Resident Evil: Behind the Mask [+Hazardous Battle]

[RaccoonSurvivor]

^ Nice. I saw Claire's name on the list of characters there hehe .. awesome effects.
Though, what exactly would these be used for?

[Getta robo]

There are some problems concerning Dolby Digital.
A 5.1 mix is composed by 6 individual mono channels, Left Front (L), Right Front (R), Center (C), LFE, Left Surround (LS) and Right Surround (RS), these are the output of the master track on your mix, this means that you have to send to these 6 audio out a specific audio stream, that will be converted to AC-3 or DTS.
To listen to a 5.1 audio, you need a 5.1 capable audio card, and an audio system with at least 5 speakers (some times the Sub Woofer is optional), but to actually mix it, a consumer set of equipment is not what you want to mix in, unless you want a really poor result. Usually this kind of audio is used for cinematics with streamed audio, I don't think is even possible to route a sequenced track to the 6 Dolby Digital channels in real time on the PSX.
I have none of them, so for me it's impossible to work with 5.1 audio.
The other problem is that the PSX is not able to process and output them, it have only a stereo output, so no Dolby Digital for the PSX.
For the new tracks, that's not really my top priority, I'm working on other aspects of the game at the moment, for now, they can be disassembled and modified as you please, in the limit of the PSX hardware capabilities and what you can actually do composing a track.
At this moment, I've only tried swapping the drum loop of one of the tracks, with a new drum sequence, made of single shot sounds converted from a wave file, and this works, so there won't be problems even making a track from scratch.

I stand corrected. My intended word here is dolby surround. According to various lists, while a handful of PS1 games featured Dolby Surround sound, Gun Survivor wasn't one of them.
What I really wanted to say is, that I hope the audio in general will match the outstanding visuals you have made as well. I do believe that Gemini's magic code will be more than capable to handle a "remastered" soundtrack, which will surely overshadow the quality of the original release.

Ok, it's time to mess around with more core stuff:

These three pictures show Ark, Wesker, and Leon drawn using a chrome effect. This will be used for a few metallic items that need real-time reflection effects (example: a little statue of bronze, silver, or gold - I'll get to this later... or maybe not). Fun fact: the same effect can be recycled almost as-is to create a stealth camouflage effect like in Metal Gear Solid, which could come in handy for a special model of Cleaner based on the Parasite Eve II stealth golems.

Speechless as usual! Are the weapons going to be rendered with those effects? I hope so!
And as for weapons, do you have any plans to include a knife / quick knife? Or do you have any thoughts to include any sort of melee weapons which will not require some sort of ammunition?
ps. New video by the team!

[RaccoonSurvivor]

Random question..
Will this game have any extra scenario's or mini-games.
Ark was cool enough, but I missed that traditional RE style of having two characters to choose from - one male and one female.
Do you think something like this could be implemented - either as main game or as an extra unlockable (scenario or outfit/voice change)

Just putting it out there..

[chrisliam2]

this is so cool looks great

[Zombie_X]

Nice! That effect would mimic the Bishop Golem nicely. Translucent Cleaners would be cool. Are you planning to give them unique AI from the other Cleaners?

[Gemini]

Ok, it's time to mess around with more core stuff:

These three pictures show Ark, Wesker, and Leon drawn using a chrome effect. This will be used for a few metallic items that need real-time reflection effects (example: a little statue of bronze, silver, or gold - I'll get to this later... or maybe not). Fun fact: the same effect can be recycled almost as-is to create a stealth camouflage effect like in Metal Gear Solid, which could come in handy for a special model of Cleaner based on the Parasite Eve II stealth golems.

[Carnivol]

Manufacturing insane and dumb ideas since ever

^You'll just have to develop an alternate sound core that'll deliver perfect digitized audio output that a proper receiver can interpret and thus can only be used through playback on a PS2 (via toslink) or PS3 (HDMI/toslink). SUCCESS!

[SonicBlue]

Each time I say I've seen from you guys everything, you always managed to surprise me and see something uniquely new. Congratulations for the software implementations, and kudos to Sonic for those amazing background!
I have another question about the music of the game. If I'm not mistaken, you said that it's going to be re-rewritten. Have you share with us the current plan of what you guys have in mind about the music and sounds in general? Do you have any thoughts to improve even further the audio, such as made it dolby digital compatible for example?

There are some problems concerning Dolby Digital.

A 5.1 mix is composed by 6 individual mono channels, Left Front (L), Right Front (R), Center (C), LFE, Left Surround (LS) and Right Surround (RS), these are the output of the master track on your mix, this means that you have to send to these 6 audio out a specific audio stream, that will be converted to AC-3 or DTS.

To listen to a 5.1 audio, you need a 5.1 capable audio card, and an audio system with at least 5 speakers (some times the Sub Woofer is optional), but to actually mix it, a consumer set of equipment is not what you want to mix in, unless you want a really poor result. Usually this kind of audio is used for cinematics with streamed audio, I don't think is even possible to route a sequenced track to the 6 Dolby Digital channels in real time on the PSX.

I have none of them, so for me it's impossible to work with 5.1 audio.

