Posts for JCBoorgo

JCBoorgo
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Joined: 11/21/2016
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Location: Québec (QC), Canada
That may be the case indeed, but there are some frames to be saved if we can angle the ball without aiming at all. Having a wider "fork" to stop the shot marker in can help in skewing shots to our advantage, having more spin to stop the ball dead in its tracks whatever the power is can save another couple of frames, and we probably don't need max power to reach the cups in minimal amounts of shots. Anyway, that's how I felt, and maybe that playing with the game a bit more would convince me of the opposite, but for now I don't feel like fiddling around with this. As I've said, I may come back and do it one day, but not for now. Last note: I really appreciate that you're following here and on the Toadstool Tour TAS. It's an extra bit of motivation that I'll gladly accept.
Post subject: Mario Golf Toadstool Tour WIP
JCBoorgo
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So, you may have seen me start and not finish an Advance Tour TAS. After doing the first course, I saw the skillpoints screen, and then I saw the amount of work it could take to optimize skillpoints, and it seemed too much for me. The TAS is still in my computer, but I'm not working on it anymore, because this has discouraged me. (see this thread for details) Then, I joined the Toadstool Tour speedrunning community, and I saw an opportunity. I had some experience with Dolphin, nothing had been done before, and now, I'm starting this TAS. I'll use the same principles, which means no holes given up, and clear the any% objective (finish the 6 courses from a fresh file). So, if any of you want to give an opinion or feedback for the "first hole done" TAS linked below, please do. Cheers! User movie #42874849977788983
JCBoorgo
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Small FYI here, I've kinda abandonned. I've started working on Toadstool Tour, because the skillpoints thing and the fact that the paths / strategies could diverge a lot from there because of different "builds" kinda discouraged me. It's still in my computer, I may come back to do it at a later point, but for the time being I'll focus on Toadstool, as it is a more straightforward and less overwhelming game to TAS, in my opinion. It's gonna be under the same conditions (no giving up, reaching the "ending" which the speedrunning community has defined for Any% as clearing the 6 courses from a fresh file), but it's on the Gamecube and the player has more control and freedom for shots. So yeah, that's pretty much all there is to know for now.
JCBoorgo
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Joined: 11/21/2016
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Location: Québec (QC), Canada
Alright then, thanks a lot for all your answers!
JCBoorgo
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So, I guess I can safely delete old .sav when I'm confident that I can't optimize more. That should keep the TAS' folder at a manageable size. Thanks for the quick replies!
JCBoorgo
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Should they ever reach a "cap" in size? Like, is there a point in a TAS where a .sav should stop getting bigger and/or slow down their size gains? Currently, my messing around have seen the size jump from 9MB when the game is still in the "before the player should press start for the first time" state to 23MB after doing some menus. This does seem kinda normal, but I hope that it doesn't increase as fast as the game goes on.
Post subject: [Dolphin] Why are .sav files so huge?
JCBoorgo
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So, I thought I should ask the question before continuing experimenting with Toadstool Tour. Why are the .sav files getting bigger and bigger? I've barely exited the menus and course selection and stuff, and one single .sav file is already a big 25MB. And, that size keeps increasing rapidly. Any efficient way of saving my hard drive, solutions to reduce size, or any comment/help for anything? Couple of sidenotes: I do know that .dtm are saved at the same time as .sav, and those .dtm are tiny in comparison, but I can't quickly load up a .dtm and jump in to resume TASing (that's what I think, at least). I kinda have to sit through the game playing itself until movie end and then resume, is that really the best thing to do if I wanna keep a decent history of saves?
JCBoorgo
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Don't worry, I didn't forget this game either. I will probably have more spare time when college ends in late-May, but yeah I'll be working on it here and there!
JCBoorgo
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Since school won't be over soon, I guess it's alright that you don't have that much time for now, as I don't have much time either. We'll see in the future what we can do. And yeah, since this is my first serious TAS (I did a Mario Bros. warpless before to learn how to use BizHawk), I really could use a hand (or two or seventeen).
JCBoorgo
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Indeed. We'll have to around around the right mix of possibilities to optimize each hole as much as possible. I think I should have done each hole one by one, optimized to its fullest, instead of going section per section. That's my mistake, but since we're TASing we can do what we want and go back. I think that doing some collab stuff will work better than trying to work on our own. Even if we don't have much time, at least putting some work in common will certainly help our cause. What do you think?
JCBoorgo
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Well, first of all, college hit hard. I couldn't really work on anything yet. Free time is a a scarce resource in my student life. I've yet to try it, but I think a bigger impact zone allows more leeway (dunno how to write that) in how you hit, thus allowing to correct somewhat your shots without relying on aiming. That might help to reach those angles that we somehow skip over while pressing L/R. Again, I've not tested it yet, I just used it in my run so far, but the basic, level 1 hit zone, so I don't know if a larger one helps. I still have to redo some holes, because as you mentioned, ball travel is really slow. I'll have to aim again on some parts, and indeed the terrain really hates us sometimes. We'll see where we end up!
