Post subject: BizHawk Recorded movie desync/ recording questions
Joined: 9/23/2013
Posts: 7
I'm having a really hard time finding any good info on making TAS movies with the BizHawk.MultiClient using SNES ROMs. Today I thought I finally figured it out and did a 43min run of Claymates for the SNES, it seemed fine and I only had to savestate/close the emulator/ and play the movie/load where I left off twice. But 4min into the recording playing back where I had made a savestate, it desyncs and the character starts just moving around but it obviously missed where it's supposed to be. I know my run is kaput now, but I would be extremely grateful if someone could give me some help on how to smoothly record movies/savestate/and come back to them after exiting the emulator. Thanks to anyone who responds!
Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4038
The frustrating thing about desyncs is that they are unpredictable. A good thing to start doing is checking over every level you've done at least once to make sure everything syncs before moving on, so that you don't have a 43 minute run ruined by one desync. And if you want to resume work on your movie later, you can also play the run back in read-only mode, make a savestate where you want to resume, turn off read-only mode, and load the state. I would suggest making a state right before the desync at 4 minutes in and continuing your movie from there instead of starting all over again.
Joined: 9/23/2013
Posts: 7
I was hoping it was something more concrete than that, but I guess you're right. Checking for desync is a good habit I suppose, at least after you've resumed work on a movie. Hard not to get paranoid when you do that! I'll try the quicksave-in-read-only and quickload-in-read+write trick. Thanks Kirby!
Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4038
Well, it's possible SNESHawk just doesn't work too well with Claymates, but there aren't any settings you can adjust to make it work better. And it's better to be a little paranoid in my opinion because you'll find desyncs sooner by somewhat constantly checking your work so they don't mess up more input than they have to. You're welcome! Hope it helps.
Joined: 9/23/2013
Posts: 7
My run is going much better now, it just takes a ton of time to go back and watch the movie because I have to start from the beginning and the turbo option only makes it X2 faster. So if I finish my playthrough, do you guys record your runs in REALTIME using the built-in AVI recorder? I'm hoping my TAS meets the requirements to be shown here.
Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4038
Oh, but you don't have to start from the beginning every time. Just make a savestate after a part that you know syncs and then you can load it in read-only mode and play back your run from there. It'll save you a ton of time. And yes, you can dump an AVI in real time. BizHawk will also let you dump an AVI while holding down the turbo button or running at 1600% speed (or both).