Posts for Kuwaga

1 2
14 15 16
49 50
Posted: 5/16/2011 9:54 PM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
As I'm pretty much the only one against nuclear power in this thread and I've seen the car argument repeatedly iterated, yea, I'm against cars too. There should only be public transportation and bikes. I feel like using cars as our primary means of transportation is just a big waste of resources and pretty irresponsible of our generation. But in the real world, as it is, it's pretty hard to live without using a car for "most people". Current circumstances almost force us to act irresponsibly.
Posted: 5/14/2011 3:05 PM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
If the birth rate stays the same, then WWIII is inevitable anyway. Reducing that birth rate would be one of the first goals a one world government should have. We can go without nuclear power if that's what the people of this world vote for. I realize that more than likely none of this is going to happen in the near future. That's why I proposed to switch to HTGR-based reactors at least. The reason why they're hardly used atm is because they take a very long time to build, and historically the finished reactors had been outdated by the time they were finished. We essentially went for the short-term most profitable version instead.
Posted: 5/14/2011 1:52 PM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
My very unrealistic suggestion is at least shut down older plants and only build [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_high_temperature_reactor]HTGR-based reactors[/URL] from now on. In my opinion anything besides HTGR plants shouldn't have been built in the first place because of their far lower safety risks. Nuclear power plants pose a very serious risk in the long term. The chance of several times worse disasters than Tschernobyl or Fukushima happening is very low, but if mankind decides to live with that danger over a prolonged period of time, then that's just irresponsible to me. Unfortunately, countries who are willing to take the risk will have lots of benefits, so it's very unrealistic that we can go without any nuclear power at all (as long as we don't have a one world government). You can't just measure the danger by dividing kWh and caused deaths before a low-chance "disaster beyond all expectations" has happened (and it eventually will if we go on like this forever). (It's not unlike betting on all but three numbers in roulette, then measuring the effectiveness of that strategy after 5 spins)
Posted: 5/11/2011 12:44 PM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
You could subtract the raw BGM track from the BGM+SFX track (subtracting is the same as 180° phase inversing one track and adding that to the other) to get a track of slightly distorted sound effects, then edit out the pauses, then add the BGM track to that.
Posted: 5/9/2011 5:56 AM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
I'd say that in general games with hard to manipulate RNGs and many ultra-rare events that can speed up the run are a million times harder to TAS than to speedrun them. An RTS runner wouln't be expected to have perfect luck, but a TASer would. You'd have to do careful planning, maybe run brute-forcing scripts over weeks and months, it'd be hell.
Posted: 5/8/2011 3:59 PM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
WIP, not too happy with it, in need of feedback, intro seems fine, rest is soso, not sure where to go with it (7kb midi file) http://www.sendspace.com/file/b6s4mq
Posted: 5/7/2011 4:10 AM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
You start out with only 2 hearts in the US version, which gives less room for taking damage to save time.
Posted: 5/6/2011 11:39 PM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
http://www.zophar.net/snes/geiger-s-snes9x-debugger.html
Posted: 5/6/2011 10:52 PM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
You'd ideally just need to find the enemy active flag somewhere in that 0x10C wide range. Just look at the whole surrounding memory range and try modifying some values to see what they do. Your goal is to find out the lower bound of where one enemy's data starts and another enemy's data ends. Then, if you have to find pointers, you need to search for that address in memory or convert it to an offset and try searching for that (searching for an offset is only possible once you know the absolutely lowest address an enemy's data could start at in memory). But you might not even have to find that pointer. If you succeed at finding an enemy active flag, then you can just read the entire range of where you know enemies could be stored and only draw the values for the active ones. This is only possible if you find consistent addresses, so if you find a value at 0x80000110 and 0x80000004, then you know it's never going to be at 0x80000100 (even after reboot), but always in fixed intervals starting from a certain address. If you find that not to be the case, then you'd just have to find a pointer/offset to the lower bound of that range somehow. And like I said, you may also have tough luck at finding such a flag in that 0x10C wide range if it's case b or c. To draw them, you just find the X and Y coordinates in that 0x10C wide range and then try finding a formula that let's you draw the values you want to draw below the actual enemies. Here's an example for such a function: gui.text((enemy.x-camera_x)/1-127-message.len(message)*2,(enemy.y-camera_y)/1-133,message,"#FFF00FF","black");
Posted: 5/6/2011 11:38 AM
(Edited: 5/6/2011 12:45 PM)
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
