Posts for Bisqwit


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I put an approval stamp on the submission message, even though it has markup problems (mistakenly wrapped lines in the end). It was very informative and insightful.
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Yay for the land of freedoms! Isn't that it? How they call it today? How "trusted computing" means that your computer is doing things that you are not allowed to know what it does? How "our property", in Sony's words, means also things you have purchased? And so on. Sadly, these perverse "freedoms" are also eagerly adopted by european countries as well. I feel like today Finland is especially giddy to adopt all the harshest laws in name of Holy Copyright.
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Rick wrote:
I know, Bisqwit, I don't have a website of my own to host my images, and I use Photobucket quite often, so unless they pull a fast one for some reason and delete my account, that problem shouldn't occur.
It still did.
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I lean on the side of opinion where save/RAM corruption due to mid-write resets is a bad technique. I would put crooking the cartridge in the same category. In years past, when I played Super Mario Bros 3. on my NTDec, I sometimes crooked the cartridge a bit because this inhibited the CPU's access to some memory lanes of the cart, altering the graphical appearance of the game, and in particular, making secrets visible. I would not like to see such thing, or a derivation thereof, in a TAS, just like I am not particularly interested of the save-damaging runs. However, I do approve runs that damage saves or the RAM through game's _own_ glitches, such as the painting glitch of Relm in Final Fantasy VI.
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MUGG wrote:
It has come to my attention here, that ignoring post-level bonus point tallying is perfectly acceptable. Now there only seems to be a movie tag called "Aims for in-game time instead of real-time", but it would still work for Battle City, even though it lacks a timer. What do you think?
Which would probably open a new can of worms re: Lunar Ball submissions. Well, really it would only open a new category. But still.
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jlun2 wrote:
I've found out how the scoring works!
Good job! I updated the disassembly based on these memory addresses, and fixed the things you overlooked. Basically, RAM $0015..$001B contains the score, each address contains a digit 10^6 downto 10^0 (7 digits). Similarly, $001D..$0023 for player 2, and there are three others. Disassembly is at: http://bisqwit.iki.fi/jutut/batlcity.lst
Post subject: Re: Battle City (J)
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Previous threads: http://tasvideos.org/forum/p/117153#117153 -- Wishlist http://tasvideos.org/forum/p/181324#181324 -- Disassembly I would like to see a Battle City TAS. But I also admit that it's incredibly boring. The level designer was always much more fun than the game itself, and the 2-player game was much more fun than 1p.
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Bigfoot: http://bisqwit.iki.fi/jutut/kuvat/nesvideos/pending/bisqwit-bigfoot.fcm Solomon's Key: Nevermind, someone beat me to it Chrono Cross: Nevermind, it would not be accepted anyway Star Force: Plenty of WIPs but I don't think any one of them warrants study particularly Lode Runner: WIP published some time earlier in some thread, then beaten by some Japanese chap but never submitted on TASVideos.
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Thanks for the acknowledgement, Aglar. Congratulations on your movie.
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Since I am the original author of TASVideos API, I could as well document it a bit. Here we go. This is machine-parseable documentation of the API.
desc   = "TASVideos query"
name   = "TasvideosQuery"
ns     = "urn:TasvideosQuery"
port   = "http://tasvideos.org/api.exe"
action = "urn:TasvideosQueryAction"

#   key
#      your user passkey
#   sql
#      your sql query
#      Note: The server reserves the right to edit your query
#            or to reject it alltogether if it tries either
#            to access sensitive data or if it would consume
#            too much of the server's resources.
#            If the query is not accepted, success will be
#            indicated as false.
#   perform
#      set to true if you actually want the query to be performed
#      false if just syntax checking and estimating cost
#   maxRows
#      maximum number of rows to return
#      Note: the site might still limit the number of rows
#            to a lower value, regardless of this value
#   est_cost
#      estimated cost of the given SQL query
#      (in no specific units)
#   pagename:
#      name of page to load without .html, such
#      as Rules, Bisqwit/Projects or 111M
#   wtxt:
#      wiki-formatted text contents of the page
#   html:
#      html-formatted content
#   relative_links:
#      set to true if you want the links returned in the html
#      to be rendered relative to the page's address, false if
#      you want them to be absolute
#   relative_base:
#      the prefix to add to all relative links in the response
#      (empty string is fine, but "../" is sometimes necessary)


[operation doDbQuery]
{string key, string sql, bool perform, int maxRows} in
{{bool success, string errorMessage, int numRows, int est_cost,
  string headers[], string columns[]} return} out

# Example:
#   for a query that returns 10 rows, each having 2 fields,
#   the "headers" array contains 2 entries and
#   the "column" array contains 20 entries:
#   r0c0, r0c1, r1c0, r1c1, r2c0, r2c1, ...

