Posts for spezzafer

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Posted: 3/29/2006 12:05 AM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
Incredible work FODA! That little fit Bowser throws at the beginning of the fight may be stored to memory before you enter the actual level rather than Bowser's fight room, although I haven't tested it. I was lucky (it didn't happen in the first test run) that time, since I didn't know where/when the source of the randomness was.
Posted: 2/22/2006 2:51 AM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
FTW world 2 is finished, finally world 3 might be easier to maintain a steady cache of eggs because of all the monkeys hanging around
Posted: 1/27/2006 5:42 PM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
Perhaps this has already been added to the to-do list of things to fix, but when recording is stopped, the input doesn't actually save the correct amount and the movie file often stops before controller input ends. This was first noted in the SM64 submission but there hasn't been an update since then, so I just wanted to make sure you remembered since this is a pretty significant problem.
Posted: 1/26/2006 9:12 PM
(Edited: 1/26/2006 9:18 PM)
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
actually it works if you are directly or almost directly (which you were in the snowman's head star) under the star; pressing Z has the stomp effect of falling down really fast if you press it right before touching the star, but you must be under the star here is a video (recorded from FODA's exact position before getting the star) http://rapidshare.de/files/11900974/asdf.avi.html
Posted: 1/26/2006 8:50 PM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
when you jump (as you're directly under the star) press the Z button as late as you possibly can right before touching the star and you should land much faster (thanks to geminisaint for this info) keep it up, it looks very neat so far!
Posted: 1/26/2006 8:44 PM
(Edited: 1/26/2006 8:46 PM)
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
great job so far FODA, you've done several things better than my run's stars (the wall kicks star especially) did you try to do a stomp right under the snowman's head star right before grabbing it, because you'll land much faster and the victory sequence should end several frames faster
Posted: 11/24/2005 9:19 PM
(Edited: 11/24/2005 10:16 PM)
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
I've done a test run up to the very start of controlling Link, so if anyone wants to start a movie they can use this one so they won't have to move through all of the dialogue (it's perfectly optimized). Here is a savestate (1.61 MB) near the end of the test movie to start recording at if one wishes to start their own. the rom used is Legend of Zelda, The - Ocarina of Time (U) (V1.0) [!].z64 plugins used: glN64 v0.4.1 Jabo's DirectSound 1.6 N-Rage`s Direct-Input8 V2 1.80a Hacktarux/Azimer hle rsp plugin The only huge problem with this game on mupen64 is the pause menu, which takes nearly 5 seconds to open/close. Even with the latest glide plugin it still takes a while to open (although it closes much faster).
Posted: 11/17/2005 9:03 PM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
Grabbing the ledge is faster than waiting for the platform to elevate enough. I've never really payed much attention to coin tallying after a level because it never seemed to waste any time since it looked as if the save+continue prompt came up at the same time. I tried many times to coordinate a side-flip dive followed by a long jump after the ! switch in Bowser 1, but I couldn't allow enough space for a long jump to the cork blocks to keep from falling off. Probably could have but it was bunk at that point because I had established that it wasn't possible with the test run. The turn-flip here actually may have taken longer because turn-arounds on the ! switch won't let you turn-flip as soon as you'd like (I think). The red coins near the end of Bowser 1 is probably faster in that order, but consider the red coin above the revolving pair of platforms which I could barely reach and land on the platform which had reached a position close enough to land on. In the test run getting it was actually faster because I had reached that point late enough for the platform to be in a good spot. I had reached a very fast speed after sliding off the desert incline which allowed me to reach the star a little too fast to be able to do an uninterrupted sequence of jumps to it. Instead of running into the ledge on which the star sits (halting Mario and wasting a few frames) and jump-diving to it like in the first test run, I figured I'd try to keep it smoother by just staying to the right and diving at a slight angle (and Mario was already facing closer to that direction anyways). I actually calculated the difference from the test run and ended up saving some time although I'm not sure if it was from the more optimized triple jump/dive over the desert hill or the jump to the star. I don't think turning around after grabbing the rabbit wasted any time since it was an instant turn-around (because Mario was completely idle). Facing the door after grabbing him would mean Mario would be further away from the door, and you'd have to walk longer to get out from under the star to make fast jumps (so you don't touch the star). I probably could have saved more time if I had faced at a wider angle from the door before dropping MIPS so I wouldn't have to turn-crawl around as much. The spiral stair thing is kind of tricky because you can't see Mario, but it probably could have been done faster. I didn't notice any shuffling against the wall but I wasn't listening for it so it could have been there. The 'impossible jump' didn't take as many rerecords as I thought it would (lucked out), but you might be able to do the 2nd wall-kick to get Mario facing the right direction (left, in this case) so you can execute the turn-flip much faster. Mario wasn't going fast enough to trigger a turn-around and there wasn't enough room in the direction he was facing to get the speed, so I had to gain a little speed by moving away from the edge to the left to do it. nah there wasn't any bob-omb jump near the end regarding the Dire Docks level...yeah it was kind of ugly at some places and could be more optimized, and the two points of lag where Mario swims through the water might have been reduced with other camera angles thanks very much for the crits; stuff like this should definitely be taken into consideration when a faster TAS is made
Posted: 11/16/2005 6:07 PM
(Edited: 11/16/2005 6:11 PM)
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
thank you all for the support! I probably don't have the voracity to pull off 120 stars alone, but I might try 70 stars sometime in the future. Right now I'm kind of worn out.
