Posts for BruceShankle

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Posted: 4/8/2023 4:08 PM
Post subject: This TAS Publications should be marked with commentary
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BruceShankle
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Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (30)
Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
plokmijnuhby wrote:
Should we mark this post as having commentary?
Yes, this post should be marked for having commentary. The whole run was streamed with live commentary from the author of the TAS and an experienced speedrunner who goes by zfg. Here it is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4p9_GxicLlw?t=254
Posted: 4/1/2023 5:10 PM
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
Thank you very much for the praise homerfunky! What you accomplished in 10 years, I performed in 10 minutes, so I must be so talented! I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it is april fools day... :P Maybe someone will seriously attempt something with the debug rom though, being able to edit your inventory and whatnot has potential to make something cool.
Posted: 2/27/2023 7:09 PM
Post subject: The preview encode is now ready!
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
The upload above has now finished processing, so you can watch this TAS on YouTube without having to playback in bizhawk on your PC. I hope you all vote "Yes" for Swordless Link's submission!
Posted: 2/27/2023 1:01 AM
(Edited: 2/27/2023 4:29 PM)
Post subject: An encode of Swordless Link's new OoT Glitchless any% TAS will be available soon!
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
homerfunky made it known that Swordless Link has made a new TAS after such a long time, and I'm absolutely stoked to see it! I've already noticed that it has a pretty interesting route that differs from what you'd normally expect from a casual playthrough, despite being a glitchless any% TAS. So I'm sure this run will be worth the watch! Since no one has made a sample encode yet, I made an FFV1 lossless 240p encode of this TAS and I'm currently waiting for it to upscale to 1440p to upload to YouTube. I wanted to encode in a higher resolution, but for this to work, you'd have to playback the run in 240p and make savestates once you've past desync points and then make splices. This is what a TASVideos encoder will have to do for this run sadly, because there already seems to be a desync in the sword maze at resolutions other than 240p. I've run into this before myself actually but at other points, such as entering Hyrule Field from Zora's River, so this resolution-based desync issue seems to be a bit common. I will try to get this TAS and the 240p FFV1 lossless encode along with it's 1440p upscale uploaded to archive.org later like I did with my MM TAS, if I have Swordless Link's permission for this too of course. NOTE: At the time of this post, the video is still uploading, so please check back here around 1pm EST. Link to video
Posted: 10/2/2022 2:37 PM
Post subject: Commentated version now available! Publishers, please include it in this publication.
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
That's right, the commentated version was recently uploaded to youtube about 3 and a half hours ago. It will be processed in 4K eventually, although right now you can see it in 1080p60. It's on my YT channel here: https://youtu.be/F3MHJNhwStM Uncommentated version: https://youtu.be/Tjofk7oQpWs Hopefully this makes the run a bit easier to understand and also gives some insight on the previous strategies used for any%. I hope everyone enjoys this TAS to the fullest! I've really put in a lot of effort this time to make it entertaining and as optimized as possible. This might be my last post in this thread if no one has any questions or if no one significant has any comments about this run, so see you later!
Posted: 9/17/2022 3:15 PM
Post subject: New preview encode, and it will be available to download
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
This is a notification that I've finished uploading the new preview encode of this movie, will reset/power-on frames included in the video now. This was done by disabling "sync to audio", also known as "alternate sync" in previous versions of bizhawk below 2.6.1, because otherwise, the codec will drop frames during resets because there isn't any audio being played back then. I've also been told that it's usually better to have this option enabled to prevent issues with the audio due to it needing to stay in sync with the video, so I listened to the entire non-synced audio file to see if I noticed anything wrong, and I did not. Here's my final preview encode of this movie. This is what will also be linked in the commentated version of this TAS when I get the commentary for it spliced and uploaded to YouTube: https://youtu.be/Tjofk7oQpWs It's currently processed in 1080p. but it should soon be available in 4K since I've already given it several hours to work on processing the video. I'll be leaving the old encode available as unlisted so that anyone who's still using that link can still watch the movie faster without reset frames, and so they can use the description to access this correct encode. This encode is currently being uploaded to a page on my archive.org account, it will be available at this URL when it finishes for anyone curious in downloading it: https://archive.org/details/mm-n64-any-archive Please give it a couple days for it to upload though, archive.org seems to frequently run into networking errors where someone has to be available to click on "resume uploading", so it might take a while before. This page also has the required emulator to playback the movie, the movie file, and several useful lua and wch files for Majora's Mask that I found from kaztalek's github page. So if you want to playback the movie from yourself, you can just download from here and extract the folder from the zip. Although I've heard archive.org's speeds are not great though, maybe it would be faster to just download from the github releases page instead. And yes, I've just replaced the link in the sumission notes with this new encode. I got some decent recordings of my voice yesterday which I'll work on splicing together some more tomorrow for a commentated version. I'll be going over the history of the any% category, as well as giving some basic explanations of the techniques used in this TAS. Hopefully I can have it done sometime next week and make a public release on YouTube. I'll add it to the submission notes as well when I get it uploaded.
