Resident Evil: Behind the Mask [+Hazardous Battle]

[biohazard_star]

Very nice. I can't wait to see Sonic's recreations. Any chance you have considered demaking Lisa as well? She'd make a good RE1-themed enemy equivalent for Nemesis.

[Gemini]

Time for a video update with Jill raiding the mansion:
YouTube video:

Show YouTube video

More info inside. I'm definitively happy of how this is turning out, at least in regard to how movements work a lot better than in RE1, which brings it way closer to Deadly Silence, less the horrid downscale artifacts.

In addition to character's limping based on injury status, how about blood drips, similar to the Outbreak games? The blood drips occassionally from the character, and after it hits the ground, it disappears within a few seconds.

I thought of the idea, inspired by DC1, but I'm not sure if it's functional at all. I mean, there you get a bleeding status, but in RE it doesn't exist. I might consider it thought as a special effect for when you get attacked by zombies or crows.

Any chance you have considered demaking Lisa as well? She'd make a good RE1-themed enemy equivalent for Nemesis.

Erm, not really. Lisa is not exactly an enemy I'm particularly fond of or that I would like to see in an arcade game because of her regeneration/immortality crap.

I have a related question regarded Behind the mask. Now, you have mentioned that some areas will expanded or even altered for various reasons. Have you consider to make some new areas, connecting either the existent pathways or even make brand new ones? In more than one instances, I felt that several paths could had some alternate routes, or even had some thoughts about new areas/maps for that matter.

The less we do in that regard the best it will turn out, I suppose. The idea was to expand some areas that simply were too bland or pointless in the original, but adding entirely new paths is more than likely overkill for a homebrew game.

[Guest]

Yeah, the first thing I noticed is how fluid the motion looks and how well the models and backgrounds sit with each other, they are contrasted beautifully. Congratulations in that regard, your work keeps on getting more and more impressive every time, this almost feels like a definitive version of the original Biohazard (minus the HUD of course). I would be interested to see a similar video with enemies and your memory usage bar again to really see how the engine is coping under these conditions as right now it looks better than it's ever been, can't wait to see it used to its absolute full potential.

Btw, is Behind the Mask and your Extreme Battle game two separate projects? Or does the Extreme Battle game serve as a way for you further the engine without worrying about what needs to be done for BTM? I'm looking forward to seeing more of SonicBlue's work, I'm sure that constitutes adding new areas to the game.

[Scream]

Great stuff Are the camera angle switches faster than original RE1? They look kind of different for some reason (been awhile since I played RE1 so can't put my finger on it)

[RetroRain]

Would also be cool in the battle mode, when the player least expects it, to have the Man Spider from 1.5 pop out from around a corner and attack the player. Unlike in 1.5, you could actually upgrade the quality of the model (update the polygons of the model and textures), and make it behave just like in 1.5. I would love to see a death scene with the Man Spider ripping the player's limbs off like in 1.5, but maybe done a little bit better.

[Gemini]

I would be interested to see a similar video with enemies and your memory usage bar again to really see how the engine is coping under these conditions as right now it looks better than it's ever been, can't wait to see it used to its absolute full potential.

I'd have to capture everything from real hardware in order to make the performance gauge behave correctly (but I have no equipment to do so). Emulators aren't very precise when it comes to CPU and GPU timing; it's an incompatibility that causes profiling code to retrieve incorrect synchrony values.

Btw, is Behind the Mask and your Extreme Battle game two separate projects? Or does the Extreme Battle game serve as a way for you further the engine without worrying about what needs to be done for BTM?

It's the same engine with a few internal changes and macros to make either use specific routines. The geometric structure of RE1 rooms demands quite a number of code hacks in order to keep compatibility. Still, RE1 is extremely useful as a test field because it includes everything I would ever need for BTM's creation.

Great stuff Are the camera angle switches faster than original RE1? They look kind of different for some reason (been awhile since I played RE1 so can't put my finger on it)

I think it actually loads slightly slower unless I switch to lossy backgrounds. On PSP and PS2 you can turn on the fast load option and it performs a lot better, however.

Would also be cool in the battle mode, when the player least expects it, to have the Man Spider from 1.5 pop out from around a corner and attack the player.