Posted: 11/16/2005 5:30 AM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
the movie uploaded fine and it does the same thing with the movie on my HD, so I think the emulator may be at fault for some reason it stops at 59190 instead of 59220 and doesn't play the last 30 frames
Posted: 11/14/2005 11:14 PM
(Edited: 11/15/2005 12:36 AM)
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
the WIP is now up to Bowser 3 the stair climbing is much faster in both places now
Posted: 11/12/2005 8:24 PM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
redid the bird star in SSL and managed to climb up Bowser's Sub in DDD also fixed the lag in DDD although it may look slow, Mario absolutely HAS to be facing the sub at at least that angle if not absolutely perpendicular in order to climb up the back fast enough so far it's 46 seconds faster than the test run this is a save state starting at the SSL/LLL room it's kinda big though (1.25 MB)
Posted: 11/10/2005 11:53 PM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
here you go it's now up to the 14th star, right before the MIPS chase I didn't take the other route to the LLL/SSL room (which would allow for a shorter path to the HMC room with Toad) since you need 12 stars for Toad to appear in the HMC room, and at that point I only had 9 and the two stars in HMC would still only raise it to 11 which is not enough for him to show up. This would require I make two treks back and forth for Toad and the 2 HMC stars, so I didn't use it (besides, its slower than the normal way). The Bird star in SSL is faster than the Bully star in LLL (by about 1 second), and the Falling Rocks one in HMC is much faster than both of those so you can guess what I changed here.
Posted: 10/30/2005 5:25 PM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
here are the frame times: SS1: 6960 - 8968 (2008) {from 1-star door} -1 second: 1948 SS2: 21729 - 23691 (1962) {from exiting WF door} -1 second: 1902 Lil' Penguin Lost: 18730 - 20894 (2164) {from 3-star door) Wall Kicks Will Work: 21503 - 22540 (1036) {from front of painting world} the frame times in () are the ones to pay attention to...you'll see how remarkably faster the Wall Kicks star in CCM is than either SS star, and since we want to avoid opening as many star doors as possible (to avoid the little cut scene) it's best just to couple it with the second fastest CCM star also, it's actually now 18 seconds faster than the test run to the defeat of Bowser 1, so I somehow miscalculated/recorded the data if that route to the lava/desert world room is faster (and it looks to be) then I'll keep it in store
Posted: 10/30/2005 4:06 AM
(Edited: 10/30/2005 4:19 AM)
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
new movie (edit: fixed the link) after Bowser 1 it's only 15.37 seconds faster which isn't much, but consider the longer paths between painting worlds and doors taken in this run which probably took away a little time GeminiSaint: thanks I'll keep that in mind later
Posted: 10/29/2005 1:47 AM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
6 stars gathered right after the last Whomp Fortress playthrough I guess the long spinning wooden platform can be manipulated to prevent the long delay when blasting out of the cannon which saved a lot of time. I used the long jump+side flip for the first two stars in WF, but I jumped from the tree for the others since the long jump+side flip wouldn't have reached as far as fast to the cannon. There are several other faster strategies.
Posted: 10/27/2005 11:27 PM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
okay, now I've got an adequate analog controller which works perfectly w/mupen64 and was no trouble getting set (using the smartjoy adapter for the PS1/2) the new run, up to the entrance of Whomp's Fortress room is a little different in that Mario jumps a little straighter and I skip the secret slide with incentive of doing the Cool Cool Mountain stars as replacements Is there a video demonstrating the door glitch which lets you skip the open-with-star cut scene for CCM?
