Jazz 2 Resurrection
 

Jazz² Resurrection is reimplementation of the game Jazz Jackrabbit 2 released in 1998. Supports various versions of the game (Shareware Demo, Holiday Hare '98, The Secret Files and Christmas Chronicles). Also, it partially supports some features of JJ2+ extension and MLLE.

This game requires assets from the original game.

Jazz² Resurrection supports various versions of the original game, but it is recommended to use The Secret Files. Also, if you have more than one version, you can import all of them, but it's recommended to import TSF as the last one. If you don't have any JJ2 version, you can run Import.exe by double-click (without parameters) and it will download and import Shareware Demo.

What's implemented:

• Singleplayer mode (story episodes + home cooked levels)
• All 3 playable characters, 99% of enemies (+ bosses), all weapons - but not 100% accurate
• All episodes are playable to the end
• Textured backgrounds, lighting, water, snow, rain, ...
• Springs, collectibles, crates, save points, bonus warps, ambient sounds, steam notes, explosions, airboards, ...
• Some JJ2+ specific events/parameters
• Renders at fixed resolution 720x405, but automatically adapts to different aspect ratios
• Several scaling filters
• Normal maps for lighting
• Uses some unused animations and sounds
• And many other things...

Instructions: http://deat.tk/jazz2/#running-the-application

Download:
Windows / Linux / macOS: http://deat.tk/jazz2/
Requires .NET Framework 4.5.2 on Windows, or Mono 4.6 on Linux/macOS.
Android: http://deat.tk/jazz2/
Requires device with Android 4.4 or newer and OpenGL ES 3.0 support.

Release Notes: http://deat.tk/jazz2/release-notes

Controls:

• Arrows - Move
• Space - Fire
• V - Jump
• C - Run
• X - Change Weapon

GitHub: https://github.com/deathkiller/jazz2
This software is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.

Discord: https://discord.gg/Y7SBvkD
Gameplay video (v0.5.8): https://youtu.be/M794QHwfMXg

[IMG]https://raw.githubusercontent.com/deathkiller/jazz2/master/Docs/Screen1.png[/IMG]

Okay...I'll be honest. I'll give a plus for some effort, though there are quite a few issues..

For a start, the camera needs work. It should lead the player ahead, not follow them. It's kinda nauseous to watch.

Secondly, I noticed quite a lot of features missing not mentioned, that were actually good, for example, ambient lighting on shot projectiles - they give extra clarity, especially in light areas of levels. And there's lots of missing sounds/animations. Also, is running implemented? It's not featured in the video at all. That's the bread and butter of JJ2, despite some newbies overlooking it.

Thirdly, I'm also not a fan of how Spazzes and Jazzes shooting sound effects have been changed at all. This wouldn't be bothersome if they were new sounds altogether, but when you swap clearly established sounds that were within the original game, it's very misleading and sounds buggy.

As much as it's great to still see people passionate about the series, I've seen many JJ2 remakes that never get finished, that I have little hope and higher standards. And the fact that JJ2+ offers so much more - even if one remake was done, it would be unlikely that many, if any would move over. Except for those allergic to piracy and second-hand copies, and tileset makers who can't stand working with an 8-bit pallette. I've been repressing that thought a lot to not piss people off, though I didn't want to hold it in anymore. I would prefer to see more players and JCSers in the current game, or a truly new fangame altogether. Perhaps even more working in the plus team.

However, if this is simply for the sake of practice/doing a hobby - don't mind the above paragraph.

Nice work - looks like you've gotten pretty far already. It makes me wonder what makes JJ2 so compelling to remake, as this is maybe the 5th reproduction that's been announced here so far... though I suppose it's a fun game to remake as a hobby project and relatively easy to get to a somewhat decent level of reimplementation. Linux and Android support is a particularly nice feature.

Looks good so far. My only real complaint is that I personally am not a fan of the scaler used, but otherwise, looks great!

I look forward to future updates on this. :)

Thank you for your feedback.

Smooth camera is experiment and can be adjusted (or even turned off). Smoothing is completely turned off for vertical MP levels, because player easily gets off screen.

Yes, running is implemented. I don't think there are lots of missing animations, I know that idle animations, ledge and airboard are missing (and End Of Level animation is not implemented properly right now). Lighting system doesn't support "oversaturation" (values over 1.0), so it must be rewritten first. It's using HW 3D rendering, so some features are complicated to implement.

