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Hi Nach,
I admit, I don't think there was any conscious decision as to the order of the names in the listing. I understand the reasoning. Alphabetical is my goto to avoid such situations, yet I admit I didn't even realize the names were not in alphabetical order. This was the order of the names on the movie file when we joined efforts, and that was just reused as-is when creating the submission.
I have no recollection of consciously choosing to put my name first when the movie file was first created 2.5 years ago. If it was conscious however, it would have been because I was behind the first attempt. Yet lapogne was alone behind the second attempt, which yet again makes us equal on that front.
In retrospect of the project, I would consider both our contributions to the movie equal. It is hard to judge. I would consider lapogne36 to be as deserving as myself of the award.
Thanks for looking into this and sorry for the trouble.
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Well, this isn't the result I expected or wanted. The only TAS I've contributed to has been in equal parts brought to life thanks to lapogne36. As far as I've heard, we were actually tied very close to the end. If it were up to me, I would most definitely share the award with him.
If that can actually be done, then consider this an official request.
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I have no credit to claim here. lapogne36 is the one who found the address for RNG and how it works. I'll let him know that there is a question on the subject here.
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Reveal occured, you can now watch both the TAS itself and the reveal stream with 3-phase co-commentary.
TAS itself:
Link to video
Reveal stream recording:
Link to video
We'll try to get our submission live in the upcoming days. Keep an eye out for it.
Hi Darth Marios,
In order to get a visually rich RAM watch like the one you are referring to, I created a "simple" C DLL. I then invoked the functions of that DLL from a Lua script.
In a C library, you can theoretically do anything. One of my entry points was creating a thread, which spawned a graphical window with SDL. Another entry point was writing the RAM data in shared variables so that the UI thread could display these values.
When first loading the script, I would launch the UI thread. At each frame update, I would send the library my variables.
Really that's the extent of it... Hope that helped.
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First, there is a most likely faster Midday Garden route that you may have missed (Did you watch JeremyThompson's runs?)
You'd also want to test various route that seem equivalent for yourself - i.e. roughly TAS them once, without completing every level just to compare it with the others. Some routes have proven themselves RTA but TAS has a lot more potential..
Molten Crater: it is indeed possible. It's been used since before the end of my 117% TAS.
Cloud Spires: Hyperglide? I know what you mean but you shouldn't randomly give names to tricks. Also there is a proxy on the winged rhynoc that will be used in a TAS.
Sheila's Alp: RTA strat, but different. But testing both is a good idea (no assumptions allowed)
Enchanted Towers: You can proxy off jackhammers.
Icy Peak: I believe it's been known but was deemed slower.
Frozen Altars: You proxy atop the last area and enter it from Oob near the cat hockey portal.
Lost Fleet: There is a slightly faster strat than completing the level the normal way. I forgot exactly how it's done, but it exists. Might require death.
Charmed Ridge: Test them all. You could be surprised as to which is faster.
For information, I've been planning to do the Any% TAS as I side project myself. I went through the game mentally a few times myself to figure out the route using all I know about the game along with other theorie.
In fact, I AM going to do the Any% TAS eventually.
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AKheon wrote:
Is this "Distracted by Shiny Objects: The Game"?
I don't know Spyro-games that well, but regardless I tried to watch this run. And... I liked it! For the most part.
I never realized how cool the air swimming was in this game. Other tricks like using foes as springboards, cheating in a skating race and zipping around with Agent 9 were funny too.
I think 100% categories or similar are the most relevant for the fans of the game, though. I can't say watching all the 20000 gems and 150 eggs being collected was interesting all of the time.
But overall it's a good run with plenty of cool moments, and I'm voting yes.
As you may knnow, throughout the process of TASing this game, I released a few WIPs (16) to get instant feedback from the community and it has been incredibly encouraging. From that, I knew my TAS was going to be interresting to those who had knowledge and viewing experience with Spyro 3 speedrunning.
I had no idea yet how the rest of the TAS community was going to react to my TAS. Thanks to this encouraging comment, I know people who aren't much into Spyro can enjoy the movie just like others did.
Thanks for this detailed comment, and thank you everybody for the good feedback and the Yes votes.
