Posts for Derakon

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Posted: 8/30/2009 6:23 PM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Man, I'd forgotten just how much of MM's early stages is cutscenes. Blagh. The actual gameplay was fantastic, though. Nice work!
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/30/2009 4:23 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Sounds like you've been busy. :) Curious: how generic is the rewind functionality you've added? Seems like that could be a useful general-purpose feature; maybe you should talk to Adelikat about getting it added to his TASing repository. For automating grinding, would it be at all feasible to simply record one "loop" of grinding, and then run that loop over and over again? I suppose it depends on how much the enemies move before you get a chance to kill them.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/30/2009 6:12 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Okay, I apologize for misreading your statement. Thanks for clarifying.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/30/2009 4:18 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Synx, this may not be your intent, but you're sounding very demanding of the TASer here. If you're unwilling or unable to watch the input file, then about all you can do is politely ask others to help you watch the progress. You don't need an encode; you would like an encode. Being demanding, even if unintentionally so, just encourages the TASer to keep quiet about progress, since all that happens when he does make a progress report is he gets leapt on by a bunch of (apparent) leeches. We've definitely had that problem in the past. So please, for all our sakes, be polite. :)
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/29/2009 4:37 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
I could probably manage to compile a commandline version, but I don't actually know anything about making standard OSX apps with proper menubars. So it'd probably be an X11 version, which means it'd depend on having X installed, which IIRC requires installing the OSX devkit. Which is a free download, mind you, but still not very useful for the non-technical user, which is the person I'm worried about here. Still, I'll take a stab at it at some point. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we didn't have many Mac users who participate on these forums; after all, the main tools for players are only conveniently available on Windows. I don't know how many "lurking viewers" (i.e. people who stop by from time to time to check out new publications) are Mac users, though, and they're honestly the people I'm worried about. A quick check of the server logs should tell us those demographics.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/28/2009 9:22 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
That would require starting from a dirty save, or using cheats, both of which are frowned on.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/28/2009 9:21 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
adelikat wrote:
I got a better plan. How about we offer a file that can be used by anyone. Like perhaps a file with the input presses only that could possibly be played by a program such as an emulator.
Last I checked, you either need Windows or a fair amount of work to use the right emulator versions to play back the input movies. I know I had to compilie FCEU by hand, for example, and even then I never did manage to get it to play sound back without lots of popping.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/28/2009 4:15 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Those are hacks of Metroid on the NES. Highness wanted to know if there was basically a Zero Mission using Super Metroid's engine. I know of two that are being made, but neither is complete yet (working titles are Metroid Oldschool and Metroid Super Mission).
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/28/2009 4:14 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
And if you'd been paying attention to what I was saying, I haven't been complaining about AVI, or MKV. I know enough about encodings to know that I'm having difficulties with the video stream, not with the container. Granted, a lot of people don't look further than the file extension; those are the people complaining about the new MKVs not working. I can play MKVs just fine, but something about the encodings made in the last month or so makes VLC generate visual garbage.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/28/2009 6:17 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
CCFreak2k: the older version of VLC's been entirely adequate up until the last month or so. And in fact it continues to more or less work for the latest publications; it just gets very ugly from time to time. Depending on the movie, this may make a significant portion unwatchable.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/28/2009 3:57 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
But then if misery didn't exist, why would you ever be in a normal mood if you could be happy?
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/28/2009 3:56 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Man, this TAS is going to be an orgy of shinesparking when it's done, isn't it? Impressive as the Phantoon kill was, I think my favorite bit was the jump to the Gravity Suit. Physics doesn't work that way!
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/28/2009 2:10 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
You have a different meaning of free will than I do. Your argument, as applied to free speech, would be "I can say whatever I want to say, and not have to worry about the repercussions of that speech." But the actual meaning of free speech in the USA is that you can say almost anything you want to say, but you still have to suffer the consequences of that speech. "Controlled" speech is things like shouting "Fire!" in a crowded movie theater, or defamation -- those things are illegal, and the government will punish you for them. You can shout insults at someone until you're blue in the face, though -- just don't be surprised when they take it into their own hands to punish you for it. Similarly, "free will", to me, means having the ability to make decisions, and then to suffer the consequences of those decisions, good or bad. If we accept as a premise that most religions attempt to encourage certain kinds of behavior, then of course they're going to set up reward/punishment systems for those behaviors, whether it be the cycle of death and reincarnation in Hinduism and other Indian religions, heaven and hell in the various religions of the Book, lawsuits in Scientology, et cetera. That doesn't mean you lack free will.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/27/2009 4:43 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
As noted in the "recent encodings and VLC" thread, there isn't always a player available that can handle recent encodings. Is it reasonable to expect all of our Mac users to upgrade their operating systems just so they can use a newer version of VLC?
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/27/2009 4:41 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
GuidMorrow wrote:
I did see a few garbage frames even with the new version of VLC player in Windows. This MKV container format just isn't working right! You just can't cut corners and expect things to work as they should.