Every enemy always needs to have a certain memory space reserved for it, where its x/y coordinates and also much more than that will usually be stored. Usually, each enemy will take up a fixed space per game (maybe about a 0x0100 range in address space). For older systems, there'll usually be a maximum enemy count and the game would have space reserved for the space one enemy needs multiplied by that count. Let's say all enemy info is stored from 0xC000 to 0xD000, then there'd be space for 16 enemies in the memory max (because 0x0100 * 16 = 0x1000). Now, there's multiple ways in which the game could determine if there currently are active enemies on screen: a) The information if an enemy is active is stored inside that 0x0100 wide range in the form of a certain value (a flag) that'll change depending on that. b) The information if it's active is not stored inside that 0x0100 wide range, but you can find a pointer/offset to where it's actually stored somewhere inside that range. (This is unlikely in your case. A system like that would typically be used to permanently mark an enemy as dead, without it ever respawning again) c) The information if it's active is stored somewhere totally else in the memory, in the form of several pointers/offsets to the 0xC000 - 0xD000 range. Invalid values could then mean that the enemy is not active. If it's a pointer to enemy number 3, it'd read 0xC200 (or 0x00C2) in our example, if offsets are used, you'd have to search for 0x0200 or 0x0002, depending on how they are implemented. You'd probably find a combination of these methods, or even something totally different. So, to find out how your game handles it, I recommend locating an easily findable variable, like x position of at least 3 enemies at first (should be three different addresses). The difference between the most distant ones should give you a minimal address range of the space that's reserved for enemies in the memory, the third one should give you a hint at the space each enemy takes up. From that point on, I recommend trying to understand what each of the variables in that space do. More than likely, you're eventually going to come across a variable that'll determine whether the enemy is active or to a pointer/offset to another memory location. If you don't, then it's probably case c. Let's say, you find the x-position of one enemy at 0xC644 and another one at 0xC244, then 0xC600 and 0xC200 or 0x0600 and 0x0200 are the values you should be looking for, as the pointer won't directly point to the x-position, but to the beginning of the memory range that's reserved for each respective enemy. If the addresses you find the x position at are totally random, then the game uses a form of dynamic memory allocation. In that case you'd have to go search for a pointer as in case c exclusively. This case can be tricky though because you have no way to find out at which distance from the pointer you're looking for the x-position is stored other than looking at raw memory data. My guess is that you'll find a combination of a and c. I hope this made any sense at all.
Posted: 5/6/2011 7:19 AM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
That's true, I often find myself checking back repeatedly on some threads on the Workbench just to see if an encode has already/finally been added. Would it be feasible to slightly modify the thread names to indicate an encode has been added? I'm thinking of something simple like this: 
#3111: Comicalflop's N64 Yoshi's Story "any%" in 11:00.23 (not yet encoded)
#3111: Comicalflop's N64 Yoshi's Story "any%" in 11:00.23 (encoding)
#3111: Comicalflop's N64 Yoshi's Story "any%" in 11:00.23
One downside could be that this'd maybe make the Workbench look like a total mess. Adding a status column would probably be a better idea, but I don't know how easy it'd be to implement that. Anyway, it would be nice having a way to check on the status without having to open the respective threads.
Posted: 5/5/2011 10:15 PM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
Posting another random cover of some random guy because I suck too much to do these covers myself. ^^ Link to video
Posted: 5/5/2011 7:25 PM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
There has been some discussion as to when exactly luck manipulation should be considered heavy, but it's certainly not heavy if you could easily get the same amount of luck during a nomal speedrun.
Posted: 5/5/2011 2:14 PM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
Execution seems fine, have owned the game as a child and still found it barely watchable, but I can imagine this being somewhat entertaining to people who aren't familiar with the game. Voting meh.
Stage 2 heavy luck manipulation so that it comes from the 1st pipe for 2 times.Reducing lags. Using glitch and manage the damage.
I don't think that counts as heavy luck manipulation at all. Should be a 1 in 9 chance.
Posted: 5/5/2011 7:35 AM
(Edited: 5/5/2011 8:39 AM)
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
marzojr wrote:
Warp wrote:
The acceleration felt by the astronaut (which can be unambiguously measured by the astronaut using an accelerometer) can be constant forever, even under SR/GR, as far as I understand.
Absolutely correct.
This is the point I have trouble understanding. Constant acceleration forever means that its speed will eventually exceed the speed of light, doesn't it? Would a space traveller then be able to exceed the speed of light from his own reference frame? Edit: Is it that time freezes for him (of course without him noticing) the instant he reaches c (or rather it almost freezes as he approaches c)? (So he'd essentially measure that last moment of constant acceleration forever, or until he arrives) Oh, I see, I'm an idiot then... It was essentially a misconception of mine about how acceleration is measured then that has lead me to misinterpret this discussion.
Posted: 5/5/2011 2:29 AM
(Edited: 4/13/2012 8:55 PM)
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
The way I'm reading this it seems to me that it's possible for a body to exceed the speed of light from an outside reference frame (when neglecting space contraction?). The space surrounding it would contract so that it wouldn't exceed the speed of light from its own point of reference? Last time I checked, such things were just pure speculation. My intuition says that once it becomes necessary to contract space a huge deal a constant force shouldn't be enough for the body's accelaration to remain constant. Previously I had always thought that the accelerating body would have to start expanding at some point. Is there any difference at all except the point of reference? Wouldn't this introduce many side-effects, essentially making it impossible? Is it a misconception that contracting the surrounding space should require extraordinary forces, is this just a pure thought experiment or am I terribly misinterpreting all of this? Can somebody tell me some keywords that I should search for or direct me to a book (I suck at math and physics and hate sensationalism) I could buy to get a better understanding of all this? Sorry for the wall of text.
