Posts for Samsara

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Posted: 7/27/2015 1:33 AM
(Edited: 7/27/2015 12:18 PM)
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Checking in! So I'm at the Stage 3 boss, or as I like to call it, the most boring section of the run. I'm beginning to think a few things at this point: * Not changing the difficulty was a bad decision, but not for the reason I was expecting * I kinda hate TASing this game now The difficulty change had the unexpected side effect of screwing up enemy positions when compared to the published run or my old improvement. In most cases, I'm losing time due to extra enemy spawns or enemies being in my way for longer, but in other cases I'm actually gaining a lot of that time back because of enemies not spawning in some cases, or enemies not getting in my way at all. It's like a see-saw where I get dunked in lava on the way down, but hugged by angels on the way back up. Jodvalley has been a hassle from the very beginning, but at the same time it's probably the biggest hassle I'll face in the run. It's probably the worst stage when it comes to unavoidable time losses: 76 frames in my case, mainly due to the slower dinosaurs constantly getting in the way. However, some of those frames are made up because of slower dinosaurs allowing for better ways to deal with them. This is only over the improvement run, I'm not losing nearly that much time compared to the published run, if I'm even losing time at all. Even with that loss, I'm still saving time in Jodvalley. Not very much, but I'm still improving my old improvement by a decently significant margin. At the first hit on the boss, I'm 34 frames ahead of the improvement in this stage. I'm not sure if I can save more time, but I know I can't lose any at this point. ...Now that I've said that, I'm gonna lose a few frames. The curse has taken effect. Also, I lost 4 frames, so I absolutely did curse myself. Well. Since I found my super old notes file/submission text in progress for the improvement run, I can give some rough frame savings over the published run. Hooray! The file was last edited in 2013 and I'm not sure where I was comparing framecounts, but this should still give an idea as to how much time is being saved. TITLES + TAJ BASE * Old improvement is 285 frames faster than published run * This run is 101 frames faster than old improvement * Therefore, this section is about 386 frames faster than the published run TONG CITY * Old improvement is 343 frames faster than published run * This run is 108 frames faster than old improvement * Therefore, this stage is about 451 frames faster than the published run JODVALLEY * Old improvement is 234 frames faster than published run * This run is 30 frames faster than old improvement * Therefore, this stage is about 264 frames faster than the published run GREY FAC *Old improvement (up to where it ended) is 110 frames faster than published run * This run is 62 frames faster than old improvement (up to where it ended) * Therefore, this stage is currently 172 frames faster than published run TOTAL: 1272 frames (~21.2 seconds) over the published run. As for Bruford, I'll have to directly compare to the published run. There's a significant improvement to the first miniboss that's going to save a second or two, and the final bosses can be heavily optimized as well. My time estimate is around 13:10 now. Hopefully under, and given the quality of the published run, that's actually pretty likely.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/26/2015 10:51 PM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
The front page is static because of the traffic from SGDQ. Same thing that happened earlier in the year during AGDQ (which is why the static page is from around that time).
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/25/2015 7:00 AM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Link to video Through Tong City. I think I'm sick of this level after doing it twice in as many days. Some mild changes compared to the last video. Everything is intentional. You may notice a couple weird parts, but I can assure you they're intentionally done. I think that up to this point, the movie's around 200 frames faster than my last improvement? There's a lot of unavoidable time losses, too, so I probably saved around 4-5 seconds total. Sub-13 is a possibility at this point...
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/24/2015 12:53 PM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
jlun2 wrote:
pre-determined
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/24/2015 12:20 PM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Well, we almost always accept improvements regardless of entertainment value. There are some rare cases where improvements are rejected, but that mostly happens in two cases: * There are still more improvements to be had, or a faster TAS out there * There's no actual gameplay improvement, as in the "improvement" is just faster text or something similar As long as you directly improve the published run, it'll be accepted even if it's only 1 or 2 frames. Faster is faster. Entertainment is a bit of a dodgy subject, but a more "boring" movie shouldn't make any difference on what the audience thinks. If your movie is mostly input from the published run, then it's highly recommended you give co-authorship credit to that runner. Permission shouldn't be necessary as long as co-author credit is given. Hopefully that answers your questions.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/24/2015 12:10 PM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
I followed the WIPs from beginning to end. Incredible work, incredible teamwork in the thread, incredible... everything! Here's an incredible Yes vote.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/23/2015 8:37 AM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Samlaptop wrote:
This movie is slower than got4n's run, so voting no.
Loading times are longer because of the more accurate emulator version.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/23/2015 8:31 AM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Sorry about the relatively quick double-post. I encoded my progress so far, after getting a bit into Tong City: Link to video
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/23/2015 4:28 AM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Alright, back to work on this. I couldn't work out enemy despawning (I doubt it's possible, unlike enemy spawning), so that extra enemy remains. Side effect of the difficulty change, I suppose. I'm currently optimizing the boss fight in Taj Base, and at the moment I've saved 10 frames over my previous improvement, which if I remember correctly was a 2 second improvement over the published run's boss fight. There's still more time that can come off of it, I'm sure, but it's really hard to optimize killing a boss that's offscreen for 90% of the fight. At least this is the most time-consuming part. The rest of the run should come more naturally after this fight. EDIT: Almost immediately after posting this, I saved 24 more frames on the fight. I should post more often! Optimizing this new strategy saved another 10 frames. Pretty sure this is about the best I can get this fight...
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/23/2015 4:01 AM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Ridiculously complex music prevents me from overthinking. Link to video
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/23/2015 3:05 AM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Zowayix wrote:
A real-time speedrunner
Yeah, hmm, I wonder who this incredible newcomer is? Never seen anything from him before. He seems to be really good at Super Mario World...