[operation doLoadPage]
{string key, string pagename} in
{{bool success, string errorMessage, string wtxt} return} out  

[operation doRenderWtxt]
{string key,string wtxt,bool relative_links, bool relative_base} in
{{bool success, string errorMessage,
  string html_header, string html_include,
  string html,        string html_footer} return} out

[operation doLoadMovieCategoryList]
{string key, int movieid} in
{{bool success, string errorMessage, string catlist[]} return} out

# Even entries: (p|n) id
# Odd  entries: textual description

[operation doIrcAgentAnnounce]
{string key, string magic, string message} in
{{bool success, string errorMessage} return} out
doDbQuery allows one to issue arbitrary read-only requests to the database in SQL language. Extensive syntax checking and load estimation is performed before the query is passed to the actual MySQL server. The database structure is supposed to be documented here: http://tasvideos.org/SiteTechnology/DataBase.html doLoadPage returns the latest wiki source code of the given web page. doRenderWtxt converts given wiki source code into HTML in the way TASVideos would do it if it was written on a page. Used for preview functions. doLoadMovieCategoryList is self-explanatory. doIrcAgentAnnounce is privileged. It is what TASVideos uses (or could use) internally to make TASVideoAgent say stuff. EDIT: The API is also documented here: http://tasvideos.org/SiteTechnology/API.html, along with example code in Ruby and in PHP.
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Oh, I was thinking of a more conventional rotation like RotSprite: http://info.sonicretro.org/RotSprite
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Tub wrote:
Every time I view that helmet, I expect a pair of red eyes to show up. I've never seen them, but I know there's something dark inside. Lurking. Watching. Probably humming the Tetris music.
Like this, I presume.
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Other algorithms are also very interesting. For example, this might be very useful in upscaling textures and otherwise antialiased content: http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~raananf/projects/lss_upscale/ [note: the results page at http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~raananf/projects/lss_upscale/sup_images/index.html requires javascript to use] In particular, it does extremely good job at preserving the shape and the sharpness of edges. I can't make head or tails of the mathematics text though. I'm very experienced at reading source code, but the appendix of that article is all greek to me. The algorithm by Orzan et al. is also quite interesting: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/kopf/pixelart/supplementary/comparison_orzan.html http://artis.imag.fr/Publications/2008/OBWBTS08/ But the same problem is there. Article is all greek. They do provide a Windows program (no source code), but it fails to start on my computer.
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I created a few scaling algorithm tests. I used Imagemagick for the filters that are based on a mathematical filter function, and DOSBox's source code for the context-dependent filters. http://bisqwit.iki.fi/kala/filt3/ I'll add a Depixelizing Pixel Art version once there's a version I could use.
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Derakon wrote:
Link to that video on YouTube
Thanks. Because johanneskopf.de is persistently treating me to a timeout. I haven't been able to load it once.
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Nach wrote:
However, on their homepage, they have a video of Super Mario World in action with their filter.
On which homepage? In that note, regarding http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~danix/ -- WOW, that guy has done a lot. I was just the other day studying the tone-mapping algorithm devised by Raanan Fattal, but that guy was a co-author to that too.
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I am concerned about the inability of their algorithm to cope with stark, contrasting dithering patterns. Another problem with vectorization algorithms is that the shape of character may dramatically change when moving across suitable surfaces; for example, if Mario is outlined in black, and he moves across a background that contains details outlined in black, the shape of Mario's outline may fluctuate rather distractingly. In other news, pessimist for hire.
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Nach wrote:
I noticed though that recent Cygwin (and recent Linux) has a more direct way of getting the pipe size. Can you try this for me please?
It does not compile in my Cygwin installation (which I just upgraded). F_GETPIPE_SZ undeclared. EDIT: Shinryuu's avatar O_o
