS mod also. That style of lightning was literally ONLY in RE1 PSX. It gives the game atmosphere and realism.

[Ultimacloud123]

Somehow Chris looks like Silver Surfer or T-1000 from Terminator 2. I can't wait to see more updates.

Gemini mind explaining the difference between Sony SEQ and the N64 SEQ you are now planning to use. Is it easier to create/alter the music you plan to use?

[Gemini]

But yeah, the project looks very interesting. One of the things I was hoping for, aside from the PSX-style backgrounds, was with the PSX-style backgrounds, the RE1-style of lighting, which made its way into the Chief's Office Room of the RE 1.5 Alpha Build. I'm kinda hoping for that style of lighting to be in the Team IGAS mod also. That style of lightning was literally ONLY in RE1 PSX. It gives the game atmosphere and realism.

That lighting effect, however, is extremely buggy and totally not realistic, even for a PSX (no idea how they post-process the light data, but it's more than likely wonky like the rest of the RE1 code). What Sonic and I used for the test alley was a lighting system that follows the actual sources of light in a room while using only 2 lights (third is dynamic for effects), rather than 3 arbitrary lights placed somewhere on the corners or the center of a room like RE1 does. Even if I try and keep the system like that, it looks horrid on my engine because the calculations are completely different.

Gemini mind explaining the difference between Sony SEQ and the N64 SEQ you are now planning to use. Is it easier to create/alter the music you plan to use?

It wouldn't be N64 SEQ, but DS SEQ (or SSEQ if you prefer). The advantage is that I already have my own code for playback, plus converters for sounds banks. I'd save Sonic the trouble of going all the way down to hell just to create VAB banks and convert midi to Sony's SEQ with ancient programs.

To those who asked for a demo release:


All RE1 rooms have been imported into BTM, along with door connections (they were missing before, now the converter parses them as well). I guess they will be used as playground for the tech demo.

[Chris' Boob]

Hm. Another random idea: you mentioned there will be the possibility of a mini game...what if there was one that put Ark into other easily recognized areas of RE1/2/3? Maybe something like House of the Dead's "kill all the enemies" and it would bounce from game to game / room to room. I dunno, could be interesting.

Or could simply be Mercs in 4 stages: RE1 mansion, RE2 RPD, RE3 Clocktower, and RE:S Umbrella Lab?

[Gemini]

I already have some ideas for a battle mode in the demo:

• You are given 5 playable characters: Chris, Jill, Barry, Rebecca, and Wesker. Each character comes with specific gear.
• You select a stage with a specific objective, so far all based on RE1.
• You gain points as you kill enemies and get an end-stage bonus depending on time and health. Point earn rate is influenced also by difficulty (half for easy, regular for normal, 1.5 for hard, double for survival).
• Gained points can be used to buy new equipment and items for your characters.
• New stages will be unlocked under certain conditions.
• You can set up a few options before starting a mission (example: some enemies capable of one-kill hits).

The demo won't be about BTM, just in case you're wondering why I'm using S.T.A.R.S. members and the RE1 stages. It's just a showcase of the engine itself.

[Chris' Boob]

Now implement RE2/3 and this will be the best mini game to exist in the RE series ;) Sounds fun. Will it stay in the main game as well and be expanded though, or just the demo? Silly question I'm sure.

[SonicBlue]

It's sad that the fans are putting out good stuff these days, while Capcom sits around and does nothing. The Team IGAS 1.5 mod, your mod, all of the quality fan-made Megaman games. Fans are putting out more stuff, and better stuff than Capcom can do, and Capcom has the money and the staff. It's just mind-blowing, totally mind-blowing.

But yeah, the project looks very interesting. One of the things I was hoping for, aside from the PSX-style backgrounds, was with the PSX-style backgrounds, the RE1-style of lighting, which made its way into the Chief's Office Room of the RE 1.5 Alpha Build. I'm kinda hoping for that style of lighting to be in the Team IGAS mod also. That style of lightning was literally ONLY in RE1 PSX. It gives the game atmosphere and realism.

The lighting is exactly the same as "final" 1.5, the light source have been moved to different position, but they are the same, also, the picture just have more contrast and the texture have different colours, and that's the key, the textures, not the lighting.



As for the overall style, no, the backgrounds won't be downgraded to match RE1 style. In the first post was sated that the target was ReBirth/Zero kind of details.

[Ultimacloud123]

Wow that's amazing. I'm excited to try this engine out. Do we expect a tech demo by the end of this month or the next so you have less distractions answering questions and more time to type away.

Who knows, Sonic after BTM if you like you could use your talents for my "Flashback" project that is if your interested. A Gaiden remake which would have added story and gameplay elements.

[RetroRain]

I was thinking that for the Gold Tyrant, if you really do decide to use it in your game, you could simply have a cutscene where a regular tyrant falls into a vat of golden liquid, and when he comes out, he is gold like the model you have. Just an idea.

Oh, and I wanted to ask you. Are you writing this game in C, or the PSX assembly language? Or, are you writing it in C, and then converting it to the PSX assembly language?

[Getta robo]

I'm slightly tempted to give Sony's SEQ the boot and use Nintendo's SEQ instead (got already some code to play it on a PSX).

I won't deny it, I'm very curious to hear what you're able to do with Nintendo's SEQ on the game. It does deserve an audio lifting after all!

He's going to stay pretty much the same, his model isn't that bad, but I won't deny any improvements if they are required. Incidentally, besides Mr.X with the green coat, Hypnos is the only enemy to use a one-skin mesh in his two final forms.

I am kinda disappointed to hear that. I recall being super excited to see a brand new final boss monster design and instead I have to fight with uncle Fester.. I mean, seriously, from this excellent drawing

We got this horrid result

Which has a close resemblance to uncle himself.

If you compare the original Hypnos model to your amazing Tyrant and Wesker models, well.. The Hypnos one looks plain awful. You can at least consider the possibility of improve it, in order to match closer the draw counterpart, or even further alter him, just this exceptional fanart

To those who asked for a demo release:


All RE1 rooms have been imported into BTM, along with door connections (they were missing before, now the converter parses them as well). I guess they will be used as playground for the tech demo.

Oh man, this is it! I'm pretty sure many of us would love to playtest your engine plus giving you any feedback! I hope to a quick release!

[Getta robo]

We got another update on twitter and facebook by the team:

https://twitter.com/REBehindtheMask/status/488677779744260098

Getting ready with 3D static items. This is going to be called "Hazardous Battle".