TASVideos

Posted: 4/1/2012 5:13 AM

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Brandon

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Wow, way to take my idea. You even included a death at the end of the encode like I was going to! Anyway, the run isn't perfect, but it's pretty good. I'd like to see this game on TASVideos. Weak yes vote, and I hope you rerun it. Here is a map I made to make things easier, though it's regrettably in half resolution (Sorry LexSfX).

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/31/2012 9:47 PM

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Yes vote for making me actually laugh.

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Posted: 3/31/2012 5:09 AM

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Now that the default extension is .bkm, what are we going to do about the future binary format?

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Posted: 3/30/2012 5:59 PM

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Love you too, zeromus. ;)

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Posted: 3/30/2012 2:49 PM

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.biz is bad because it's a TLD (http://www.brandonevans.biz). I'd be OK with changing the terminology from movies to replays, but we can't do this halfway; either call them replays EVERYWHERE in BizHawk or don't. This would require the modification of a lot of dialog, which I'm totally OK with, but understand what we're getting ourselves into. It would also probably mean that TASVideos should reflect this new terminology, another thing I'm not sure the staff would be willing to do. If they are, I'll support it. A separate decision we have to make before we go about renaming the filetype is whether or not the text and binary movie files should have different types or not. Although I can't possibly claim that the primary motivation of that topic wasn't getting .tas out of BizHawk, I still think it's probably a good idea to use different filetypes. If you all agree, what do we do? Should we just append "t" or "b" to the end of whatever extension we decide to use? Should we append to one and not the other or both? Which one? FatRatKnight, you are my hero for putting the last nail in the coffin of .tas, an extension I've been protesting since the very first commit I made for BizHawk (Last May), but I'm not sure I agree with your third point. I don't think it's a secret that adelikat wants this to be highly integrated with TASVideos, him telling me that he wants TASVideos.org to be its home (See its main Wiki). I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing, as yes, this is primarily written for TASVideos. However, we shouldn't actively cater to TASers for things that don't only apply to TAS. This is what .tas did, and it would certainly alienate me if I weren't a TASer (Even still, I'd be hesitant to use it to record unassisted test runs). As such, I'm glad to see it go. Thanks adelikat for being open minded and listening to our concerns, no matter how ridiculously trivial they might be. Don't ever listen to someone telling you that you should rename the emulator, though, no matter how connected it might be to a spammy service.

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/27/2012 5:18 PM

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goofydylan8 wrote:

Brandon wrote:
One day, perhaps there will be perfect TAS editing tools that beat Notepad++ in every way, all embedded in the emulator. Until that day, people like myself are going to use Notepad++ to edit their text formatted files whenever it appears to be the most convenient option. There's no reason to over limit the user.
TAS Editor in fceux currently is that TAS editing tool so the real push should be to try to port that to other emulators.

It's a great tool, but I like using Notepad++ sometimes. I'm just quicker when working with text formats, at least for splicing stuff.

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/27/2012 5:01 PM

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AnS wrote:

Even though it was like this from the very beginning (FCEUX 2.0.0), I bet not many people knew FM2s can be in binary too.

I had no idea about this. Probably because I assumed an extension for a text file would always store text.

Text format is just the consequence of underdeveloped tools at our current disposal. Ultimately, movie editing tools should be embedded into emulator, allowing seamless editing/watching. Actual implementation of movie protocol should be irrelevant to TASer. All those problems about having to associate .tas with Notepad and .bin.tas with HexWorkshop are ridiculous. The only program associated with emulator's movie extension should be the emulator itself. Notepad++ is not good program for editing movies. It was made for editing text, and attempting to adjust TASes to follow limits of text is short-sighted.

One day, perhaps there will be perfect TAS editing tools that beat Notepad++ in every way, all embedded in the emulator. Until that day, people like myself are going to use Notepad++ to edit their text formatted files whenever it appears to be the most convenient option. There's no reason to over limit the user.

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/27/2012 8:31 AM

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Well, this 3-letter extension debate is pointless, as adelikat has made it clear that he doesn't want to change the .tas extension. Furthermore, it is off-topic; the only thing that should be debated on this thread is whether or not text and binary formats for the same emulator should use the same extension.