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Bisqwit wrote:
CYGWIN_NT-5.1 1.7.9 i686 PIPE_BUF size: 4096 Pipe size: 65540
Also: CYGWIN_NT-6.1-WOW64 1.7.7 i686 PIPE_BUF size: 4096 Pipe size: 65540
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Linux 2.6.35 x86_64 PIPE_BUF size: 4096 Pipe size: 65536 CYGWIN_NT-5.1 1.7.9 i686 PIPE_BUF size: 4096 Pipe size: 65540 Linux 2.6.32 i686 PIPE_BUF size: 4096 Pipe size: 65536 Linux 2.6.27 x86_64 PIPE_BUF size: 4096 Pipe size: 65536 Linux 2.2.26 i686 PIPE_BUF size: 4096 Pipe size: 4096 Linux 2.4.25 i686 PIPE_BUF size: 4096 Pipe size: 4096 Enough?
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Adding --compression 1:none --compression 2:none to the mkvmerge commandline resolves this problem. I was just hit with it myself.
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Diman wrote:
Jepp, det är han. Han är född i Paipis, men han heter typiskt svenskt: "André Wickström". Jag kan inte så mycket om hans historia, men mycket möjligt att han har en svensk förälder eller något, som gör att han heter så.
Ok, tack. I Finland vi har många människor som har ett allt-svenska namn, så det är normalt. Till exempel, vår boss (när jag arbetär på) heter Lars Holmström. (Heh, I just realized I translated that all pretty much word-by-word in my mind from English to Swedish. Don't know if that is valid Swedish grammar. But I did not use a dictionary.)
Post subject: Sivu suomeksi: Tervetuloa (WelcomeToTASVideos translated)
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Tervetuloa TASVideosiin; yhteisöön, jossa luodaan työkaluavusteisia pikaläpipeluuvideoita (Tool-assisted speedrun, TAS). Niissä peli pelataan läpi emulaattoria (ja muita työkaluja) käyttäen niin, että syntyy video, joka näyttää suorastaan yli-inhimmilliseltä. Pelaamme sekä vanhoja klassikkopelejä että uudempiakin pelejä mahdollisuuksien rajoissa. Johdanto Täällä TASVideosilla pyrimme löytämään pelien äärirajat. Emulaattoriemme avulla on mahdollista perua virheet, pelata hidastettuna, ja joskus jopa käyttää robottia apuna pelaamisessa. Näiden työkalujen avulla voitamme inhimmilliset rajoitukset pelien pelaamisessa äärimmäisen suurella tarkkuudella, ja hauskuutamme katsojiamme pelaajiemme runnoessa pelit läpi äärimmisillä nopeuksilla. Lopputuloksena syntyy tiedosto, joka sisältää vain sarjan näppäinpainalluksia, jotka voidaan teoriassa jopa toistaa alkuperäisellä laitteistolla. Pelejä pelatessamme teemme monenlaisia löydöksiä; näitä myös dokumentoimme, mikä auttaa uusia pelaajia saavuttaa asiantuntijatason nopeasti. Olet tervetullut liittymään suureen joukkoomme, joista yhteisömme muodostuu, jakamaan tietoa peleistä, antamaan palautetta katsomistasi TAS-videoista ja jopa tekemään videoita itse. Mitä teemme TASvideos.org on sitoutunut tarjoilemaan työkaluavusteisten läpipeluuvideoiden ja yli-inhimmillisten pelisessioiden parhaimmistoa. Julkaisemme vain parhaimman laatuiset pelisuoritukset. Me tähtäämme parhaaseen laatuun, emme suureen määrään; huonolaatuinen pelisuoritus hylätään, olipa se sitten sivustolle toistaiseksi uusi peli tai olemassaolevan läpipeluun parannettu versio. Läpipeluuvideomme eivät ole aina täydellisiä (mikä ei ehkä ole mahdollistakaan), mutta ovat aina korkealaatuisia, ja pyrkivät olemaan myös hyvin viihdyttäviä katsoa. Miten? Videot TASvideosilla luodaan sellaisten emulaattorien avulla, joissa on mahdollisuus tallentaa pelisessio pelkkinä konsolin näppäinpainalluksina. Kun nämä näppäinpainallukset toistetaan emulaattorissa pyörivässä pelissä, tuloksena syntyy sellainen video joita tällä sivustolla voidaan katsella ja ladata. Näihin emulaattoreihin on myös tehty sellaisia toimintoja, jotka on nimenomaan tarkoitettu TAS-videoiden tekemisen helpottamiseksi. Näitä ovat mm. savestatet (tilannetallenteet/pika-save), jonka avulla pelaaja voi palata haluamaansa aiempaan kohtaan pelisessiota ja näin korjata mahdollisesti tekemänsä virheet; sekä mahdollisuus edetä pelissä yksi pysäytyskuva kerrallaan (frame advance), mikä poistaa ihmisen refleksien tuomat rajoitukset pelaamisesta. Joskus nämäkään eivät riitä, ja silloin voi joitakin emulaattoreita laajentaa ohjelmoimalla "botteja", joilla prosessia voi entisestään tehostaa.
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Diman wrote:
Det känns ibland som att samtliga finskar snackar svenska.
Inte så. När det gäller mig, detta post har redan överskridit min svenska kompetens. Även nu har jag använt Google för att få hjälp. Men jag förstår svenska bättre än jag kan skriva det.
Diman wrote:
[finska] ett av världens svåraste språk [...] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtoknDSh3o4
Du har säkert rätt. :-) Hahaha! Roligt. Är mannen som har en ljusgrå kappa, finsk? Han talar perfekt finska på 1:33.
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Även bara lite är gott, det är otroligt :-)