The other problem is that the PSX is not able to process and output them, it have only a stereo output, so no Dolby Digital for the PSX.

For the new tracks, that's not really my top priority, I'm working on other aspects of the game at the moment, for now, they can be disassembled and modified as you please, in the limit of the PSX hardware capabilities and what you can actually do composing a track.

At this moment, I've only tried swapping the drum loop of one of the tracks, with a new drum sequence, made of single shot sounds converted from a wave file, and this works, so there won't be problems even making a track from scratch.

[Getta robo]

Each time I say I've seen from you guys everything, you always managed to surprise me and see something uniquely new. Congratulations for the software implementations, and kudos to Sonic for those amazing background!
I have another question about the music of the game. If I'm not mistaken, you said that it's going to be re-rewritten. Have you share with us the current plan of what you guys have in mind about the music and sounds in general? Do you have any thoughts to improve even further the audio, such as made it dolby digital compatible for example?

[Gemini]

New recap video showcasing in 30 seconds all the new stuff:
YouTube video:

Show YouTube video

• Completely rewritten CD-Rom core capable of loading data much faster with support for compression, encryption/integrity check, and straight-out SPU upload support;
• Preliminary room transition support with doors (you get a bonus for imagination here), debug jump, and initialization from an overlay to bloat ram less;
• Rewritten music module with fade+decrescendo fixed for good;
• Other minor fixes to stage and sound modules.

A note related to the first point in the list: my latest test on PSP made me notice forced faster speed works pretty much the same as normal speed whenever compression is involved. Heck, I could even leave the whole background pack work with lossless pictures instead of MDEC or add a user selector for quality aficionados thanks to this speed-up.

Also from Sonic:

It's still work in progress in terms of detail/material, but at least the semi-final geometry of objects is there.

[chrisliam2]

thanks for the reply good luck with it all. I loved RE Survivor.

[Gemini]

being serious here what's the chance of this game actually being 100% completed or even a playable demo.
because Distance memories mod has now been canned and they said they were going to 100% complete their mod but now it's just another canceled mod like yamis dark bio-hazard mod.

100% completion depends on spare time and the ability to find all the help Sonic and I need to overcome the difficulties we can't tackle down our own (example: voice acting, but we already have Kei_M and Shey for that). A demo is already under its way, with just a little part of the actual assets that will be used on BTM, because my aim is to make a tech demo release in order to show how the engine actually works. Heck, if Dominion wanted I could even base the demo on a short playable segment of Darkbiohazard, just as a showcase of the flexibility of Squeeze Bomb.

you guys are making a full game not a mod if I'm correct ? so it must take longer to make everything , do you seriously and truthfully think you can complete this game. Not being horrible or anything I'm just tired of showing my support to people that show us years worth of work , trailers and gameplay being told they are 100% committed to the project only then to be told we are canceling our project.

It's written right in the very first post I made to present the game: it's not even similar to a mod in any regard, and yes, it will be a full game with a brand new engine taking advantage of all the optimization I can squeeze in. The difference between a mod and a new engine is that I don't need to document any features whatsoever, I just write the code with my own specs in mind - every single addition stacks on the previous ones, making it look more and more complete and with no obscure segments of code doing their own business. Most mods seem to die because the engines they are based on have little documentation and even less room for core changes.

being serious here what's the chance of this game actually being 100% completed or even a playable demo.
because Distance memories mod has now been canned and they said they were going to 100% complete their mod but now it's just another canceled mod like yamis dark bio-hazard mod.

you guys are making a full game not a mod if I'm correct ? so it must take longer to make everything , do you seriously and truthfully think you can complete this game. Not being horrible or anything I'm just tired of showing my support to people that show us years worth of work , trailers and gameplay being told they are 100% committed to the project only then to be told we are canceling our project.

Actually it's the opposite. Mods rarely get released because they involve reverse engineering and modifying someone's already existing code, and the techniques and methods involved are usually rendered obsolete by the time another more advanced project comes along. With Behind the Mask this is entirely Gemini's creation, he has no restrictions or limitations and he can deal with issues exactly how he pleases. This allows for a quick and somewhat untroubled development which isn't held back by anything other than his own imagination.

[chrisliam2]

being serious here what's the chance of this game actually being 100% completed or even a playable demo.
because Distance memories mod has now been canned and they said they were going to 100% complete their mod but now it's just another canceled mod like yamis dark bio-hazard mod.

you guys are making a full game not a mod if I'm correct ? so it must take longer to make everything , do you seriously and truthfully think you can complete this game. Not being horrible or anything I'm just tired of showing my support to people that show us years worth of work , trailers and gameplay being told they are 100% committed to the project only then to be told we are canceling our project.

[Ultimacloud123]

Tuxedo Mask or Ark in a suit? Maybe even Ark actually having his hood on or Ash from Evil Dead?

Also I'm with Zombie on expanding the Mansion. In GS it just seemed to be there with no purpose. I was thinking you put a puzzle in it and expand the mansion by maybe a room or two with the puzzle raising up the floor in the main hall to reveal the entrance of the lab. One of the room in the lab which opens after using the disc in which zombies come out of should be a break room or research room. It plain in GS.