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GJTASer2018
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Joined: 1/24/2018
Posts: 308
Location: Stafford, NY
Video Description wrote:
Hopefully now that this awful stage is done with, we can resume a more reasonable rate of progress on the Dark Story TAS. Many of the remaining stages have already been labbed out, and are much less frustrating than this. Mad Space worries me... But otherwise, most of the remaining stages should not take excessive time to TAS.
So would it be reasonable to expect the full Dark Story run to be submitted by the 10th anniversary of the Hero Story submission? :)
c-square wrote:
Yes, standard runs are needed and very appreciated here too
Dylon Stejakoski wrote:
Me and the boys starting over our games of choice for the infinityieth time in a row because of just-found optimizations
^ Why I don't have any submissions despite being on the forums for years now...
itsPersonnal
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Joined: 1/20/2012
Posts: 542
So would it be reasonable to expect the full Dark Story run to be submitted by the 10th anniversary of the Hero Story submission? :)
Oh my God... that is terrifying. I didn't realize it's almost been a decade since the Hero Story TAS... The real answer is that it's pretty unlikely to happen. It surely isn't impossible (The Hero Story TAS was made in only ~8 months iirc), but pretty much everyone on the TAS team these days has much more going on in their lives and progress is hindered significantly by that. Sometimes someone is just busy for months at a time and nothing gets done without them. (Not to mention, optimization standards are way higher now). That said, now that we're getting progress made again, maybe momentum will pick up (hopefully). It would be nice to see this project finished.
Completed: 2010-Current | Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - Individual Level TASes 2014 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Any% in 1:05:03.23 2014 | Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - Hero Story (w/ THC98) in 25:11.87 2016 | Metroid Prime - Any% in 00:37 (In-Game Time) 2018 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Cheat% in 1:42.350 2020 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Any% in 0:39:20.10 2022 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Cheat% in 1:25.567 Currently working on: SA2:B DARK STORY
itsPersonnal
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Posts: 542
As a quick update: We're about 50% of the way through Route 280 now, and I've already gone ahead and labbed a bit on the later stages. Sky Rail, Mad Space, and Final Chase should all be relatively quick stages to produce...Cosmic Wall on the other hand will likely hold us up for some time. Given it's almost September already, I doubt this TAS will finish before the new year. But completion is finally looking within reach -as opposed to painfully distant. I hope it's worth the wait.
Completed: 2010-Current | Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - Individual Level TASes 2014 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Any% in 1:05:03.23 2014 | Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - Hero Story (w/ THC98) in 25:11.87 2016 | Metroid Prime - Any% in 00:37 (In-Game Time) 2018 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Cheat% in 1:42.350 2020 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Any% in 0:39:20.10 2022 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Cheat% in 1:25.567 Currently working on: SA2:B DARK STORY
Dimon12321
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Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (597)
Joined: 4/5/2014
Posts: 1227
Location: Romania
That's a good piece of news! Good luck to all of you!
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.
Joined: 5/9/2005
Posts: 752
Appreciate the update. From the bits and pieces I've seen scanning through the discord, I'm all but certain the wait will be worth it. I know you know, but take all the time you need with it.
itsPersonnal
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Joined: 1/20/2012
Posts: 542
Sky Rail is completed now. 3 stages remain (plus some boss fights). We're also exploring a little bit with redoing some areas in previous stages... At the moment it's uncertain whether or not we will be able to make edits and have the run still sync. This game has a rather annoying issue with lag frames causing desyncs when hex editing. Hopefully it's possible to make it all sync, even if it takes some effort to reTAS areas effected by lag, because there are a couple changes we could make in earlier stages and I'd like to see them in the finished project. (Saving time in earlier levels will also potentially change optimal RNG seeds for subsequent hunting stages, and that could be either really good, i.e. we get a better layout -or, really bad, if we save a big chunk of time but lose RTA later on needing to wait on manipulating a hunting stage piece layout). Thanks for the luck. I really can't wait to get this project finished and share our work with everyone who's been eagerly waiting all these years!
Completed: 2010-Current | Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - Individual Level TASes 2014 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Any% in 1:05:03.23 2014 | Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - Hero Story (w/ THC98) in 25:11.87 2016 | Metroid Prime - Any% in 00:37 (In-Game Time) 2018 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Cheat% in 1:42.350 2020 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Any% in 0:39:20.10 2022 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Cheat% in 1:25.567 Currently working on: SA2:B DARK STORY
itsPersonnal
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Joined: 1/20/2012
Posts: 542
From what I understand, it seems like hex editing the TAS without desyncs is now proven viable by brianpso, so we are able to go back and reTAS a couple of stages. We're only planning to do this with two stages: Radical Highway (I just want to TAS more Shadow sorry lol I added another 2 months to the release date bc I wanted to have fun. It'll be worth it tho). and Egg Quarters (there's a lot of time to save here with modern movement developments). 2025 release is still looking strong. I really hope we can finish this thing because it's been 7 years at this point since we started it.
Completed: 2010-Current | Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - Individual Level TASes 2014 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Any% in 1:05:03.23 2014 | Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - Hero Story (w/ THC98) in 25:11.87 2016 | Metroid Prime - Any% in 00:37 (In-Game Time) 2018 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Cheat% in 1:42.350 2020 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Any% in 0:39:20.10 2022 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Cheat% in 1:25.567 Currently working on: SA2:B DARK STORY
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Joined: 10/4/2015
Posts: 140
itsPersonnal wrote:
From what I understand, it seems like hex editing the TAS without desyncs is now proven viable by brianpso, so we are able to go back and reTAS a couple of stages. We're only planning to do this with two stages: Radical Highway (I just want to TAS more Shadow sorry lol I added another 2 months to the release date bc I wanted to have fun. It'll be worth it tho). and Egg Quarters (there's a lot of time to save here with modern movement developments). 2025 release is still looking strong. I really hope we can finish this thing because it's been 7 years at this point since we started it.
Cannot wait to see this landmark of a TAS.
Enter the Matrix is a piece of garbage but I'm gonna finish it if it kills me.
itsPersonnal
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Joined: 1/20/2012
Posts: 542
Egg Quarters and Radical Highway have been redone! Considerable timesave on both of them... hehe. Now, in order to get the God RNG layout on Mad Space, we need to reTAS Security Hall to retain our timesave from the stages mentioned above. Hunting stage layouts are tied to frame count on first load, so because we reach the stage sooner -and we want to end it sooner as well for Mad Space RNG- we need to use a different piece set in Security Hall. Thankfully we just learned A BUNCH about how to RNG manip and optimize hunting stages from Egg Quarters again. Security Hall has already been routed in just a matter of a day or so. Now it's a matter of hex editing the movie up to this stage, and then doing about 8 seconds of movement, plus optimizing some RNG. A small pitstop, hopefully. And then we'll be at Mad Space soon enough. I'm so excited it's ridiculous. This TAS is so cool I can't wait to release it!
Completed: 2010-Current | Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - Individual Level TASes 2014 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Any% in 1:05:03.23 2014 | Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - Hero Story (w/ THC98) in 25:11.87 2016 | Metroid Prime - Any% in 00:37 (In-Game Time) 2018 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Cheat% in 1:42.350 2020 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Any% in 0:39:20.10 2022 | Spongebob: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Cheat% in 1:25.567 Currently working on: SA2:B DARK STORY
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