Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 1047
Location: California
It isn't that simple at all, trust me. ;P Someone gave him bad advice and the TAS ended up being made on the Dolphin rev designed for Wii TASing. I tried hexing and editing input for hours yesterday, but couldn't manage to sync it past the Egg Hornet fight. The 1 frame black save screen kept messing it up (wouldn't appear on the frame it should, so the frame counter got whacked out). Input desyncs about every 30 seconds, even after fixing it to match up in earlier parts. Working with it is just a mess and it doesn't really have any chance of being accepted here. :/
Bottom line, the TAS needs redone on a proper rev to be published here. There may be a full WIP encoded by THC98 himself if he can make it work on his computer, but I don't think that has any possibility of being the final run.
Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 1047
Location: California
For THC98 himself, his "final" .dtm syncs up to getting the Ancient Light (right before Red Mountain). For some reason when he copies his User folder and then tries playing it back it desyncs at Emerald Coast (level 1 after Chaos 0)...which is weird because it's the same desync that happens when other people try to play it back (myself and itsPersonnal). Like I said, I managed to fix that desync and the following ones up to after Egg Hornet through hex editing, but the save screen messes up the frame counter and it won't sync any further even when the input is the same.
Provided I can fix the Ancient Light/Red Mountain desyncs for THC's .dtm, he can avi record that part and the next couple sky levels (Chase/Deck). He already recorded up to that point, and luckily, he has a savestate for the Chaos 6 fight that he can load in read-only and it'll play back the rest of the movie properly.
The goal from this point is to get a proper avi recording to somewhat salvage the run and not just let it be wasted. Any hope of the .dtm itself working is basically dead
I'm trying to at least render the TAS, I don't want to lost all the work.
I'll redo this in a far future, and I'll try to optimize EVERYTHING when I do it! Oh, and in a better Dolphin rev. ;)
You know, whether or not it's able to be submitted doesn't really matter in the long run, it's the awe of the TAS itself.
Sucks about what happened, but if you're able to get that avi recording, it'll still be worth it, I think.
I'm rendering the synced part, from the start to Acient Light, then from Chaos 6 to the end. I have Red Mountain rendered, which I uploaded to Youtube before. I uploaded act 1 of Sky Deck unlisted on Youtube, so I can add it too. But Sky Chase 2 and the Adventure Field of those parts are lost :/
Did you figure out what the heck happened?
- You didn't check sync (very few emulators are even close to perfectly sync-stable), leading to movie desyncing without you noticing?
- The emulator settings changed midway through, leading to inconsistent movie?
- Something else?
I think that the problem was that I used a inconsistent Dolphin rev or I used a bad savestate when I got the Acient Light. Or both of them.
I'll start using a better rev and be careful of using the savestates correctly ;P
I think that the problem was that I used a inconsistent Dolphin rev or I used a bad savestate when I got the Acient Light. Or both of them.
I'll start using a better rev and be careful of using the savestates correctly ;P
You mean you upgraded Dolphin version partway through and didn't regenerate saves?
Or that you did, but accidentally used a save from old version?
(Both of these should get fairly quickly caught in sync checking).
Any modern emulator should prevent loading savestate in a way that would leave the movie in inconsistent state. Of course, there might be bugs in this code...
Any modern emulator should prevent loading savestate in a way that would leave the movie in inconsistent state. Of course, there might be bugs in this code...
There is, actually. If you use the undo load state feature, part of your movie will be lost, since the save state made when loading one to allow you to undo it does not save the movie with it. Other than that, it will always warn you if you're doing something you shouldn't be, that will cause desyncs.
I think that the problem was that I used a inconsistent Dolphin rev or I used a bad savestate when I got the Acient Light. Or both of them.
I'll start using a better rev and be careful of using the savestates correctly ;P
You mean you upgraded Dolphin version partway through and didn't regenerate saves?
Or that you did, but accidentally used a save from old version?
(Both of these should get fairly quickly caught in sync checking).
Any modern emulator should prevent loading savestate in a way that would leave the movie in inconsistent state. Of course, there might be bugs in this code...
Yeah, I downloaded anohter rev of Dolphin to TAS it better, but some revs just can't TAS SADX, it desyncs like in each 5 sec.
About the desync, I think that I loaded a savestate in read-only mode that didn't skip the cutscene by 1 frame, so it lost a frame and the next part was very inconsistent.
About the desync, I think that I loaded a savestate in read-only mode that didn't skip the cutscene by 1 frame, so it lost a frame and the next part was very inconsistent.
Do you have panic handlers disabled? It should have given you a warning when you tried to do that.
About the desync, I think that I loaded a savestate in read-only mode that didn't skip the cutscene by 1 frame, so it lost a frame and the next part was very inconsistent.
Do you have panic handlers disabled? It should have given you a warning when you tried to do that.
I don't remember if I used that, but I'll try to use it from now.