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Excuse me what, I'm almost offended that all my work has been obsoleted in less than a year :( :(
I really enjoyed TASing this game, so I'll try to work on these new developments in ILs when I'm free. Definitely not redoing any of the full runs, at least not in the near future..
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Hey Atma thanks a lot for being so forthcoming with help! Really appreciate all your insights. I'll look through your movie the next time I'm free to TAS.
At the time of typing this I've already completed the whole of Chapter 1.... only to learn new menu optimisation techniques (mainly text skip and bringing up the start menu) which practically forced me to restart a whole chunk of the TAS. Hex editing in the new inputs doesn't work for me as certain random factors ended up desyncing the operation itself.
I'll just treat everything I've done so far as a warm-up to the actual run I'll be doing. No idea if I can ever complete it (it's like, 40-50 levels in total?) but... I'll try! And I'll post a few movie files too.
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Atma wrote:
For a first attempt, it was really quite solid. it's only .17 seconds slower (ingame timer) than my run that I never finished before our goals diverge (you get a bad on bandage, I heal goo+cool bandaged).
Thanks. I've already redone operation 1-1 and got 8.92 seconds on it. Would you mind sharing your WIP if you still have it? I'm still not 100% certain on how to optimise certain stuff, especially the scalpel dotted lines.
There are still some basic optimisation techniques that I'm not sure are truly optimal. For instance suturing, I hold 3 frames on the first point then 1 frame each on the next 3 points. It seems kinda slow to me but I haven't found a faster way to do it. And the injections - my god, I wanna stay away from them as much as possible. I have absolutely no idea how to fill a syringe to max optimally, I feel that it's 2 frames per tick of the syringe, but sometimes I can only do 3 frames.
As always, I am of the opinion that such is a bad goal from an entertainment perspective, for a few reasons:
1) "ignoring rank" is the correct choice, because tasing actually makes certain missions basically impossible to XS because you're too good, and can't meet the sub criteria.
2) "fastest time" has the explicit implication that the entire run will be done using the healing touch which, iirc, lasts for 1800 frames (could easily be wrong, it's been 7 years since I last touched it), which is pretty much enough for any mission in the game to be completed with.
3) "fastest time" also shows how bad of a doctor you are by getting all those 'good' and 'bad' ranks.
My personal goal was always "all cool, no healing touch". This, for example, wouldn't be anywhere near as cool if it was done with the healing touch active from the very start.
Regardless of what you go for, keep it up I guess.
I will be prioritising fastest overall run time, over in-game time, for a similar reason you stated - fastest in-game time would basically mean Healing Touch everywhere to slow down the timer and that seems kinda stupid to me. Depending on the other operations' criteria, I may add on a rule to not use the HT unless necessary.
I also don't mind the "good" and "bad", since iirc they only appear at the very beginning and the end of the operation? (the initial incision and the bandage?). Of course, I try to get "cools" over "good" and "bad" where it can be done without wasting time (like extracting the bone fragments in 1-1).
Anyway, I'll be posting more WIPs when I can (already solved my SRAM issue), so I'm looking forward to more suggestions and criticisms from everyone :D
Memory wrote:
Also there is a trauma center discord I can dm you the details if you like.
Managed to look it up. Thanks!
Edit: Managed to improve it a bit more after discovering that you can use the forceps to grab stuff from the tray (bones, membranes etc) earlier.
Edit 2: Apparently RNG is a thing in this game too, it seems that it's possible to manipulate tumours into not producing blood pools after lasering them...
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Does anyone still play this game?
I've never TASed a DS game before. This is my first time TASing on DeSmuME, so the quality of the run may be a little sloppy.
If I do complete this run, I'll make it an any% on Hard difficulty aiming for fastest time, disregarding rank. So far I only have Operation 1-1 to show; I complete it in 9.11 seconds, with a final timer of 4:50.89.
I have no idea how to sync the movie upon replaying it, do I have to delete the battery file every single time I replay the run?
Link to video
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So I'm really new to DS TASing (only ever done GBA before, on VBA).
I recorded a TAS and unchecked the "start with SRAM" option, and assumed it would begin from power-on without any SRAM (I didn't check if it did).
