Resident Evil: Behind the Mask [+Hazardous Battle]

[Gemini]

Nice, would I need to worry about a region lock?

As far as I'm aware, only PSone models have a sorta region lock. It can be bypassed in many ways, the most famous one being the Import Disk.

I wonder what kind of sacrifices are needed to be made in order to port them on PS1 native code, or can they been transferred flawlessly?

I converted the OpenGL virtual commands on DS to actual geometry structures.

UPDATE: I whipped up a revamped Ark for fun, with a slightly more realistic look(since the original artwork are primarily sketches).

I agree on GS's "artworks" being sketches for the most, but repainting Sasha isn't going to do much, especially on other subjects.

But I gotta ask, would taking game design courses at a school help me to be able to do the kinds of things you guys are doing in making a PlayStation RE game from scratch?

A simple programming course should be more than enough, then you can specialize on video games.

Gemini, are you self-taught, or are you able to do this because of years of experience in programming?

I had programming classes when I was 16. They used to teach us programming with Javascript, Java, PHP, x86 assembly, and can't remember what else. One my books also had a whole chapter about C, which got me interested and got me to learn C++ with an online course, while MIPS and 65c816 came with a simple Google search. TL;DR: I have a training of 3 years in high-school and 11 on my own.

I'd be doing the same thing you guys are doing, making it run on real hardware. So I'm thinking it be a great benefit of me to learn the PSX hardware (there is some documentation on it). But other than that, I'm confused as to where I should start? Any advice?

Each hardware has its own limitations and specific challenges. If you want to make games work on a NES, the PSX isn't where you should be looking.

However, the bigger questions is, why limit yourself to PSOne? Why not grab a copy of UE4 or Unity? It would be more relevent if you wished to pursue gaming as a career.

Because it's not limiting at all. You only have to make smarter choices with limited hardware, which is a good incentive to improve one's skills rather than simply jumping on the bloat wagon.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

I'm not talking about the technical limitations of the PSOne, I appreciate the value of working with a less powerful system, but he's going to have a smaller potential audience, he's going to be dealing with obsolete techinques and could potentially have problems using this work to get a job in proffessional development.

I'm not saying he's making the wrong choice, but I want to understand the reasons behind his choice before providing further information and suggestions.

[RetroRain]

Each hardware has its own limitations and specific challenges. If you want to make games work on a NES, the PSX isn't where you should be looking.

Well I know that. I'm saying that I've been doing NES ROM hacking for all of these years (since 1999), but I'd really like to get involved in PSX game development and mods. MIPS and 65c816 are necessary for PSX programming?

Back in the day, it took about 50 people to make Resident Evil 2 (according to an interview), but I guess now today with the advanced technology and fan determination, only a few people could develop an "old-school" RE game. It is very impressive.

Also, I really love this image:



That would be pretty cool if Leon was included in the battle roster.

[Getta robo]

I converted the OpenGL virtual commands on DS to actual geometry structures.

They look really impressive for PS1 models, they're possible the most detailed I've seen.
About other models, is there any chance you'll include the DS counterparts of zombies? Their design is considerable better than the PS1 ones.

[REmaster]

I agree on GS's "artworks" being sketches for the most, but repainting Sasha isn't going to do much, especially on other subjects.

True, but damn is he a perfect fit.

[Zombie_X]

Yeah, but Sasha looks identical to Ark. We all thought it was Ark when the first full trailer was shown and it's disappointing that it wasn't. How cool would it have been for Leon to find his old pal Ark stomping around Europe fighting BOW's?

[chrisliam2]

So if you guys wanted to you could re create resident evil 0 (N64 STYLE) or Make that canned game News bot spoke about, about hunk being on the ship with plant style B.O.W.S or just create any new resident evil story the possibility is endless right ?

It's amazing how far people are coming with these resident evil fan projects it's getting better and better as the years go by.

I hope this project goes smoothly for you all and wish you all the best with it

will you be adding the little Easter eggs like the street fighter posters in the arcade room little things like that ?

Could you guys also make a new Dino crisis game if you wanted to ?

[Gemini]

Yeah, but Sasha looks identical to Ark.

That's not the point. Please read again my post.

I'm not saying he's making the wrong choice, but I want to understand the reasons behind his choice before providing further information and suggestions.

I misunderstood your message, thinking it was about BTM, not the coding suggestion. Still, I wouldn't recommend Unity, Unreal Engine, or even Cry Engine. None of those really get you into what's needed for coding a game, while they still provide a solid base. A book definitively would help much more, I have a bunch covering both design and code management which are quite decent.