Posted: 10/27/2005 7:11 PM
(Edited: 10/27/2005 7:12 PM)
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
great work on the emulator so far I'll probably start another version once I find a good analog controller so I can set Mario's radial position more precisely to optimize his long jumps to be more straight (you might notice how they seem to move at an offset and not in the same linear path direction as Mario is facing) and thus reaching the mark a little faster. Just for anyone's curiosity I've been using the original SNES pad as the input. Hopefully this controller will have a full 100% range support for more careful movements. I'll definitely take the suggestions given by Micheal Fried into consideration, and also test around to look for the fastest stars. I'm pretty sure the Hazy Maze Cave 2nd star is faster than the Bird Talons star in the Desert. Also there are probably faster stars than some of the Whomp Fortress ones, maybe in Cool Cool Mountain. thanks for all of the support so far
Posted: 10/25/2005 4:33 AM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
the test run is now complete: click here I know a lot of things look really sloppy, like the stair glitch but remember this is just a test run and I kind of rushed through that stuff since I was more concerned with the actual levels. I'm most pleased with the Bowser levels and I think one should look to them to see what an N64 TAS is capable of. Although this is a test run, I figured I should at least make it fun to watch so more people will try their own attempts at it. critiques are obviously more than welcome as this is the time when it needs them most...thanks to all who've already commented!
Posted: 10/24/2005 2:32 AM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
I actually tested and compared the Owl vs. the cannon and the cannon is just barely faster (by like 2 frames) so it doesn't matter much there...I guess the person who tested didn't take into account the instant cannon-aiming available with a TAS. The slide in the record video was done like that at the beginning in order to turn Mario around right at the start so it saves over a second rather than doing it twice (once to turn around and another to boost him off the slide for the shortcut). So it might be faster that way, but I'd have to test it. I would have to move Mario to the side to trigger the turnaround, which loses some time since he won't be moving in a straight line so I don't know. thanks for the help
Posted: 10/24/2005 1:52 AM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
thanks to everyone for their compliments! there's now an updated movie right after getting the first Hazy Maze Cave star I haven't tried anything completely different from the WR run except getting the red coins star in the first Bowser level instead of boiling the bully in the lava world. A lot of the strategies are faster, and I think it's about 1:20 faster than the 18:59 run so far.
Posted: 10/23/2005 6:22 PM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
for now I'm just doing a 16-star test run so it can be easier determined what can be done faster in a tool-assisted run here it is up to 8 stars (just finished the second princess secret slide star) there are many tricks to be optimized in a TAS of a three dimensional game, with the inclusion of a whole new dimension, depth, into the project adding many more possibilities for optimization this is just a test so far because it most definitely can be improved with more tests
Posted: 10/19/2005 11:38 PM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
Actually I'm just doing a 16-star run using the same order as the console video at SDA (although there are several things that could probably be skipped/improved if tool-assisted). Check the file for an update. I've redone the run from the beginning up to the entrance of the slide room (where you jump into the princess portrait). Since it's closer than the Thwomp Fortress door I figured I might as well do it first. Took a while to figure out how to do the bob-omb trick but I realized I needed to use a mouse for input and change the sensitivity to almost 0 so Mario won't move away from the gate when turning around. There needs be a list of tricks made so I can use them in the run. Since I don't know of very many I'm kind of just running along as I make it. btw the alpha2 version is much better...however the read-only option when playing back a movie doesn't let me jump to a position in the movie via savestate and ends up recording over it instead
Posted: 10/18/2005 9:22 PM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
Okay, I've redone my test run up to the first star (free the chomp) skipping the Lakitu this time (I had no idea about this trick). Here it is, although it most likely could have been much better if I had an analog stick available (not the mouse because that requires constant movement making it too tricky to coordinate with frame advance). Uses the same plugins as the other test movie in the mupen64 w/rerecord thread.
Posted: 10/17/2005 10:29 PM
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spezzafer
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 10/19/2004
Posts: 142
Movies record and playback work perfectly fine for me now. Here is a test movie up to the start of the first area, using rerecords (unfortunately I don't have an analog controller so precise radial positioning is difficult on a cardinal D-pad). I'll probably wait until you get the 'Record from snapshot' feature working until I start an actual project (and clean up the major bugs). here are the plugins used, for anyone curious: Video: Jabo's Direct3D6 1.5.2 Input: N-Rage's Direct Input8 V2 1.82a Audio: Azimer's HLE Audio v0.56 WIP 2 RSP: Hacktarux/Azimer hle rsp plugin
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