Paraemon's Comprehensive Ripping Project Thread [Expansion Station]

[Paraemon]

Have some -hopefully- finalised Oil Ocean background.

[Paraemon]

The reason why the Labyrinth Zone's release has been delayed: the Japanese version has extra graphical effects in its stages, and the underwater refraction effect employed for Labyrinth Zone seems to be repeated across in Tidal Tempest (this is not the reason why TTZ is a pain to rip as I mentioned some time ago). As the underwater refraction effect works...well, in water, I'll only be applying the effect to the appropriate underwater objects (foreground and background content); sprites and Sonic aren't affected by it.



Progress made on ripping the Oil Ocean Act 1 map.  The red blocks at the base are where the animated ocean of oil is located, and I'll included those frames at the bottom of the map sheets, relative to their position against the poles that lead into the ocean. Other red objects are animated pieces, particularly the red blocks that have the remnants of the fans' central green motionless blocks. Act 1 so far is going to be split into two sections to get the full map, and this will likely be repeated for Act 2.


And some attempt at ripping the Act 1 map for Carnival Night Zone. That's the upper left corner of the map and it looks exactly that pointlessly ridiculous. All the green sections are the animated sections or associated sections, which I've covered for simplicity, since there's a lot of those darn single-pixel animations. This will be changed for the final release.

[Paraemon]

So I've figured out part of the problem of trying to rip from Sonic CD; the map extremes are not as 'solid' as they should be when you're zip-zooming around in Debug mode. Go too far in a direction, say, immediately left from the starting point, and you basically crash the game with glitched layers and sprites making a mess. Save-stating is a good friend to have.



But I managed to get some content from Act 1 and 2 (each Present time) of Quartz Quadrant. Looking through the extensive notes that Divine Insect has remarked on their sprite sheets, would it be wrong to adapt them using my text method?

Feel like I can take another proper shot at Tidal Tempest now, too.

[Paraemon]

Since I've been doing a lot of work on Labyrinth Zone lately, I figured I should go sideways and tackle Scrap Brain Act 3 while I was at it due to their similarities. So here's the dry version of the map for SBZ Act 3.

[Ton]

These maps are huge. You're a brave man.

[Paraemon]

These maps are huge. You're a brave man.

Haha, thanks! I can now assure that I may not have to split the maps up into sections, though this does lag trying to align them onto their sheets. Imagine the scope of a marathon stage like Carnival Night Act 2 tackled in one image file.

Statuses:
Labyrinth Zone is ever nearing completion, I have part of the more intense objects ready to place onto an objects sheet, and there is a sad truth: I will not be making a full animation stock for the refraction effect to the background of the Labyrinth Zone, or by extension that of Scrap Brain Act 3. I do not take that decision lightly; after seeing the sheer size of a majority of the blocks being placed against the template from which the refraction effect can be graphed, it is utterly ludicrous, at least at this juncture, to compile the full stock of frames that show the refraction effect rising against the background blocks. I instead shall combine the foreground and background refraction sheets and leave examples for the background blocks so others can create the frames they want. The refraction frames for the foreground blocks are nearly complete, though.

Scrap Brain Act 3's map and background palette variations are complete, as are the 256x256 blocks. The background and block sheets differ from those compiled for the Labyrinth Zone, which will be able to be seen upon release of both collections. However, since the Labyrinth Zone-like content for Act 3 will be included (logically, by name) with the rest of the Scrap Brain content, this shall take a little while to actually be seen.

Hydrocity Act 1's map is back on progress, since when I left it last there was just a giant gaping hole underneath the starting pool.

Preparations are being made to start on the Marble Zone.

[Ton]

I hate roadblocks like that. Maybe it'll get easier somehow down the road. Can't wait to see the updates!

[Paraemon]

I hate roadblocks like that. Maybe it'll get easier somehow down the road. Can't wait to see the updates!

I figure that if I chip away at it slowly, perhaps I can get it done over time; so long as I make an initial release and add that last content later.

But I can oblige with an update!



As I was cycling through the VDP for some information, I found that the palette structure for the Labyrinth Zone  and Scrap Brain Act 3, being the only ones in the game to have a full overhaul depending on if Sonic's in water or not, retained some consistency towards palette switches. So, those palettes which were switched to while trying to match color to tile, have been translated onto the right hand side of the sheet, sort of as a 'plus sheet' attached to the main sheet; this side section may branch into being underneath the main sheet too to incorporate the rest of the content I have yet to put in the Open Air and Underwater subsections.