JCBoorgo
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All right, I'll have a look at them. As for the Sw, I just couldn't figure out a way of sinking the shot without it. The ball lands too close to the pin without any modification, and so I had to figure out a way to move the ball just a tiny bit, which is justified by the high arc that carries the ball with the wind / hook (I don't remember which one). Anyway, I've tried my best, and I'll look at the holes you pointed out, to see if I can come out with anything. Thanks for your comments!
JCBoorgo
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GUYS GUYS GUYS I've finished the first course! WOOOOOO! And yeah, if you have any comments / suggestions / improvements / whatever, feel free to write them! Cheers! User movie #37041094408634962 (next post after second course)
JCBoorgo
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Well, thanks a lot! :)
JCBoorgo
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I'm not sure that "people have little interest in" is really positive, but hey if it's nice I'll take it. I guess you only meant that nobody was willing to TAS it, but anyway I'll do it to the very end, because I really think that it's underdone here (I mean really, TASing golf is pretty hard but really cool when it all comes together).
JCBoorgo
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Hey guys! Submitted a new WIP, with a lot of changes. It took a lot of time, because college and because I had to re-do pretty much everything. First, all "start-up" optimizations have been made, and I've changed from Neil to Ella. 10 holes done so far, going well. I've also decided that it would be a courage% run (courage because I never give up a hole ;) ). Enjoy and feel free to help again! User movie #36997429300865078 (next WIP post when I'm done with this course, to not spam everyone)
JCBoorgo
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Thanks a lot! I might have a look at your files a bit later. I've seen that indeed, sometimes not hitting the perfect impact helps to cut down on aiming time. Plus, disabling the 3D view really helps to save time. I'll have another file to post soon (hopefully before the weekend), as I'm redoing pretty much everything, now that I'm with Ella. Currently on the start of hole 3 (Marion), I'll post a new WIP after hole 9. I'll probably slow down my post rate a bit after that, but I'll keep you all updated on my progress. I'll also probably be slowed by college, but hey, that's life and there isn't anything to do about that. We'll finally have something for this game on here!
JCBoorgo
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Thanks a lot Niamek! I'll indeed use my own goal. So yeah, I guess the official name for that run will be "all holes". I'll take the risk that it won't be accepted, which wouldn't be that bad anyway. Thanks a lot to everyone that answered so far!
JCBoorgo
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Well, the first goal is speed. But, unless I'm mistaken, some trade-offs are acceptable if they make the run more enjoyable. If the run ever gets rejected, I'll just switch to full speed and remove any trade-off and bring the time as low as I can. However, I do think that seeing all holes is a must for a TAS, since perfect play is something that we can afford. Giving up a hole because "it's faster" seems almost boring. Maybe I'll just call this run a "all holes%". That would actually make sense now that I think of it. Anyway, I've made the switch to Ella, and I've also decided to grab the POW clubs. I feel like the distance loss from the switch plus getting rid of the super topspin in favor of super backspin justify spending 2000 frames to go and get it. By the way, thanks a lot Cards, your run definitely helped a lot (I actually couldn't understand how to do the skips before the first hole)!
JCBoorgo
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Hmm. I'll look at that speedrun before continuing to do "nothing". I don't want to have to "find" everything that someone has already did, plus it makes me work extra, since I have to redo the holes after every change... Thanks! EDIT: Alright, I looked at the run! First off, change from Neil to Ella should help, and also maybe getting that power ticket. Also, I now understand your point to skip some dialogue and go straight to the tourney (it's easier now that I've seen how it's done), and I'll probably super backspin all my shots from now on. Thanks a lot for the input, plus I've tried to ask some help from the guy himself. We'll see how that turns out! Oh yeah, and I probably won't skip holes, as it's not really fun to watch. I'm willing to sacrifice that to make a more enjoyable run.
JCBoorgo
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I don't know what dialogue is skipped, as Ella still says "wait up" as I exit the clubhouse. And which main menu are you talking about that lets me access the tournament without walking to it? By the way, even with the seemingly useless save & quit, I saved some time from the fast text.
JCBoorgo
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Wow, thanks a lot! As for luck manipulation, so far I've been scoring Eagles pretty easily without manipulating anything. I've not yet seen any opportunity to score better than a -2, although I'm still on the first half of the first course. I'll also look at the desync, just to be sure. I'll continue working on it! By the way, yes, my goal is speed, so I'm trying to optimize my shots as much as possible. For now, I've only been trying to sink the ball in as few shots as possible, but I've done some optimization already and I'll do more opt passes as I work on it. EDIT: Resynced it and added two more holes, I still have to add your optimizations. User movie #36565232429658073
Post subject: Mario Golf: Advance Tour WIP
JCBoorgo
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Hi people! Since I'm fairly new, I don't really know how things work around here. I've lurked for quite a bit, watching a new TAS every now and then. Now, it's my turn to contribute to the site. I started a Mario Golf: Advance Tour TAS, and I wanted to get your feel on it. I don't know if there is any kind of automated post (beside the "newest WIPs" on the main page), but I thought that starting a bit of publicity and gathering comments from the audience should be good to help me. So if you want to check it out and leave a comment / review / tip / whatever you think is useful, I'll be glad to hear you out! Here's the file: User movie #36530035993492900 Thanks in advance and keep TASing!
JCBoorgo
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Location: Québec (QC), Canada
Vote goes to SMB3!