Post subject: Any other TAS tools aside from Frame Advance and Savestates?
Joined: 12/9/2011
Posts: 7
I've made one TAS before, using these tools, but it doesn't look all that great. Any other tools for making it better?
TAS noob, go easy on me! I also make YouTube Poops at www.YouTube.com/LeStarmanDeluxe.
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Joined: 11/6/2004
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RAM watch, Lua scripting, disassembly of the game... Anything is fair as long as the output is a .fm2 file which someone else can play back on a stock copy of FCEU
Joined: 12/9/2011
Posts: 7
[quote="DeHackEd"]RAM watch, Lua scripting, disassembly of the game... Anything is fair as long as the output is a .fm2 file which someone else can play back on a stock copy of FCEU[/quote] Well I have almost no knowledge of coding, being fairly young, so anything easier?
TAS noob, go easy on me! I also make YouTube Poops at www.YouTube.com/LeStarmanDeluxe.
Lex
Joined: 6/25/2007
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Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
BLMNDEF wrote:
DeHackEd wrote:
RAM watch, Lua scripting, disassembly of the game... Anything is fair as long as the output is a .fm2 file which someone else can play back on a stock copy of FCEU
Well I have almost no knowledge of coding, being fairly young, so anything easier?
Everyone has to start somewhere. It's not too early or late to learn.
Joined: 12/9/2011
Posts: 7
Well thanks! That's encouraging! I'll try to learn what those do!
TAS noob, go easy on me! I also make YouTube Poops at www.YouTube.com/LeStarmanDeluxe.
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BLMNDEF wrote:
Well thanks! That's encouraging! I'll try to learn what those do!
Really, disassembling the game is some very heavy stuff, you won't need to start quite that far. Still, from my own experience, you begin learning one tool after another. So let me round up and explain the more important ones: - Lag Counter: Counts every frame the game won't accept input. This is important, because a lag frame is essentially a wasted frame, so lag frames should be avoided. A lag counter makes it easier to compare your movie against others and figure out what things make a game lag. - Ram Watch/Search: Allows you to find and observe addresses in the system RAM. This is important because some information the game won't bother to tell you. What exactly you'll be searching for varies by game, but common important addresses are things like Boss Health, Position of your character on the screen or Random Numbers. - Frame Counter: Displays on what frame you're on. Important for comparing your run to others. - Input Display: Just a verification you've entered the proper input. - Spreadsheets/Text files: This is technically not an emulator tool, but they come really handy if you need to compare your run against another one. When I make a run, I usually have a text file open, in which I write frame numbers of level fade-ins/fade-outs and various other tidbits down so I can see whether an other approach or a second try is faster than my first or whether an attempt is faster than a previous movie. Above all else, don't fret it, you won't need everything all the time. You'll learn to use them as you'll need them and on the whole, as DeHackEd says, what it all comes down to is a sequence of keystrokes.
Joined: 9/21/2012
Posts: 11
Location: Northern Virginia
What's a good disassembly tool for NES games? Is that built into fceux? I'd like to know the combat accuracy formulas for a game, and being able to disassemble the combat code would obviously be a huge help for that. Thank you!
AnS
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PresJPolk wrote:
What's a good disassembly tool for NES games? Is that built into fceux?
Yes, FCEUX has the best set of debugging tools ever found in an emulator.
PresJPolk wrote:
I'd like to know the combat accuracy formulas for a game, and being able to disassemble the combat code would obviously be a huge help for that.
Do you know 6502 assembly? You have to learn some basics of NES hardware before attempting to reverse-enginneer a NES game.
Joined: 9/21/2012
Posts: 11
Location: Northern Virginia
I've written 6502 assembly for the NES actually. Years ago, a little bit, and only emulator tested, but I did it. :) So great. I know my project this weekend then: explore this tool. Thanks!
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All the tools are described in FCEUX help, but you are going to need the updated version. Debugger docs were heavily improved since 2.1.5. http://www.fceux.com/web/help/fceux.html?Debug.html
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Joined: 9/21/2012
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Location: Northern Virginia
Thanks so much all. I think I actually found the code I was looking for. Wow. It's so handy, this ability to get a log of what was running, dumping the instructions along with notes on what exactly was put into the registers, what addresses were references, and everything. That made this pretty easy, once I got it going. Oh man, and I just set a RAM watch on the byte this code leads me to believe was the PRNG result. And sure enough, I'm missing when the code leads me to believe I should be missing. Perfect. Thanks all.