Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
How do I send save states?
OT, I just got a gamepad so hopefully that'll help me in TASing this game, for doing test runs to explore levels and for better precision. If the input plugin changes from the TAS plugin to the gamepad plugin, will that negatively affect anything?
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Alrighty got it all to work. many thanks.
only problem is holding frame advance won't make it advance in slow motion like on the keyboard, but meh this is great.
so I finally figured out why I couldn't make save states that worked.. I use the Save As.. option
nitsuja wrote:
use the savestate hotkeys, not "save as"
Wouter Jansen wrote:
I've never successfully saved my own states so far
It sounds like you are just being lazy... Not that it isn't convenient to have a savestate available for those who lost theirs or don't want to watch the intro, but it shouldn't be a requirement. They are very large compared to a movie file (especially a compressed one), and most people can figure out how to hit the savestate button.
OT, I just got a gamepad so hopefully that'll help me in TASing this game, for doing test runs to explore levels and for better precision. If the input plugin changes from the TAS plugin to the gamepad plugin, will that negatively affect anything?
I recommend keeping the plugin as the TAS plugin since it supports gamepads anyway, and for super precision you can just manually aim using the GUI.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Yep. I've just spent all day doing little experimentations and stuff.
What happens when that red dot goes outside the circle? is that outside the N64 range? because I've been adhering to within the circle using the GUI, and I've noticed the analog stick of the gamepad goes beyond it, have I been going at angles not at the optimal speed?
What happens when that red dot goes outside the circle? is that outside the N64 range? because I've been adhering to within the circle using the GUI, and I've noticed the analog stick of the gamepad goes beyond it, have I been going at angles not at the optimal speed?
Approximately. I don't know exactly what the range is but it made sense to draw a circle there to give a rough idea. If the character seems to move faster than normal when you go outside of the range, you could use that to your advantage. Otherwise, it doesn't really matter.
In some games (like Banjo-Kazooie), you will actually get worse angular precision, for no speed benefit, if you play outside of the normal range. So it might be better to stay inside it. You can adjust the sensitivity bars in the input panel or the "range" settings in the input plugin options if you want to prevent the joystick from going outside of that range.
Joined: 10/31/2005
Posts: 329
Location: The Netherlands
nitsuja wrote:
It sounds like you are just being lazy... Not that it isn't convenient to have a savestate available for those who lost theirs or don't want to watch the intro, but it shouldn't be a requirement. They are very large compared to a movie file (especially a compressed one), and most people can figure out how to hit the savestate button.
yes, I truly must be lazy if I would go find a rom just to watch a small 'videofile' and rather rewatch whole parts I've already seen than clicking on a simple menuitem that for some reason doesn't seem to work for me (and I'm not the only one, as shown in this thread). I wasn't really being serious anyway, it would just be nice if more people did so. I really don't see how 1 MB is such a big deal unless you're on 56k/modem, which is almost like floppy disks now anyway. When I said I never successfully save my own states so far I meant that they never worked on following WIPs yet, which is probably caused by the reason I explained earlier in one of these threads, that there's probably been a change in the part before I where saved. I can't predict where the next WIP 'starts', and I wouldn't make savestates for like every frame and then try them all out in backwards order until I've found the one that works with the new WIP..
saving states is useless if the new WIP doesn't go on where the previous left off.. if it wasn't that then I guess maybe some 'bugs' need to be fixed or the usage needs to be more clear :p
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
I'm pretty sure that at the beginning of Fairy Glade that I'm at not changing anything before. Here's a savestate for the lazy: (I think this is the right one)
savestate at beginning of Fair Glade
Then, I agree. I'm being lazy by not fixing it, but a workaround exists and it looked (before) like you were ignoring that.
EDIT: comicalflop posted a savestate at the bottom of the previous page, for anyone that missed that post.
Bag of Magic Food wrote:
Hmm... How does the angle get less precise if you're a greater distance away from center?