Not sure that would happen for real, unless I include this one into BTM and then backport it to a later HB chapter (if we ever get close to that, crossing fingers here).

And a little treat for those who don't follow Twitter:

These are preliminary covers for HB. I use these tests for an actual layout, so keep in mind some things may change like that feature list mentioning extra enemies and rooms (I had to fill it somehow). As a little side note, I haven't bothered using any of those official layouts in a proper way because my covers don't respect any actual NTSC/PAL standards, just like the game itself doesn't.
I haven't decided yet what to use for a disk label, but my current idea involves T-002 from previous promotional assets and some other random background, or just a black and white label for simplicity's sake.

PS: A big thank you goes to A Swizzy Drucker for helping me notice and correct typos with the back-cover.

[Vanya]

Love the work on this. Can't wait to try it out.

A suggestion for the back cover:

"Join the S.T.A.R.S.Team and go on an
adventure that revisits the original
Spencer Mansion in the Arkley Mountains.
Many challenges and foes await you
around every corner of this frantic
experience. Enjoy a classic Survival
Horror title with reborn arcade action!"

[RetroRain]

Yeah, it should say "in the Arkley Mountains." But, other than that, nice work there.

By the way, I find it funny how Jill's hand is touching Chris' cock, and Chris has this look on his face that says "Are you jealous?"

[Enigmatism415]

By the way, I find it funny how Jill's hand is touching Chris' cock, and Chris has this look on his face that says "Are you jealous?"

Just let that cover circulate on 4chan for about ten minutes.

[Gemini]

^ Ok, now that's just creepy.

A suggestion for the back cover:
[cut]

Aaaand added to the layout. Hopefully this is the last time I'm editing the cover. All it needs a this point are feature icons like "1 Player", "Analog Controller", "Vibration Function", and "Memory Card: 1 Block".

[RetroRain]

I have to ask the obvious question. Are you using 3D Studio Max to do the backgrounds? I always wanted to get my hands on 3DSMax, but the commercial price of it is completely ridiculous. I'm not a fan of downloading from torrents and things like that, but I really want to make my own Resident Evil backgrounds.

Is 3DSMax fun and easy to use?

[GamerTak3r]

Gemini u should try to make Biohazard Dash one day.

[Guest]

I have to ask the obvious question. Are you using 3D Studio Max to do the backgrounds? I always wanted to get my hands on 3DSMax, but the commercial price of it is completely ridiculous. I'm not a fan of downloading from torrents and things like that, but I really want to make my own Resident Evil backgrounds.

Is 3DSMax fun and easy to use?

Learn Blender if all you want to do is make some backgrounds, it's free. While a little cumbersome to learn at first and different to your typical Max or Maya, you can get truly professional results from it, and it can run really smoothly using CUDA if you have an Nvidia GPU. Even then it's fun to use, has tons of cool plugins and is quite easy to learn thanks to tons of community tutorials and forums where you can get help or advice. I fully recommend it to any beginner wanting to get their hands dirty without paying a lot of money.

http://www.blender.org/

http://blenderartists.org/forum/

[RetroRain]

I appreciate the info geluda, but I have to disagree about Blender being easy to use. I've used Blender before. Not exactly user-friendly. Granted there are a ton of options, but if any program needed tutorials made for it, that was one of them. I think there is a reason the program is free, because it truly is a pain in the ass to use. That, and you have to have a lot of patience. I prefer to stay away from it. I didn't have a good experience with it.

[Gemini]

Are you using 3D Studio Max to do the backgrounds? I always wanted to get my hands on 3DSMax, but the commercial price of it is completely ridiculous. I'm not a fan of downloading from torrents and things like that, but I really want to make my own Resident Evil backgrounds.

We use Cinema 4D for backgrounds, real time assets, and all promotional material (in combo di Photoshop). I've been using C4D for almost 10 years, but I'm no expert (as a matter of fact it's quite good for beginners). If you are patient enough and have the curiosity of looking into online tutorials, there's definitively a lot of room for reaching the level where you can produce good backgrounds in a relatively short time span.

Gemini u should try to make Biohazard Dash one day.

I'm not sure about this one. Dash never even got past the idea of a concept game. Other than some info and misleading rumors, there isn't really a whole lot of a starting point.