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/27/2012 3:13 AM

Post subject: Re: Text / Binary Formats - Same or different filetype?

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CoolKirby wrote:

Brandon wrote:
perhaps .bkm, which obviously would stand for Binary Kool Movie. Right...
I like your shout-out to the original suggester of that extension.

Wasn't intentional. :P

Do you mean an external program included with BizHawk would be able to edit the same file in binary or text? That would sound like a useful tool.

I'm sure tas-movie-editor will adapt to us eventually. No, I'm not proposed a packaged program to do this, but you'll be able to convert between the two formats by definition.

natt wrote:

Brandon wrote:
But I'm saying that many people, myself included, would like to edit these files with external programs. Why would the external tool have to be of my own creation? Plenty of these tools already exist.
Not quite what I was getting at. Change that phrase to mean "external tools that aren't BizHawk". All I'm trying to say is that if the text and bin formats both load identically in BizHawk, and both function identically in every way inside BizHawk, then why shouldn't they have the same extension? The external tools can sort it out amongst themselves which "subtype" they are.

I'm not even necessarily talking about one external tool loading a file; I'm talking about filetype associations as well (As in, having Windows decide which program to open a file with based on the type). Can you even create filetype associations with subtypes? From my understanding, subtypes are completely disregarded by Windows. Even if you had a program that could differentiate the loading via the subtype, there are a lot more text / hex editors out there that wouldn't have any knowledge of BizHawk to implement this.

FractalFusion wrote:

Brandon wrote:
Why would the external tool have to be of my own creation?
Of course not. Just associate one external tool (say, Notepad++) with the extension, and load a file into the second external tool if need be. There exist things like shortcuts and menus to help with this.

This seems like unnecessary work considering that there will rarely be a case in which one program would be able to open both of them properly.

Also, any well-designed external tool should be able to load any file you wish, no matter what its name is. All open file dialogs should have the "All types (*.*)" option in there. And there are probably easier ways to go about it, such as drag-and-drop.

I'm not talking about filetype associations with various programs; again, I'm talking about the Windows dialog that says "Always used the selected program to open this kind of file."

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/27/2012 2:33 AM

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Brandon

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natt wrote:

Brandon wrote:
adelikat wrote:
To summarize Brandon's post: If an emulator had both a binary and a text file format. Would you want them to be the same extension and freely convertable? Or a different movie extension.
Explain what you mean by freely convertable please. If you mean that an emulator would be able to open either one without knowing what it is up-front, then yes, that's the other option as I understand it. Is there something more?
Well, unless you're directly editing it with external tools of your own creation, the two formats should behave identically right? So why should they have different extensions?

But I'm saying that many people, myself included, would like to edit these files with external programs. Why would the external tool have to be of my own creation? Plenty of these tools already exist.

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/27/2012 1:55 AM

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Brandon

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adelikat wrote:

To summarize Brandon's post: If an emulator had both a binary and a text file format. Would you want them to be the same extension and freely convertable? Or a different movie extension.

Explain what you mean by freely convertable please. If you mean that an emulator would be able to open either one without knowing what it is up-front, then yes, that's the other option as I understand it. Is there something more?

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/27/2012 1:36 AM

Post subject: Text / Binary Formats - Same or different filetype?

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Brandon

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As you are probably well aware, I really hate the .tas filetype for BizHawk. As such, I've been trying to convince adelikat using various tactics to change it. After my bribe failed, I decided to raise a legitimate question: Considering that you have plans for a binary movie format to be supported by BizHawk to complement the current text format, why not keep .tas, or as I'd like to call it, Text Annotated Screenplay, as the text format and use some other name for the binary format, which would be what non-TASers would use for movie recording anyway? He responded by saying that he's pondered this for several years throughout various projects that would implement this, and that I should start a thread on it. Here's my case, external of my disdain for .tas, for having a separate file type for the binary format. Aside from the obvious issues with identifying how to parse the file (This is quite trivial and easy to answer), I think the major issue is with file type associations. People like choosing a default program to use for a file type; for example, when I double click .tas files, I have it so that Notepad++ opens it. Well, let's say we introduce a binary format with the same filetype. Disregarding the confusion about being able to decide which format is which (This could be easily noted by calling it .bin.tas), I would now be forced to open the binary file in Notepad++ when I'd prefer to open it with Hex Workshop by default. Everything else being equal, I think this is a sufficient reason to have the binary format as a different name, perhaps .bkm, which obviously would stand for Binary Kool Movie. Right...