Posted: 9/15/2022 11:49 PM
Post subject: Actually it's something different that causes reset frames to not get recorded: alternate sync
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
Colin (EZGAMES69) told me that the reason it's not recording reset frames is because of the option that syncs to audio because of audio not being generated during reset frames, but it's a little more complicated than that due to mupen emulation and how it handles audio in reference to video. You see, you want your audio to be encoded as alternate sync because otherwise it will get stretched with the video and have pitch problems and such. But the problem with having alternate sync on, is that it won't record the game during resets because... There's not audio here! So there's your problem. How do you solve it? I've heard splicing in reset frames and editing the audio file to have the proper delay is a good option. But I was thinking of making the video encode with alternate sync off, and then encoding the audio with alternate sync on so there's no pitch problems, and using the audio that has no alternate sync as a reference for how to edit the synced audio file to account for reset frames and then merge that with the video encoded with alternate sync off. In theory, I think this will work. As you can tell, I'm not a TASVideos encoder, but I think I might be able to get something of good quality with reset frames accounted for using a technique like this.
Posted: 9/15/2022 4:59 AM
Post subject: Remember to enable Non-VI Lag Frames for N64 encodes or it doesn't encode reset frames
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
In order for your encode to pick up on reset frames for N64 TAS's, you have to go to the N64 tab and enable Non-VI Lag frames so that it doesn't skip frames that playback in red upon hard resets. Hopefully now that you know about this, it will assist you in making your personal N64 TAS encodes timing-accurate with the framecount of your run. Because of this, I will be re-encoding the Majora's Mask any% TAS tonight. When I get up in the morning, if it finished, I will stop the AVI recording and begin uploading to YouTube. Also figured out an easy way to setup an encode of your TAS so that you can set it up and walk away without having to be present and stop it on the right frame after the credits. Simply find the framecount you want to stop the encode on, subtract that from the framecount of your TAS, then get that same number of input frames, make them blank if you have to, and splice them to the end of your input log. Or you could just do it the easy way and make a state on the last frame of your movie, read+write, change inputs to 0, wait till credits frame, guess I could have done that, but that might not always be optimal for games with longer credits. Hopefully you guys will be able to encode your N64 TAS's better now that you know about this little thing. I'll be sure to update the TAS submission notes once I get it re-encoded and link to the one with the reset frames included in the encode, and transfer the title/description/tags from the non-reset framed video to the reset frame video. Also, I appreciate the positive feedback on the TAS! I think besides optimization wise, I did a pretty good job of just making it look cooler in general. It might be harder to appreciate if you haven't seen the old TAS though, but several sections which tie with the old TAS just generally look cooler or show off the skill of a TAS better in my opinion. Also, now that I'm watching this in full-time, the way I ended the v2 clock tower playaround was way cooler than I thought it'd be! Anyways, with post again when the new encode is processed on YT! Good night TAS friends.
Posted: 9/15/2022 2:08 AM
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
KusogeMan wrote:
BruceShankle wrote:
Also, an encode of this TAS is currently being processed on YouTube (processed at 10% so far). It should be finished processing friday night, or roughly 09/15 8pm UTC at this link: https://youtu.be/SBrUGACcMDo . It was encoded in 4K with enhanced plugin settings. I'll make the .avi file available to download from archive.org for those who wish to save a lossless video of this TAS. I'll make a commentated version as well, but that will probably take at least a few days from now to make. Need to finish writing the script and having it proofread. The mentioned final TAS file is the most recent file I have uploaded to my userfiles, at the following link: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637986252138083767
encode is private, dont know if its what you wanted
The reason it said private was because the video was still being processed and I had not saved the video's publicity setting yet. It's unlisted and the processing has finished, so you should be able to watch it now. Hope you enjoy!
