Topic by Hutch

Posted: 3/31/2012 11:07 PM

Quote

Hutch

Joined: 4/21/2011
Posts: 91

My simple question is, will this be acceptable for publishing? I know it may seem sketchy in some parts, but overall really not much time at all can be saved simply through optimisation of this route. I'm very happy with how it looks at the moment. One quick note concerning the Buzz fight where you have to wait before hitting him, I have an idea that it may be because I hit him closer to the edge (at that point I had to stop and Crash took over), but I don't know, I'll test it quickly tomorrow. P.s. I'm Mikeyekimaple/Hutch btw, lol at April Fool's joke, it just started as I entered the site just now :P

Posted: 4/7/2012 11:16 AM

Quote

Hutch

Joined: 4/21/2011
Posts: 91

Hi, just an update on the run. With a helpful tip from lapogne (moving the camera away from buzz stops the wall of fire appearing), I went back and redid most of the buzz fight. I then did up to the island egg in Icy Peak and Crash took over up to exiting Spooky Swamp while I was on holiday. Both levels imo look fantastic, and we're very happy with them :) We spent a little while planning the route to collect the last two eggs in Midday Gardens, open the enchanted towers portal, and enter Sgt. Byrd's Base, which I then TASed last night. Crash also found/remembered a very helpful tip for Sgt. Byrd which is to aim at right angles to wanted direction, then fly and Hold L1 or R1, which gives much faster flight. This means that we lost a teensy bit of time back in Molten Crater, and definitely not enough to go back and redo it. We're making good progress and I'm very sure we'll have the 2nd main world finished by the end of next week.

Posted: 4/8/2012 3:16 PM

Quote

Spikestuff

They/Them

Editor, Publisher, Expert player (2297)

Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6337
Location: The land down under.

WIP#1 of the tas that they're doing. WIP#2 of the tas notice they changed how they fought buzz. Edit: Includes the battle with spike KEEP IT UP GUYS :D _{_{Thanks to crash41596 for sending me both parts but at different times it's like a whole 2 weeks now.
Isn't it between the 2 or is that me thinking the world is going faster :P}}

WebNations/Sabih wrote:

+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.

Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.

Posted: 4/28/2012 10:42 AM

Quote

Hutch

Joined: 4/21/2011
Posts: 91

Hi, another update. We've reached the Sorceress' Lair, but unfortunately, this happened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StAC2SWf7wk which is identical to this occurrence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT9O62ZNQSU Basically, this means that unfortunately we've been TASing the game on a cracked/illegal copy, which means that this extremely irritating thing happens. We honestly don't know what to do, so as you can see on the webpage Crash has asked his fellow Spyro Speedrunners if they have a legal copy of the Greatest Hits NTSC iso. Even if we do obtain one, it may not sync, and if we can't find one, it seems like our only two options are to: -copy the input/improve on it slightly by redoing the whole 1 hour TAS -possibly submit as a 100 egg TAS (which is such a horrible idea, it would just feel uncompleted leaving it just one minute from properly completing the game) Either way, this has left myself and Crash feeling extremely frustrated, and I can only hope we can get it resolved soon - I was really looking forward to submitting it and having finished this whole thing so that I can fully focus on my revision.

Posted: 4/28/2012 11:26 AM

Quote

Spikestuff

They/Them

Editor, Publisher, Expert player (2297)

Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6337
Location: The land down under.

Greatest Hits and The Original are 2 different versions I know cause I tried to watch the original playback of the speedrun the first time with the original pre GH copy and it failed... also damn i would've mentioned it before when he first uploaded it

WebNations/Sabih wrote:

+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.

Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.

