Just to float some ideas:

- During the fastest downhill, what if it was black/white theme but have rainbow streaks/objects shooting pass the player around the track? Think the doctor who opening (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mxHe8T_QVA) but with colour streaks/stuff like these (http://www.colourbox.com/preview/2729006-695153-rainbow-explosion-with-stars.jpg) passing by. Just thinking of ways to mix up the colours instead of always red in some songs which have long downhills, the idea being you are going so fast, it goes beyond a single colour theme during intense sections.

- Is there a way to change the sound of the black orbs crashing? I found the window smash sound to be way too sharp. The 2 sound effects 1:04 and 1:06 in this youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOvDjTGQrZw#t=63) still have the 'bad' sound where you shouldn't collect but not so high pitched as glass.

The mod is still awesome as it is. Nice stuff!

I don't have much criticism for this skin, apart from reverting the grid to the look of the thumbnail one, the one used right now is hardly noticeable.

But I really, really miss the Hyperdrive 2 prior to the update, if you still have the data from the old one, do you think you can upload it? Calling it something like "Hyperdrive 2 Classic".

Originally posted by Pit-O-Matic ヅ:

I don't have much criticism for this skin, apart from reverting the grid to the look of the thumbnail one, the one used right now is hardly noticeable.

I'd like to say they are different, but they aren't. What you were probably seeing is resistance (which I may or may not add again later). That, and I've had no issues seeing thegrid right now, actually I see it even better than before. There may be some incompatability!? I don't know. I'll think about uploading a Hyperdrive 2 Classic, though. Even though I do like the new one better in just about every way. It won't be instant, but if I see that enough people agree with you it'll definately happen. Too bad there's no rating system in comments. :( This isn't a problem regarding me disrespecting your comment, but more about being lazy. ;) I hope that we can find a way to sort out your issue though, what ever way possible. Happy surfing. Good luck!

It's not only your skin, I have problems with this grid look with every Skin made prior to the update.
It's not Hyperdrive 2, but that's how it looks now: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=270021044
And prior to update:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=187479472
It's harder to see how many blocks you can still fit in there before it fills up.
However, I'm now able to change it myself, so It's not THAT big of a deal. ^^

I don't know, there's something about the look of the old one that I really liked, can't put my finger on it, but most importantly, it was with 'rainbowish' the only skin that looked great, had short loading times and ran constantly smooth, the new one kills my PC haha.
And you don't need to do it right now, you can take your time, I have rainbowish to fill the gap. :)

Like I and DracoOculus said that skyscreen is little too much, and I think that hyperdrive simplistik doesn't have enough colors.

I suggust version of hyperdrive 2 without skyscreen like before the update/fix. I would do it myself but i can't code or anything like that.

Can't post to the comments section of the skin, since it doesn't accept messages of over 1k characters, so thought to write it here instead. It's not trully a suggestion though, more like an inquiery, but still, I'd love to see a previous version of the skin, as described below.

""Never thought I'd write this but - what happened to Hyperdrive2? Haven't played surf for like 3-4 months, came back only to see my most loved skin updated to become worse? Seriously, I can't understand how this could come to life. I usually run fast songs and use "mono amlified" gamemode, so to try and describe what I feel has changed to worse, take that in mind. Firsty and most importantly - it feels like the colours were dimmed, and now have some greish tinge to them. They are not as vibrant or colourful as they used to be, or really, as in quite a few other skins. Secondly - I feel like there's too much rainbowness happening, previously when I was on a fast part of the track, I saw exclusively the red-yellow part of the specter, now I see green and even some blue intertwined with those red/yellow/orange ones, how come? This does feel unappropriate, although I do acknowledge that the skin itself is quite flashy and changes colours frequently, but still, before, one had a better sense of speed through colouring and they were more logical so to say. Regarding the flashy bit - I like that in Hyperdrive, I do want to have stuff in my face cause in my opinion that adds a challenge. Previously I could still perform well, since I got used to it and saw that there's room for a good skill performance and frankly, only some very fast songs were tough, nearly impossible for me to get a stealth finish with, but hey, they ARE that difficult and that's ok. What now? Now, that discoball which used to hang around the track and only sometimes get into your face, still being on the background, now that same ball really sticks INTO the track and it collides with the blocks in it's colour pallete. Overall though, it feels like there's actually LESS of stuff happening around, like it's been cleaned up, but that didn't make the skin better, which is kinda weird. At the very back of the backround I almost always have some fiendish rainbow happening, again, was not the case before. Lastly, the sense of high speed, the thrill the skin gave previously has decreased considerably. I think perhaps the camera angle/vertical distance was changed? Or it doesn't decrease with speed? Something's fishy about the camera for sure.

