Haha, I imagine the Heat Haze and the parallax combined, or each standalone, would be the reason older sheets don't have the variants already. It just takes too much time and detracts from wanting to get the sheet finished, which is why we have the static backgrounds accessible.
That said, I'm not kidding about Sandopolis being perhaps the easiest of the stages with the Heat Haze overlapping the parralax. Here's the in-depth explanation to each:
Angel Island, Acts 1 & 2: I cannot for the life of me, at this moment of writing, figure it out. The methodology exists to reasonably extrapolate the objects comprising the background, which I need to get to sooner or later, but then you also have the foreground in receipt of the Heat Haze effect, on account of there being a forest fire. That's not the worst part; the worst part is that the foreground glows via reflection of the fourth-wall-inferno, as the Heat Haze does its thing. That's not even getting on to the auto-lock near the end of Act 2.
Sandopolis Act 1: As shown above, it is the most simplistic, complicated only by the Pyramid object that intertwines with the dunes that shift behind its position.
Lava Reef Boss: The difficulty here lies between the previous two Zones. While it can be done, it needs to take a lot of time. Why? Because of the forced advancement to get to the actual boss arena at the far end of the act's map. As it happens, I must digress; having recently toyed with the Doomsday Zone and Debug mode, I've discovered that activating the mode can allow players to return to earlier points of the stage, thus negating the final stage's auto-lock. Theoretically, I can do the same in Lava Reef, though I need to test this.
With regard to the static backgrounds displayed, where the heat haze isn't in effect (I've seen this during the opening days of the project when I didn't have access to the raw palette or VDP), I can get that too, it'll just take a little while I focus on the obviously more time consuming pieces.
While I'm at it, I should explain the parallax and other background tidbits of some other stages.
Carnival Night.
The parallax to this stage is about as nightmarish as it can get, because much of the background is a solid black color, if it's not flashing or otherwise another static color. That's before getting into the limited underwater and dark palettes.
Mushroom Hill.
The parallax functions in three objects: the trees, the distant hills, and the distant trees. There is foliage beneath the final object, but remains static with the first object, for whatever reason. For the plus sheet, I might make it the fourth object, but that's a bridge for waaaaay later.
Sandopolis Act 2.
Does not contain a regular parallax, as the main background object is just a looped combination of smaller murals and bricks. When compared to other stages, it outdoes the backgrounds of Marble Garden Act 1, Death Egg (both acts), and The Doomsday Zone.
Death Egg Act 1.
No parralax, as the background is fixed in place the entire time, and the glowing is so much more simpler to explore than whatever is going on in Carnival Night. The larger bother from this stage is the room background against Red Eye, since the glowing/flashing animations increase.
Credits.
Yes, these deserve some mention. At the very least, in Knuckles' conclusion, the clouds are the same objects from Sky Sanctuary, so it's already easy enough to get those. The tail-end of the credits for Knux's route display no parallax in the end, but the objects move just as they do in stages that rely on free-flowing cloud mechanics, and the stars flicker. And then there's the oceanic horizon in the credits for Sonic's route, there is a quantifiable amount of parallax that can be acquired from here.
That said, I'm not kidding about Sandopolis being perhaps the easiest of the stages with the Heat Haze overlapping the parralax. Here's the in-depth explanation to each:
Angel Island, Acts 1 & 2: I cannot for the life of me, at this moment of writing, figure it out. The methodology exists to reasonably extrapolate the objects comprising the background, which I need to get to sooner or later, but then you also have the foreground in receipt of the Heat Haze effect, on account of there being a forest fire. That's not the worst part; the worst part is that the foreground glows via reflection of the fourth-wall-inferno, as the Heat Haze does its thing. That's not even getting on to the auto-lock near the end of Act 2.
Sandopolis Act 1: As shown above, it is the most simplistic, complicated only by the Pyramid object that intertwines with the dunes that shift behind its position.
Lava Reef Boss: The difficulty here lies between the previous two Zones. While it can be done, it needs to take a lot of time. Why? Because of the forced advancement to get to the actual boss arena at the far end of the act's map. As it happens, I must digress; having recently toyed with the Doomsday Zone and Debug mode, I've discovered that activating the mode can allow players to return to earlier points of the stage, thus negating the final stage's auto-lock. Theoretically, I can do the same in Lava Reef, though I need to test this.
With regard to the static backgrounds displayed, where the heat haze isn't in effect (I've seen this during the opening days of the project when I didn't have access to the raw palette or VDP), I can get that too, it'll just take a little while I focus on the obviously more time consuming pieces.
While I'm at it, I should explain the parallax and other background tidbits of some other stages.
Carnival Night.
The parallax to this stage is about as nightmarish as it can get, because much of the background is a solid black color, if it's not flashing or otherwise another static color. That's before getting into the limited underwater and dark palettes.
Mushroom Hill.
The parallax functions in three objects: the trees, the distant hills, and the distant trees. There is foliage beneath the final object, but remains static with the first object, for whatever reason. For the plus sheet, I might make it the fourth object, but that's a bridge for waaaaay later.
Sandopolis Act 2.
Does not contain a regular parallax, as the main background object is just a looped combination of smaller murals and bricks. When compared to other stages, it outdoes the backgrounds of Marble Garden Act 1, Death Egg (both acts), and The Doomsday Zone.
Death Egg Act 1.
No parralax, as the background is fixed in place the entire time, and the glowing is so much more simpler to explore than whatever is going on in Carnival Night. The larger bother from this stage is the room background against Red Eye, since the glowing/flashing animations increase.
Credits.
Yes, these deserve some mention. At the very least, in Knuckles' conclusion, the clouds are the same objects from Sky Sanctuary, so it's already easy enough to get those. The tail-end of the credits for Knux's route display no parallax in the end, but the objects move just as they do in stages that rely on free-flowing cloud mechanics, and the stars flicker. And then there's the oceanic horizon in the credits for Sonic's route, there is a quantifiable amount of parallax that can be acquired from here.
![[Image: WatSig.png]](https://i.ibb.co/ZNzH7fK/WatSig.png)