Posted: 4/30/2011 12:14 AM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
The problem would rather be how to display those long lists of supported emulator versions. It'd maybe be more practical to just link to a location where the version it has been recorded with can be downloaded and leave it at that.
Posted: 4/28/2011 7:00 PM
Post subject: Re: The continuing drama of the Playstation Network intrusion
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
DarkKobold wrote:
their embarassingly bad and arrogant E3 Conference in 2006, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH2w2l1JTs4)
But that's exactly what I love them for! ;) Giant enemy crab! Rrrrridge Rrracer! :)
Posted: 4/28/2011 6:45 PM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
Warepire wrote:
Since the VC and GC version does not behave like this it's a newly introduced glitch in the emulation wrapper (VC version) or in the ported code (GC version).
Not necessarily. If the N64 crashes because some line of code that leads to undefined behavior is accessed, then an emulator wouldn't really have to emulate it exactly as the real console. It's not unlikely that Mupen crashes for slightly different reasons than the real N64.
Posted: 4/17/2011 6:22 PM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
I see. Thanks for elaborating.
adelikat wrote:
Also, given the divided audience response here, this run will not automatically inherit the star of its predecessor.
(I hadn't realized this meant that the old run keeps its star.)
Posted: 4/17/2011 6:11 PM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
Link to video
Posted: 4/17/2011 1:12 AM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
Kuwaga wrote:
I think it'd be wise to just reject this submission now.
Synx wrote:
racist americans reject this japanese masterpiece.
*sigh* That's what you get for not following my advice... ;)
Kuwaga wrote:
I guess what's happening here is that the more experienced TASers got bored with the same old camera angles, so changing them to something new made it more novel/entertaining to them. But to a casual audience these camera angles are just as confusing as the old OoT constant backwalking runs.
Now I'm curious. Do you disagree with me on that part, do you feel that the effort the authors put into their work is more important than the actual result (as long as it's technically impressive?) or do you think we just shouldn't care that much for casual viewers who don't know the layout of this game's levels by heart?
adelikat wrote:
However, despite being accepted, I do hope the authors take into account the audience reaction to this movie, and attempt to do a movie with more "graceful" camera work (and hopefully scrape a few more frames of course ^_^).
Wouldn't rejecting this movie have increased their motivation to do that? Do you think an improvement to this run will be achieved rather soon anyway? I'm sorry for asking that many questions and don't expect all of them to be answered.
Posted: 4/16/2011 7:02 PM
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
@Truncated: If you import cheap labor, those labor forces will either become citizens or they won't. In both cases, it reduces the buying power of your country's population, either by lowering the average wage or by preventing one of your own countrymen from getting that job (for a higher wage). Reducing their buying power by too much means they'll buy less products, and thus it can sometimes be bad for your country's economy. The main point though was that it makes you co-dependant on other countries.
Posted: 4/16/2011 12:03 PM
(Edited: 4/16/2011 7:04 PM)
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
Just felt like mentioning that something similar happened in Austria some years ago, especially in Carinthia, where Haider's parties (he later founded his own one), which had always been against immigration, against joining the EU and against Slavic minorities in the country, managed to get pretty popular. I'm personally still kind of torn on the issue of nationalist views in the context of neutral countries. Restricting immigration and [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protectionism]other imports[/URL] are generally smart things to do if you can't compete economically with other countries (f.e. if their people do the same jobs for less money or if cheap imports could harm national enterprises) and you don't want to get too co-dependant on them. Strong co-dependancy kind of stands in conflict with the notion of neutrality, so I see the point of such movements. Unfortunately, at least in Austria, I guess the parties in question really overdid it and were way too radical, probably to appeal to racist voters at the same time.
Posted: 4/14/2011 10:17 PM
(Edited: 4/17/2011 1:12 AM)
Quote
Kuwaga
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
I think it'd be wise to just reject this submission now. I guess what's happening here is that the more experienced TASers got bored with the same old camera angles, so changing them to something new made it more novel/entertaining to them. But to a casual audience these camera angles are just as confusing as the old OoT constant backwalking runs. As it seems obvious to me that one of this site's goals is to keep TASes appealing to an audience as broad as possible, I guess this would just have to be rejected based on that, and somewhere mentioned in the current publication. Keep in mind that the current version of this run is starred and thus recommended to first time viewers. Can this version of the run really be recommended to first time viewers? I unfortunately don't think so. Especially the angles in BitS would make this very hard to follow for them. I had originally voted yes, but after giving it some thought I have now changed my opinion.
1 2
14 15 16
49 50