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Posted: 10/19/2011 4:07 AM
(Edited: 10/20/2011 4:27 PM)
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partyboy1a
Player (136)
Joined: 9/18/2007
Posts: 389
High definition encode of the most recent WIP (all levels) most recent input file Look into the description of the video to watch only the updated parts. The encode is somewhat more like hq1.5x: 
loadplugin("pointsize.dll")
AVIsource("plok-wip40.avi")
selecteven().assumefps(30)
hq2x()
pointresize(width()*7,height()*6)
blur(1.58)
blur(1.58)
blur(1.58)
bilinearresize(width()/2,height()/2)
Posted: 10/20/2011 10:01 AM
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kooz
Former player
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 100
Location: Michigan, United States
Beautiful run so far, beautiful encode =) I'm sure not everyone likes hq4x, but it sure made for some damn fine TAS viewing at work.
Posted: 10/23/2011 9:38 PM
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partyboy1a
Player (136)
Joined: 9/18/2007
Posts: 389
Yay, finally I got the shortcut to work... The trick was to shoot all limbs away before jumping across the gap. That worked because you don't have to press "down" to keep your "extra speed", and you're smaller without feet. 739 frames faster in Creepy Crag, and there is still room for some small optimizations left. WIP 45 input file encode I experimented a bit with Inkscape, using the vetorizing functions. This would allow infinite upscaling. The result of vectorizing looks beautiful, especially the detailed background. I would like to create an encode with such images, but there is one major problem with this idea: It would require a 7.2 THz CPU to create such an encode in real time, so my computer would require one day for each 24 seconds of the video.... Posting nearly every WIP somewhat destroys the surprise part of the final TAS, but I think it's better if you can spot some possible improvements (as Mecha Richter did). Gohome Cavern is asking for some new scripts... There is a lot of sliding in this level, but it's a lot more difficult: If you press "left" or "right" while having no feet, you'll start to jump. While on ground without feet, pressing "down" has no effect at all. While in air, I can choose between no input, pressing "down" only, or pressing "down" + ("left" or "right"). That will make it a lot more difficult to optimize the slides... However, I gained 4 seconds before I got back the feet. So this level will most likely be improved by 20 seconds or more...
Posted: 10/25/2011 12:32 AM
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kooz
Former player
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 100
Location: Michigan, United States
Wow, those shortcuts were really nice. Great work... Plok is looking far more agile than ever before. As far as vectorization... I personally think the result of hq4x filter looks better than the result you got with Inkscape (with the downside of not having infinite scalability... perhaps a pre-filter with hq4x prior to converting to vector would improve results?). Not to venture too much further off-topic, but take a look at this article if you get a sec: Depixelizing Pixel Art I'd love to see that vectorization algorithm implemented in emulators... Its gorgeous. More so, I'd like to see it applied on a per-layer basis, so as to reduce artifacting as much as possible (i.e. a score counter should not be interpreted as part of the background, nor should sprites, etc...) I don't think any emulator does that yet, with any filter type. Though it could be implemented in a final encode, I believe. You'd have to dump an AVI for every layer (so, 5, I think?) and recombine them using video compositing software.
Posted: 10/26/2011 10:42 PM
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partyboy1a
Player (136)
Joined: 9/18/2007
Posts: 389
I'm currently improving Gohome Cavern.... I already saved more than 12 seconds saved before the backtracking part! See here. This part was bot-assisted, and required about 6000 rerecords. I somehow think the trick with throwing away all body parts can improve some of the earlier levels..... ----------------- University has started again, leaving me quite little time for TASing... I think this run won't be finished this year. There's so much stuff in this game which requires huge amounts of trial-and-error, and the boss fights are also most likely improvable, and the new trick can improve at least one more level.
Posted: 2/17/2012 5:10 AM
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la_mammal
Joined: 2/26/2011
Posts: 98
I juuuuust discovered this game... by watching the recent Spider Man TAS, finding out who did the music, checking out other games with music by the same people, and finally stumbling upon this beauty of a game. It is so cool that a new TAS is being worked on, too! Will be following this for sure.
Posted: 8/1/2012 2:06 AM
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Mecha_Richter
He/Him
Joined: 10/11/2011
Posts: 53
Hey, how's the run coming along? I haven't seen you post any progress in a good while.
