Post subject: Hi. Some newb questions.
Joined: 4/2/2007
Posts: 68
Location: Latvia
Hello, all, been lurking (mostly around the DOS TAS projects) ever since the first implications they might be possible. So I'm starting to experiment with jPC-rr myself and I'm wondering about a few things I have no idea about. Using example of Commander Keen, how would I go about finding out and comparing the values of things like horizontal or vertical movement speed or jump height when in different circumstances such as colliding with something etc.? And about manipulating luck, what would I have to do if I wanted to manipulate a vorticon to do a really high jump it sometimes does in a desired direction so I could run under it without slowing down? Is pressing a key that doesn't delay my movement such as pogo mid-air enough for it to behave differently? And what is the most common way people TAS games - with frame advance all the way through? Should I backup my movie files often in case they desync?
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Post subject: Re: Hi. Some newb questions.
Emulator Coder, Skilled player (1140)
Joined: 5/1/2010
Posts: 1217
Xarthok wrote:
Using example of Commander Keen, how would I go about finding out and comparing the values of things like horizontal or vertical movement speed or jump height when in different circumstances such as colliding with something etc.?
There's no dedicated memory watch. Lua scripts (unfortunately, these make the emulator somewhat unstable and are somewhat tricky to make) could output values to Lua console window, to screen (including extending screen area if needed) or to separate window.
Xarthok wrote:
And what is the most common way people TAS games - with frame advance all the way through?
Considering how clumsy JPC-RR controls are (yeah, that should be fixed), I either use frame advance or when one has bit more breathing room, advance 0.2s at a time (newer versions have that hotkey by default, it can be configured to r11.2 as well).
Xarthok wrote:
Should I backup my movie files often in case they desync?
Yeah, you should backup the movies. Not so much because of desyncs (pretty improbable unless you are using stuff that just plain does not work right, like joysticks in r11.2) but because of possibility of all sorts of screw-ups (with gameplay and load/save). Regarding Commander Keen: I have no idea how luck manipulation works in Commander Keen (sorry), but can offer some hints: General: * Hit enter when BIOS says to hit F12 to enter boot menu. For some reason, BIOS likes to wait half a second before doing anything even if you hit enter (it waits a lot more if you don't). * To get most memory, Hit F8 (it can be hit before the prompt appears), then 'Y' five times and 'N' twice. * Fastest way to boot is to hit F5 in prompt. Unfortunately memory won't be sufficient for most games. For Commander Keen 1-3: * CPU divider 200 might be a good value (speeds up emulation). * Memory size 512 (speeds up save/load a bit). For other keen games: * CPU divider 100 might be a good value (speeds up emulation). * Memory size 512 (speeds up save/load a bit). * Enable Hretrace. * Enable SVGA compat mode in the game. * The sound working seems to depend on phase of the moon. One can see if it is going to work from sound/music source select (in in-game configuration menu).