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Nice! It runs and syncs perfectly for me without changing any Hourglass or IWBTG options.
There are some parts I'm unsure of the optimization of, like the horizontal moving platform before the boss, the boss fight itself (are you as close as possible to his head when shooting?), and the door opening after the boss (are you as close as possible to the door before it opens?). Other than those points, it looks optimal.
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The message changes and you don't get to see the end sequence. Note that that's an end-of-level message, not an end-of-game message. It causes you to lose the level.
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Oh, well WA's rerecording uses a new replay (input file) for each redub (rerecord). That's definitely not a problem, assuming each new file has the number of redubs in its filename.
I'm personally used to working like this, for example:
Although, a format which integrates what all those files do together into one file would be ideal, as long as you could cut the fat when you wanted to publish it.
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nitsuja wrote:
If you mean you want to switch from playback to recording at any time, (you probably didn't mean that but) the normal way of doing it (switch to read+write mode and then save and load a savestate) should work.
Woah! That's the normal way of doing it in emulators? In Worms Armageddon's TAS build (what I've used the most for TASing), there's a single "take control" bind, which works even while paused. It switches from "playback" (or "rerecording") mode to "recording" mode. It should really just be that easy.
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henke37 wrote:
Also, recommending rejection due to unexplained rom choice deviation. If anything using the mix package should be slower due to the additional menu screen.
The current published SMAS:SMB2j run uses SMAS+SMW. I don't know why either.
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It's almost surely due to the heap, isn't it? Many Windows games "randomize" (not intentionally, of course) their addresses upon construction. New pointers are set upon heap construction/mapping. All one needs to know are the values of those pointers. CyberShadow would probably be able to help explain further. >.>
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Arne_the_great wrote:
Lex wrote:
Woah. If I'm reading what you just said right, it sounds like if you repeat that process perfectly over some distance, you could accelerate ever-so-slightly.
I've been thinking if it would be possible but it would be very small increase every time.
But what I mean is that if you jump while accelerating (not while oscillating at full speed), you'll get some extra speed, I doubt you can continue to get more speed increases.
I'll try some more later when I have time.
Oh, and it should still cap out at max speed anyway. I see.
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Woah. If I'm reading what you just said right, it sounds like if you repeat that process perfectly over some distance, you could accelerate ever-so-slightly.
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nitsuja wrote:
Lex wrote:
I just had a weird state-load problem.
I can only conclude that it didn't desync, since you ended up in the correct final position. I don't know at this point how complete the sequence of events you describe is, but trying to reproduce it by following those steps again is probably the best way to find out. I can't get it to happen (besides the sound thing), are you able to get it to happen again? And can I see the movie file (if you still have it)?
I watched it again. It seems I made a mistake. It wasn't the same input both times. Sorry about the false report!
I did find another bug while trying to reproduce it before I knew it was false though. The video doesn't update if you load a state after it's already reset to the opening screen after death. I was able to reproduce this part consistently. After that, if you try playing and you die (only known by death sound; didn't ram-search), the game sometimes crashes.
Geoffrey The Fly isn't a TASworthy game, but I'm hoping fixing Geoffrey The Fly bugs will improve Hourglass compatibility overall.
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In Hourglass, open RAM Search (Tools -> RAM Search). Search. Under "Compare To", click "Previous Value". In the game, go right. Search for increased value. Go left. Search for decreased value. Stand still. Search for equal value. Go right. Search for increased value. Go left. Search for decreased value. At this point, you should have only one or a few results, which will change as you move left and right. These are values affected by your X position.
If you plan on doing lots of Windows TASing and want to know values often, it would be a good idea to get CheatEngine and run its tutorial program, which is a program which teaches you how to find (and edit, but just ignore that) values in Windows applications, including learning about heap addressing.
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In my initial r15 test with Geoffrey The Fly, I experienced a white screen upon trying to record and the "Stop Running" button wouldn't close the program, but now I can't reproduce either problem. Now Geoffrey The Fly works perfectly without needing "Disable DirectSound Creation", which it used to need to run at all in Hourglass, and "Stop Running" closes the program completely. :)
I just had a weird state-load problem. Note that I'm playing in real time for testing. I saved state, died in the water, and loaded state. I then avoided dying where I had died before, but when the time of death passed, the music stopped and the death sound played, but I continued playing in silence. I went a bit farther and then clicked "Stop Running". Now, this is the strangest part. When I watched the recording, it went through the beginning until the part I died, and in it, I actually died. Then, the game restarted and played the same way until the state-saved point, at which point, it avoided death (with the music continuing and no death sound) and went to my final location, where the input playback stopped and the auto-scrolling screen pushed me to my death. How could the state-load produce a second recording which it plays back after the first?
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In the future, when you have a specific programming-related problem, you'll probably get the best results posting on one of the StackExchange Q&A sites (probably Server Fault for this question). People with the knowledge Dada displayed use those sites quite a bit.
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Some games and applications can make use of command line arguments to fix things and skip intros (Worms Armageddon's "-nointro" is a good example). This would be a good thing to implement. Thoughts?
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Here's a selected quote from #tasvideos when mugg was afk.
#tasvideos wrote:
18:58:20 <LexSfX> mugg: i 100%ed Kirby Super Star Ultra yesterday (after having avoided it because i originally hated the controls because i was used to the SNES game; i love it now though), and i just saw your KSSU WIP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkrQAOMrJ9E
18:58:30 <LexSfX> have you done any more on that?
18:58:52 <LexSfX> it's amazing so far, as well as all your other KSSU TASes!
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Regular .rec files can be used to reproduce the events. They run in a deterministic manner.
The PC Worms Armageddon developers research in-game logic glitches using its replay files.
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It's just the enemies-on-the-screen lag doing that. Notice that the lag remains after throwing the block, and how when he first picks it up, his speed is the same as it was before picking it up.
Is this lag programmed into the game? If so, that's so weird.
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Derakon wrote:
As for Smash Bros., we've had several varieties of speed-oriented runs submitted here, which were all rejected for not being entertaining enough.
Yes, and those submissions are significantly slower (and duller) than ReneBalow's runs. I realize this may not be pertinent, but you provoked my response and I must reply.
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The Portal console allows frame advance. We've known for 3 years! To enter frame advance mode, use "singlestep 1." To advance to the next frame, use "next 1." The game can also be slowed down with host_timescale if desired.
How are you sure the video in your comment isn't a TAS anyway? At least, you can search "Portal TAS" on YouTube and find plenty of TAS tests; some better than others.
Although, a format which integrates what all those files do together into one file would be ideal, as long as you could cut the fat when you wanted to publish it.