At least in Banjo Kazooie, a lot of the "out of range" area is interpreted as 100% diagonal tilt (45 degree angle). So if you try fine-tuning your diagonal movement by moving it a little out of the far corner, it will have almost no effect until you get close to a cardinal direction, where the movement angle changes more rapidly. Most of the same angles are there, but they are spread out more evenly along the circle.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
nitsuja wrote:
At least in Banjo Kazooie, a lot of the "out of range" area is interpreted as 100% diagonal tilt (45 degree angle). So if you try fine-tuning your diagonal movement by moving it a little out of the far corner, it will have almost no effect until you get close to a cardinal direction, where the movement angle changes more rapidly. Most of the same angles are there, but they are spread out more evenly along the circle.
I guess that makes sense, the bigger a circle's circumference is the wider arcs the angles are... I noticed for this game that something similar happens, especially with the air currents that are coming up in this level, where facing a direction by a very small fraction to the left or right makes you overshoot, but generally I don't need that much precision so I'll simply use the GUI (assuming I can make it come back, it sorta disappeared) for precise moments like that.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Started doing some base calculations...
after 15 levels, to get to the Iron Mountains at which point the Lum # does not matter, you need 545 Lums in those 15 levels. That's an average of 36 1/3 Lum per level. Some are going to be fewer, some are going to be more (Marsh of Awakening, The Bayou, The Precipice). No more than 49 Lums should be collected per level- any more will activate the bonus game with the tiny globox and a random robot pirate.
Out of a potential 49 Lums per stage (last one will always be skipped) there are 735 Lums scattered throughout the 15 level. Since only 545 are needed, that gives me a maximum of 190 to skip.
I'll continue working on Fairy Glade tonight, but more improtantly I'll try to map out which Lums to skip per level. In test runs I've played up to the cave of bad dreams, playing through the levels but not quite testing strategies since I'm just playing the levels firsthand to get familiarity with the levels.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Here's some more route planning; again, just brainstorming. Once I come up with these "lists" for all levels before the Iron Mountains, then I can select the 190 Lums that are going to be skipped.
Marsh of Awakening
Get all but 2; get 1 on way to the Cave of Bad Dreams
The Bayou
Get all but 1 (most of these are straight on the path, and the ones that require a little sidetracking take a very small amount of detouring/waiting.)
Sanctuary of Water and Ice
Cage 1: 1-3 skip
4-9 skip
2nd cage: 10-19 skip
20-29 get
30-40 skip? They're easy to get, but still going up and around the entrance, easy 15-20 seconds lost
41-49 get
Axel Boss (he's so easy, I beat him in one try in real speed with no rerecords.)
Menhir Hills (there's a lot of skipping in this one, there's 8 cages and many cages/lums are really out of the way to get)
1st cage: 1-5 skip
2nd cage: 6-10 skip?
3rd cage: 11-15 skip?
16: get?
17?
4th cage: 18-20 skip?
21-31 get on shell
After Cave of Dreams:
6th cage: 36-38 get
7th cage: 39-40
41-42 get
8th cage: 43-44 get
45-50 get
This is of course rough draft, I though to skip ones that sounded like they'd be out of the way and I kinda relaized that a perfectly optimized route has to have all 190 skipped Lums planned, so I'm working on getting an idea of which levels have how many skippable Lums.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Phew after a lot of writing cramp, here is my Lum route brainstorm:
The Cave of bad dreams
get all but 1
The Canopy
1-16 get
1st cage 17-18 skip
2nd cage 19-20 skip
21-38 get
3rd cage 39-40 skip?
41-48 get
4th cage: 49-50 skip
Whale Bay
1-5 skip?
6-17 get
2nd cage 18-27 get
28-29 get
3rd cage: 30-34 get
34-50 get
Sanctuary of Lava and fire- need 300 Lums
1-2 get
1st cage: 4-8 skip?
9 get
2nd cage: 10-14 skip?
