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Hey, Winsley! We're glad to see you back!
You could hide the pointer at an edge of the screen during the platforming section, although it doesn't disturb.
I've never played this game. For me, it doesn't look entertaining. Voting Meh
P.S: you may find this thread interesting in case some Windows games work improperly or slow on 1999 preset.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
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Noxxa wrote:
Maybe Spain can do it, or Argentina on a very good day, but it looks extremely difficult for anyone else.
Well, in 2022 Finals, that was one of those days for Argentina. I remember that penalty shootout even today, with the score of 3:3 in the main game. Argetina's goalkeeper was super-confident.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
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Deadcode wrote:
What is even the point of using auto/max limit cycles if you can just used fixed cycles with "dos idle api" detecting idle time properly? And on the other hand, how could auto/max possibly work in situations where "dos idle api" doesn't work?
To make some games work stable. With all other configs being equal, some game just crash at some point if fixed cycles are used, but they don't do so with max/auto cycles. I'm not a retro hardware expert, but the internet says it has something to do with CPU and SoundBlaster interaction. Fixed cycles do something wrong with hardware sound handling, while software processing stays fine.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
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Deadcode wrote:
Dimon12321 wrote:
I can't explain this phenomenon, but it doesn't desync on a different machine. I have verified several different games already. My only assumption is that the instant cycles value is waterboxed, like the rest of the core's state.
But for that to work, it would have to record the instantaneous cycles values in the input roll. Have you looked at the resulting "Input Log.txt" files to see if this is the case?
If it's not there, where else could it be? Does it record the host's CPU speed somewhere in the movie settings and provide this data somehow to the DOSBox-X core so that it uses that number to calculate its instantaneous cycles values deterministically?
Or maybe "auto"/'"max" don't actually adapt to the host CPU at all, contrarily to how they're documented to work? Or do so in such a way that any extra host CPU speed beyond a certain maximum is just ignored?
BTW, I'm not sure I fully understand what "waterboxed" means. It's hard to find an actual definition of it.
"Input Log.txt" stores just input. Here is the github issue where I provided its whereabouts, considering my poor C++ knowledge.
That's a part of the mystery because I didn't find any documentation on how "auto"/"max" work and none of DOSBox-X devs answered this question. Somewhere, when I was doing this whole investigation, I stepped upon a comment assuming "max/auto %d\% limit %d" picks the range of values by somehow determining how fast the host CPU is. I can say for sure that the "limit" in this declaration just the upper limit of the cycles it can't exceed.
Why "max"/"auto" performance stops growing after a certain point? I don't know. It's my assumption that the host CPU stops satisfying some internal calculation formulas within DOSBox-X, and the only option to circumvent it is to use "fixed".
"waterboxed" means "determinsticated, or kept under control so your TAS doesn't desync".
Deadcode wrote:
Is there any way to use resolutions other than 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×1024, and 1600×1200 in Windows 98 SE under DOSBox-X?
Like 1280×720, 1920×1080, or, dare I dream, maybe even 1366×768?
The driver is the problem. Nobody was thinking about widescreen resolutions back then.
Try VBEMP driver. I left a link on it on the first page. It adds a variety of resolutions, but it messes the hardware up, resulting in a major performance penalty. Some games just crash when it's installed.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
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In this discussion, as well as in the Discord chats, I'm perplexed not by the situation itself or its outcome, but by the lack of formalized reasoning. I have read a lot of hate comments, learned many ugly terms, processed a lot of excuses explained by sociology, faced a lot of users who have plenty of time chating, but no time to elaborate their position or describing it in philosophical abstract terms, but seen no formalized reasoning.
All this looks like a justification of self-will, because, by looking through the raw facts, I personally may conclude that the player has been banned for nothing related to TASVideos. From this perspective, KusogeMan's position is totally understandable.
Thread #27396: itspersonnal
In this threads, there are proofs that the person has been doing something amoral* somewhere else, but not within TASVideos.
Memory wrote:
The TASVideos community is made up of all sorts of people, and the kind of bigotry displayed in these posts in unacceptable in our community, offsite or not.
To have this formalized, and I don't care if it will be done retrospectively, please scratch the answers to the following questions on some "rock" and place it somewhere so everyone sees it. For example, when a user registers on TASVideos.org.
1. What are the boundaries of this community? Because it doesn't look like it's limited to this site and the pair of Discord servers (TASBot Labs and TASVideos).
2. Which social behaviour is considered unacceptable in scope of these boundaries? In explicit terms, not through describing how sensitive the TASVideos community is.