You're making a nasty assumption here, that our encoders are cutting corners. From all I've seen, they aren't; they're trying very hard to get the best quality/size ratio they possibly can. Now, there's a question of if they're too much on the bleeding edge of movie player technology, but that's entirely different from the amount of effort they're making. You're also laying blame on the container format that rightfully belongs on the video stream inside the container. Assuming you could get the same video/sound streams into an AVI container, it'd also break. (At least, from my knowledge of how these things work, which is admittedly limited)
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/27/2009 5:39 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
You could claim a "makes time/entertainment tradeoffs" rule for LVL4-ing the bosses, but it really depends on if the bossfights are more entertaining with than without it. At least it'd be a straightforward rule so people wouldn't be able to accuse you of being inconsistent (which is a problem with many time/entertainment tradeoffs).
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/26/2009 5:56 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Thanks for the encode, Dammit! Run looked quite nice. Treasure's very inventive when it comes to boss designs. It's a shame the bosses couldn't show themselves off a bit more before dying, but that's TASing for you. Well done!
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/26/2009 1:45 AM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
In the Ocarina of Time thread? Yes. You're new here, and you don't know what the culture is. So please listen to people before mouthing off at them. This isn't a casual discussion forum; it's a forum with a purpose, and discussion that isn't to that purpose is frowned on. If you ignore the rules, then you'll just get people annoyed at you, which will, at best, result in chilly reception of your suggestions, and at worst get you into formal trouble with the moderators.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/25/2009 9:28 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Okay, I gave the precompiled binaries a shot, and they immediately failed with this error:
dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/X11/lib/libfontconfig.1.dylib
  Referenced from: /Users/chriswei/apps/MPlayer OSX.app/Contents/Resources/External_Binaries/mplayer.app/Contents/MacOS/mplayer
  Reason: image not found
2009-08-25 14:20:26.039 MPlayer OSX[17879] Abnormal playback error. mplayer returned error code: 5
I fixed that by symlinking /usr/X11R6 to /usr/X11, but then it complained about the version of libfreetype I had (wanted version 10.0.0 but I'm apparently providing version 6.3.0). I'm not about to deal with dynamically-linked library version mismatches. This kind of stuff shouldn't be necessary to watch a video file. I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the cost/benefit analysis for these files is getting problematic. As long as there's an app you can download that plays the file and that just works, I don't have a problem. But it looks like there isn't such a solution for anyone running MacOS X 10.4 or earlier. Much respect to our encoders, but could you please consider keeping to formats that are easier for our viewers to watch? For example, the Madou Monogatari TAS plays back flawlessly in my outdated VLC.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/25/2009 5:51 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Instead of running the script directly via "./name.sh" you can instead do "bash name.sh". But generally I just got used to setting execute permissions on things I want to run. It's practically a reflex now. As for installation, yep, you also need to be root to do that. If you didn't need root to install stuff, then hostile software could blow away important system utilities without you realizing it, which is obviously bad. Besides, how often do you need to install things? I wouldn't really characterize this as "super duper security"; it's just how things are.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/25/2009 6:00 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Presumably, whenever you remove a duplicated frame, you extend the length of time that the previous frame is displayed. In other words, you take a movie that looks like "AAAABBBCDEFFGGGHHH" and turn it into "A---B--CDEF-G--H--".
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/23/2009 12:26 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
I take it that sending Peter off to get killed forces the Kraken head to enter the battle earlier than it otherwise would? Also, man, Kazin's going to get an inflated head at that rate. Very nice. :)
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/22/2009 9:49 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Can you translate that into layman, please? :) I'll give those builds a shot.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/22/2009 8:52 PM
(Edited: 8/23/2009 12:16 AM)
Post subject: Recent encodings and VLC
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
The most recent version of VLC I can use is 0.9.10; more recent versions only work on MacOS 10.5 on up. With 0.9.10, some movies like the latest Rockman 2 look pretty crappy any time there's a major screen transition -- for example, the first five-ten seconds of a level tend to look like garbage, and the Skull Fortress shots are basically stills (no animated tracks of Megaman's path through the level show up). I know if I could use a more recent version of VLC it'd look better, but that would require installing a new OS on my computer, and from my use of 10.5 I haven't seen any compelling reason to upgrade other than that I'd be able to use a newer version of VLC. I assume that the new MKVs that are being generated here have a better quality-size ratio than the old versions that older versions of VLC are able to digest. Does anyone know exactly how good these savings are? Or is there some other benefit that I'm missing that outweighs the value of supporting people with outdated players? Incidentally, I looked at the MPlayer site, and their recommended installation method is to download the source from SVN and compile it yourself. Their OSX binary is listed as "outdated". These two facts just don't give me any confidence that I'd enjoy using the program. Edit: fixed a typo.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/22/2009 12:55 AM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Dooty wrote:
Samsara wrote:
As far as I know, this is the TAS record.
Wow, 00:47:30!
Of course, by TASVideos timing standards it'd be about a minute and a half long (counting time since power-on and time spent in menus). Still markedly faster than this run.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
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