Bio2 Bio1.5 Mix

[Enigmatism415]

I still plan to release my build, just without the IGAS stuff attached to it.

So your build will contain only backgrounds from the raw PSM build and the BH2 Trial Edition?

I thought that what I have was the MZD build, turns out it's dated only a couple weeks after that one... so, it's just as old as the MZD build.

You're a lucky one! I suppose it makes sense that the "3F Elevator Hall" would be added soon after the "MZD" stage of development; after all, IGAS probably wanted an unbroken path for the beginning of Leon's scenario early on. Also, since your special build was compiled only a few weeks after the build enjoyed by the rest of us, it probably contains the alpha version of the "3F Elevator Hall", which has a row of lockers instead of the reception desk.

Say, since you have an early version of this room anyway, maybe IGAS will find it in their hearts to allow you to include just this one prototype room in your build for the sake of flow and continuity (it's a crucial connection point); it's not like we'll ever see the "locker" version of this room in their final build anyway right? Surely they can appreciate the intrigue of beta rooms ...

[Darkness]

Yeah, I'd like to see that and whatever else ye got

[MeganGrass]

I haven't worked on this much in the past month ... but I had an hour to waste over the past weekend and I began to rewrite the entire debug functionality from scratch:



In a homage to several talented others, I lifted the idea for displaying various stats in real-time while the game is running under emu/hardware.

This should definitely help to better script these rooms in a more precise manner.

[Guest]

Sounds good to me, all in good time Mark! This project intrigues me the most out of them all, the transitional period between the prototype and retail game (E3 1997) has some of the most interesting changes and had just as much potential to be as unique and different to the retail game as the prototype its self. Most people focus their efforts on the 1996 prototype and foget about this era in 1997 all together, but there is far more to this era than people realise and I wish more people had gave it as much credit as it deserves. Out of all the projects people have going these days yours touches on that era the most and I'm eagerly looking forward to playing something that could actually represent what that could have been.

[Graco]

No rush, it will most definitely be worth the wait.

Sounds good to me, all in good time Mark! This project intrigues me the most out of them all, the transitional period between the prototype and retail game (E3 1997) has some of the most interesting changes and had just as much potential to be as unique and different to the retail game as the prototype its self. Most people focus their efforts on the 1996 prototype and foget about this era in 1997 all together, but there is far more to this era than people realise and I wish more people had gave it as much credit as it deserves. Out of all the projects people have going these days yours touches on that era the most and I'm eagerly looking forward to playing something that could actually represent what that could have been.

The final moments of 1.5 are the most intriguing. Its concepts in terms of design were solid but needed better implementation. However, I think some of the resolutions were more drastic than necessary and 1.5's better aspects were lost in the transition. One could argue that they weren't lost but rather given a new makeover though that really depends on who's playing it. 1.5 certainly stood out when compared to its predecessor over the more similar themes seen in the released RE2.

[AleX_Red_07]

Dear Mark, how to promote your mix?

[MeganGrass]

Dear Mark, how to promote your mix?

I'm not really sure there's much to promote, at the moment, but I'll be glad to give a small status update.


As mentioned before, I have completely rewritten the debugging capabilities from scratch, then greatly expanded upon it with features that I felt should be included:





I mimicked both debug menus from Bio1 and Bio4, for this.



In addition to the debugger, I worked on restructuring the entire disc layout with positively successful results:




Room data is now stored into and read from an encrypted archive file (ROOM.RDX).

With this new ability to change the disc structure as I please, I am now able to store run-time data for two (or more) Bio games onto a single disc, all running from the same executable.

In addition to that, it has become much easier to import Claire/etc run-time data into the ROM, because I am no longer restricted to the default layout.



...and last, but not least, I am now writing everything in c/c++ and injecting the code where need be. Creating overlays from scratch became a total breeze and several have been replaced by my own code. MIPs r3000a assembly language is still used where absolutely required, but I'm still in the process of moving everything to pure c code.

Other than all of that, there have been many unseen changes to the engine that help to either enhance the player experience and/or adjusting stuff required by engine expansion/modification, etc.


Without someone to render new stuff, however, I'm quickly losing interest in all of this... so, yeah. There's nothing to promote, yet.

[AleX_Red_07]

Thank you very much for your reply, it was very nice.

[MeganGrass]

Small update, nothing extraordinarily new.

[AleX_Red_07]

Dear Mark!
It was epic.
Very unexpected and very nice.
It's great that you have added a track from bio1.
I nearly fell off his chair by what he saw.

[Burt Mustin]

Damn. 'Concrete Bound' may gel somewhat better to the RPD backdrop than the intended does.

[MeganGrass]

Damn. 'Concrete Bound' may gel somewhat better to the RPD backdrop than the intended does.

It seemed fitting at the time, yeah.

A few tracks from Bio3 fit very well in the Factory area, as well.

[Ultimacloud123]

Good to see that your project is still live. I'm anxious to try your tools out,that is if you're still developing them.

[Graco]

Thanks for the update, Mark. Excellent choice of music by the way. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

[MeganGrass]

Good to see that your project is still live. I'm anxious to try your tools out,that is if you're still developing them.

I am still developing them, yeah. I really need to stop neglecting a release and get to it

Thanks for the update, Mark. Excellent choice of music by the way. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Thank you




I finally had a couple more hours to spend on this over the weekend, and finally, the Redfields invade the Bio2 beta build!




Thanks to my new disc structure, and the way the game now handles CD reads, I can literally add or remove anything, and as much as I want - I am no longer restricted to the default LBA table.

This basically means that I can add enemies, players, weapons, music and anything else that couldn't be added to the disc before.