15 get
3rd cage: 16 skip
4th cage: 17-18 skip
5th cage: 19-21 skip?
6th cage: 22-25 skip?
26-27 get
7th cage: 28-32 get
33-39 get
40 skip
41 get
8th cage: 42-46 get
47-50 get
The Echoing Caves
1-23 get
2nd cage: 24-26 skip?
27-28 get
skip Fairy Glade
29 skip?
3rd cage skip?
30-38
4th cage: 39 skip?
40-50 get
The Precipice
get all but 1
The Top of the World
1-34 get
1st cage: 35-37 get?
39 skip
40-44 get
2nd cage: 45-47 skip?
48 skip?
49-50 get
The Sanctuary of Rock and Lava
1-5 get
2nd cage: 6-10 get
11-16 get
17-19 get (from earlier cage #3)
20-25 get
4th cage: 27-29 skip
30-36 get
5th cage: 37-39 get
40-45 get
6th cage: 46-48 skip?
49-50 get?
Beneath the Sanctuary of Rock and Lava 475 Lums required
1st cage: 1-3 skip
4-5 get
6 skip?
7-9 get
2nd cage: 10-12 skip?
13-29 get
3rd/4th cages: 30-39 get
40-50 get
Tomb of the Ancients
Skip one Lum somewhere- skip something besides secret Lum, because it doesn't count to Lum #, causing bonus game if all other Lums collected.
1st cage: 1-4 get
5-10 get
11-13 get
5th cage: 14-23 get
24 get
6th cage: 25-34 get
35-40 get
7th cage: 41-50 get
This has all been brainstorm, there are plenty of '?'s everywhere, and of course I cannot actually physically see any of the Lum locations, I have to make educated guesses based on how far off the path it seems to collect. I'm thinking maybe all cages with 2 Lums or less to simply skip, because the 3-5 Lums that can come in some cages makes up for the time eneded to get them.
So now I have this, I can probably calculate between the 15 levels whcih exact 190 Lums to skip. If anyone finds any glaring faults or knows the levels better than me and can find some Lums that don't waste time etc. please feel free to contribute.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Fairy Glade next WIP
Taking this a wee little bit at a time. I'm pretty sure all that's left in this level is freeing Ly by destroying the machine, then falling down the huge pit with the pipe and spewage, the air currents and then that's it. Future levels shouldn't take this long in game time wise I think
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
When is this? I'm pretty sure AKA has seen the entire previous WIP fully, are you SURE you have everything right?
Rayman 2: The Great Escape (U) (M5) (!)
I check constantly for desynchs, and before I'd even started Fairy Glade I made sure it didn't desynch before then, and I always replay the movie file before proceeding to the next section.
laughing gas : check to see if the rom CRC matches exacly.
It ran fine for me, I've tried a few brief things and can't get across the bridge, I take it the you'd have to save ly anyway even if the bridge could be crossed.
I can't wait until I see some some new abilties and harder levels, if I'm being honest up till this point nothing significant has happened yet.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
yeah you probably have wrong ROM, I can send you mine
Yes, the bridge is uncrossable, and you undoubtably need to save Ly anyways to get Purple Lums. Like I mentioned in the beginning, I do not think there is much skippable in this game, I just have to play as fast as possible with tight precision and gutsy play to do it fast.
Later levels will get interesting, Fairy Glade and the Woods of Light are practice levels and are easy. Hopefully the run will get better, the next level is extreme water skiing so that should satisfy action needs. And if by the next few levels it doesn't, I'll just have to find a more intense N64 game. Open to suggestions if that's the case.
At least it's not Front Line.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
laughing_gas wrote:
AKA wrote:
laughing gas : check to see if the rom CRC matches exacly.
What is rom CRC?
The ROM number ID I think? I wish Mupen had the same functions as Snes9x 1.43, it says if you have correct ROM or not, however I'm currently uploading the ROM for anyone that needs