Sound effects could be different, I assigned them as I found them in game files and didn't compare them with original game. I will fix it. They can be changed without source code change, this mapping is saved in external file.

It's hard to overcome the original game, because everybody is used to play it. This game will never be the same, it would be similar. It's a hobby, because original data files are still copyrighted and it's hard to distribute or do something more with it. That's why I didn't post download link for playable game yet.

I didn't want to show another incomplete remake/fangame, but the game is playable right now, so I thought that I could show it here. It's mainly because the original game looks very good (altough it's 19 years old) and data files format is well documented here.

Thanks. I know that some people don't like these scaling algorithms (although I like them), so it can be turned off in settings.

While I agree with Treylina, I'm very happy to see a yet another attempt to remake Jazz2. Project Carrot and the Unreal Engine Jazz 2 are pretty much paused (or maybe even dead) at this point so it's always exciting news to see a Jazz project going on. Looking forward to see more of this!

It's not smoothness that's the problem, it's that it leads them behind, instead of leading them ahead.

The original JJ2 camera system is smooth, stays still enough when it needs to be and leads the player ahead. That's what makes it so great.

There's actually an article which helps explain how it works. In relatively simple terms though, the camera budges to the direction to where the player is going, which offsets the sprite a little. It is also stronger the faster they are going. When the player reaches a corner of the level, it stops (for example, if they reach the very top position of the level, it stops moving above). When they hit a wall horizontally and not jump, the camera slowly adjusts to the center. Setting to a smaller resolution demonstrates this more clearly.

As for missing animations, there's no spawn/consume animation (its the same). It's to do with getting pickups and respawning. Also not really an animation, but enemies/bosses appear to not blink white when they are hit. Which I think is important, since it shows they took the hit. The spinning sprite for going up from a spring/tube is also missing.

Something I also noticed odd about the physics is that you don't go up after buttstomping an enemy. Going up with that does have some utility. Best case scenario though would be to let the player go up after only if they hold jump. That makes it more versatile and flow better if they want to go down. Also, can you keep jumping if you hold on jump? Especially on one-ways.

Anyway..good luck. ;p

Thanks, I will try to fix it according to this.

Fixed!

Yes, it already works like this.

Other changes:

• Blaster sounds were fixed.
• Spawn/consume animation is implemented.
• White blink of enemies is implemented now (and player blinking too).
• Spring jump sprite is used/implemented.
• And some other things...

This looks really cool! :)

Are you going to add support for different resolutions/FOV?

This looks amazing!

Thanks. It supports any resolution you want. FOV is automatically adjusted, but could be tweaked in next versions.

If you want to try it, here is the first version to download. It's alpha version, It should work, but maybe it will not.

This version is old, see the first post!
Download (v0.4.3 - Preview 1): https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0B8bp...xport=download

1. Extract the archive
2. Drag and drop the original TSF game directory (with JJ2+ installed) on Import.exe (or run: Import.exe "Path to TSF")
3. Wait few seconds/minutes (Normal map generator supports multithreading and is CPU intensive)
4. Run Jazz2.exe

It checks for updates on startup (so you can block it in firewall, if you don't need it). It should work on Windows 7 or newer (with .NET Framework 4.5.2 installed) or Linux (with Mono installed).

Controls
Arrows - Move
Space - Fire
V - Jump
C - Run
X - Change Weapon

Controls can't be reconfigured in this version.

Did you figured out the license yet? Github?

Good job on creating the most complete JJ2 remake yet! :-)

I'd say, prioritize stability, compatibility, and ease of use above physics accuracy. There is definitely room for improvement on things like movement and speeds for various events, but it's fine as long as it plays all custom singleplayer levels (that don't rely on quirks) as expected by the established player.

It seems that my previous post with release of the game is still waiting for administrator approval...

I decided to release the source code on GitHub, see the updated first post.