After finishing a level, I went back to replay to test if it synced and it didn't. The movie also didn't play from a power-on state, and I can't delete the battery file to start from nothing while the ROM is active, causing a desync at the very beginning.
Is there anything I'm missing regarding DS TASing? Help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
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I'm pretty sure T+S is faster in zone 1-1 (watch my new any% run) due to that huge vertical boost-jump stretch near the end that can't be done without flight.
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Paused wrote:
So now the hundo is compete Dashjump, I'm just wondering how many strats you would change if you were under some sort of new game plus conditions, while still grabbing the chao. i.e all teams are available/ Sonic isn't required as lead in the act3s where characters are unlocked.
It's always been a question in the back of mind; there are some obvious (At least I assume!) ones like Knux/Amy in Sunset Hill 3. But your pointing out in the very first map on your submission notes that there's a Knux only breakable block in R99 3 made me wonder if there were some slightly obscure team combos could save time in the earlier zones if they were available.
Anyway as to add some content to the post that isn't just to satisfy my curiosity; Dashjump recently posted a updated any% run of TS2 thats worth a watch.
Link to video
That's an interesting idea which I can consider uploading as IL videos instead of a full run. I may consider trying Route 99 2 as Sonic/Cream and perhaps Toy Kingdom 3 as a +Sonic team. And Sunset Hill 3 as Knuckles/Amy of course.
Fun fact (or useless fact if you will): Knuckles/Sonic doesnt give any vertical power attacks to break the power barrier in Route 99 3. Essentially that barrier is useless for speedrunning XD
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Paused wrote:
Only thing I could say was regarding the Twinkle Snow 1 Key placement you pointed out but didn't get. A possible route could have gone Toy Kingdom boss > Twinkle Snow 3 > team swap to Amy/Sonic > Twinkle Snow 2 > team swap to Tails/Sonic > TS1.... and then as is. Could help with flow slightly. Though agreed, it's hardly a black and white issue, and neither is necessarily 'right'.
That still covers way more overworld distance than what I did in the run (essentially, an extra trip from act 1 to act 3, which is ridiculously long if you look at the map with the moving platforms).
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Just an enquiry, not trying to flame, but:
ruadath wrote:
but this is actually copied identically from the previous TAS and appears to be due to clock desync between the emulators
If the bulk of this TAS is copied directly from Mukki's input, wouldn't it basically make him the main author of this run? If so, I think he deserves to be at least co-authored in the title. The low rerecord count also seems to suggest that minimal work was done to optimise every level.
Sorry, I'm just genuinely curious as a similar issue was raised by a few staff members in the Sonic Advance 2 chaos emeralds submission.
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Welp, it's done way earlier than I expected :P
Final frame savings total up to around 125 seconds (2 mins!!) of improvement. I haven't calculated the in-game time savings of all the individual levels combined though. Can't believe how terrible my previous run was, and I hope I don't ever have to redo this again...
The biggest time cut probably came from Chaos Angel, because I saved a reset by using K+A for both CA1 and CA2, and they were way faster in both stages than S+C, saving 6 and 11 seconds respectively.
Some other overworld optimisations as well, in Zone 5 and 6 I complete a level then grab the map chao and reset, instead of grabbing the chao first. This saves a lot of time by skipping the chao dialogue.
Currently HD encoding the video and typing out submission text... stay tuned!
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Well, it's been a long time folks, and I'm sorry that I haven't finished up everything yet! TASing just isn't a priority for me anymore with so many rl commitments.
I've recently upgraded my computer and am continuing my 100% TAS with not much progress so far. Spent way too much time on Ocean Base 2, because I added a death reset on the first chao and didn't realise that dying resets the key layout, throwing a wrench into the entire level and I had to redo it again due to syncing issues with rings.
Speaking of which, ring acceleration seems to be present in the (U) version, albeit it's really really minor (that was what caused the desync on the 2nd run of OB2, due to my partner picking up more rings and screwing my speed/subpixels). I haven't tested the other versions (J and EU) though, but whatever, I really don't feel like redoing the whole thing again on a different game.
I'm hoping the final product can be submitted by the end of the month, until then let's hope RNG doesn't mess with me and make my job more difficult.
