Paraemon's Comprehensive Ripping Project Thread [Expansion Station]

[Paraemon]

Wow, you sure tackle a lot of things at once.

I think that the more I try to tackle in one hit, the less I have to worry about later. Though this has been quite counter-productive lately, along with other things.

I think putting a sample together of the way a sprite of background was intended to look is just fine. I did it in one of my Chrono Trigger Black Omen sheets. Just make sure you include the unaltered one from the game as well and label them.

Understood, I'll cross that bridge later on. Thanks!

Alright, so I don't have really all that much to show and tell, but I'm making progress on updating the Get Blue Spheres sets from Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles (these two sheets are just examples that will be part of a more full collection, just showcasing them because they're finished).
 

And while charting out the Act 1 Map for Mystic Cave Zone, I figured I ought to get the objects.



Before I sign off, some observations I've made:
- Angel Island Zone: The intro scene when playing as Sonic is, well, much different than we see up on TSR. I believe where the sand meets the ocean has some sort of 2.5D effect in operation, and there are waves that crash upon the beach that we don't really see in game because of Super Sonic zip-zooming past it. Further investigation shall be undertaken regarding the coastline, but the waves are confirmed.

- Sandopolis Zone: Why there hasn't been an update to that zone in some time. When I dropped it off the schedule, it was because it took too much time to segregate the Pyramid from what it was 'parallaxing' over. After looking at it recently in the VDP, both "layers" are one and the same; taking into account the fact that there is the Heat Haze effect that perpetually animates the (foreground and) background, this means that there is a minimum of 1024 combinations in place for the Pyramid parallax system. By comparison, four or five renditions of the Act 2 background, each accounting for the level of lighting and transition in-between, is much simpler.

- Marble Zone: So the interior background is different in both Acts 2 and 3. I'll get to those soon enough.

- Tidal Tempest (Present): Continues to be a nightmare. While it's entirely easy to get the volcanoes blowing their load in the distance, charting out the extent of that part of the background is an exercise in frustration. Likewise with the Labyrinth Zone-esque background lower in the Present acts, but I have found that the transition between the volcano background and the brick background allows for their respective palettes to overlap.

- Carnival Night(mare) Zone: I've yet to confirm it, but considering my issue with Sandopolis as above, there is a possibility that the city that is affected by the parallax falls under the same 'many combinations' to the tiles that construct it. Unlike Sandopolis, though, since it is a lot easier to cut out because of the lack of a Heat Haze effect, I will stick to the original plan I had for the sheet to the background parallax and do the cutting out separation. While I continue to make remarks on this stage, I can confirm that I've had relative success and getting the parallax for everything above the city in the background. The city parts are definitively for a week where I am literally doing nothing.

In all, it's like Sonic Team anticipated the games being ripped and made it as difficult as possible. That being said, I've found something of a solution to my Sonic CD Special Stage issue, but my problem now is palettes.