Hedgehog Engine

[Blue Blood]

The Hedgehog Engine was in development for 3 years, and it's likey that that development ain't yet over. Nobody would spend so long on such an advanced graphics engine to use in one series or stand alone game. It will be used again, and outside of Sonic games also.

[Ticky]

If they don't use it again, they're mad. I'd like to see it do some other games, though, for sure. SEGA should license the bugger once they're confident there are no bugs or glitches.

As for Unleashed, it's still a beautiful game. i was playing it again the other day and just had to stop to look around. It's got some astonishingly nicely made locales in there.

The werehog fur was done horribly. Even the Wii version made it look better IMHO. Either go all the way and do it right or remove it entirely, I say.

[ShadiWulf]

Werehogs fur in 360/PS3 looked much better then Wii's Werehog.

[lounge]

just think what a next gen NiGHTS game would look like running on it.

based on the poor sales of the new NiGHTS, I doubt there'll be another one. NiGHTS just isn't popular. Which is sad, because it at least gave sonic team another franchise to work on. There are just too many sonic games nowadays.

[Phos]

based on the poor sales of the new NiGHTS, I doubt there'll be another one. NiGHTS just isn't popular. Which is sad, because it at least gave sonic team another franchise to work on. There are just too many sonic games nowadays.

NiGHTS was the best selling game on the Saturn. A combination of the tiny budget, short development time, platform roulette, and Iizuka's overal ineptitude doomed it.

The best feature of the engine is it's loading ability. Not even the Unreal engine 3 comes close. GI effect is all right, but there is an engine that can do the GI effect in real time (on my phone right now, can't copy/paste). The HE also has mediocre real time lighting with blocky shadows. It has the best motion blur effect, though.

[Dr_Ultimate]

I love the Hedgehog engine. I think it works brilliantly. I really enjoy the way it works on those Sonic levels. So smooth, fast and looks awesome too. Yes I think there will be more games using that engine.

[lounge]

NiGHTS was the best selling game on the Saturn. A combination of the tiny budget, short development time, platform roulette, and Iizuka's overal ineptitude doomed it.

NiGHTS was the best selling game on Saturn probably because at the time it was unique, and it was the Saturn....what else was there to get for that system?

Facing facts, NiGHTS just isn't popular nowadays, which sucks. The new game only sold 240 K, while sonic is able to sell up to 1 mill in north america alone.

[Segamaster]

Dude, you had very good titles to get on the saturn besides Nights, what are you talking about?

[Sega DogTagz]

It would be nice to see different graphical capabilities like fur rendering on Tails

Some Sonic Team dude brought this up about a year ago. He was trying to explain why Sonic wasn’t overly “Furry” in the newest games. According to him it was because it looked ugly and lost his trademark appeal.

(cant remember where that was though)

[lounge]

Some Sonic Team dude brought this up about a year ago. He was trying to explain why Sonic wasn’t overly “Furry” in the newest games. According to him it was because it looked ugly and lost his trademark appeal.

(cant remember where that was though)

Yeah, I remember that too. They tested it with Sonic 06. Which is why I only mentioned Tails with fur rendering.

[Blue Blood]

Yeah, I remember that too. They tested it with Sonic 06. Which is why I only mentioned Tails with fur rendering.

Still, the characters don't need it. They gave it to the Werehog because he has a thick and fluffy coat. Tails coat (as with Blaze, Big and Marine) seem to be implied to be short. And it would probably look at bit too much on Charmy.

[7Force]

based on the poor sales of the new NiGHTS, I doubt there'll be another one. NiGHTS just isn't popular. Which is sad, because it at least gave sonic team another franchise to work on. There are just too many sonic games nowadays.

I think SEGA should chance it but maybe as a next gen NiGHTS SEGA should make it a download title, I think that could work. I'm just saying with the HE Sonic Team could try other things with it.

Werehogs fur in 360/PS3 looked much better then Wii's Werehog.

True. In the Wii version despite the downgrade in graphics Sonic still looked great but close up the Werehog looked like shit.

[Reading]

I'd like to see the Hedgehog Engine used with a more Adventure/2006 gameplay style. Unleashed's daytime stages didn't really click with me. Having Sonic moving slower and less frantically would also lessen some of the issues that arise from having to render so many things at such a fast rate (correct me if I'm wrong, but that seems logical).

[Suna]

I'd like to see the Hedgehog Engine used with a more Adventure/2006 gameplay style. Unleashed's daytime stages didn't really click with me. Having Sonic moving slower and less frantically would also lessen some of the issues that arise from having to render so many things at such a fast rate (correct me if I'm wrong, but that seems logical).

But woulden't that basicly make the Hedgie Engine useless, if it wasen't fast?

