Post subject: Dancing to music in TAS
Active player (253)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 476
Yeah, I tried to play it using PRG 0, because I accidentally turned my PRG 1 into the Super Mario Adventure hack without making a backup. And now I'm on a school computer where ROMs are evil. Also, a question. Is there any specific trick people use to "dance" to the level music like JXQ did in some of his levels? What I'm getting at is that I tried to do this at 33% in my 1P Streets of Rage 3 run, and the music skipped too much to accurately do it. And if there is a trick, can it be done in frame advance? Odd question (and slightly off-topic), but I'd just like to know. [EDIT by Bisqwit: JXQ's SMB3 topic split, this deserves a new thread.]
[URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcuV2JdaBYY]Streets of Rage 3 (2 players)[/url]
JXQ
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Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 3132
Music-dancing I usually do in real-time or slightly slowed (75%). It helps that in FCEU, the music slows the pitch down (like in VBA), so it still sounds somewhat natural. I don't think Gens does this, though.
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Active player (253)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 476
Ah, crud. Trying to do two-player dancing at near full speed with enemies rushing past me left and right is just a bit too suicidal. But thanks anyway.
[URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcuV2JdaBYY]Streets of Rage 3 (2 players)[/url]
JXQ
Experienced player (750)
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 3132
The down and dirty way to do it no matter what would be to write down the frames that the notes change, and use frame advance. That would be very tedious, though.
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
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That's what I do! Except I don't write stuff down.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Active player (253)
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Posts: 476
There's one problem, though. How would you find out which frames the notes change?
[URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcuV2JdaBYY]Streets of Rage 3 (2 players)[/url]
Active player (278)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
It helps a lot if the emulator has sound during frame advance...
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Active player (253)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 476
Ah, there's where this discussion went. It doesn't help, though. It's like trying to tell what a word says by looking at it under a microscope.
[URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcuV2JdaBYY]Streets of Rage 3 (2 players)[/url]
Active player (278)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
Huh? You just listen for the note. You can quickly figure out the approximate number of frames to a beat to guess when the future notes will come, too. It's only tricky to get it EXACTLY right if the note fades in, or if there's some crazy delay to your actions.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Active player (253)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 476
Or if the music sounds like trying to play a trombone with your ass (which is true in the case of the game I'm doing).
[URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcuV2JdaBYY]Streets of Rage 3 (2 players)[/url]
JXQ
Experienced player (750)
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 3132
What if you put on the frame counter and pause the emulator just as a note starts, then write down the frame it's paused at? This is tedious but doable. I've never tried doing music-dancing amidst a bunch of other actions; I would imagine it's tough.
atro city wrote:
Or if the music sounds like trying to play a trombone with your ass (which is true in the case of the game I'm doing).
LOL When I ran Sonic, I listened to it in headphones while playing, and I often had to stop because I got a headache from the noise. I think the Genesis has some sound filter problems.
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Emulator Coder, Skilled player (1300)
Joined: 12/21/2004
Posts: 2687
JXQ wrote:
I think the Genesis has some sound filter problems.
Something I noticed is that Gens has an option in the Sound menu called "YM2612 High Quality" that's off by default, but it makes some sounds and instruments sound much better (generally softer, and I think more accurate) when turned on. The Ecco "bump into wall" sound is drastically different with it, for instance. It could be unrelated, of course; listening to the same musical notes over and over in slow motion with/from intermittent skipping can get irritating regardless of the sound quality.
Active player (253)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 476
I wasn't so concerned about getting exactly the right frame as I was getting a ball-park speculation so when the run is played back at full speed, it at least looks like they're dancing in sync with the music. However, it seems impossible to do that in a game like Streets of Rage 3 with frame advance. I'll try that high quality sound thing, though.
[URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcuV2JdaBYY]Streets of Rage 3 (2 players)[/url]
Emulator Coder, Skilled player (1300)
Joined: 12/21/2004
Posts: 2687
In Streets of Rage 3, the music changes seem to be pretty easy to hear at 50% and still possible to hear at 25% speed. I guess it becomes too choppy to make out with frame advance in Gens, so instead you can pause a lot at 25% or 50% speed (until/unless you find a pattern that you can follow with frame advance). It shouldn't really be that hard to get it to the music because after all you have as many re-records at your disposal as you want, so if you make a mistake where it's way off from the music you can immediately redo it until it sounds like it goes with the music.