Jims' Saturn Inspired MD2 Pack-V3.5 (Mighty/Texture Overhaul)

V3.5! Mighty was added, Texture Overhaul

Due to requests, I whipped up a quick Mighty.

Also, as seen above, several members of the cast received texture touch-ups to better fit srb2's color palette, as well as to just show better 'lighting.'

Some other objects/enemies got these touch-ups as well, including but not limited to;
-Springs
-FISH
-Chaos Emeralds

Background

With the recent release of Sonic Mania, I, like several others, were inspired to start making some content again. The amazing looking low-poly work in the special stages of Mania especially, game me something to strive for.

This model pack is designed to answer the what if question "What if SRB2 was made officially for the Saturn?"

As such, the models are designed using parts and textures from whatever Saturn models I could get my hands on, with a target of looking somewhere in the middle-ground quality between Sonic R and Sonic Jam. The other thing about this is, I genuinely believe that a mix of both some sprite assets and modeled assets is what the Saturn would have done, and I won't be making models for every asset under the sun. (so don't expect flowers bushes. etc)

Whats Included Then?

Spoiler:

-Sonic(with full Fsonic.wad support)
-Tails(with full Tailscd.wad support)
-Knuckles
-All Eggman Bosses
-Brak(lazy touchup)
-Metal Sonic (both bossfight, and Character Wad Support)
-Monitors (including S3K monitors)
-Springs!
-Emeralds
-Shields (S3k as well)
-All Vanilla Enemies (except the turret because who gets that close to it?)
-A few mod's enemies, (proto.wad's "Jetties", some SUGOI ones and prob others I don't recall)
-Supersonic for NIGHTS Mode. (not Fsonic version because reasons)
-Shadow (Speedwagon's WAD support)
-Rosy (Katsy's WAD support)
-Silver (Lat's WAD support)
-Playershadows (support for TD, lua_playershadows.wad)
-Full color changing support for the cast

This Model pack is BEST experienced in 600x480 resolution.

Setting up!

The actual ZIP contains all the files you need, as you need them. Simply export the files to your root SRB2 2.1 folder, start SRB2.exe in OpenGL and use the console command "GR_MD2 1" and your good to go!

New folder organization?

Spoiler:

So, due to me wanting to keep shit organized, I've sorted the models into 4 folders inside the main MD2 folder and setup MD2.dat accordingly. So if you wanted to, you could merge this with whatever current models your using, and just swap out your md2.dat to change what models you're using.

Credit Explained

Spoiler:

Sryder13: His Robohood as a base for the low poly version, as well as being a major support/tester
¡Reremy: Used modified versions of several of his Badnik textures.
TheDoctor: Used his port of Brak, most just redid textures/mapping and walking animation because lazy.
Chromatian: Very helpful in testing/motivation!
Special thanks to Freeze and Ultra from Discord for helping touch-up knuckles' eyelid textures

Future Plans?

Spoiler:

As of this moment this is the "final" version of this pack. I covered what I believe are the relevant character wads of SRB2, and don't have plans to make more unless new wads get released that get used.

I think I'm going to use these models for SRB2Kart, as that game needs the lowest amount of shit on screen at all times.

Update log

Spoiler:

9/7/17 - Fixed TailsCD.md2 swim animation
9/7/17 - Replaced Emeralds with better Saturn/Mania ones. Also, due to some feedback I've taken all ring object models off by default.
If you desire rings simply add the following back to your md2.dat

Spoiler:

RING OBJE/RING.md2 3.0 0.0
RRNG OBJE/RRNG.md2 3.0 0.0
TRNG OBJE/TRNG.md2 3.0 0.0

9/25/17

V2.0! A few adjustments to better represent Jam's iteration of Sonic

-Efforts were made to match Jam's animations
-I decided to make sonic's shoe's soles that darker gray/black, as srb2 has it that way, as well as Jam, and I honestly prefer it to the red.
-A quick texture fix was made to clean up color changes on most of the cast
-Sonic and Shadow both received a contrast reduction to better fit the rest of the cast.

10/10/2017

V3.0! Dirk was added to group, goalpost got huge overhaul

-Goalpost were remade from scratch to have a better presentation, use the same images are their respective character's sprites, and now support the background color changing!
-Knuckle's gliding animation got an update to better match the sprites
-Metalsonic got a model touch-up and some animations fixed
-Spindashing frames were adjusted a bit to not look as awkward.

V3.5! Mighty was added, Texture Overhaul

Due to requests, I whipped up a quick Mighty.
Also, as seen above, several members of the cast received texture touch-ups to better fit srb2's color palette, as well as to just show better 'lighting.'

Some other objects/enemies got these touch-ups as well, including but not limited to;
-Springs
-FISH
-Chaos Emeralds

Known "Issues"

-Animation frames added with lua can be very difficult to make models for, ROSY is a great example of this. (NO I can't fix the hammer bounce)
-An excessive amount of MD2 models on screen or in the area will cause Frame issues, I suggest turning on Limit Draw (render distance for objects) in 3D options.
-Tailscd: the way the lua for the extra animation states is setup prevents Tails' tails from interpolating. To simplify, they will animated "not-smooth" :V
-The above issue is also present in many character wad's Spindash states.
-For some reason the Large Score Monitor is broken even though it uses the exact same assets of the lower score monitor.(?)

[U L T R A]

Originally Posted by Elyos03

Just try it yourself. Movie Mode doesn't want me to make GIFs.

Oh I see, ill tell Jeck on Discord

[AlamGBC]

Originally Posted by Elyos03

Just try it yourself. Movie Mode doesn't want me to make GIFs.