Have to mention I was also using Flashdrive and it did feel different to Hypedrive. Now it looks almos the same, when did that happen? Thought to move to Flashdrive, but it got ruined as well. Would really appreciate if the author could upload an older version of Hyperdrive2 here on steam, perhaps you will understand what version I'm refereing too, well how many updates older. Because seriously, I considered it the best skin on the workshop, complementing the mode I'm using perfectly, and I've seen through a lot of other skins. But now, it just doesn't work that way and it saddens me to a great extent.""

@Archvile
Wow. Okay. That was quite the read. I'm going to start my reply with noting that everyone can view the Change Notes tab where I document nearly every change to my skins whenever I update them. It's an extremely helpful resource.

I can tell how much you really love the Series (although you never mentioned the others) and I'm so happy to have such passionate fans like you!

You spoke plenty of dulled colors in the live game and trust me, I know. I hate it too. My skins had a negative reaction to the implementation of Unity 5 engine not long ago and I'm currently trying to sort it out. You also mentioned the camera, which, indeed, has been altered significantly. Despite not personally having a complaint with an old camera, popular opinion as I perceived it pointed towards a camera that less obstructed one's view. I'm planning on continuing to improve the camera as I go so I am open to suggestion.

I know that I need to improve the positioning algorithm for the Stars (discoballs) around the track some more however it was actually recently improved substantially to account for the fact that I tripled the size of each.

You are correct that I cleaned up the chaos of the skin as well. I actually did this not as a solution but more as tearing off a bandaid. With the new open space, I should be able to give more freedom to other parts of the skin to stick out (for instance the wakes which I’m doing a pass on).

Lastly, you mentioned that compared to before you would see more colors at any given time in the song (I believe that’s what you were pointing to), which I am confident I had no effect on. Currently the only way I know of for a skin to change that is to increase or decrease the number of colors in the color palette, which I don’t recollect doing. Since you said you took a hiatus, it’s possible that the modes you are using have a different algorithm for calculating the track’s intensity (that may also be on the game’s side) thus changing that. I might be able to offer a better explanation given screenshots and such but that’s the extent that I can think of off hand.

Thank you so much for your input on my skins. I’ve been doing this for two years now and each time someone is so genuine about their love of the game I am glad. My skins are currently in a transitional period, just as I am, and I hope I can live up to your expectations in the future.

Right, sorry for the changelog, I was actually searching for it, but on the page of the skin itself, not here, now I see it.

Regarding the camera - let me give an example via other skins. Not sure if I can link it here, so will just name them - the "Reverse" skin, which has a planet on the background and is kinda in space. This one has a very high-positioned camera, among others, as I saw, which is good in terms of track readability and spoting the blocks early on, but the speed feeling isn't that high because of the perspective, you feel like you're not moving that fast.
Now, if you look at "camera from audiosurf1" which I just recently downloaded, or perhaps "near soundless classic mono" (yeah, I love mono over all other mods and play it exclusively), then at high speeds the ship does get really close to your face and it's hard to see something.

If I remember correcly though, Hyperdrive used to have something in the middle, more towards the second example, still quite close at high and medium velocity, but not so much in the face on maximum speed. Even if it was, I could still read the track way better, perhaps it has something to do with the fire/fumes/exhaust from the ship, not sure. In my mind that was ideal - I had that crazy sense of speed on fast tracks, meanwhile having the necessary time/control over the situation and was able to react accordingly, per my skill of course, and failed only on really hard bits.