Posted: 9/15/2022 1:54 AM
Post subject: An encode of the TAS is now available to watch on YouTube! Check it out!
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
Finally, this TAS can now be watched as a video! Here's the video link: https://youtu.be/SBrUGACcMDo It's already processed in 1080p, by the time you're looking at this message, it'll probably be in 4K. Yep, I really outdid myself this time with the encode quality. Hopefully this makes it a lot easier for ya'll to watch the TAS! I have this video in the submission notes now as well. Thought I'd let you know!
Posted: 9/14/2022 9:43 PM
Post subject: The TAS file is now confirmed final, here's why (also, encode status)
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
I wasn't certain if the movie file that I recently uploaded to userfiles would be final or not, because I wanted to see if I could use a different form of movement to save time, specifically see'ing if using sidehops to reach the guard in the East Clock Town entrance would be faster than doing the backwalk due to accleration delay at the start of the backwalk. The timing was very close but backwalking was still faster. And it wasn't possible to get the chu chu to attack on an earlier frame with backwalking so sidehoping was still optimal there as well. I looked over the ACE section with RAM Watch to see if the pulls were ocurring on the first frame possible relative the loaded rooms and the loaded bombs counter and that at all looks good as well. Me and andzura already spent a lot of time making sure the angle changes were as optimal as possible in the old version of the TAS so I know that is good as well. And I tested each load zone before to see if there lag could be manipulated with an analog input prior to the loading, and there were no loading zones where such was the case besides the load to termina field from ECT, which was already taken advantage of. I know the file names are as optimal as possible because I took the time to check several different routes before and I tested alternative working names as well to determine that this is still the fastest working name for total control. I also looked at some sections in the lost woods intro prior to all this to make sure backwalking in some of those sections was still faster than sidehopping, which ended up only being the case due to the ending of a sidehop being at a bad distance away from a sliding door. I checked to see if there was extra loading lag incurred from the manipulation for the first bomber kid, and we seem to have gotten pretty lucky because most other RNG seeds manipulated from there would cause an unpreventable frame of lag upon entering south clock town for some reason, so by accident this part of the movie is actually optimized! In theory, the same is true for the 2nd bomber kid manipulation due to there being no lag difference 4 loading zones later without the manipulation. At this point, I won't ever be working on this TAS anymore. If I do end up working on TAS'ing Majora's Mask any% again, it'll be for the wii version using dolphin so we can skip first cycle and do lightnode SRM strats. This ought to stand as the N64 record forever, unless first cycle skip is actually figured out on the N64 version, in which case this run will be very obsoleted. So, I'm done with this TAS. Also, an encode of this TAS is currently being processed on YouTube (processed at 10% so far). It should be finished processing friday night, or roughly 09/15 8pm UTC at this link: https://youtu.be/SBrUGACcMDo . It was encoded in 4K with enhanced plugin settings. I'll make the .avi file available to download from archive.org for those who wish to save a lossless video of this TAS. I'll make a commentated version as well, but that will probably take at least a few days from now to make. Need to finish writing the script and having it proofread. The mentioned final TAS file is the most recent file I have uploaded to my userfiles, at the following link: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637986252138083767
Posted: 9/13/2022 4:45 AM
(Edited: 9/13/2022 4:47 AM)
Post subject: The TAS is now fully optimized and can be downloaded from userfiles! (last movie update)
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
The final version of the N64 Majora's Mask TAS under the branch "game end glitch" is now fully optimized, meaning we cannot figure out a way to save anymore frames on this TAS, with a total framecount of 81846 or 22:44.10 (no rounding in this time). I'm going to delete my previous posts regarding the old status of the movie file since it now ready. However, keep in mind the submission movie file has not been updated with this new, final movie file, so please download it from here for now: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637986252138083767 . This link is also included in the submission notes as well. This .bk2 file also has enhanced plugin settings which will look great in HD encodes. In fact, a high quality encode is being made right now and should hopefully get uploaded to my YouTube as an unlisted video within a few days or so. I'll be sure to make a post to notify you all when that is finished. Make sure to check "Watch Topic for Replies if you want to be notified, at least I think that's how it works. Also, make sure you playback the movie on bizhawk 2.6.1! It could potentially sync in other versions but some people have desynced in night 3 south clock town when they were using later bizhawk versions. I hope you are also all very impressed by the optimization of this movie, we've literally tried everything and can't beat the game any faster! I hope you appreciate this TAS as much as we do. Lots of things had to be redone to account for new optimizations as well as just for the sake of redoing some things just so that it's different from the last TAS! :) . Can't wait to share the encode with you all!
