What if I submitted only the lower quality game? Would you have accepted it without issues and then obsoleted after that I submitted a movie made with this higher quality game?
I don't see why quality should be considered in relation of existing games. I agree when it's done for ROM hacks, because we can obsoleted different ROM hacks to each other, but it's not the same for actually different games, especially in Vault. We can't obsolete with a different game just because the game used in the previous publication is lower quality.
Technickle, this has happened too many times where you submit movies that are still suboptimal and easily improbable by spike. Is there a reason for this? Are you spending enough time making your movies? Are you struggling with anything in terms of the tools you use? Despite the hostility being exhibited in this thread, there are people around here that can help you learn how the tools work or some tips in optimization. However, If you keep this up, you are going to lose your submission privileges eventually. I would rather you try to learn something from all of this, but I’m not seeing it here. If you need help, just ask for it.
The only mistake a TASer can do is not fixing mistakes that were already made. If it's been fixed, it's not a mistake, but experience! Just actually take your time and study the thing.
Uhm, now that I think about it... Everything we said here doesn't apply if we're playing a game in GBCinGBA mode, since that literally means that GBA (or GBI) is the hardware that it's being emulated, and the palette used should reflect that... Right? And the objectively correct palette for GBCinGBA mode is Vivid, as it reflects to what we already use for GBA movies. Since the Vivid palette can potentially make some GBC movies less appealing (see Pokémon Puzzle Challenge), I think that we should allow GBCinGBA only for Moons and Stars movies, unless that mode is being used for accessing GBA-only content (see Wendy: Every Witch Way)or if the game has a built-in color adjustment logic (see Harry Potter).EDIT: Actually, that makes things worse, as the GBC games that adjust colors for GBA are actually taking as refer the original GBA only, as opposed to the later commercialized GBA SP that featured a backlight that improved brightness. So, I my opinion, GBCinGBA should still not be allowed for Vault if it accesses purely aesthetic routines only.
I agree that console verification is a good reason to allow GBC-in-GBA mode for GB games, since console verification is an activity directly related with TASing, as it works as a proof of legitimacy for movies made with TASing tools. About one year ago I suggested to allow the GBC mode for GB games only for Moons and Stars, but it was deemed unnecessary. Personally, I'm fine either way about it, as long there is general agreement.
If savestates from MAME are the issue then maybe bizhawk should rely on a different savestate method, rather than the ones in the core.
A quick test with a game showed that the input movie file synched. However, once you start AVI dumping that file, it randomly desychs! Out of 5 tests to dump it on 2 different PCs, it desynched 4 out of 5 times.
Out of curiosity, how a game with multiple branches affects the site negatively?
Something that might be reassuring is that this'll probably be the last new run in a new category this game will get for a good while. Could even be the last one altogether.
Along with having multiple valid goal choices (any%, NG+, 100%, and ring attacks) it also has multiple characters which are all unique in their own way. Don't get me wrong I'm definitely not saying there should be a branch for every single possible combination. I'm just saying it's reasonable for a game like this to end up with so many branches.
I would vote for publication to its own separate branch, consistent with past precedent surrounding this particular game. While that precedent, itself, may be somewhat at odds with the way TASvideos likes to handle branches in general, I think it may be okay as S3K is one of the main entries in the entire Genesis library, partly because of the sheer amount of content that it has as one game spanning two carts.
I think the rule should really apply to limit the amount of community created branches for each game, not for branches offered by the game.
It seems obvious to me that there's a real market for all three solo-character runs, and they each deserve an any% branch.
As a casual player, I definitely would not feel the need to play all 4 character combinations. Sonic & Tails is not different enough to me from solo sonic or solo tails to warrant a separate playthrough. Or perhaps vice versa. Maybe I wouldn't feel the need to do solo sonic if I did Sonic & Tails. In that sense the character differences are minor.
By this point, I've pretty much lost interest in glitched runs of this game; watching terrain scroll by every couple seconds while a character is teleporting or clipping through, and then watching a stage-end score tally/cutscene that is almost as long as the entire stage gets old after a while. EDIT: Note that I'm not specifically advocating for a category cap or anything like that. But if it is decided that we only have a total of 8, I'd rather have a no-holds-barred, maximum speed run and a low-glitch solo Sonic run which we still don't have instead of the current 100% and this run (which is, for all intents and purposes, a Sonic and Tails any% without Tails), because the latter two don't fully commit to a particular style of gameplay.
I don't think it's fair to require an emulator hack to be able to appreciate the movie.
Obsolete Knuckles with Tails. Obsolete Tails with this run. That way we have a Knuckles branch as well as one full completion branch, and further single-player runs could obsolete one another based on technical novelty and entertainment. Then if someone invents a novel concept, be it "low glitch" or something else entirely, there will be a place for some more branches that are meant to represent entirely different play style other than "same single-char levels with some new tricks". This option preserves the most different concepts separated and advertises up-to-date runs.
That’s only going to discourage people from tasing this game again.
The fact that this got so overly complicated to the point where you have to do this kind of trickery with the branches is really heartbreaking. Regarding glitchless/low glitch runs. That actually ties into this topic. I was considering making some myself at some point in the future, but after this ordeal I’m afraid of what may happen if I do so. Like, you actually discouraged me from making these runs now.
It seems like the desire to keep the branch count low is not doing anything productive except hurting the desire of TASers going forward, so I am not sure that the rule is having any desired useful effect.
Just as a note, Service Mode is currently non-functional for replays. I'm assuming it's due to the nvram.
also for Neo Geo, the Service mode settings dont seem to have a default setting. when I reloaded bizhawk and loaded the movie again, the "turn off how to play" option did not go back to being on by default. This tells me that boot up does not have the same settings for each boot up. this might need to be a sync setting or something.
