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There really isn't much to talk about here. All you have to know is that when you hit the balloon at the end of the level, you only end the animation once you hit the top of the screen so you want to have as much upwards momentum before hitting it, which is why it might seem like I lose time in some places.
The bossfight is skipped by hitting it on the top of its head which makes it go downwards and then just barely jumping over it.

eien86: Claiming for judging.

eien86: Waiting for author to provide PICO-8 info

eien86: A cute little PICO-8 platformer whose stage's goal is to reach the balloon at the end. This movie does such a thing for all the stages, reaching the final baloon in a time strictly lower than the current RTA WR.
Accepting to Standard

despoa: Processing...


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #9226: Vexxter's PICO8 Pico Snail!: Dream Castle in 01:29.95
eien86
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Judge, Skilled player (1853)
Joined: 3/21/2021
Posts: 238
Location: Switzerland
Hi Vexxter, Given this is a PICO-8 game, you need to provide some extra information to help us with syncing. See this https://tasvideos.org/EmulatorResources/PICO8
Player (206)
Joined: 4/10/2022
Posts: 15
Hi, Sorry for the wait PICO-8 version: 0.2.6b MD5 hash of snail.png: c9f5ab4ec9ea667c8cac8c587825b2cb I'm not sure what foreground_sleep_ms is supposed to be, but I'm using WSL2 and I didn't change anything
eien86
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Judge, Skilled player (1853)
Joined: 3/21/2021
Posts: 238
Location: Switzerland
Vexxter wrote:
Hi, Sorry for the wait PICO-8 version: 0.2.6b MD5 hash of snail.png: c9f5ab4ec9ea667c8cac8c587825b2cb I'm not sure what foreground_sleep_ms is supposed to be, but I'm using WSL2 and I didn't change anything
Hey so, this
MD5 hash of snail.png: c9f5ab4ec9ea667c8cac8c587825b2cb
Is not a valid PICO-8 cart. Cart images have a .p8 suffix, for example this one I used (version 9) to check for sync here: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/cposts/sn/snail-9.p8.png What you sent here is an image that comes with the linux pre-compiled distributables (click Download) You gotta find exactly what cart you used and which version of the game it is.
Player (206)
Joined: 4/10/2022
Posts: 15
eien86 wrote:
Vexxter wrote:
Hi, Sorry for the wait PICO-8 version: 0.2.6b MD5 hash of snail.png: c9f5ab4ec9ea667c8cac8c587825b2cb I'm not sure what foreground_sleep_ms is supposed to be, but I'm using WSL2 and I didn't change anything
Hey so, this
MD5 hash of snail.png: c9f5ab4ec9ea667c8cac8c587825b2cb
Is not a valid PICO-8 cart. Cart images have a .p8 suffix, for example this one I used (version 9) to check for sync here: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/cposts/sn/snail-9.p8.png What you sent here is an image that comes with the linux pre-compiled distributables (click Download) You gotta find exactly what cart you used and which version of the game it is.
Oh ok, well I used the built-in PICO-8 cart browser so I had to go find it in my appdata but this should be it: 718469af37ae43cf25dd5301528f87ed
eien86
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Judge, Skilled player (1853)
Joined: 3/21/2021
Posts: 238
Location: Switzerland
Vexxter wrote:
eien86 wrote:
Vexxter wrote:
Hi, Sorry for the wait PICO-8 version: 0.2.6b MD5 hash of snail.png: c9f5ab4ec9ea667c8cac8c587825b2cb I'm not sure what foreground_sleep_ms is supposed to be, but I'm using WSL2 and I didn't change anything
Hey so, this
MD5 hash of snail.png: c9f5ab4ec9ea667c8cac8c587825b2cb
Is not a valid PICO-8 cart. Cart images have a .p8 suffix, for example this one I used (version 9) to check for sync here: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/cposts/sn/snail-9.p8.png What you sent here is an image that comes with the linux pre-compiled distributables (click Download) You gotta find exactly what cart you used and which version of the game it is.
Oh ok, well I used the built-in PICO-8 cart browser so I had to go find it in my appdata but this should be it: 718469af37ae43cf25dd5301528f87ed
Yep, I have the very same one, and still desyncs.
rythin
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Skilled player (1137)
Joined: 11/4/2021
Posts: 47
Always nice to see more PICO love, voting yes but wanted to point out that I did TAS this gamea couple years ago and I believe I used some strategies that you seem to have missed. Overall optimization should be on par or most likely better than mine, Vexxter has this habit of improving my previous work without really trying I've noticed :p Main things to look out for is the exiting of levels early and the damage boost on level 5. I'm not sure about the damage boost route being faster but the level exits could definitely be implemented to shave off a couple seconds, though I could see it being a stylystic choice not to do that as quitting the levels early means the stats don't get saved and displayed in the menu.
eien86
He/Him
Judge, Skilled player (1853)
Joined: 3/21/2021
Posts: 238
Location: Switzerland
rythin wrote:
Always nice to see more PICO love, voting yes but wanted to point out that I did TAS this gamea couple years ago and I believe I used some strategies that you seem to have missed. Overall optimization should be on par or most likely better than mine, Vexxter has this habit of improving my previous work without really trying I've noticed :p Main things to look out for is the exiting of levels early and the damage boost on level 5. I'm not sure about the damage boost route being faster but the level exits could definitely be implemented to shave off a couple seconds, though I could see it being a stylystic choice not to do that as quitting the levels early means the stats don't get saved and displayed in the menu.
Ok so now leaving the sync problem aside for a minute, we need to focus on the optimization issue. Although possibly different versions of PICO and the game were used by rythin, now the burden of proof falls on the author. I cannot accept this movie until you (a) implement the strategies mentioned by rythin or (b) show they're not longer possible. You can choose if you'd like me to put this submission on 'Delayed' until you make these optimizations, or you'd like cancel and try again sometime later. In any case, I recommend early sync checks with staff to make sure you don't go too far before somebody checking there are no problems.
rythin
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Skilled player (1137)
Joined: 11/4/2021
Posts: 47
The desyncs are likely caused by differences in your config.txt file. You can reference Thread #24534: #8396: rythin's PICO8 Astra and the New Constellation "minimum stardust" in 09:53.47 to see how ikuyo handled sync when a similar issue occured on another pico game.
eien86
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Judge, Skilled player (1853)
Joined: 3/21/2021
Posts: 238
Location: Switzerland
Vexxter, can you please paste here the contents of your config.txt file? It can usually be found here: $HOME/.lexaloffle/pico-8/config.txt
Player (206)
Joined: 4/10/2022
Posts: 15
eien86 wrote:
Vexxter, can you please paste here the contents of your config.txt file? It can usually be found here: $HOME/.lexaloffle/pico-8/config.txt
Sure:
// - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
// Configuration for pico-8
// 
// config.txt is read on startup and saved on exit.
// To generate the default config.txt, delete this file.
// 
// - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