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/27/2012 1:07 AM

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Brandon

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The author's of the emulator have the right to name the emulator whatever they want. I just deeply dislike the name .tas, and I feel like this is something that can and should be changed simply because they couldn't have grown so attached to it and nearly everyone dislikes it for various reasons. It's also a much less significant change and would not be that big a deal to do.

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/25/2012 6:03 PM

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Brandon

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I strongly vote down the name TASHawk. StarHawk is cool, EmuHawk is probably better, and BizHawk is acceptable. I will never support the name .tas, though.

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/24/2012 3:54 AM

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Brandon

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Wrong ROM, bad goal, suboptimal in many places. Voting no.

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/21/2012 1:53 PM

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"Like" our Facebook fanpage.

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/21/2012 6:04 AM

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Brandon

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adelikat wrote:

ImportMCM - added importing of non-PCE platforms

Correction: added importing of NES. We still don't support the importing of SMS, Game Gear, GB, or GBA, all of which are supposedly supported by the Linux version of Mednafen-rr.

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Posted: 3/21/2012 3:59 AM

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Brandon

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I'm confused...if plain Mednafen doesn't have platforms that only work on Linux, what version supports the platforms mentioned? Do any of them use the same .MCM format? What a mess...

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/20/2012 6:19 AM

Post subject: Attention Linux Users!

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Brandon

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No, we haven't made a Linux version yet. As you may know, I've been working on MovieImport.cs for the majority of my time with BizHawk, making importers for various movie types to export them to a .tas format. I have mostly finished it, but although ImportMCM supports PCE and NES, there are 4 platforms, SMS, Game Gear, GB, and GBA, that are supported by both Mednafen and BizHawk. As such, I'm hoping to modify my function to support movie files created in Mednafen on those platforms, regardless of how useful such a feature would be. The problem is that these platforms are only supported by the Linux version of Mednafen. As such, I am requesting that an experienced Linux user compile Mednafen(-rr), and record a movie file for each platform. The game doesn't matter, but you should press each button for a second, one at a time, and then complete part of the game (Perhaps the first level). Then, send me the movie files and the order you pressed the first buttons in. This allows me to see if the keys I import match up as well as test if the movie will actually sync. Let me know if you're up to the task! Thanks! Edit: It appears that regular Mednafen doesn't create "valid" .MCM files. Mednafen-rr might, though there's a possibility that the format is completely different for Linux, at which point this converter would probably be a waste of time.

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/19/2012 1:53 PM

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Brandon

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I remember this game; it was pretty fun. Hope someone encodes this soon (It will not be me).

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/18/2012 11:53 PM

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Brandon

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ThatGugaWhoPlay wrote:

No matter how many times I watch this, I still don't get how the warp glitch work.

It's really simple. When you go from screen to screen, the game performs the transition by going to the next room and changing your position to the opposite side of the room. So, if you exited right, you'd end up on the left side of the next room, if you exited up, you'd end up on the bottom of the next room, etc. When you interrupt the transition by pressing select and bringing up the map, the game still switches rooms, but doesn't change your position. As such, you end up on the same side of the next room. So, if you exited right, you'd end up on the right side of the next room, if you exited up, you'd end up on the top of the next room, etc. DX fixes this by preventing you from bringing up the map during a transition. Voting yes, but if someone makes an equally optimal glitched 100% run, I'd support that obsoleting any day of the week. Then again, 100% would be hard to define...kill all bosses / open every treasure chest / get all items / shells?

All the best, Brandon Evans

Posted: 3/12/2012 12:04 AM

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Brandon

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Dwedit wrote:

What is "ti83_1.rom"? I have no clue what that is. That doesn't tell you anything about the particular ROM versions the emulator is expecting to see.

By this I mean the main ROM. The one that's just a calculator and not a game, from which you can calculate and graph stuff. We can't load the actual games yet, I think.

All the best, Brandon Evans