Collect and provide some compliance and refer to its violation. Is it better to do like that, instead of doing vigilantism and explaining it to everyone, like these are now the new rules of the game?
* - feel free to pick a better adjective
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
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Deadcode wrote:
Dimon12321 wrote:
2) Cycles mode
Suggested values:
cycles=max 100% limit 450000
cycles=auto 100000 limit 450000
fixed 450000
Dimon12321 wrote:
It's not clear how DOSBox-X picks the range of cycles for max/auto, but it's certainly depends on your host CPU. DOSBox-X refuses to keep cycles around the limit value if your host CPU isn't "capable" of emulating it. This may result in a demanding game performing not good enough. In such situation, use fixed format.
Why does the guide include anything but "fixed" in its suggestions for what to use? Since "max" and "auto" are documented to depend on the host CPU, won't they result in movies that desync when played on a different machine? Has anyone tested to see if this is the case?
I can't explain this phenomenon, but it doesn't desync on a different machine. I have verified several different games already. My only assumption is that the instant cycles value is waterboxed, like the rest of the core's state.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
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CoolKirby wrote:
Dimon12321 wrote:
Everybody else - for watching and reading this. I doubt people read such notes.
I always read the notes for submissions I watch. Recently, a submitterwas criticizedfor not including any/enough notes. So, readers are out there. Including notes also helps the judging process by answering key questions, including how to sync – especially important for PC.
Hey, Kirby! Thank you for paying attention to this detail.
I was thinking about removing this statement, but I decided to keep it. The point is, all my Doom TASes were originally adapted to be submitted to the Doom speed demos archive (doomedsda, and then dsdarchive), where the author's notes are included in a separate text file in an archive. I hadn't received a single comment on my notes by that point, so it was a mystery for me whether anyone happened to download my archives and read my notes. Combined with COVID sadness times, I decided to put this statement in the end to see if it affects anything. As turned out, it was a wrong platform to expect anything like that.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
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Challenger wrote:
Congrats for finishing the huge challenge after a long time! Yes vote for me :)
Although this submitted game isn't a Puyo Puyo game, can your tool being able to handle Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine game? Although that TAS is old, it can be potentially improvable with even better RNG manipulation.
Thank you very much, Challenger!
Unfortunately, my tool is Columns-specific and very restricted.
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine will require a different tool, but the calculation algorithm may stay the same.
1. The game features different entities.
2. Instead of swapping, it provides rotation mechanic.
3. The opponent's factor is present, because it may place its beans in a way, so the made combo chain won't produce enough black beans to win. You can't push the floor up, and I have doubts pausing-unpausing would do anything to the opponent.
4. There is not much space to improve. Theoretically, each round can be finished with 1-2 less bean placements, which is not a wide range to test (roughly, 65 frames multiplied by 1-2 times).
I think, JaffarPlus may fit it better, unless electricity bills is a problem.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
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Feels like the graphics designer behind Google doodles is some crazy foreseer!
That doodle of a goalkeeper cutting the shot came earlier on the day before Spain vs Cape Verde match where CV's goalkeeper was showing the marvels of clean-sheeting. Even the keeper's number (1) matches!
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
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The effort is clearly seen. I had to spend some time understanding the comments, especially during Pokemon attacks.
I fast-forwarded quite a lot, but the run feels quite long. Voting Meh
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
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Deadcode wrote:
Dimon12321 wrote:
By "benefits", I don't know what to assume, because you decreased the cycles for WA and got a fairly stable framerate. Maybe having them increased benefits the game itself, but not the TASer.
No, I increased the cycles; eien86's movie (which skipped about 45% of WA's game engine frames) used 600000, and I increased them to 4000000, which is 6.667 times bigger... a very big increase. I had also tried 3000000 and it wasn't enough to get rid of all frame skips.
Oh, thank you for your clarification! I missed one zero in the cycles you provided in your initial PoC post. 4 million cycles is indeed higher than 600 thousand cycles eien86 used
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
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Deadcode wrote:
Dimon12321 wrote:
Higher cycles might not always be better! Some Windows games, like Worms Armageddon, follow the old DOS principle of timing loops, which makes the performance worse on fast CPUs.
By "timing loops", I assume you mean measuring the speed of the CPU and using that as calibration for how many iterations of a busy-loop to do, as a way of implementing delays.
Some games do this, but Worms Armageddon is definitely not one of them. It uses the GetTickCount and QueryPerformanceCounter clocks for timing. Increasing DOSBox-X cycles benefits WA.