MIPS and 65c816 are necessary for PSX programming?

I used 65c816 to learn hacking game's code after my x86 training: the processor has a small set of opcodes and it's not terribly messy to manage (contrarily to x86). MIPS is what I still use more, but for coding reasons. If you know what GCC does with the compiled code, you can easily optimize it with some strategies, which is why knowing MIPS (or the target architecture, more in general) is terribly important for critical procedures.

About other models, is there any chance you'll include the DS counterparts of zombies? Their design is considerable better than the PS1 ones.

No idea, but I already have them converted. The horribly high polycount will require a few sacrifices, I suppose.

So if you guys wanted to you could re create resident evil 0 (N64 STYLE) or Make that canned game News bot spoke about, about hunk being on the ship with plant style B.O.W.S or just create any new resident evil story the possibility is endless right ?
-
Could you guys also make a new Dino crisis game if you wanted to ?

Too much stuff to chew on.

will you be adding the little Easter eggs like the street fighter posters in the arcade room little things like that ?

Nah, those were horribly lame fillers. We'll have something slightly slicker.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

I misunderstood your message, thinking it was about BTM, not the coding suggestion. Still, I wouldn't recommend Unity, Unreal Engine, or even Cry Engine. None of those really get you into what's needed for coding a game, while they still provide a solid base. A book definitively would help much more, I have a bunch covering both design and code management which are quite decent.

No problem, I should have been clearer about who it was directed to.

However regarding engines, you will be learning about core systems required for games even if you're not creating them from scratch yourself. And the option is always there to do so yourself. It's just about which methods do you prefer to use to learn (and books are usually good regeardless of which option you use) and which areas do you wish to specialise in.

Just don't go near CryEngine. It's messy, poorly supported, and wrapped up in some horrible copyright agreements if you want to release a game with it.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

Just out of curiosity, what kind of impact on perforamance would running the game at a higher res and using higher res backgrounds to match have on native PS1 hardware? Obviously there are memory implications for this that correlate with the resolution increase . I seem to remember a few games that mixed polys with pre-rendered backgrounds running at a higher res (Little Big Adventure, either Evil Dead or Alone in he Dark)

[Zombie_X]

Gemini, my comment about Sasha was not directed at you. I was merely saying he looks the part.

Jimmy, why don't you ever use the edit button? I always see you do multiple posts in a row rather than just edit your comment with the new stuff.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

I prefer to use the Edit button to just amend old posts and the two above are a couple of days apart, but if it's better etiquette to merge whole posts with the Edit button then I'll give that a shot

[Gemini]

Just out of curiosity, what kind of impact on perforamance would running the game at a higher res and using higher res backgrounds to match have on native PS1 hardware? Obviously there are memory implications for this that correlate with the resolution increase . I seem to remember a few games that mixed polys with pre-rendered backgrounds running at a higher res (Little Big Adventure, either Evil Dead or Alone in he Dark)

Other than using a bigger buffer for clearing the screen with the actual background data, a bigger resolution makes polygon rendering slightly slower (surfaces get bigger and you need to manage view matrices a little differently to account for the scaling). On real hi-res (640x480) it becomes even worse because it needs to run in interlaced mode, which tends to flicker a lot if not handled correctly either with optimized fast drawing or "odd/even line GPU draw flag". AFAIK, Evil Dead and Alone in the Dark simply use 320x240, no idea about Little Big Adventure.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

Thanks for the info, I thought ED & AIND were higher res too

From what I remember of TBA, and possibly Time Commando (made by the same people as TBA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL8c-2nTNEA), you don't notice any flicker on the backrounds because they're essentially anti-aliased (rendered at a higher res then scaled down) and you only notice the flicker on harsh edges, but you do notice it on the edges of meshes.

[Getta robo]

I apology if my following questions have already been answered, I've read the thread quite a few times however I haven't seen them stated.
So, here it goes!
1) Is Ark going to react like RE2-3 regarding being injured? Meaning if he's going to be almost in perfect fighting shape when yellow caution health, somehow slower when in orange caution health, and almost crippled when he's in red danger health?
2) Does the team have any thoughts to implement the visible damage done by the monsters on Ark? Like leaving blood stains when claw/grapple him and such.
3) Likewise, are the monsters going to have any visible damage when injured by Ark? Such as severe limbs after numerous shots, reacting slower after being gravelly injured and so on.
4) Is there any possibility to include the grenades, as offensive/defensive weapon? Like in BH2 beta and RE3?
5) Not really a question, just a wishful way to ask you guys to somehow include Neptunes. I mean, who doesn't like mutated sharks anyway?