SRB2 only make GIFs when in software mode;
In OpenGL mode, it make APNG files

Sent from my Lenovo TB-8504F using ********

[U L T R A]

Originally Posted by Elyos03

Just try it yourself. Movie Mode doesn't want me to make GIFs.

Jeck said "there's not really anything I can do about it, SRB2 is the issue"

[Lach]

Jeck would be right. The Super Sonic animation error occurs because his walking frames can last 2 or 4 tics depending on how fast the player is currently moving. However, in the SOC, the state is defined as being 3 tics; it is only set to 4 or 2 using Lua when FSonic is moving slowly. Up until 2.1.20, MD2 interpolation changed dynamically depending on how many tics the state was set to; however, in 2.1.20 it now it seems to have a maximum interpolation duration of whatever is defined in the state. Basically the jittery movement is a result of the game trying to limit FSonic's walking states to 3 tics whenever the Lua is telling them to be 4. This change also breaks some of the vanilla animations, such as the dynamic jumpball state durations. I'm not quite sure what the 2.1.20 change is even meant to fix; interpolation works pretty consistently and any issues it has are generally a result of neglect by WAD creators. I see no reason why the developers need to account for that.

Since we're definitely not getting a 2.1.21 just to fix this issue, there are two ways you can work around this issue if it really bugs you.
1) Turn off MD2 interpolation by setting running the command "gr_md2 2" (or "gr_md2 old"). It gets rid of the smooth transitions between frames, but that's exactly what's causing the jitteriness, so you may find it better.
2) Make a private copy of FSonic.wad and change each of his walking states to have a duration of 4 tics in the SOC lump.

[Rumia1]

@Lach from the 2.1.20 news post:

* Fixed MD2 interpolation not working under certain circumstances (particularly if an object’s state has a finite duration normally, but the object has made it infinite instead).

This was the only change regarding MD2s and it seems to have broken everything you mentioned.

[Lach]

That's the irony, yes.

Originally Posted by Lach

Up until 2.1.20, MD2 interpolation changed dynamically depending on how many tics the state was set to; however, in 2.1.20 it now it seems to have a maximum interpolation duration of whatever is defined in the state.

I don't know for certain because I don't know where to find MD2 related information in the source code, but from observation alone that's what I think the changelog means.

EDIT: Been testing a little; this might actually be a player-only issue. Using modifications like Sapheros' 2.2directionchar.lua shows that the interpolation bug can be fixed by setting an object's state and duration every tic, but when I tried to replicate this for actual players rather than a custom overlay, it did not work. I'm going to step back now because I don't really know why this is, and I've probably already said something completely wrong about the new 2.1.20 system.

[Lach]

Just wanted to mention that toaster contacted me about the interpolation issues to say that they are indeed a bug and not what the intended changes were meant to be (apologies for overanalyzing your decisions, developers). Interpolation durations were supposed to be updated so that they last a maximum of quarter of a second (except of course where they are set to infinite), but something must have been overlooked when the changes were implemented into 2.1.20. toaster's looking into it.

[toaster]

Just to put out a further notice - there are no plans to backport the quarter-second aspect to 2.1. Rather, making that the case in internal exposed a bug, the fix to which was initially made in public next as it was believed it had consequences going backwards as well. I'm not quite sure how everything goes into each-other right now in public to make things jerky, and *that's* what I'm looking into.

Not that there's going to be a 2.1.21. [s](famous last words)[/s]

EDIT: Fixed it. (I think.)

hw_md2.c line 1350
- if (cv_grmd2.value == 1)
+ if (cv_grmd2.value == 1 && tics <= durs)

The jerkiness was caused by treating all calculations as if interpoleration should be within the bounds, whilst not actually doing anything to limit it to that. Code is free to a good home since I'm too lazy to commit it myself.

EDIT II: post 69, nice

[digiangel234]

So I've got this installed and everything looks good, though Tails still flies underwater instead of swimming. Is there something I'm missing here or is that some other mod that's not associated with this one?

[Lach]

You're probably looking for the Tails CD character wad, which has custom swimming animations that Jeck's MD2 supports.

[Jeck Jims]

I didn't bother making a swimming animation though, since the TTLS sprites still use the flying animation anyway.

[Lach]

Oh, okay. My bad. I don't usually play with Tails CD anymore so that was a wrong assumption on my part.

[digiangel234]

I do notice that in Castle Eggman 3, with the MD2 active, if I'm standing on the edge of wall then Eggman ends up getting undrawn completely, as well as like the first 2 balls in the chain, let alone further out. I even have my draw distance turned all the way up, yet it's still like this.

EDIT: Pictures included.

[Sryder13]

Originally Posted by digiangel234

I do notice that in Castle Eggman 3, with the MD2 active, if I'm standing on the edge of wall then Eggman ends up getting undrawn completely, as well as like the first 2 balls in the chain, let alone further out. I even have my draw distance turned all the way up, yet it's still like this.

Turn your precipitation draw distance down, there's a good reason it's so low by default. That said the issue is worse in OpenGL, but I'd be surprised if infinite draw distance for precipitation didn't lag in software anyway.

[spike tf]

Jeck, your new models fit better in the game and for that reason I have liked them more

[ToeiSoni1998]

Can you add the models you used for the Chaos Emeralds into the score tally process of the special stages once you obtain that said emerald?

[Sapheros]

The "Tally Score" Screen is a HUD feature, which doesn't render MD2s at all.

[ToeiSoni1998]

Shouldn't that be integrated then into SRB2?

[XleederTH]

Originally Posted by ToeiSoni1998

Shouldn't that be integrated then into SRB2?

I don't think so.
It would take time and is useless as adding md2 for water or something.