Post by Samsara

Posted: 3/6/2016 1:53 PM

Quote

feos

Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)

Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU

Why didn't I check how you die on the jet back then? You do it 11 frames too slow, and now I have to redo the level end object spawn again. It was hell to get it originally, so yay. Regarding going up/down on slopes, haven't you read the Resources page? Also, why the rerecord count dropped comparing to my movie? EDIT: ~~http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29368811243691216~~ ~~http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29368969643174530~~ http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29369303888869079 EDIT: Big Blag doesn't seem to have the stunned status, I can't boot him.

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: 3/6/2016 4:31 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Expert player (3535)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2732
Location: US

Thanks feos! Yeah I couldn't boot blarg either, I tried for a while with those helmet things on the ground too. Not sure what you mean about the resource page, am I missing something? I use lots of different files and cut and paste between them all the time. I don't really care about rerecord count so I don't pay attention to it. So that is most likely why there is a discrepancy. Feel free to suggest whatever number you feel is appropriate though. http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29370504072808374 Here is a file with all current improvements. I also did a rough draft of snakes. I also appended the inputs of the original run at the end. I usually have them there but at some point along the way they got removed. I like to have them to keep track of improvements easier. It also makes progress on rough drafts much much faster.

Posted: 3/6/2016 5:53 PM

Quote

feos

Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)

Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU

http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/NES/Battletoads.html

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: 3/6/2016 6:41 PM

Quote

feos

Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)

Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU

~~http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29372450855873715 (56 frames on snakes).~~ http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29372908249428164 (30 frames on Blag). Man you can't lose seconds like this. These are all known tricks.

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: 3/6/2016 7:36 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Expert player (3535)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2732
Location: US

Oh, no worries these are all rough drafts, I always do things iteratively. I never try, or expect to have, anything optimized until after quite a few tries. Thanks for speeding up the process though : )

Posted: 3/7/2016 8:57 AM

Quote

feos

Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)

Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU

Another fix to level 4. http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29385639088208504

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: 3/7/2016 3:37 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Expert player (3535)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2732
Location: US

apparently you can exit the surfboard without jumping after the first part of level 5. Saved about a dozen frames this way. http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29391811010828289

Posted: 3/7/2016 4:19 PM

Quote

feos

Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)

Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU

http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29392454619824410

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: 3/7/2016 7:06 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Expert player (3535)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2732
Location: US

Wow you are on a roll feos! At this rate this run will come together really fast! http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29394998935083011 Here is a first pass at level 7 (with all previous improvements included.) It is a bit faster then the original. It syncs up to the fireballs. Since they are RNG I guess it would make sense to finalize everything up to that point before having to redo them over and over as improvements are found. I'll also go back to snakes and try to throw in some attempt at entertainment. I guess there isn't that much to do but I'll give it a try.

Posted: 3/7/2016 10:57 PM

Quote

feos

Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)

Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU

More of level 4. http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29398605401358456

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: 3/7/2016 11:43 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Expert player (3535)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2732
Location: US

@feos: what do you know about how the snakes work? It seems I am able to slightly change their length depending on how I scroll the screen. I saved 4 frames so far in this manner but am not entirely sure what mechanism is at work. See the second section here: ~~http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29399306582151235~~ Oh good timing with more level 4 improvements too! EDIT: saved another 17 frames on level 4 with a better ice block throw. EDIT2: Here is a current file with all improvements and yet another 10 frames saved on snakes. http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29401103848403536

Posted: 3/8/2016 8:33 AM

Quote

feos

Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)

Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU

Snake level layout is kept in RAM at $600-$77F. That's all I know.

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: 3/10/2016 11:30 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Expert player (3535)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2732
Location: US

http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29465684669371662 Somehow the rest of the run syncs pretty smoothly so I thought I'd resync it as far as I could, which right now is about 1/3 of the way through the last level. This is great luck since I had trouble even syncing level 2 when I first started working on this. So as earlier levels are finalized this head start should make the remainder a lot quicker.

Posted: 3/11/2016 3:23 PM

Quote

feos

Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)

Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU

Terra Tubes are gonna need some brainstrorming as well. Checkpoints don't care about your Z position, but the final one depends on camera position. Also, PJ assured me that once on console the hammer-fish bumped him through the wall right into level end, but I was unable to reproduce it.

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: 3/14/2016 10:05 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Expert player (3535)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2732
Location: US

http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29553178600016834 Alright, so I saved another ~20 frames on the snakes, cleaned up the jets level, and implemented the jump through the current improvements in the tower (as well as fixed the boss fight.) Overall saved about another second. I think we're ready to start investigating Terra Tubes! For starters I looked at the fish knocking you into the exit thing, and it seems the exit won't spawn until after the helicopters have already spawned. After that the fish would need to hit you into the spikes to get you through the wall and down into the exit, but this would require scrolling back down a significant ways and probably wouldn't save time since you just fall down anyway.

Posted: 3/15/2016 6:14 PM

Quote

feos

Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)

Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU

In Volkmire's Inferno I found a trick whose potential is scaring me. Sometimes, adding U/D to the first direction tap when you're going to run increases your actual speed so that in the long distance you can save up to 20 pixels just by resuming running. My old (back from 2010) running speed value seems to be fooling us, being 192 in both cases.

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: 3/15/2016 8:05 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Expert player (3535)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2732
Location: US

Wow you're right! Definitely something that needs further investigation. EDIT: so far level 3 and 4 have easy improvements related to this trick. Looks like some back tracking needs to be done. This is quite a strange and random trick, I might try putting this in BizHawk and confirming it works the same.

Posted: 3/16/2016 3:30 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Expert player (3535)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2732
Location: US

http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29591466236789461 Well it seems I've run a bit short on time so won't be able to commit much more to this. I've created this run that goes to the end of the game (and saves 30 frames on the boss.) Level 10 and 11 were pretty trivial from TAS perspective so nothing really changed there. Terra Tubes seems pretty well optimized since I couldn't do anything about checkpoints in my testing. The final level seemed really well optimized too so I just synced it up. @feos: if you plan on working with that trick you found feel free to use this file. If you think it will take too long I might just submit this one by week's end and leave it for future improvements (perhaps including it on the next iteration of the run with a goal to sync on console.)

Posted: 3/16/2016 4:16 PM

Quote

feos

Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)

Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU

In no way is it close to submittable.

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: 3/16/2016 7:24 PM

Quote

feos

Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)

Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU

http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29595151998473782 Are you sure you're leaving?

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: 3/17/2016 12:44 AM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Expert player (3535)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2732
Location: US

feos wrote:

http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29595151998473782 Are you sure you're leaving?

Yeah sorry but I won't be able to commit to finishing this for at least the next several months. Normally I hate leaving things open ended so I at least wanted to have that complete WIP out, but beyond that it's up to you! (and possibly Samsara!) Good Luck!

Posted: 3/17/2016 3:00 PM

Quote

feos

Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)

Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU

Samsara wrote:

If everything's already in place, I might force myself to actually come back to this project and try to give it an optimization trial run.

My plan is to implement the new find everywhere I could so far.

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: 3/17/2016 3:12 PM

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2122)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

That would've been my plan as well.

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.

Posted: 3/17/2016 4:11 PM
(Edited: 9/24/2017 12:10 PM)

Quote

feos

Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)

Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU

This game's collision detection is utter nonsense.

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.