The smaller countdown bubbles and the broken pipe pieces are new additions not seen on Divine Insect's sheet; the brick double doors are fixed too.

EDIT!

So I was just doing a little light reading on Sonic Retro for prototype information, and found this.


So I started looking at the crystals from Labyrinth Zone a little harder. The cluster set we got in the final release are just six of them interlaced. This is how one standalone crystal should approximately look like.

[Paraemon]

Aside from the underwater brick palettes at the bottom, completed is the objects sheet for Labyrinth Zone; may fix the cable template palette in post later.

[Ton]

Nice job! What a clean sheet!

[Superjustinbros]

Excellent and well-detailed sheet.

[Paraemon]

Thank you both! 

I decided to give myself a bit of breathing room on Labyrinth, it's really been consistently that for days, even with delving into other bits and pieces. I've got to recheck some frame grabs for Sonic CD, but for now, I can readily share the background (to be checked on size) sans cycling palettes for the Nick Arcade Chemical Plant Zone.



I have the animated tiles converted into green blocks on the BG, which I've demarked with letters for what goes where. This will not be a thing for all stage cycling palette rips (looking at you, Carnival f'in Nightmare), but in stages with simple tiles like this, this will be regular.

[Paraemon]

What happens when you take the Marble Zone foreground map and remove all sprites and scenery animations? You get this.



Probably one of the quickest rips I've undertaken.

[Paraemon]

Somewhat large update today!

To start, the Act 2 Map, the inside background (derived from Act 1) and the outside background for the  Marble Zone. Parallax for the outside background taken from the Japanese version.



Scrap Brain Zone Act 2's background, with animations noted. Said animations remain on the actual sheet. For some reason, the stage's background has a non-standard height, so that's what I could get.



Next up, the background to Hidden Palace Zone from the Sonic 2 Simon Wai Prototype. Currently working out the underwater palette for the background, also broken down for parallax.



Taking a crack at Angel Island Zone properly. I have the wall of flames and the Intro scene ready to tear asunder, but the objects at least are simple enough.

[Paraemon]

Today's update! Not as large as the previous one, but still quite considerable.


Let's begin with Flying Battery's Act 1 Map. Heavily under construction, and perhaps later on will have a outdoor wall cover variation to showcase the sections that shift when you enter/are in the open air.

 

Spring Yard's background, ripped from the Japanese version due to parallax effects. Comes with some added construction notes, too, for those interested in mocking up screenshots and what-have-yous.



And the update's pièce de résistance! The dry and wet variants for the backgrounds to Tidal Tempest's (in order left to right) Bad Future, Good Future and Past (each pair is a different image). The Present set is pending, due to a terrible set-up for the backgrounds in those states that almost always ends up in corrupted graphics.

Random Stuff!
So I feel like redrawing Tidal Tempest's past background, because as I progressed through getting it, I found it was just a done of mismatched blocks made to look like jagged stalactites and rocks. Would such a thing be acceptable as a custom submission?

While on the topic of Tidal Tempest, I've initiated ripping the Act 1 Past map and the 256x256 blocks in tandem. As with practically all of the acts and their variants therein of Sonic CD, this will be a slow process as if I accidentally move into the left border of the map, it'll glitch out and I can't move around.


And while I remain on the subject of Sonic CD, I've found that the Special Stages are screwed up terribly when trying to rip them. Simply, the developers constructed the stages to be 256x224 (or 256?) in size, which logically should shrink the screen to accommodate the smaller dimensions. However, as the rest of the game is designed for a screen that is 320x224, the Special Stage is stretched, and the entire thing becomes a JPEG/MPEG mess, making any grabbed screens useless. Literally, all objects from the stages would have to be extracted from the VDP, which isn't so much as a bad thing, if not for the fact that there are specific Special Stages that have spectacular animations in their backgrounds, and move too quickly to ensure each frame can be collected through screencaps. Observer is very salty about this.

I also feel like conjuring up some custom work based on the Game Gear games, but that's a bridge I'll cross later.

And good news! I've finally figured out a solution to the Glowing Spheres expansion issue I've been having, so I can get back on board with working on that.