Posted: 9/11/2022 6:06 AM
Post subject: The TAS is not ready! Do not download the movie yet!
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
I have found another frame that could be saved in file name 2! Please wait for us to get the rest of the TAS synced with this new frame save implemented, the RNG scripts have to be run again and I must redo the ACE HESS in observatory to account for lag frames. It will hopefully be ready in a couple days or so depending on when andzura can get around to scripting it and how lucky we get. Thank you for waiting!
Posted: 9/10/2022 6:28 PM
Post subject: The latest movie on userfiles may be missing header
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
I think I forgot to replace the movie's header when I was changing the syncsettings. Tonight I will replace the header in the .bk2 with the header from the previous userfile upload that has the lowest framecount and reupload to userfiles. Then I'll delete the previous file uploads to clear up confusion and add a link in another post on this thread and in the submission notes.
Posted: 9/10/2022 5:15 PM
Post subject: New input-identical movie file with better SyncSettings! Also, a preview encode is uploading!
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
I've updated the movie file with this one here: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637984264275475069 that has better sync settings. Because as long as UseDefaultHacks is enabled, this movie seems to playback properly each time, so I replicated the settings found on https://tasvideos.org/EncodingGuide/VideoDumping#N64 while keeping UseDefaultHacks set to True, and I've also made a lossless FFV1 encode using this movie file, which is being uploaded to YouTube as you are reading this! Hopefully I can add it to the submission notes in a couple day or so, but it wll take some time due to the file size being 95.6GB. And if anyone encodes this movie, I recommend stopping on frame 85050! This will be exactly one second has passed after the last repeating frame is visible! And any tasvideos person reading this, can you replace the current submisison movie file with this one instead? The inputs and everything besides sync settings are completely identical to the previous movie linked in my previous post on this thread. But if you would prefer to replace using the movie that has default settings that's fine too, I would just prefer this one because of better plugin settings.
Posted: 9/10/2022 12:08 AM
Post subject: This TAS has now been improved by 3 frames! You can dowload the movie file from here!
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
The movie is now finished with a final framecount of 81,847, or 22 minutes and 44.12 (rounded) seconds. I improved the 3 frames by entering clock tower with similar inputs to the previous movie that were faster than doing a backwalked z slide by one visual frame, which is 3 input frames. Download from here:: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637983642812531360 Also, TASVideos Staff, please replace the current submission movie with this file linked here! This is the most optimal version of the movie, it looks almost identical to what is submitted besides the section entering the clock tower. I have some other notes in the user file description. I also fixed the timing error I mentioned in the discord where I had not rounded the hundreth second, it is now properly named in an identical manner to how the previous MM g-e-g tas was named.
Posted: 9/9/2022 9:03 PM
Post subject: UPDATE: FOUND A THREE FRAME IMPROVEMENT
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
I will improve this run by 3 frames soon by not using a backwalk to start the speed for entering clock tower from south clock town, I wasn't using the old inputs as a reference for this section and they actually beat this new run by one visual frame here, which is 3 input frames, or 3 out of 60fps. Will fix this ASAP! Please do not publish or encode this movie in it's current state! Please!
Posted: 11/30/2020 1:52 AM
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
Hey everyone, andzura has made a new encode for this TAS! Once it's done processing, it should theoretically be in 4K. Check the top of this thread. EDIT: Its in 4k now!
Posted: 11/30/2020 12:27 AM
Post subject: Please replace the current movie file.
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
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This is an updated version of the movie to replace the current submission that has the playaround: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/67769765549972589 .
Posted: 11/29/2020 7:27 AM
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BruceShankle
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https://youtu.be/hCarXvdadlI Heres the playaround that will be in the final movie. Hope that helps for those that think this movie is boring, which admittedly there is a lot of cutscenes I can't avoid or skip entirely.