Regarding the colouring, so it's the update to Surf itself with U5 that caused it, or you started using it for the skin itself? Just curious, at least it's good I'm not imagining things and it has a reason to it.


As for the discoballs and the colour palette. Will run more trials on this then, to determine whethere the balls really do feel in the way or behave worse then they used to, as well as try to verify the colouring discrepancies, if they do exist. Gonna need to compare it to some other skin I guess, it's just that from the first look I got this feeling, since afterwards used the "camera from audiosurf1" skin and had a much more accurate transition of colours. Then when I have more data, hopefully with screenshots, will post them and we'll see if it's just me being paranoid a bit.


Lastly, I was just unsure if you're still supporting them, since the dates of last comments are waaay back, but then again, the update date is quite recent, so thought to write this down anyway. Not trying to demand anything, since it's all based on pure enthusiasm and interest from people like you, who make mods, was just a bit shocked at the start. As mentioned, for me there aren't many skins which I really like, was glad when I found Hyperdrive and Flashdrive and didn't want to change them to something else. Did say about uploading an older version because I saw someone did a similar thing, but they put a very very old version of Hyperdrive somewhere around here.

Otherwise, it's good to hear you're still in it, gives hope that changes will be done at some point in the future) And yet a good shotout for making this skin in the first place

As an aside, I want to talk a little about the new camera I have begun implementing.

So as everyone should know by now. The traditional camera rests a short ways back and looks down at the ship at a 30 degree angle. Just about every iteration of the camera I have found does this and mine is no different, save for positioning it slightly closer to the ship. As the song becomes more intense, however, this is where results begin to spread out. For instance, by default, the camera will move lower and closer to the ship while maintaining a 30 degree angle. Mozzie’s infamous camera, moves very far above the track. And mine, in contrast, pulls away from the ship and tilts slightly upwards (currently by only about 5 degrees).

My theory is that if done correctly this method will still be able to simulate the effects of acceleration as well as keep everything on the track visible long enough to react. I made sure that the effect wasn’t very pronounced just in case I really screwed up and based on other content, having a nearly static camera is a nice middle. I’m going to continue to work with the camera numbers in order to make it as great as possible but I can about guarantee that it will not be similar to what it was before.

To speak quickly on another topic, you may have noticed color blocks appear to be “muted” in color after the Unity 5 change. This is something I’m attempting to deal with, however, it would be a massive help if someone who knew more about shaders could help with this since dealing with it has consumed a large quantity of time already. Eventually I should be able to remedy it somehow, but I appreciate any help anyone can offer in restoring (or improving) their original appearance.

Hello again)

So, I gave the skin more drives and tried to pay attention to the colour palette, since this is what I've stated in the last post. I found out that the colours of the blocks, track and rings are actually ok, as far as the speed correspondance goes, albight they are more dim, but you've explained that. The difference is actually not with the track, but rather with the horizon and the sky. It gets harder and harder to remember how it was, but now it seems as if the horizon and sky colours are quite far further down the spectrum than the track itself is. I do belive it may be a feature, but cannot imagine it was so profound. For example, sometimes when the track is in it's purple/dark blue scheme, the sky can already turn green/yellowish, as does the horizon. As the sing speeds up, the horizon especially begins to have more and more flashing colours which don't match the track and in this case, spoil the picture as a whole. During fast parts (red/orange) it's not noticeable, since the track is going down mostly, so mostly during green/yellow bits. I could try to take some screenshots if you want, to catch those fast changing lights and maybe compare to other skins, if it helps. But otherwise yeah, now I'm certain it's the horizon which got my attention to the strange colours)

And you really don't want to make the camera get closer to the ship, right? =\ I mean in terms of readability of the track, it certainly helps if the shi doesn't get in the way too much, but the track itself is already transparent, which gives enough sight on its own. Not saying it should get very close, but closer, rather than further maybe? In any case the end-result I'd love to see is the clearly visible speed-effect so to say, and if you think you could still achieve it, well, up to you) Maybe add something around the track to feel it more complicated and speedy? =)