I don't know what happens at the low level. The internet, including AI, provide some vague descriptions of this process, and I don't know which one to use and summarise. I just want players to be aware of this kind of outcome, that a faster CPU doesn't always mean higher framerate. If you would like to help, please, provide your rephrase of that warning!
By "benefits", I don't know what to assume, because you decreased the cycles for WA and got a fairly stable framerate. Maybe having them increased benefits the game itself, but not the TASer.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
Bubble Smile is also on it, but the game hangs when I try to swap smiles on FreeJ2ME. I tried restricting the FPS to 10, but it still runs too fast. I think it has something to do with it. MicroEmulator cannot launch the game (AudioClip not found).
Midnight Pool 2 doesn't bring me much nostalgia vibes. Maybe, when I'm done with my wishlist, I'll pick it up.
Speaking of J2ME wishlist, here is mine.
Age of Empires series (hard, long)
❌ Airship Racing: Around the Globe (easy, medium) - hangs on the first loading work.
Alien Shooter (medium, long)
❌ Alien Shooter 3D (medium, long) - crashes Windows 98.
Asphalt series (easy, long)
Assassin's Creed series (easy, medium)
Archangel (medium, medium)
❓ Bobby Carrot 1 (easy, medium) - the field jumps up and down as you walk around, other graphical glitches.
Brothers in Arms - Earned in Blood (easy, medium)
❌ Bubble Smile (medium, medium) - hangs on smiles swapping.
Castlevania 4 Demon / Avenger (medium, long)
Doodle Jump (easy, super-long)
Doom RPG (hard, long)
Doom 2 RPG (hard, long)
EDGE (easy, medium)
✅ Forgotten Warrior (easy, short)
Freekick Festival (very easy, medium)
Gangstar City (?, long)
Gish Reloaded (easy, medium)
🐌 Gravity Defied: Trial Racing (hard, medium) - runs slower than the Android port used for speedrunning. I have doubts my WIP is optimized.
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ThunderAxe31 wrote:
Why can't we use libretro to launch FreeJ2ME-Plus directly inside BizHawk without having to emulate a Windows machine?
FreeJ2ME-Plus runs in a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and its Libretro core doesn't have it embedded. The host has to provide a runtime environment for it to run on. Also, savestate logic has to be adapted to store the entire JVM footprint inside. Maybe something more, I don't know.
TwoSpacesSG wrote:
Also, it looks like the initial speed before saving the settings is not uncapped, it's capped, it's just faster than any of the actual speed values available since you first open the game's settings menu. Mysterious.
Such behaviour is present in some other games, like Sonic 1 Part 1, and it's not related to W98. I have it on my MacBook too.
And by "uncapped", I mean it runs at an abnormal speed. I've never seen a single app running at the maximum possible emulator framerate (250).
TwoSpacesSG wrote:
I am also not sure if the run preparation is needed in 3 passes. To me it seems like the best would be this in 2 passes:
Step 0. Prepare w98.hdd (the default Windows 98 installation for everything)
Step 1. Install Windows Installer, JRE, set resolution, press numlock (that last part is obviously very important)
Step 2. Copy over FreeJ2ME-Plus latest stable .JAR, game .JAR, game .JAD (only if needed), launch .BAT into some directory and start up the .BAT and play. The former doesn't take too long so I don't think there is a need to do it in a separate movie.
That's a good idea too, and I'm among those who doesn't insist on milking everything possible out of everything that precede the actual game launch. However, I found it not quite appropriate to show file manipulations, as if launching a .bat file is not mystic enough. It's not something that looks like an installer.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
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Boss 1-1 dies of 3 hits (either rocks or punches). Seems actual for boss 1-2 as well. You found their HP address, but it doesn't follow the usual logic of ">=0 = alive, <0 = dead". It just changes on dealing damage. They also share the same X and Y position addresses, as well as the hitbox addresses. Hitbox acts as an "indicator", because it basically says whether you can hit the boss or not. In RAM watch, they have "boss 1" prefix, meaning 1-1 and 1-2.
Can't say much about boss 3-1. Nothing indicates his HP, but it looks trivial to fight. Just attack so he keeps blinking.
Found the health of boss 3-2. 15 hp.
User movie #639162722751220908
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
That doodle of a goalkeeper cutting the shot came earlier on the day before Spain vs Cape Verde match where CV's goalkeeper was showing the marvels of clean-sheeting. Even the keeper's number (1) matches!