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Hello Paused! (and Kirby if you're reading this, I don't think anyone else bothers to check this thread :P)
Rest assured this project is ongoing. My schedule has been really busy lately and I only have 3-4 hours of TASing time each week :(
I've been watching back my old 100% run and already can intuitively point out which parts can be improved greatly, after gaining experience doing two any% runs after the first 100%. I really want to optimise this run to near-perfection, so it probably won't be a 2-3 week affair any more. I'll definitely be uploading some WIPs, so stay tuned!
UPDATE: I'm currently at the zone 2 boss (how many times must I play this horrible RNG game?), once again trying to optimise it hopefully with a timing better than my current any% run.
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Yes I believe it can be console verified (if anyone cares enough to do it, that is). The reset sequences were made with the default GBA command (A+B+Start+Sel).
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Apparently porting over the movies from VBA to BizHawk causes a desync, so I'll have to stick with VBA for now.. :/
How would I go about freezing the camera in VBA? Doing a memory search in 00005900 yields null values. Or do the memory addresses differ when using different emulators?
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Thank you so much for this! It's gonna take some time for me to port over all my inputs to BizHawk and get used to it, but nevertheless I really appreciate your help on this matter. Hope everything works out for me!
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I have tried doing basic searches to look for an X-coordinate for the camera, but to no avail. Attempting to freeze any address which I believed to be camera coordinates did not yield any effects.
I'm currently using VBA-rr v23.5.
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Hi everyone! Sorry if this is in the wrong section. I guess I'll start by trying to explain my predicament and requesting for any suggestions/ideas you guys might have. First of all I have to declare that I have little to no coding/programming knowledge and hence I can't write lua scripts (I can only leech off others' lua scrips and use them for optimisations).
I'm currently working on TASing Sonic Advance 2 (any%). Those who have watched Mukki's outstanding run of SA2 would probably notice that Sonic is able to break insane speeds in this game and go offscreen more often than not. Unfortunately this makes optimisations really difficult as I have no idea where my character is; I only can gauge his approximate position by watching changes in velocity. In some cases where it is necessary to make tough maneuvers by clipping into specific pixel positions, I hit a brick wall (figuratively) and can't seem to continue further.
In Sonic Advance 1, nitsuja managed to make a camhack function where the camera always follows Sonic. Is it at all possible to use a cheat code function to change the memory address of the camera such that it always follows my character? Or would there be any easier alternatives to optimising runs with the character offscreen?
I know this question is probably too generic to demand for specific answers, but nevertheless I would like to know more about the subject from experienced TASers. Thanks!
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Paused wrote:
Finally have had the chance to fully watch this.
Fantastic work Dashjump. Has been a joy to see you pop up running a game thought to be pretty well pushed somewhere near it limits, and just smash the previous times through, for the most part, optimisations alone. And again, doing so at such a rapid pace.
I realise as you have said elsewhere that a re-do the 100% run is not on the cards at the moment (and who can blame you, you've done alot of Advance 3 for the last few months.) But I do hope at some point in the future you consider coming back to it, purely looking at the jumps in quality of the submissions demonstrating how much more you know of the game.
But regardless, best of luck on your next project what ever it ends up being, and if it is TAS related at all I look forward to following it.
Thanks again for the great runs!
Thanks for your feedback! No need to thank me really, as it has been equally rewarding for me to TAS a game I like and receive positive feedback.
The 100% TAS was a "test-run" of sorts, to get myself used to TASing Sonic Advance 3. After doing two full any% runs subsequently, I know that my 100% can stand to be improved by a lot. The only thing holding me back from doing another run really, is the Sunset Hill boss. Twice now I have managed to pull off miraculous time cuts from each previous run, and doing it a third time would probably be insanely difficult. I won't say that I will never redo it again, but if nobody tries to improve it I'll probably do it myself in the coming months.
As for future projects, I'll probably be doing a few ring attack TASes (those are surprisingly fun to do, contrary to what I expected). For anyone who would like to check out my complete playlist of Sonic Advance 3 TASes, it's right here.
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I'm pretty sure I was referring to a later frame with Knuckles using the hammer attack... (will edit this post after checking)
Edit: Yeah, it's this shot