Posted: 8/1/2012 2:59 PM
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feos
Site Admin, Skilled player (1235)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11264
Location: RU
NES TAS of 2011
[offtopic] Hi Mecha Richter :D [/offtopic]
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Posted: 8/2/2012 7:07 AM
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partyboy1a
Player (136)
Joined: 9/18/2007
Posts: 389
Yeah, I haven't done anything for this run for quite a long time, sorry about that. The biggest part of this run is already finished, and it's quite a big improvement up to that point. There is at least one level remainig which is really difficult to optimize, because it involves optimizing a really long slide. Optimizing slides is much work, because it's a lot of trial-and-error, but they are by far the biggest time-savers. Almost every time when I tried to improve a slide, I was successful... The scripts I created are very good for that, but they aren't user-friendly. This game is quite hex-edit friendly, so if you find improvements in early levels or in the boss fights, they can most likely be edited into the most recent WIP. If someone wants to help me get this finished, that would be fine, you can become a co-author. I'll need some time to get used to my scripts again, but I will continue working on this one.
Posted: 8/5/2012 11:15 PM
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fran_friki
Joined: 8/5/2012
Posts: 2
Hi all, i want to share this shortcut with you (specially Partyboy1a) . Maybe you know it, but it's interesting. The level is "High Flying". Greetings! (i'm not a taser xD so are a lot of mistakes and it can be done more faster, of course) http://youtu.be/-SgLJXqcFKw
Posted: 8/6/2012 2:30 AM
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PJ
He/Him
Joined: 2/1/2011
Posts: 181
Location: Western NY
Wow, that's awesome! I didn't even think of trying that shortcut, even after I found the same thing with the UFO. VERY nice find. ^_^
Posted: 8/9/2012 8:50 AM
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partyboy1a
Player (136)
Joined: 9/18/2007
Posts: 389
Yay, one more level with a big shortcut! This will be in the final TAS for sure! I will upload the most recent WIPs soon
Posted: 8/10/2012 2:01 AM
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Mecha_Richter
He/Him
Joined: 10/11/2011
Posts: 53
Wow, nice skip! I wonder if that could work on the helicopter stage too. Looking forward to the WIPs partyboy1a. :)
Posted: 8/23/2012 4:14 PM
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partyboy1a
Player (136)
Joined: 9/18/2007
Posts: 389
Yay, I could save about 24 seconds in Gohome Cavern... and another 58 frames were saved in the earlier levels. Sponge Rocks is now even more impressive. See here: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/510602692/plok-wip64.smv If you want to, you can try your best and improve Gohome Cavern. I think the egg manipulation was quite good, but not perfect, and I haven't done that many attempts on improving the slides.
Posted: 8/30/2012 11:38 PM
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fran_friki
Joined: 8/5/2012
Posts: 2
Impressive!! This TAS will be the best and the fastest of Plok!!
Posted: 9/6/2012 12:43 AM
Post subject: Yay, it's done!
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partyboy1a
Player (136)
Joined: 9/18/2007
Posts: 389
I finally got it! This game got beaten, finally! The complete movie can be found in my WIP storage. It's 3 minutes and 47 seconds faster than the published movie.
Posted: 9/6/2012 6:19 AM
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PJ
He/Him
Joined: 2/1/2011
Posts: 181
Location: Western NY
Excellent job! The fleapit levels were incredible! I'm so glad that its possible to fly between the water and the terrain in so many of those levels; it skips a lot of very painful navigation. Haha. My personal favorite level was Gohome Cavern. That was nasty. Very impressive TAS!
Posted: 9/6/2012 12:34 PM
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Mecha_Richter
He/Him
Joined: 10/11/2011
Posts: 53
Wow, the run is so good! I agree with PJ that Gohome Cavern is the best, but I also liked Creepy Crag a lot.
Posted: 9/9/2012 2:38 PM
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partyboy1a
Player (136)
Joined: 9/18/2007
Posts: 389
I restarted again... Now the levels before Plok Town are 115 frames faster. I had the idea for a completely new strategy in Plok Town one of the fleas can be killed by beans, which lets me perform an additional slide. My current try is about 30 frames slower than the usual way, which is in the WIP storage. It might be worth to be done as a speed/entertainment tradeoff. If you are a luck manipulation master, you might be able to manage two eggs, three beans, and your positioning towards the sawblade at the same time better than me... I'd be glad to see someone beat my attempt there. Edit finished again, almost 10 seconds faster overall.