Posted: 4/28/2012 4:38 PM

Quote

Hutch

Joined: 4/21/2011
Posts: 91

I know they're two different versions, I never said anything saying that I didn't. Edit: [9:39:38 PM] ~Crash41596~: My friend said he was able to beat the game on a different emulator [9:39:43 PM] ~Crash41596~: with this iso [9:39:53 PM] ~Crash41596~: so it must be the emulator [9:40:40 PM] Nosey: so, at sorceress the same thing happened? [9:40:48 PM] ~Crash41596~: yup [9:40:52 PM] Nosey: :( Basically, using the exact same ISO with ePSXe doesn't encounter the weird glitch/intended occurrence at the Sorceress, but does with PSXjin. This is confusing, at first I assumed it was a built in intentional protection feature of the game, but the fact that it appears on some emulators but not others is strange. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. As before, if we can't get a working iso (now seeming unlikely as it seems to be an emulator problem), and if it won't transfer onto pcsx (also unlikely), then although it'll be a massive pain, it seems like we'll just have to copy over the input bit by bit onto a different iso. One small advantage is that we can fix little things in the run that we didn't like, although there wasn't really much, but main advantage is that if we use a PAL version (haven't discussed it yet), then there is a little skip in a fireworks factory miniworld that crash discovered/pulled off before (and recorded it), but proved to be impossible on the NTSC version (we both spent several hours attempting it).

Posted: 4/28/2012 10:15 PM

Quote

Crash41596

Player (193)

Joined: 4/27/2012
Posts: 109

Can someone try beating some versions of spyro 3 on psxjin? here's a video with all of the versions, do not try the gh version, it doesn't work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGX5NU5oHVg

I wumbo you wumbo he she me wumbo

Posted: 4/28/2012 11:10 PM

Quote

Spikestuff

They/Them

Editor, Publisher, Expert player (2297)

Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6337
Location: The land down under.

^btw that's Crash41596

WebNations/Sabih wrote:

+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.

Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.

Posted: 4/29/2012 5:19 PM

Quote

Hutch

Joined: 4/21/2011
Posts: 91

[6:06:51 PM] ~Crash41596~: [6:06 PM] ~Crash41596~: <<< PAL - It freezes due to copyright NTSC - Normal <Sorceress> NTSC-GH - Same [6:11:37 PM] Nosey: poo [6:12:11 PM] ~Crash41596~: We have 2 options, wait for a fix, or make it a 100 egg tas, which is lame. [6:12:26 PM] Nosey: agreed [6:12:54 PM] Nosey: is there really no iso at all that works? :/ [6:13:06 PM] ~Crash41596~: Yes [6:13:16 PM] ~Crash41596~: It's the emulator So that's it :/ Nothing we can do really. Tbh, although it sucks, we'll maybe try and submit an 100 egg tas, and it may be rejected instantly on grounds of not properly completing the game, but there's nothing we can do to change that, it's not like we'd do it on purpose. If no-one higher up in tasvideos replies here soonish I'll probably pop over to the IRC chat and see what they think about it, and depending on what they say, then we'll possibly tweak the last few levels (slight route change in dino mines).

Posted: 4/30/2012 8:13 AM

Quote

Patashu

He/Him

Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4017

I'd accept it, assuming the 100 eggs that are collected are great :D

My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu

Posted: 5/2/2012 9:28 PM

Quote

Hutch

Joined: 4/21/2011
Posts: 91

Okay, it's done! I redid the end of Dino Mines just now, and ended the movie on the first frame possible that meant that the screen going black when entering the black portal to the Sorceress' Lair happened on the exact same frame as it would when continually charging. I'll begin writing the submission message tomorrow, then see if Crash wants to make any changes, then hopefully submit tomorrow if all goes well. P.s. I also tried to change my name from Mikeyekimaple (my yt username) to Hutch on the .pjm file using notepad++, but it screwed up the file so that playback didn't work, so I'll leave it as it is :)

Posted: 5/3/2012 12:46 AM

Quote

hegyak

Editor

Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 1466
Location: Not playing Puyo Tetris

From youtube on the "Anti Piracy" methods in the game:

the problems are: - It erases eggs from your Atlas randomly - It locks special characters on their levels again (which means that you "never beat" the penguin, sheila's, or the monkey's levels, therefore, it also erases any areas you might have beaten with them). - For the problem stated above, you beat world 1, 2 and 3, and when you get to Midnight Mountain, the game blocks you from going to world 2 and 3 - At the end of the game, it puts you back on ZERO

More about this method: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3030/keeping_the_pirates_at_bay.php

When TAS does Quake 1, SDA will declare war. The Prince doth arrive he doth please.

