(Link to video)
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Over the several months Del's hard work found a few improvements over the previous TAS, and I joined the ride to polish a bit more. Here is our third iteration with an improvement of 867 frames (14.45 s) of in-game time over the 2020 TAS. Enjoy!

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: libtas v1.4.5
  • Running the speedrun mode
  • Aims at fastest in-game time
To unlock the speedrun mode, you have to beat the game once to unlock it. Here is the movie file which beats the game.

Tricks

See the previous TAS sumbissions for the already known tricks. Here are only the new ones.

Key teleport

Used in level 6-7. When grabbing the key, rewinding to a green state and fast-forward until the green state goes off, we can warp to the position where we picked the key. By rewinding again, we can move back to the green state while keeping the key. This is the major time save of this TAS.

Better grab cancels

Although unintuitive, it is faster to grab cancel ladders from the base, instead of jumping ahead to grab ladders higher. This leads to a few frames of improvement here and there

Top ladder grab cancel

In general, it is not faster, when climbing up, to release a ladder and grab-cancel up. This is because releasing a ladder takes one frame, and although grab-cancel up is slightly faster than climbing, we don't catch enough to make it worth. However, when near the peak of a ladder, pressing forward while releasing the ladder still makes you move up. You can then grab-cancel for two frames, grab the ladder, and repeat the process once more. All of this was performed in the run whenever possible (it is more noticeable by its sound), and it saves exactly one frame each time.

Improvements

Most of the stages were improved with more precise boost speed.
Level2013 TAS2020 TASCurrent TASImprovementCumulativeComments
hub10251019101900
2-124532299229455
2-2122612171210712
2-3128112411239214
2-26156135654862A very precise platform position will trigger a big boost
2-3254245245062
2-42876283528241173
hub297297295275
3-1291286286075
3-2810698695378
3-3969858857179
3-417061644161133112The key was taken with a precise boost on the goomba
3-52683263226311113
3-637143690364446159A better bounce using the rabbit
3-795982281210169
3-8266925692333236405With strong optimization, it was possible to barely reach the lever without having to wait
hub3103103100405
4-13783733730405
4-214129329311406
4-3136973871127433A slightly different speed after the last spring load gives the perfect trajectory to the door
4-41705165616479442
4-51447116411568450
4-61369135013455455
4-71898186718625460
hub4484414410460
5-12452392390460
5-214701311129714474
5-31266122712216480
5-41604154215420480
5-532853242322319499
5-618251616154769568By using grab cancel up to stay in the air longer while gaining more fall speed, we could have high speed bounce
5-784283181318586
hub2072082071587
6-12622582580587
6-211768848840587
6-310529969960587
6-43510346534650587
6-52587255725570587
6-637613551351833620
6-7234217131484229849Key teleport method for a completely new route
hub7416986911850
1-42652652650850
1-33913903837857
1-29089019001858
1-19009895189492860
epilogue1757173717307867

fsvgm777: Replacing movie file with one that includes an additional note in the annotations. The total run time remains unchanged.

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15001
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #9074: keylie & Del's Linux Braid in 19:24.98
Player (58)
Joined: 7/7/2008
Posts: 873
Location: Utah
Great run and giving it a yes vote, but might want a disclaimer about the few loud noises. I had a headset on, and I think my wife from the other room heard the loud parts lol
Patashu
He/Him
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4025
I look forward to this TAS every time, it's one of my all time favourites. The new glitch in 6-7 is incredible, great find. Thank you for working so hard on this one across so many years! Braid Anniversary has (may soon be had) a glitch that lets you use Commentary doors in Speed Run mode, letting you achieve sub 1 minute times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlQ3cqmHMpo Otherwise the game feels identical but there may be some subtle differences (for example, they patched the game so the purple key can be picked up by monsters due to one of the 5-3 alternates in Commentary World requiring it), no idea.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
fsvgm777
She/Her
Senior Publisher, Player (222)
Joined: 5/28/2009
Posts: 1191
Location: Luxembourg
I have been unable to get the verification movie to sync in 1.4.5. It desyncs on the jigsaw puzzle in World 2 (fails to get the jigsaw piece on the top right if I have "Prevent games from warping the mouse cursor" checked)...and libTAS 1.4.0 just plain doesn't work for me in my Kubuntu 22.04 VM, even after building it myself (can't connect to socket, i.e. doesn't launch the game at all).
Steam Community page - Cohost profile Oh, I'm just a concerned observer.
keylie
He/Him
Editor, Emulator Coder, Expert player (2853)
Joined: 3/17/2013
Posts: 392
Here is the replacement file for the verification movie: User movie #638517064119699340 And the replacement file for the actual movie: User movie #638517071681257323
fsvgm777
She/Her
Senior Publisher, Player (222)
Joined: 5/28/2009
Posts: 1191
Location: Luxembourg
I have verified sync on the verification movie that was posted here, though the actual movie file for replacement (which only has the annotations edited to update sync info, I believe) desynced for me around 33k frames in (desyncs after assembling the World 4 jigsaw puzzle at around 09:05 in my dump). I'll keep trying until it eventually syncs. EDIT: I have gotten the actual movie file to sync as well, and have an AVI dump ready.
Steam Community page - Cohost profile Oh, I'm just a concerned observer.
Editor, Skilled player (1943)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3250
I enjoyed the run. It's cool to see how the mechanics work for these puzzle levels. The World 4 glitch is really weird though. (That's probably what Captain_Forehead meant with the "few loud noises".)

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