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Thanks a lot, that made my day. I love your enthusiasm for my work. It took me 7 restarts from scratch to get to where I am- to compare with how I started, you should see the .mkv comparison movie bkDJ made (you can find it either on page 18 or 19) of World 1 that I did up to Kreepy Krow from V1 (my first version) and World 1 up to kreepy Krow of V8 (my current version.) The levels are shown side by side, so you can see how bad I was back then and how good I've gotten now. I think that when the movie ends V8 had saved 27 seconds...
I'm hoping that the rest of the run will be as optimized as it is now, because quite frankly world 1 looks so good because I've done it 8 times and world 2 I've done 3-4 times. Hopefully it won't be a problem if I keep doing it slowly, testing frames, and redoing certain levels because most every time I replay a level I save frames.
College life is both a blessing and a curse for me- sometimes I'll have hours with nothing to do but TAS, and sometimes I am swamped with work/social life. I really don't know how long it will take me to finish this run- the castle levels in world 6 I know will take the most amount of time because of the glitches that Arne and I have to master- but the process of making it is so fun, and I'll be so pleased once it's finally done. I'm curious as to how many in time seconds will be saved compared to the SDA run- I'm guessing by a lot of minutes if not more.
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I tested the frames. read my above post- dismounting enguarde at the bonus gives him forward and UP momentum, and the coin is to the right and below. I tested frames- I'm testing frames for everything like Arne suggested- and it is faster to let him pop into bananas than to dismount. This is the only place where I'll let him pop where's it's possible to dismount. I think. you can't dismount sqauwks except in parrot chute panic (sqauwk's shaft, bramble scramble) but the rest you have to switch to another animal, there's no goign around it.
and as bkDJ said, as I mentioned a few pages before (last page? can't remember it's late) I've tested doing a goal switch and it's IMPOSSIBLE, because you are invincible. if I skip the DK coin and invincibility I can get it. But you can't skip the invincibility barrel and head backwards to get the DK coin without losing major frames. Trust me I desparately want a goal switch there, but it ain't happening.
These were both issues I've answered before, but thanks for checking my current work. Those two are ones I wanted to behave differently- but it turns out it is faster to do it the way it is. Maybe sqauk's shaft tomorrow, I so want to replicate bonus#3 in V7 because that bonus was amazing.
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you should totally go for it. if those time savers are as big as you suggest, and the 8/5 beats the 6/5 by a few frames and if you beat it by 1-2 seconds, that yes go for it. JQX beat V1per7's by 4 seconds, so an improvement of an improvement can be done with 1-2 seconds, if you're that good. A few tips:
Use frame Advance exclusively. Since you're trying to obsolete a great run, make sure EVERYTHING is precise.
create many "checkpoints"- the frame # at which JQX does something, to compare
don't be afraid to copy most input in non improvable areas to ensure no frames are lost
check even minuscule spots where 1-5 frames can be saved- this will help overall
JQX's run is entertaining- Fabian's 120 even more so. In the spots to show off (Yoshi's Island 1, Ghost House, Bowser fight) try to be even more entertaining. try to juggle two mushrooms for the entire bowser fight, see if it's possible to have a mecha-koopa being held directly inside bowser to ensure he's hit on the first possible frame, and good luck!
Edit:
Direct quote from SMW tricks page:
"Random" fadeout lag
Although still not completely understood, some things are now known about this strange property.
There are three different kinds of fadeout. The first is after completing a normal level, when the black circle closes around Mario. The amount of lag here is based on Mario's score. The general pattern seems to be: "The more digits below 4, the less lag". By poking zero into the 2-byte RAM address 7E0F34, the score will be zero, and the lag given is the best that the particular exit can get.
The second is after completing a boss level. This is still score dependent, but a pattern hasn't been found, although it is definitely similar to that of normal exits.
The third is a secret exit. This depends on two things: Mario's score, and the sprites on-screen (especially the ones around the edge of the keyhole at its largest position).
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Lava Lagoon I'm making a lot of strategic differences. I'm now trying to hit each seal at the first frame possible, and landing in the water in the best position. I figured out how to remove the lag that happens twice in a row just before and during the mid-way barrel. Also I tested and it is faster to not dismount Enguarde in the bonus than it is to, because when you dismount you have forward and, more importantly, a lot of UP momentum which prevents you from swimming down to the coin quickly whereas the sign makes you propel fowards and down, whcih is what I want. WIP coming soon.
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I did some bonus calculations and in fact the bonus in V7 is 35 frames faster. What's scary is when I was first thinking about it I said "well I bet the bonus is faster, but since I lose 21 frames if it's slower by, say, 35 frames or so then in the rest of the level I mathematically saved frames so that's good." I corretly predicted how many frames were lost in the bonus. Creepy.
Anyways, so now I know if I improve the bonus then overall V8 will have frames saved. Now for the long process of copying the input in V7 into V8 ooh boy fun
Edit: I just now redid the bonus, and saved 30 frames (or 31, it's close I can't tell.) I was able to hit the bee the same way in V7, which looks much nicer because after hitting the dragonfly Dixie becoems invunerable as she flies thru the bee. This means I am currently 9 frames ahead, so I'll post a WIP as soon as I finish the level. and then on to Lava Lagoon!