[Blue Blood]

But woulden't that basicly make the Hedgie Engine useless, if it wasen't fast?

The H.E. can handle these high speeds, but by no means does it have to. Werehog, remember.

[Reading]

There's more to it then just rendering things fast, isn't there? Lighting and shadow effects and such...

[Sega DogTagz]

I'd like to see the Hedgehog Engine used with a more Adventure/2006 gameplay style.

I loved those games as much as the next guy, but with all the praise the day stages got, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

And while the H.E. can handle slower speeds, it was built to render stuff really well, really fast. That is a lot of development to throw away to slow sonic down to pre-unleashed levels.

[Blue Blood]

I loved those games as much as the next guy, but with all the praise the day stages got, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

And while the H.E. can handle slower speeds, it was built to render stuff really well, really fast. That is a lot of development to throw away to slow sonic down to pre-unleashed levels.

The Hedgehog Engine isn't just for Sonic. It's for Sonic Team and Sega to use as they wish. Why are people not getting that?

[Blacklightning]

I loved those games as much as the next guy, but with all the praise the day stages got, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

And while the H.E. can handle slower speeds, it was built to render stuff really well, really fast. That is a lot of development to throw away to slow sonic down to pre-unleashed levels.

Rendering really well/fast =/= capability for fast speed, necessarily. That could mean a whole lot of things. For all we know the H.E could spend all that extra processing power on GIGANTIC hordes of enemies instead. Just understand that the concept isn't best used solely in speed, even if it's the most obvious application.

EDIT:

The Hedgehog Engine isn't just for Sonic. It's for Sonic Team and Sega to use as they wish. Why are people not getting that?

Not forgetting Sega's first-party devs, unless I'm mistaken. Edited March 16, 2009 by Blacklightning

[Gamenerd]

The Hedgehog Engine isn't just for Sonic. It's for Sonic Team and Sega to use as they wish. Why are people not getting that?

Because it's just your bog-standard graphics engine, only it can render and load things really fast without much lag. If you're going to make a slower game, the Hedgehog Engine is pretty futile in comparison to better-looking (but slower loading) graphics engines. The Hedgehog Engine is basically made for Sonic, although it would support F-Zero pretty well too.

[Blue Blood]

Because it's just your bog-standard graphics engine, only it can render and load things really fast without much lag. If you're going to make a slower game, the Hedgehog Engine is pretty futile in comparison to better-looking (but slower loading) graphics engines. The Hedgehog Engine is basically made for Sonic, although it would support F-Zero pretty well too.

It's a fairly decent graphics engine that not only makes things easies for SEGA because they don't have to buy lisences, but they can use it as a selling point. It was made with the intention of being used in a variety of projects- SEGA said this in more than a single interview.

[Sega DogTagz]

Because it's just your bog-standard graphics engine, only it can render and load things really fast without much lag. If you're going to make a slower game, the Hedgehog Engine is pretty futile in comparison to better-looking (but slower loading) graphics engines. The Hedgehog Engine is basically made for Sonic, although it would support F-Zero pretty well too.

Exactly.

Sure, Sega is free to do with it what they please, but it will surly preform best at what it is designed to do. When moving at mach speeds, the engine displays graphics on par with anything in the industry. At a standstill/slow, it is nothing overly special.

[ShadiWulf]

It's perfectly capable of global illumination type graphics if your not moving fast, Sonic Team showed Tech Demos, surprised no one remembers.

[Lukar]

I guess the Hedgehog Engine is great. It certainly gave the game great graphics, but I think that it also may be responsible for the slowdown in the game. Still, it gave us a new gameplay change from the other 3D Sonic games- Switching from 3D to 2D was awesome.

[Blacklightning]

Exactly.

Sure, Sega is free to do with it what they please, but it will surly preform best at what it is designed to do. When moving at mach speeds, the engine displays graphics on par with anything in the industry. At a standstill/slow, it is nothing overly special.

Allow me to reiterate: You can use rapid loading for MUCH more than just moving fast. As I mentioned before, it's also a perfect excuse to cram a lot more processor-intensive objects in than normally possible without having to wait for seperate objects to load. So in effect, if the pace is slower you could easily compensate with more objects, or hell, you could use it to completely do away with loading times save for a single initial wait. Let's also not forget it does more than that - the fabulous lighting effects would work wonders with a game set in a dark atmosphere, for example. Gotta think outside the box, people.

I guess the Hedgehog Engine is great. It certainly gave the game great graphics, but I think that it also may be responsible for the slowdown in the game.

The engine was designed to prevent slowdown, not cause it. The only reason it seemed laggy in places otherwise is simply because of bad design - they put too much clutter in some places for even the H.E to process in time. The only real proof you need of that is that they actually managed to fix it in some places (most notably Jungle Joyride) simply with a small mandatory patch.