Posted: 2/13/2013 9:39 AM
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Mecha_Richter
He/Him
Joined: 10/11/2011
Posts: 53
Hey there, I may have found some potential improvements for the TAS. The first one is a floor clip. I have no idea how I did this but it happened while I was streaming and made a highlight for it. We might be able to find some place it can become useful. My ultimate goal is to see if it can be done in the tank stage at the beginning, allowing us to skip the entire tank stage! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAlIpxa_1JU On top of that, I managed to skip the tank stage using a Plokontinue! I did this one other time, but never figured out how it happened, but I think it has to do with getting a Plokontinue on the stage, then using one on said stage. Anyway, I also made a highlight of this. http://www.twitch.tv/mecha_richter/c/1923514 Skip to about 2:45 and you'll see it'll skip the stage. The rest of the footage is just me getting the Plokontinue and dying. I'm gonna keep messing with this floor clip and see if I can get it to work in other stages and, most importantly, the tank stage.
Posted: 2/13/2013 10:32 PM
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PJ
He/Him
Joined: 2/1/2011
Posts: 181
Location: Western NY
Well, since Mecha bumped this thread, I may as well post this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s4gKloYoTg If you get yourself lodged in the ceiling as UFO and get hit a few times, you can screenwrap and end up somewhere new. I have NO idea where I end up, but I turned on an invincibility code and tried escaping from the water for awhile with no success. I doubt this is actually useful. In fact, it feels like I'm still in the same part of the level I was before the screenwrap, but this time underwater. Anyways, maybe it'll be useful someday. Just throwing it out there.
Posted: 2/16/2013 5:44 AM
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Mecha_Richter
He/Him
Joined: 10/11/2011
Posts: 53
ok, so after trying the floor skip using frame advance for over an hour, I was unable to replicate it. I even tried in the same spot I did the clip in the video. If there's anyone with more experience in using frame advance that wants to take a crack at it, it would be greatly appreciated. I can at least point out what I did to do what I think caused it. When I looked back at the highlight, I noticed I jumped as soon as the saw blade was finished. I found out you can hold down A to do the high jump before actually jumping and you'll jump the first frame the sawblade ends. I also attack as soon as I fall through the floor. You can hold down Y to attack while in the high jump and you'll attack as soon as you land. I dunno if these two things have any effect on the clip, but it's worth noting anyway.
Posted: 2/18/2013 9:22 AM
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partyboy1a
Player (136)
Joined: 9/18/2007
Posts: 389
The floor skip can also be executed if you do have too much horizontal speed after a slide. In Log Trail, I had to slow down in one place close to the beginning because of this glitch. There is one frame where I had to press "left" to avoid falling through the floor. Unfortunately, I think it doesn't work in the same way for a different terrain. If you can jump through the floor from the bottom, you can fall through the floor if it is not flat. If you cannot jump through the floor from the bottom (like most floors in Gohome Cavern), the same thing doesn't work. Getting stuck in the ceiling... that looks really interesting. This might save time if this makes some kind of "Wrong Warp" possible, like it was done in Ocarina Of Time. It won't save time until level completion, the UFO stage is just too short already.
Posted: 3/17/2017 1:05 PM
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Countdown
Joined: 1/29/2015
Posts: 6
So as Mecha pointed out all those years ago, you can indeed skip levels with the 'Game Over Glitch™' Basically you get a letter of PLOK every time you complete a stage without dying. You can also find these letters as pickups in some stages. Using the current any% warps route, it happens to work out that you enter both Plok Town and Real Rumblings (tank stage in flea pit) with P L O, which sets you up perfectly for the game over warp. Simply get the Plok letter, get a continue, and game over. The game will spit you back out onto the map with the level completed. My theory is that whatever flag gets set when you obtain a letter from beating a stage without dying is also set when you simply obtain a letter pickup in a stage. Then all you have to do is 'exit' the stage, via game over. It is fastest (I think) to drain all your surplus lives on Sponge Rocks, as the logs at the beginning prove to be the closest damage source to Plok's spawn point in any given level. You can see this in real time here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDlHSNm7G2w#t=9m30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDlHSNm7G2w#t=27m20s I'm not sure if Partyboy or Kooz have any intentions of redoing their TASes any time soon, but this would certainly shave whole minutes off the run.
Posted: 3/20/2017 2:58 PM
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Countdown
Joined: 1/29/2015
Posts: 6
more tech! a French real time player by the name of A3r1us has stumbled upon this: https://clips.twitch.tv/OilyWealthySandstormWOOP he managed to hit the flea queen twice in one cycle, this by itself saved like 16 seconds, if you can do that four times that's quite a bit more shaved off. I'm looking into it now with frame advance but I'm not a very experienced TASer so maybe someone else could take a closer look.
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