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I agree with Mukki, us old school gamers remember the NES and SNES but more people will, as they get introduced to this website be more familiar with N64.
I've played Zelda: OoT and not specifically the backwalking, but everything else- jumping, attacking, skipping thru the game, aiming, etc. was very fast, and extremely suprising considering I played that game like all noobies i.e. rolling foward, no damage boosts, etc.
Simarly, Mario 64 I've played and I'm more familiar with the speed of the game, but not the precision or glitches that TASes provide.
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I meant the gameplay, not the actual video quality. It was amazing to watch Zelda Oot played so fast, in terms of character movement. Generally N64 games (with the exception of the relle slow Kirby 64) have characters with faster movement and more dgrees of freedom, leading to more aesthetically pleasing character movements.
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Yeah I hate how N64 TASes look WAY more beautiful than any other game system TAS, while at the same time being 100% more difficult to make due to ROM/emulator problems...
and a 100% of this game would be a VERY long movie, there'd be so much in it but nobody but the very attentive people would sit through all of it. I myself could barely watch the entirety of Guano's any%, due to so many texts, but I managed to because it was so amazing to watch the first time (I nearly left my summer job a few hours early to download it at home when it came out, but I patiently waited to not get fired)
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I've played SMA and yes the gameplay is slightly different, you cannot gain runnig speed as fast by a few frames and you can't maintain speed as well by jumping without horizontal motion. Plus the collision detectors are not the same, making running into an enemy and jumping not as efficient plus some tight maneuvers aren't doable in SMA.
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I suppose the work on this TAS, if it ever happens, will take a while because A) the technical difficultires GuanoBowl is having with his new run from using a diff ROM, and B) waiting for the run to come out on SDA first.
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In general this whole run is going to be amazing. Most stars are gotten in fast unorthodox manner, plus I always appreciate 100% runs of games more than minimalistics runs because you get to see the whole game (one of the reasons for me doing DCK2 102%).
Is the upward wind shortcut that's right next to the 1up mushroom when you backtrack from the beginning of the level going to be used in Tall Tall Mountain?
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wall jumps do help a lot in that level, by going straight up instead of around and up like the level intended. I'm sure that FODA already had such wall jump-madness planned for that level.
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ah. Though I did just recently watch someone on youtube do the run without the goron tunic, and if he used the arrows more effectively (which can be done in TAS) and grabbed onto the ledge to avoid the rocks, it's doable. and grabbing the fairy in the bottle was not too much of a time waster, since it was on the way to the boss door in the first place. It takes 6-8 seconds for the fairy to heal you, much less than getting the tunic itself. Plus there were some nice shortcuts using the hover boots, bomb ground jumps and there's probably room for some bombhover glitching as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ebpOGMBX-M&NR
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Just a small point, but when making WIPs I find it most enjoyable when a level is complete, rather than stopping in the middle of a level. The latest WIP stops in the middle of Big-Small island, and in my DCK2 102% I make sure to end all my WIPs at the end of each level I complete, it makes it easier to watch.
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AKA wrote:
The Temple that would cause the greatest difficulty by far is the Fire Temple, because of the length and health issues. After all you need 5 hearts plus a fairy to survive the Volvagnia battle.
In the SDA run during the Volvagnia battle he goes to the edge of the playing field and, during the falling rocks sequence, grabs onto the ledge and waits. I'm pretty sure he didn't lose any hearts at all during that battle.
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spockybiemmichab wrote:
comicalflop wrote:
I have no idea how...
I don't know either, but somehow your previous version didn't look optimized (although I liked it) and this did.
Just keep up your awesome work!
I'm not sure either. I agree with you V8 looks way more optimized. I'm 85% sure it's purely the bonus.
I don't think I'm going to attempt to use the rhino glitch at all... part of the appeal of my run is that 102% you get to see the entire levels, and many parts of levels that you normally would not see in the any% run. using the rhino glitch would be fastest, but A) i don't know if I could to it B) if it's emulator related yeah now doable on the console at all, not as fun and C) I just plain like the backwards switch better, it's a part of the game. And yes I'll be using the backwards glitch to zoom up the walls, but I'll still be playing the levels whereas in Arne's any% I'm sure he's going to abuse going into the walls as much as possible.
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for the any% it has the best application (or just use backwards switches the whole way up) but for my 102% the only useful thing, is if I complete the level and redo and start+select at the last bonus because once you get stuck as the multicolored rhino you can't get out. I don't even know if getting the target will end that, or even if you can get the target. I also am not the best person at glitches, and I think the backwards switch is more useful, easy to do, just as fast when scaling up the inside of the wall, and doesn't screw with the mechanics of the game/emulator.
If you can make a SNES9x version that is capable of tracking the rhino glitch, that'd be cool. is there also a current SNES9x that can scroll properly with Diddy Kong when doing the backwards glitch? (I am so bad at knowing where he is when he's off screen, I know I'll have trouble in the castle levels, except for Topsail trouble but that's different because I don't need further input except left and right once the screen stops scrolling downwards properly in that level.)
