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I already warned against using this thread to defend some other hack. You don't listen. I'm hereby taking away your ability to post for an undetermined length of time, but at least a week.
Attempt to circumvent it by creating parallel accounts will lead into permanent banning. Spamming users with private messages they wish not to receive has also the same effect.
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Stop shouting. When you do that, you're annoying and can't even speak clearly (Kyrsimys, not Krymsis).
If you have a point to make, make it but calmly.
iIf you don't, then shut up.
(This is a moderator warning.)
Also, this topic is supposedly for the discussion about this particular hack. Do not use it to defend some other hack.
I don't think new graphics is a criterion for a hack to be TASworthy.
A hack has to be:
― notable (stands above every other hack for that game)
― for a good game
― stable and final (updates aren't to be expected)
― entertaining to watch being played
― significantly different from the actual game
And please don't start arguing whether any previously accepted hack fulfills these goals; they have been accepted, period.
Also, it is not a taboo to permit two hacks for the same game; however, in such case, the second hack still has high quality requirements, and it must be significantly different from both the first one and from the actual game.
______________
(Yes, this is text. But it is text used to convey speech (or rather, thought, which is modelled after speech). Hence my using "shouting", "speak" and "shut up". Please don't reply to argue on these semantics, it is not the point.)
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I'm locking this thread; it seems to have been reduced into pointless bickering.
(If you have argument with this decision, take it to PM with me; don't start a post in another thread about this same topic.)
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Try smaller screen resolution, or faster hardware.
For screen capturing, the memory speed affects a lot. Both the system RAM speed and the display memory speed, particularly reading.
Harddisk speed also may affect. If your harddisk is fast, try not using heavy compression in the capturing phase, and re-encode the movie into an Internet-useable format after recording.
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There was an additional clause in the request by the representative of the TV station.
That the player does not play "extremely violent shooters like Quake or Doom". Apparently, politics in Germany are somewhat restrictive on those.
I don't know which category Half-Life goes to. It's not a gorefest, but it's still violent though.
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German TV show MTV GameOne is looking for speedrun players (TAS and otherwise) from Germany for interview. Contact me and I will pass on the contact details if you fit that specification and are interested.
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Create a myriad of options that are difficult to compare. Lots of routes, lots of items that affect everything, and randomness that is tied to at least last 5 minutes of action instead of last 5 seconds or last 5 frames.
The randomness tends to annoy though, but a myriad of options may make a challenge that requires significant resources to beat.
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It does not make much of a difference.
However, if speed is of importance (as it often is with emulation), you should ensure there's at least a way to write efficient code that doesn't allocate dynamic items and do tons of pointer references in an inner loop, as opposed to how Java works. :)
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Writing a compiler for any modern language brings about a lot of issues that you don't need to consider when writing an emulator.
Much more important is to understand how a CPU works, i.e. assembler programming.
If you are newbie at that, search for 8051 CPU specs (as far as I know, it is the most common microprocessor teaching subject), and get a simulator for it and play with it a bit. Perhaps some basic information on what to expect, would be useful too...
As for one's first emulation project, I would suggest trying to emulate some very simple computer, such as the Commodore 64.
You would need to search for information on which CPU it uses, how it maps memory, how timers work, and how it accesses peripherials, and how the display is rendered, among other things.
If you have some programming experience (or more precisely, experience reading source code), I would greatly recommend studying an existing emulator, locating the relevant emulation cores (such as the CPU emulation), and inspecting them. It may bring a lot of good ideas to start with.
Edit: And despite the fact that the smallest Commodore PET 2001 emulator (which can run Microsoft BASIC among other things) fits in under 4 kilobytes of C code, you should not try to take example on that one :)
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H264 is a standard. A definition, how video is encoded. It is words, graphs and documents.
X264 is an implementation of that standard. It is the program code which can be installed and utilized. There indeed exists a console program about X264, but what you want is a codec (a service usable by a player), not a program.
I assume you are running a Windows operating system on a Pentium-class computer. Could be wrong, but it is a fairly common choice.
In that case, you should look up the "Windows solution" on that page: http://tasvideos.org/CodecProblems.html#windows_solution_ffdshow_ .
As for a player (which is required to utilize the codecs installed in the system), try one of these Windows players: http://tasvideos.org/CodecProblems.html#windows_
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There has been some discussion lately regarding Atari 2600 TASes. Mainly, FODA has expressed his support for Atari 2600, but there have been others too.
Post #63324Post #108686
I am mostly concerned about the question whether Atari 2600 TASes can make entertaining watch.
I would certainly like to publish Atari 2600 videos, because it is a part of console gaming history, and the historical value in those games is great. It would be a great documentary of those old games.
However, most Atari 2600 games tend to be very simple, somewhat slow, and without a definite end. This makes them, at least in my opinion, badly suitable for our current concept. Nevertheless, I would like to find a concept that works for them.
What kind of ideas do you have for Atari 2600?
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Please read the FAQ. It is prompted in at least two places on your "post a topic/reply" form on these forums.
Why? Because it answers questions, of course!
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
-> Which codecs are used
Also: Next time, try to post a better thread topic. I would have suggested "Which codec is used?" for this topic. "Question" does not help searching this thread in a list of topics.
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I will demote Phil back to regular user, removing judging and publishing permissions. (Funny thing how Phil unintentionally predicted this by misquoting DonamerDragon.) Reasons:
- Power and immature acts don't work well together. It's as if handing a drunk man a gun.
- It's been a long time since Phil has exercised those powers anyway; he has, though, submitted numerous excellent-quality TASes which he is free to still do.
Edit: Scratch that, Phil acted in understanding that I didn't trust his judgement [on his movie quality]; not because his concept of "perfect" was not agreed with.
The language barrier strikes again :-/
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That's what I wanted to find out right before Google kicked me out from their program.
Anyway, the current layout of the tasvideos site loads the menubar last, and the adbar is the last item in the menubar, so it should be the best solution there is. The adbar in the frontpage newslisting is different though.
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So that at least our consciense is clear: We do our best to inform the audience that whatever is released on this site, is a tool-assisted movie as opposed to a trained skillful playing performance.
As for the prominence of those disclaimers, my goal is to seek an optimum balance between
1. Informing people that these are in fact, movies of tool-assisted playing (and also, who played it and where more information about "tool-assisted" can be found, or more productions of that particular author)
2. Discouraging people from removing that information
3. Annoying the audience as little as possible (avoiding the overlapping of interesting content, avoiding stealing the attention from the actual game movie)
The #1 of that list is historically important to avoid upsetting regular speedrunners, and to avoid deceiving the audience.
It is my belief that a permanent watermark would conflict strongly with both #2 and #3 of that list.
Please remove that aggressive attitude of yours. Usually, you have the facts right but your attitude is counterproductive.
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Adbrite administration panel lets the site admin configure which kind of advertisements are suitable for their site, and various other options. I set something there, but so far I'm not safisfied of the results. It seems like adbrite is just advertising themselves most of the time.
However, it all depends on how advertisers pay on the advertising (i.e. which sites they buy the ads to be published on), so I'll give it at least a chance.
Also, the yahoo ads are profiting much less than I thought they will (my estimate in autumn was that the first batch of $100 will show in November, but it is still less than that, i.e. no pay (minimum one-time payment is $100)). This means that I might eventually remove them alltogether because they're possibly more trouble (in the form of slowed down page load times and generally being annoying by mere concept) than they're worth.
Mostly it depends on how annoyed I get of the advertisements :) I whitelist tasvideos on adblock because I want at least to see myself what kind of viewing experience is provided to others.