Gah, I wrote a pretty long post where I was pointing out stuff I've noticed in Jazz 2 Resurrection but when I wanted to post it, JCF just decided to screw up with me.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/iAV3CGB.png[/IMG]

...anyway, I'll just make a quick summary of what I wrote in that:
- The animations are weird at times. Jazz convulsively crouches (more precisely, uses his high jump ability animation) when running and shooting at the same time. The side pole animations are very weird as well. Also Jazz's animation when trying to stop from his momentum kind of screws up the other animations.
- You can't spam your weapon which is kind of weird, probably your choice though. Same for Queen dealing damage upon touching.
- If you exit the boss room, you win. This applies for the Queen, I don't know about the other bosses.
- Sometimes the character falls through the rope instead of, well, catching it. This occurred in level 2 for me.
- The spikes under the level 1 first rope don't deal damage.
- The collisions are a bit too restrictive sometimes. For example, when jumping on a spring to go through a tight gap in the air you will most likely fall because you were not close enough to the middle of that gap.
- One of those red floaty enemies just killed me from a distance. I think it was a 1-2 cm distance. The deflated floaty enemies can't be killed through butt stomps or their collision is too small.
- Somehow I pulled off a glitch that launched me far into the air in level 5. I couldn't replicate it after, it's probably related to the collision.
- This.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/jX6B9Ho.png[/IMG]
- This. (Not sure how it happened, probably because of a pole. I got out of it by butt stomping, I think.)
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/I9U8GVO.gif[/IMG]
- Just go inside a boss' collision box and Crouch + Jump for an instant kill. (Oh boy, vanilla JJ2 memories!)

That's all I can remember. I really loved playing it (even though I've played the first levels for like a millionth time) and looking forward to this project. It's neatly done and very similar to the original JJ2 in terms of quality. Those things I pointed out are meant to help you. Best wishes! ^^

Thank you for report.

• "Animation when running and shooting at the same time" is fixed now.
• Queen is fixed.
• "You can't spam your weapon which is kind of weird" - I'm not sure this should be allowed, but probably yes...
• "If you exit the boss room, you win." - Yes, I know, it's a bug. That's why you are respawned near boss after death. Also camera lock is not implemented yet.
• Physics is buggy (mainly at higher speeds). I didn't have time to fix it.
• "The spikes under the level 1 first rope don't deal damage." - Yes, because spike tile has empty mask, and if I allow it, it will break Psych levels. I don't know what do with it...
• "Somehow I pulled off a glitch that launched me far into the air in level 5." - I know, it's because of bug in Jazz's copter. It was partially fixed, but it's not enough.
• Poles can't collide with other objects. My "engine" can't check collisions of angled objects yet.
• "Just go inside a boss' collision box and Crouch + Jump for an instant kill. (Oh boy, vanilla JJ2 memories!)" - Fixed!

New version (0.4.4) released, see the first post. You can try Windows/Linux and Android version. :)

I don't know if this is just a mistake on my behalf, but for the last half hour I've been trying to test out this remake with no success:
I have downloaded perhaps 10 versions of JJ2 TSF.
Sometimes JJ2+ refused to install, and when it did, the Import tool of the remake complained that files were missing (and when I entered the program and tried to play an episode, it just didn't work and crashed :confused:)...

Which files were missing?

*suddenly gains urge to use footage of this and make a sonic mania style trailer*

I've just rediscovered this forum and it is very nice to see it alive. When I looked at my old posts though, I felt a mix of amusement and shame(actually I hoped they were deleted long ago).

Naturally when I saw this remake, I wanted to try it out, especially that it allegedly runs on GNU/Linux. Sadly, it doesn't work for me. At first I tried to build it from Git source, but I failed. I am not sure whether it was my total lack of Mono skills or broken files. There were complains about the Android version, but I wanted a PC one. It even built at some point, but didn't start.
So I tried the release package. The Import application did its job, but the game still doesn't really work. It seems that the problem lies in case-sensitive filenames in Linux. For example, I got errors like this:
Cannot prerender textured background: System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: Could not find a part of the path "/home/username/Jazz2/Content/Tilesets/Easter99/tiles.png".

because the directory is actually named "easter99" with small "E".
So, the question is: is it possible to make one convention of naming files and directories within the project? I have never written anything in C# but I would be happy to help with testing.

Yes, sorry, I forgot that Linux is case-sensitive (but VMware HGFS not). Filenames should be fixed now, but I'm not sure. At the start the naming convention was different, I changed it then, but I forgot to check case-sensitivity.

Build on Linux should work, but I didn't test it. You have to restore nuget packages and build only Jazz2 project (it needs Jazz2.Core shared project) and then Import project.

New version released (v0.4.5) in first post.