Posted: 11/29/2020 3:04 AM
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BruceShankle
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Posts: 26
Thanks, the ACE was probably the most difficult part here. We actually tested several different strategies before I figured out we needed to use the superslide camera in order to reach the final angle. I think fox's old TAS was discontinued, and yes, the original route and any other route pre-SRM for beating all temples are completely obsolete. The fastest way to go about beating the dungeons, in theory, would be to go to ikana graveyard, SRM a quiver and fire arrows, then setup song of time storage and use grotto overlay SRM to instantly warp to whatever dungeon boss we would like, reset the game, and repeat the process of warping to the end of each dungeon. It might be faster to play on the english version though, because then you could SRM multiple items at once at the bombers hideout chest, but the slower text as well as bombers hideout being so out of the way probably wouldn't be worth it. Admittedly I don't think an all temples run using SRM would be as interesting, it would be much like this TAS except without ACE. A run that doesn't use SRM could be interesting, because in your old any% TAS, index warp wasn't found yet, and it looks like playing on the japanese version, flower/tatl skip, hms cs skip, and hard resets after saves were not even used there, so a no srm all temples would be pretty interesting. Also, just want to mention I really admire you and your TAS's!
Posted: 11/28/2020 9:04 AM
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BruceShankle
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Good to know. I'll be resubmitting the movie anyways, I came up with a couple ideas to make it a little more entertaining while waiting for clock tower door since people do sit through it.
Posted: 11/28/2020 5:18 AM
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BruceShankle
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The filename code is absolutely necessary. There's no other way to activate controller 3. As for clock tower, since so many of you have asked me to redo it, I promise you all it will be redone, right now! I'm not sure what else needs to be shown off, but I will see what I can do. I guess since 1st cycle is already as boring as it is, you want something to see while waiting. I kind of assumed most people would, "take a break," from the TAS at this point since nothing I can do will actually count towards progress. Will work on it right now and resync the 5 RNG segments that come after this with andzuras scripting. Hope tasvideos allows resubmitting movies, I'm new to this site.
Posted: 5/12/2020 12:00 AM
Post subject: I had another idea, but for MQ.
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BruceShankle
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Another idea I have had for a while for master quest is: any%, No Wrong Warping/Early Light Arrows. The specific restrictions are that you cannot wrong warp (however void warping is allowed, used to speed up tower collapse section, used in MrGrunz's any% TAS), and you cannot use GIM or RBA to to obtain Light Arrows, meaning you must beat the last 2 dungeons (Spirit and Shadow temple) in order to get the light arrows. I thought this would be better than trying to TAS correct dungeon order, because it is a smaller scale project that I could make really optimized as opposed to making something really long that isn't as optimized (and also, I don't have to TAS cucco's!!), and I also get to show off some other glitches that wouldn't be seen in the Correct Dungeon Order TAS, like Adult trading as child link, early golden scale, and other small things. I've been working on the child route a bit, and I won't say its final but it will probably be what is used, assuming it is faster than an alternate route which I have been thinking about. Here is the child WIP Route: https://pastebin.com/YCBEvrQC If you have any route ideas or suggestions let me know. I'll work on my alternate route idea later and post here to see if you guys think the alternate route is faster. (for a basic idea of the alternate route, we get kakariko bottle first, then we get 19 spirit temple chu's after odd mushroom, then requiem deathwarp back to kokiri forest, and then go straight to adult and do spirit temple. the main disadvantage of this alternate route is losing the odd mushroom from deathwarp as well as not starting out with as many bombchu's (and no poe) as adult, and the main advantage is saving the time of backtracking through gerudo valley)
Posted: 4/30/2020 4:15 AM
Post subject: Is it allowed to TAS OoT MQ on Bizhawk?
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BruceShankle
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Joined: 4/23/2020
Posts: 26
OoT MQ was released on GC in the form of a n64 rom, and because of this it can be ran in an n64 emulator. I see that there has been an exception made for MTA's unfinished MQ TAS, so I was wondering if I could also do the same. The alternative is Dolphin, but working with Bizhawk is much easier for me. I have not started on my MQ TAS yet because I am still planning the route for it. Thanks for a response.
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