// :: Video Settings

window_size 0 0 // window width, height
screen_size 0 0 // screen width, height (stretched to window) 
show_fps 0 // Draw frames per second in the corner


// :: Window Settings

windowed 1 // 1 to start up in windowed mode
window_position -1 -1 // x and y position of window (-1, -1 to let the window manager decide)
frameless 0 // 1 to use a window with no frame
fullscreen_method 1 // 0 maximized window (linux)  1 borderless desktop-sized window  2 hardware fullscreen (warning: erratic behaviour under some drivers)
blit_method 0  // 0 auto  1 software (slower but sometimes more reliable)  2 hardware (can do filtered scaling) 



// :: System Settings

foreground_sleep_ms 2 // number of milliseconds to sleep each frame. Try 10 to conserve battery power

background_sleep_ms 10 // number of milliseconds to sleep each frame when running in the background

sessions 501 // number of times program has been run

// (scancode) hold this key down and left-click to simulate right-click
rmb_key 0 // 0 for none  226 for LALT

// Desktop for saving screenshots etc. Defaults to $HOME/Desktop
desktop_path 

// 1 to allow controller input even when application is in background
read_controllers_in_background 0



// :: Audio Settings (use "volume" for PICO-8)

sound_volume 256 // 0..256
music_volume 256 // 0..256


// :: usually 1024. Try 2048 if you get choppy sound

mix_buffer_size 1024


// :: map scancodes. Format: 44=47,80=89,..  (scancode a, scancode b -- when press a, generates b)
// run the program with -scancodes to determine which scancodes to use
map_scancodes 


use_wget 0 // (Linux) 1 to use wget for downloads instead of libcurl (must be installed)



// :: pico-8 

version 0.2.6b

// audio volume: 0..256 
volume 256


// Location of pico-8's root folder
root_path C:/Users/jesse/AppData/Roaming/pico-8/carts/


// Location of cartridge save data
cdata_path C:/Users/jesse/AppData/Roaming/pico-8/cdata/


// Specify which player index joystick control begins at (0..7)
joystick_index 0


// Treat the first n controllers as if they were a single merged controller
// e.g. merge_joysticks 2 --> P0 gets controllers 0,1, P1 gets controller 2..
merge_joysticks 0


// Custom keyboard scancodes for buttons. player0 0..6, player1 0..5, menu_button, player2 0..5, player3 0..5
button_keys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

// Play notes as they are plotted in frequency mode
live_notes 0

// iff 1: when using keyboard cursor, snap to closest pixel / map cel
cursor_snap 0

// 0 default  1 dark blue background in code editor  2 black background in code editor   3 gray background in code editor   
gui_theme 0

// scale of screenshots and gifs // 2 means 256x256
screenshot_scale 3
gif_scale 3

// maximum gif length in seconds (0..120; 0 means no gif recording)
gif_len 8

// when 1, reset the recording when pressing ctrl-9 (useful for creating a non-overlapping sequence)
gif_reset_mode 0

// 0 for off. 1 for auto. 2 to allow control of a cart's framerate due to host machine's cpu capacity
host_framerate_control 1

// filter splore cartridges
// 0 off   1 on (exclude cartridge tagged as 'mature' by community)
splore_filter 0

// tab display width (1 ~ 4 spaces)
tab_width 1

// 0 off 1 on: draw tab characters as small vertical lines
draw_tabs 0

// 0 off 1 on: record the current cartridge and editor view every 3 seconds (see [appdata]/activity.log.txt)
record_activity_log 1

// 0 off 1 on: allow F6..F9 (alternative: ctrl 6..9)
allow_function_keys 1

// 0 off 1 on: automatically check for a newer version of a BBS cart each time it is run.
check_for_cart_updates 1

// hide mouse cursor for n seconds when typing.
auto_hide_mouse_cursor 5

// 0 off 1 on: backup with a new timestamped filename on every run
// normally not needed -- was used for debugging crash-on-run
aggressive_backups 0

// back up cartridge in editor every n minutes when not idle (0 for no periodic backups)
periodic_backups 20

// global screen transformations:
//  129 flip horizontally
//  130 flip vertically
//  133 rotate CW 90 degrees
//  134 rotate CW 180 degrees
//  135 rotate CW 270 degrees
transform_screen 0

// 0 off  > 1: colour to draw pixel grid in the gfx editor at zoom:8 and zoom:4 (16 for black)
gfx_grid_lines 0

// file naming for screenshot / gif / wav captures
// 0 sequential (foo_0.png, foo_1.png)    1 timestamp (foo_20240115_120823.png)
capture_timestamps 0


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