• Reworked lighting
• Added some events, fixed enemies, physics and generators
• Fixed filename case-mismatch

I tested the latest version. Now I can browse the menu(there are minor glitches, but I am not sure whether it is the fault of the game or drivers: https://my.mixtape.moe/udiwkh.png), the background music plays but no success when trying to play a level.
Here I uploaded the output of Import.exe: https://pastebin.com/8FJwRgyG
The "missing" tilesets are where they should be anyway: https://my.mixtape.moe/cojcog.png

The error logs are about Animations/Jazz/spring.png.res and other "spring-related" files related to the other characters. The files themselves have filenames with capital "S".
After manually changing these, it complains about Animations/Pickup/fast_fire_lori.png.res
This file is missing.
Is it possible that using LK Avalon version of JJ2 1.24 breaks it? I don't have the original English version, and on 1.23 there are even more absent files.

I reuploaded new version (but still v0.4.5) about 2 hours ago. It should show version 0.4.5 in main menu now and fixes errors you mentioned. So please, redownload it.

fast_fire_lori.png - You have to install JJ2+ (or at least copy plus.j2a file to JJ2 directory)

Menu glitch is linux-specific and not fixed yet.

Android version doesn't work for me. Opens and has a white screen for a few seconds, before crashing. I followed the instructions exactly, so I'm not sure what's wrong.

Phone: Galaxy S4 on Android 7.1.2 (LineageOS 14.1)

You can install CPU-Z from Google Play store and check that your system/device supports OpenGL ES 3.0.
The application doesn't have any crash handler right now, and I don't know how to implement it to get some crash report, but I will try to do something with it.

It does :)

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/gSk2rD4.png[/IMG]

It should work then...
Download new version from the first post, copy Jazz2.Android directory from the archive again and install the app. It will show error report after crash, so please send it (screenshot) to me.

I have a problem with the android version. I followed the instructions and when I run the application I get this
https://i.imgur.com/4abgv65_d.webp?m...&fidelity=high

Thanks, fixed! New version is in first post.

I report some success with Linux. The file "plus.j2a" had to be renamed to "Plus.j2a" like it is in the code, and after that I was able to play the game. It feels pretty accurate and enjoyable, although game physics differs from the original.
If I have some free time, I will try to figure out building the project under Linux too.
Nice work, anyway. I wouldn't have this much patience on doing such a remake.

Thank you for your help to resolve this issue. I will try to fix Import tool to be case-insensitive, somehow.
On the other side, I don't think that we need the game that is 100% same as the original. It's something like very flexible engine, which can be used to create sequel or something like that.

It seems that your device doesn't support OpenGL ES 3.0 (or it's not implemented properly). You can check OpenGL ES version in CPU-Z app. However, this is not going to be fixed in near future. I don't have time to support older/low-end devices (which this device probably is), but the game is open-source, everyone can fix this issue.

Sorry for not replying sooner, haven't had access to my phone for a couple of days. On the latest version I get this:

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/r45GIk1.png[/IMG]

'Content\Internal\Minimal.vert' is included in Jazz2.Android directory in the Android archive. You should put it in the right directory on SDCard (as described). If it's already there, it's strange and will be investigated further.

Edit: It seems that the application can't find Jazz2.Android directory. If you are sure that the directory is accessible, you can send me full path to this directory and content of /proc/mounts file.

Great work dude. The best thing about this project, is that, it's playable on Android! This makes it different from all other projects and I'm really interested in this.

A tutorial to install the application would be very useful

There are already simple 4-step instructions in the first post. I don't know how to make it any easier to install...

Jazz 2 Resurrection
 

I played some levels with this yesterday. Would like to point out some issues with the characters:

1: You should be able to fire your guns as fast as you can tap the button. The current interval feels off especially for enemies that require more hits.

2: While doing a buttstomp, you should be allowed to steer it slowly horizontally as soon as the animation starts, until you hit something. You should also be able to cancel the animation that plays when hitting the ground and start moving right away.

3: Once you reach horizontal momentum by walking or running, you should be able to lose that momentum and turn around quicker if you move to the opposite direction.

4: Jumping momentum is slightly too floaty while top height is reached.

I'm sure fixing these things (with 1 being highest priority) can make gameplay a lot more pleasing. That said, I'm amazed by how far this remake has come. I'm sure this can at some point exist alongside JJ2+ like OpenJazz did with JJ1.

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/u8laNQC.png[/IMG]

As you can see it's in the correct directory, but I still get that 'Minimal.vert' error. I'm not sure where to find '/proc/mounts' either :(