Resident Evil: Behind the Mask [+Hazardous Battle]

[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.

[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)

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.

[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.

[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.

[Getta robo]

Still, the idea of expanding some areas was already proposed during our brain storming sessions. Namely, I wanted to have that underground room with the Crimson Head boss battle (as an extra objective). At this point I think it's probably a lot more interesting to have additional sections inside the underground dungeon connected to the courtyard, since that's a stage of its own and it's pretty short compared to other maps.

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.

[RetroRain]

It's looking good Gemini. I'm glad this project is going well for you. You have also been inspiring me to work hard on my Zelda homebrew game. My Zelda game is using the Link's Awakening engine/style. I was thinking of putting in the LA overworld as a special mode (also for testing purposes), similar to what you are doing with the battle mode of your game.

Another idea:

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.

[Gemini]

You can't draw 24 bit textures with primitives; the hardware can render them only as 4 bit, 8 bit, or 15 bit textures. As for the actual mapping, you're limited to page size: max 256x256 pixels for each mode with sprites, while textured polygons only support 0-255 ranges.

[EDIT] RE1 style flat lights reworked for better results:

Even if Jill's model is quite different lights perform in the same way with the latest changes. Most major engine differences between RE1 and later titles, like odd floor height, should be there now.

PS: I forgot to mention Beretta M92F and M92FS are also implemented. They still work exactly the same, but it doesn't really need much work to have random critical shots on M92FS like in Director's Cut and Extreme Battle.

[Mikhail]

I have question about the ps1, is it possible to represent the whole ps1 colourspace 24bit 16,777,216 or 16bit 65,536 in a single texture 1024×512 524,288 and map individual pixels from that texture over different model areas, or mirror texture parts across a model to save vram.

[Gemini]

I was under the impression that recompressing the backgrounds would cause them to be lossy, but if it doesn't then slapping them on to the background itself would be the best way to go.

Squeeze Bomb can rely on both lossy and lossless, depending on whichever option you take (also emulator detection). The "master" renders I use for HB are those from the Saturn build, which are lossless (i.e. they can be saved as well as lossy with no extreme quality drops, at least on hardware or proper emulators). If Sonic were to add those extra doors, they'd be placed on top of lossless pictures, meaning there would be no additional artifacts due to recompression (even for lossy).

Still, the idea of expanding some areas was already proposed during our brain storming sessions. Namely, I wanted to have that underground room with the Crimson Head boss battle (as an extra objective). At this point I think it's probably a lot more interesting to have additional sections inside the underground dungeon connected to the courtyard, since that's a stage of its own and it's pretty short compared to other maps.

[EDIT] And there goes Sonic accepting the challenge:

Don't ask me why Rebecca looks like a midget more than her usual, this is really using correct scale and size from that door on the other side of the hall. RE1 is so random with doors.

As for the Zero-exclusive features, I don't think anybody's really expecting Gemini to add in item dropping and real-time partner swapping. It's just a mock trial after all. And this is if you guys even decide to recreate the train area from Zero at all.

Well, since the original plan was the possibility of having it as an arcade section inside HB, gameplay shouldn't need item drops.

[biohazard_star]

I was under the impression that recompressing the backgrounds would cause them to be lossy, but if it doesn't then slapping them on to the background itself would be the best way to go.
As for the Zero-exclusive features, I don't think anybody's really expecting Gemini to add in item dropping and real-time partner swapping. It's just a mock trial after all. And this is if you guys even decide to recreate the train area from Zero at all.

[SonicBlue]

You could always shoop in recreated doors on existing backgrounds by using masks. The angles used in areas where the doors exist in their REmake counterparts seem accomodating enough to have the doors shooped in.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9867[/ATTACH]

Adding masks for the new doors is an unnecessary step, the background with the door already on it will work better, as the player never goes behind the door or near it in a way that needs to be masked out.

Including a set of extra backgrounds in the same room won't be a problem, we don't have this kind of limitations, if we had the original assets we could use the lossless version, and not some kind of ultra compressed version of it.

Train seems like a great idea as well. But at that point, you and Gemini might as well give us a mock RE Zero N64 Trial edition while you're at it.

That would need some work on the engine, I don't think at the moment you can leave objects on the floor or swap characters in real time.
There are also some limitations on the speed the PSX can actually do that, but this is Gemini's field, if we decide to make a RE Zero demo I'm sure he will find a proper solution.

[biohazard_star]

You could always shoop in recreated doors on existing backgrounds by using masks. The angles used in areas where the doors exist in their REmake counterparts seem accomodating enough to have the doors shooped in.



Train seems like a great idea as well. But at that point, you and Gemini might as well give us a mock RE Zero N64 Trial edition while you're at it.

[SonicBlue]

Have you and Sonic considered maybe demaking the added rooms from REmake instead? I'd love to see locations like Lisa's cabin and the lower levels of the mines done in RE1 classic style. Or maybe start with something small and just do places from the mansion exclusively, like the west staircase hallway and terrace instead. It should be a lot more manageable than remaking all the N64 Zero backgrounds, which I imagine is what you and Sonic had considered when thinking of adding in RE0 locales.

How did you connect them with the already provided backgrounds?

The idea was to make the Train scenario only for RE Zero battle mode.

[biohazard_star]

Have you and Sonic considered maybe demaking the added rooms from REmake instead? I'd love to see locations like Lisa's cabin and the lower levels of the mines done in RE1 classic style. Or maybe start with something small and just do places from the mansion exclusively, like the west staircase hallway and terrace instead. It should be a lot more manageable than remaking all the N64 Zero backgrounds, which I imagine is what you and Sonic had considered when thinking of adding in RE0 locales.

- That or 1.5 style, like what appears in BH Complete Disc videos. There you see a zombie scaling down in its blood pool, until it eventually disappears and a new one replaces it somewhere else in a room.

Haha. I thought I was going crazy when I noticed that in the Complete Disk video. You can only very briefly see it happening during that part where a zombie gets crushed by the shutter in the lobby corridor, but it definitely occurs. The effect is very arcade-ish. I wonder if IGAS will go that route and maybe improve upon it with fizzling effects and such.