Posted: 5/3/2012 5:01 PM

Quote

Hutch

Joined: 4/21/2011
Posts: 91

Yes, we did think this at first, and it possibly is partly this, but it doesn't explain why the game runs perfectly on another emulator such as ePSXe with the exact same iso. Interesting article though, thanks for linking to it. I may as well point out that the unhatchable egg I had a year ago was possibly a rare form of crack protection, and we encountered this also in desert ruins, where the egg in the cave wouldn't hatch unless we flamed the enemy on the same platform. Luckily we could do this with losing no frames whatsoever, so all good.

Posted: 5/3/2012 9:51 PM

Quote

Spikestuff

They/Them

Editor, Publisher, Expert player (2297)

Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6337
Location: The land down under.

Since I too was given the rom they were using I didn't see the fairy at the start I think her name is Zoey in-front of the hotair balloon 'cause she goes this is a pirated/hacked game

WebNations/Sabih wrote:

+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.

Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.

Posted: 4/12/2013 3:14 AM

Post subject: 117% TAS in Progress!

Quote

Nitrofski

Active player (448)

Joined: 4/9/2013
Posts: 29

Time to take that thread out of the dust. Since I decided to start TASing 117% a week ago and made some good progress, I though I might post that here and let people comment from the TASVideos community give me constructive comments on my work so far. First, I'd like to say that I am already fully aware of the piracy protection included in that game and of the fact that there is probably no way I'm gonna be able to get past the first Sorceress. I'm fine with that and want to TAS this game at 100% as long as it allows me to. Here is the creature: Link to video I hope you guys enjoyed the preview. Thanks for the comments :)

Posted: 4/13/2013 11:23 AM

Quote

lapogne36

Editor, Skilled player (1279)

Joined: 1/31/2010
Posts: 327
Location: France

Really nice work, and I know you must have spent a lot of time only for this WIP. At least Sparx is more useful than in Spyro 1

Posted: 4/14/2013 1:46 AM

Quote

Hutch

Joined: 4/21/2011
Posts: 91

Very nice. I really enjoyed watching this, and it's great to see someone working on this category! With a category as long as this, it would be folly to expect extreme optimisation, but the only thing that made me cringe a little too much was the skateboarding, which while has some really nice tricks and strats, I don't think was quite up to scratch. For example, many of the blue ramp lizards you can get without getting stuck into that high jump, and if you sort of lean into the wall on the blue ramp at the top of the map, you can save a bit too. Furthermore, I'm thinking possssibly that jumping while turning is quicker, so you turn a little more sharply (in a similar manner to the spyro sections). Here's my old TAS WIP, a rubbish route that including the skating eggs :P (skating at 1:30) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZZp4LVZeW0

Posted: 4/16/2013 3:08 PM

Quote

Nitrofski

Active player (448)

Joined: 4/9/2013
Posts: 29

Indeed, I did not know you could get those lizards that way. The fact that I am a regular runner of the 117% category and already had a route in mind probably made mo not optimize everything as much. It's quite a lot too late now for me to go back to that level and reTAS those parts, but I still learnt from that and I'll try not to take things for granted as much.

Posted: 4/16/2013 11:31 PM

Quote

Hutch

Joined: 4/21/2011
Posts: 91

Fair enough, good luck with the next bit, I look forward to it! :)

Posted: 6/16/2013 5:15 AM
(Edited: 6/18/2013 8:54 AM)

Quote

Nitrofski

Active player (448)

Joined: 4/9/2013
Posts: 29

It's been a few weeks since I posted my very first WIP, and 2 new ones were posted on Youtube. I'm now done with all the big levels of Sunrise Spring, which is a big step forward. Here are some of the current stats of the TAS: Frames: 115'736 Rerecord count: 49'745 WIP 2/16: Cloud Spires and Molten Crater Link to video WIP 3/16: Mushroom Speedway and Seashell Shore Link to video Yet again, please give me your comments and stuff :) If there is anything I need to improve in the next segments, I want to know about it as early as possible. One last thing: WIP 4/16 will come out kind of soonish too, so I'm just gonna edit this post to avoid flooding and all that stuff. I'm gonna put it in the same Youtube playlist. [edit] Here is WIP 4 for you guys ;) Link to video