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/20/2015 11:02 PM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
zeromus wrote:
Looks like a slow system to me. Turn on the FPS display and watch your fps not be 60
I thought the report was a bit suspicious too, so I looked into it myself. It's giving me the exact same behavior while maintaining 60-61 FPS, so I don't think it's her system. Same thing happens on every Battletoads in Battlemaniacs ROM I've tried, including the PAL version. Screencapped video showing that it's running at max speed. Sorry about the low sound: Link to video I tested in previous BizHawk releases as well: Everything works fine in 1.7.1 and 1.7.2. The bug appears in 1.7.4, but only the video has skipping/speed issues. This is consistent through the 1.8.x releases as well. The bug is entirely gone in 1.9.0, it has the video issues in 1.9.1, and the sound issues start appearing in 1.9.2 and have remained since then.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/20/2015 12:36 AM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
I wouldn't be surprised if the entirety of the improvement is just from the much faster text. From a very quick comparison of the Youtube encodes (I apologize for the large images): Published run: This submission: About 30 seconds of difference within the first 5 minutes of both runs. This run also loses about 4 seconds in that timespan due to fighting two Red Slimes in one battle, where the published run only fights one, so the text difference could be as much as 35 seconds up to this very early point. This is gonna be rough for whoever decides to judge this... I wish them the best. To help alleviate that a bit, I'll try to find a day where I can go through both runs and see just how much time is saved/lost in areas that aren't text/version differences. I'll just leave this here for my own future reference: Post #110299
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/19/2015 5:38 AM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Really, it's just us tapping each other on the shoulder and saying "YOU'RE IT!" It's the world's largest internet-only game of TAG.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/19/2015 3:11 AM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
This is an amazing year for Lufia 2, it seems. I'll have to watch this as soon as I have time. Published movie: [792] SNES Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals by Gunty in 3:03:12.78
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/19/2015 2:27 AM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
TAG wrote:
Go please yourself...
Whoa, slow down there, cowboy
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/19/2015 2:02 AM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
moozooh wrote:
I also think—and this is perhaps the most important thing—that choosing the fastest path for a sightseeing run is, in a sense, missing the point of a sightseeing run. The path chosen isn't bad per se, but some of its stages are rather lame (in the "...is that it?" sense) and I would have preferred an optimized version of Bob's route instead as holding more potential for entertaining hook action. Maybe that will be something for the next version, I don't know.
The route change came around the same time we discovered TKDL's TASes. Since we were redoing the entire movie anyway, it made sense to change the route at the time. I might still have an outdated WIP somewhere from when we were still using Bob's path... If I find it, I'll encode the stages we passed up.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/18/2015 6:04 PM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
mklip2001 wrote:
You're being pretty hard on the game, Samsara. It does have its slow unavoidable moments, but it has style. It made for a fairly good casual watch beforehand, and it's even better now. You put good effort into the choreography (especially in the beginning), and I liked seeing more use of the shotgun. The extra orb areas were cool too if you fast-forwarded the girls' dances.
My harshness is mostly in jest. I do genuinely like the game, and it's a very fun game to play, but I still have to admit that watching it leaves a little bit to be desired. The first Splatterhouse is the same way, where there are a lot of autoscrollers and timed fights that don't really lead to the most exciting watching experience.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/18/2015 7:46 AM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Randil wrote:
An example of a ROM where I have this problem is Star Ocean - The Second Story [NTSC-U] [Disc1of2] [SCUS-94421]. This ROM came with a .ccd file, a .img.ecm file, and a .sub file. Is it simply that some games are not yet supported by the new PSX core?
SO2 works fine with BizHawk, for the record.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/17/2015 5:25 PM
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Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
The rest of the stage comments are up. I'll write up everything else later today. I also noticed when going back through the run that an extra frame of lag slipped in compared to the published run, so I went back and removed it: User movie #24197549441528817
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/17/2015 7:17 AM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Submission text is still a work in progress and the encode's still processing all the HD and 60fps and whatnot. I need to sleep in the meantime.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/17/2015 5:18 AM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
CoolKirby wrote:
Way to go! I'm not sure if this would obsolete the published run if this one attains the best ending, but it sounds like it'll be a nice addition to the site nonetheless.
I honestly think this would obsolete the published run. I asked in IRC and that seemed to be the consensus there as well. The differences are minimal at best, as I explained a couple posts ago, so I don't think it's enough of a change to warrant having both published.
Would you like me to encode it for you, to save you the work? I can PM you the link when it's up and you can include it in your original submission text.
I've already got it encoding on my end. Thanks for the offer, though! Much appreciated!
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/17/2015 4:15 AM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Run complete, currently writing up the submission text. I might submit it with unfinished comments and without an encode if I get too tired before I finish everything up. Final time is 19:11.25, which is a couple minutes slower than the published run, but remember that the secret areas are included in this run. Offhand, I think it's around 300 frames faster than the published run in comparable areas? I'll have a more accurate number in the submission text.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/16/2015 11:42 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
moozooh wrote:
Ah, Tim Follin of Solstice/Plok/Silver Surfer fame. I never heard this little gem before—that title theme is way too good for the hardware it played on (not to mention the game).
Tim Follin has a habit of making music that's way too good for the games he composes for. Case in point: Link to video
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 7/16/2015 8:32 PM
(Edited: 7/25/2015 6:57 AM)
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2126)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2798
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
What the hell has this game become? Voted yes, what an amazing improvement! It's really interesting how the litany of new routes and faster wall clips actually make this 12 seconds faster than the ending warp run.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
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