Joined: 8/8/2005
Posts: 296
Location: NSW, Australia
I've redone SH3 so it's down to 27, but I'm not posting a new WIP because I haven't been able to beat (or even match) Sprint's real time AL1 (or AL2, but we'll wait until we need to deal with that). If anyone has any advice for handling certain parts of that level it'd be greatly appreciated.
EDIT: I changed my mind and put a new WIP up. This one includes Aqua Lake 1, so if anyone could be really nitpicky and work out where I could possibly be losing half a second or more to Sprint it'd help immensely.
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1995310553/Sonic%202%20mike89.mmv
Joined: 8/8/2005
Posts: 296
Location: NSW, Australia
Okay put simply I haven't got a clue what's going on. I had a substantial early lead in AL2 but it got whittled away in a hurry. But I've at least got something to show for the past few hours' work. Link
EDIT: for the sake of comparison with existing resources, I finished the level without the emerald and came out with a low 1:04, from a 1 second start.
Joined: 8/8/2005
Posts: 296
Location: NSW, Australia
I was so glad to see the back of Aqua Lake, that I blitzed Green Hills last night/today. Link
This may or may not be my last one, I'll decide after I finish with Gimmick Mountain whether to upload that one too.
Ah Green Hill. I remember the first time I played it... Wait I never got that far in the game :(.
mike89:Well, what's the point in making it if no one sees it?
OK, so I'm workin' on improvin the published tas, and I have some decent improvements planned.
Here's a WIP. It's fairly optimal but I think a few frames can be shaved. At the end of the level I'm 47 frames ahead of the published run in ingame time.
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/12635838219184403
Sadly 16 appears to be impossible :(
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
OK, so I'm workin' on improvin the published tas, and I have some decent improvements planned.
Here's a WIP. It's fairly optimal but I think a few frames can be shaved. At the end of the level I'm 47 frames ahead of the published run in ingame time.
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/12635838219184403
Sadly 16 appears to be impossible :(
Hi, I tased this level too, since I saw a couple realtime runners getting 16s.
It took me a while till I figured that they're running on PAL and that the PAL timer is borked :D
Your run clocked in at 17::28, but since mike89's run had already a 17::??, the difference can't be 47 ingame frames???
Anyhow, I got a 17::13 and another 26 frames by getting to the score tally screen earlier.
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/14877144677004556
I decided to post my WIP for preservation (Works on the recent versions of BizHawk): http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/40691688330422581
(This WIP doesn't include the BIOS, since I worked 2 weeks before the creation of ''The Dega Project')
Also, a RAM Watch: http://tasvideos.org/Addresses-110.html
I TASed a bit of Sonic 2, but lefted because of 2 problems: 1 - in-game time and 2 - lag management. So, I only finished Underground Zone 1.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I used the same route of Tee-N-Tee's Old WIP.
My homepage
--Currently not much motived for TASing as before...--
But I'm still working.
A while ago, I found 2 more bugs (by accident):
Link to video
After touches the signpost, if you pause and unpause (pause button of SMS), the timer will continue and until sonic finishes the stage (sonic must be off-screen as soon as possible, stopping the timer again).
Probably this timer bug could be useful for get less score during the score screen.
Now about the softlock: During the stage clear (before the score screen) by pausing the game on the last frame possible while sonic will be off-screen as possible (you'll unable to control during this path), the sound mutes, the graphics will be glitched, and you'll unable to play the next stage, soflocking this game.
I haven't tested this softlock completely.
My homepage
--Currently not much motived for TASing as before...--
But I'm still working.
A while ago, I found 2 more bugs (by accident):
After touches the signpost, if you pause and unpause (pause button of SMS), the timer will continue and until sonic finishes the stage (sonic must be off-screen as soon as possible, stopping the timer again).
Probably this timer bug could be useful for get less score during the score screen.
Now about the softlock: During the stage clear (before the score screen) by pausing the game on the last frame possible while sonic will be off-screen as possible (you'll unable to control during this path), the sound mutes, the graphics will be glitched, and you'll unable to play the next stage, soflocking this game.
I haven't tested this softlock completely.
Excellent discovery...
Like you said, it will perfect for the score screen.
Good luck to finalize this cool glitches.
Time to revive the topic nearly 7 years later! Yesterday was the 17th anniversary of the published run of this game (SMS version), but years have passed and why this game wasn't updated yet?
Well... I have only one idea that I can't exactly confirm: the lag in this game is painful to optimize, and the game starts showing it just at the first zone.
Some years ago, The8bitbeast and EZGames69 started the project working on the first two zones, several months later I decided to help them managing to reduce more lag and also working on two more zones, but I ended putting this game on hold because other projects.
Here's the movie file: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638693521322570251
Encode video:
Link to video
Over 40 seconds faster than the published run, and the project will be revived sometime in the future (I'd like to still continue the project).
My homepage
--Currently not much motived for TASing as before...--
But I'm still working.
Link to video
Queen PiB discovered a huge timesaver: the boss from Zone 5 can be skipped completely!
Thanks for linking to my video.
There's a couple of revisions to it now, 22 is possible and the capsule can be hit very early by panning the camera down before the jump.
Link to video
That was done on PAL (since it's what RTA runners use). I can update my 60fps IL TAS later if you're interested, but it is pretty easy to pull off.
Of course! I'll plan to return to the project when possible, and the huge discovery renewed my motivation with this game :)
Uploaded User movie #639002216989476462
I'll have to take a look at what you've done since Mike's TAS, as I was tempted to try to update it to include this, but I wasn't keen on TASing in Dega, and the import into Bizhawk desyncs in UG1.
Joined: 8/30/2020
Posts: 175
Location: 🇦🇺 Sydney, Australia
BenInSweden wrote:
[...] the import into Bizhawk desyncs in UG1.
This might be inevitable due to emulation differences, but we do now have a second option for SMS core that you could try. Config > Preferred Cores > SMS |GG > Genplus-gx. You might have to run the importer again.
I contribute to BizHawk as Linux/cross-platform lead, testing and automation lead, and UI designer. This year, I'm experimenting with streaming BizHawk development on Twitch. nope
Links to find me elsewhere and to some of my side projects are on my personal site. I will respond on Discord faster than to PMs on this site.
Hey look buddy, I'm an engineer. That means I solve problems. Not problems like "What is software," because that would fall within the purview of your conundrums of philosophy. I solve practical problems. For instance, how am I gonna stop some high-wattage thread-ripping monster of a CPU dead in its tracks? The answer: use code. And if that don't work? Use more code.
Lag in this game isn't friendly at all: the Underground Zone starts showing the situation even before you reach the middle. The work for lag reduction is more like trial-and-error at the same time you need to optimize both X and Y positions.
Also the Aqua Lake Act 2 has a much worse situation: the game sometimes spawn a bubble (likely RNG) in the middle of the underwater section for some reason, and might add some lag.
In short: once reaching AL2, the game will desync on most BizHawk versions (the current one for this movie is 2.4). Surprisingly the previous act and the first two zones plays fine on the other versions.
My homepage
--Currently not much motived for TASing as before...--
But I'm still working.
This might be inevitable due to emulation differences, but we do now have a second option for SMS core that you could try. Config > Preferred Cores > SMS |GG > Genplus-gx. You might have to run the importer again.
Thanks, unfortunately, I think it's just a Dega inaccuracy, as both SMSHawk and GPGX desync at the exact same spot. But it's also a bit of a tall order expecting an 18 year old TAS to sync on modern emulators.
It's not important anyway, since I now know Challenger has already improved the TAS in Bizhawk 2.4 at least.