Posted: 6/16/2013 7:10 PM

Quote

lapogne36

Editor, Skilled player (1279)

Joined: 1/31/2010
Posts: 327
Location: France

On WIP 2, at 0:15 , it is possible to jump directly to the ending NPC (I did it once with savestates and frame advance). However I can't assure that it is a faster way than your's. At 4:36 (WIP 2), I think you should take the blue and green gems on the left BEFORE the egg, but once again maybe I am wrong. At the Mushroom Speedway race, isn't it faster to charge between the 4th and 5th rings ? That's all I see, anyhow you did a nice job on these WIP so far.

Posted: 6/18/2013 9:01 AM

Quote

Nitrofski

Active player (448)

Joined: 4/9/2013
Posts: 29

About Cloud Spires, I tried to make it happen a while but without success... Mybe I did not try hard enough... For the green and blue gems, you may be right, but I did not take enough time to route that area and there is a lot that could have been faster :/ About the race, I can guarantee that it wouldn't have saved any frames ;) At that height, for the charge to be faster than the flight, it needs to either helps on turns or helps on getting height later :p Thanks for the comments :) P.S. I edited the original post to add WIP 4 as I just finished it and uploaded it to Youtube :)

Posted: 7/2/2013 12:59 AM

Quote

Nitrofski

Active player (448)

Joined: 4/9/2013
Posts: 29

Okay guys, I have Bad News, and Good News... Bad News is: The Anti-Piracy protection striked way earlier than we all expected... It turns out that when I got to the Sheila door in Spooky Swamp, it was closed even though I completed her level way earlier in the TAS... I opened the Atlas there and I don't have Sheila's End of Level egg anymore... Going through a little bit of research, I found out that the game deliberately removed that one egg from my inventory as I got Byrd's End of Level egg... I made sure I saw things right with RAM watches and all that and the egg is removed at the moment the Humming Bird starts her speach before giving you your egg (The egg count is not affected in any way though) On the first look of things, I thought the TAS was over untill new emu or some shit like that was found. BUT Good News is: A cool guy, Hyperbug, was doing some Spyro 2 game hack stuff and he heard of my problem (He was in my chat at that moment). He offered his help to try to modify the ISO (So basically hack the game) so the Anti-Piracy protection won't trigger. Progress so far are encouraging. He managed to find, using a slightly modified version of PSXjin to have memory breakpoints and all that, the addresses that, if modified to the same value, prevent the EoL egg from Sheila's Alp from being removed. Now I have a question related to that... Since it will not be an "original" ISO of the game (Slightly hacked...) but it doesn't alter the intended gameplay, I wonder if the TASVideos community will accept the final TAS as a Valid TAS. Official replies as well as opinion replies are welcomed :)

Posted: 7/2/2013 1:49 AM

Quote

Patashu

He/Him

Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4017

Probably the official response will be 'no, it is not an official version of the game', but I want an amazing spyro TAS badly and I'd love to see the rules bent on this one.

My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu

Posted: 7/2/2013 4:15 AM

Quote

Torn338

Former player

Joined: 3/27/2010
Posts: 270

Patashu wrote:

Probably the official response will be 'no, it is not an official version of the game', but I want an amazing spyro TAS badly and I'd love to see the rules bent on this one.

I talked with Crash on skype about this yesterday and there are points to be made, such as the fact that the Cheetahmen II run uses a hacked version of the game. I realize I'm not an official, but from the best standpoint, in my opinion, as long as you are able to get through the game on the original version (whenever the emulator is able to play back the original without it doing the copyright protection stuffsz) with the hacked versions movie inputs, and nothing is changed aside from the copyright protection, then by all means should it not be allowed?