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So, since I'm finally done with the laborious project that Spyro 3 117% was, I can go on to something else.
I already told many people I was going to give Spyro 1 a shot, starting with any%. Now it's time to announce it here.
The planning is going to be the longest part of this TAS. I am going to TAS every potential route, detout and what not for each level and, in the end, find the fastest route possible using the very precise data that I will have gathered. This is also the reason why I chose any%: all the planning I'll have to do will make sure I'm fully prepared for the real project. I'll also be able to do 120% right after if I feel like it.
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Quick message to inform people here that I am going to do an Onstream reveal of the TAS Saturday at 2PM EDT (Yes, it's done!)
Stream will start at 1PM for setting up and answering questions.
I'll also be preparing the TASVideos submission so that I can submit and make the TAS public as soon as the reveal is done.
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I tried to find them using RAM addresses, but could find what address to watch, so I ended up using brute force... It probably took longer that way, but it worked
About Agent 9's challenge end, it was just a last zigzag boost on the last frame before entering the trigger. The speed grows exponentially, so a single input at that speed is enough to bring my speed up to nearly 40k, which explains the derpy movement (losing sparx was a minimal loss compared to how great it looked, and I get sparx back a single minute later)
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Before somebody says I forgot about you again *Looks at Spikestuff*:
Link to video
Just kidding Spikestuff :p thank you for keeping this thread up to date for me
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Unfortunately, doing it without the proxy would still be too quick... I really need a reroute of that area and have a few ideas that I want to test already, but chances are it's never gonna be as quick as I planned it to be. I'll try to still incorporate that speed proxy as it saves a few seconds on its own though.
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Reaching ripto without swimming would make the new any% so much shorter :o
But yeah, if you're trying on fodders, you might also want to try to "Let them fall through you" and press [] on a precise frame. Those also give quite nice proxies and they look great ;)
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Already 2 more WIPs since last post. I guess I forgot to post here when I got the 6th one up :p Anyway, here they are:
WIP 6/16 (Spooky Swamp and Country Speedway):
Link to video
WIP 7/16 (Bamboo Terrace and Enchanted Towers):
Link to video
Most of what needs to be said is in the description of the video :)
I hope you guys enjoy those WIPs as much as you enjoyed the last 5, and I appreciate the support you give me. Thanks a lot!
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Work in Progress 5/16 is out :) (and 4/16 too, while I'm at it)
WIP 4/16:
Link to video
WIP 5/16:
Link to video
Bonus: a view of the atlas after Sgt. Byrd's Base where, in the previous TAS, an egg was mysteriously missing in Sheila's Alp.
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Locking the Camera for one precise frame when getting into the egg's trigger makes it happen. It's also possible with normal dialogs, and I think it's possible for all 4 side characters.
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After playing around with the Shovel Rhynocs in Seashell Shore and seeing how their hitbox was reacting exactly the same as the Spyro 2 "Jumpy Jump" Chest's hitbox, I tried it out and found out that it was very possible to get proxies out of them.
Link to video
Then during an onstream TAS work (Like... Right now!) I tested dead bodies proxies on every level with spyro in the game. It turns out that 10 levels out of 16 have enemies wit the right hitbox when they are dying, so those 10 levels can feature dead body proxies...
Both Sunny Villa and Cloud Spires, which have already been TASed are within those 10 levels, but I'm not gonna start the TAS over for them. You WILL see dead body proxies in the future WIPs, and I promis that every single one of them will save time.
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Thanks for all the feed back guys :)
@lapogne: I do use the sharper turn everytime... Actually, you'll barely ever see me turn using only left or even up left (same goes for right) as it's faster to turn sharp and do straight lines everywhere ;)
@Hutch: I indeed did not find any of the skips in Cloud Spires... Skip to the end of the level was found by someone else, even this strat, and I don't know who found the Moneybags skip using the cloud to get to the platform, but it's definetely not me either ;p
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It has been some time since I completed the first WIP of the reTAS, but now I'm proud to show you guys the second WIP that has just been uploaded some minutes ago. If you are interrested in my thoughts about the WIP, just read the video description :)
Link to video
Yet again, comments are always welcome. I hope you like it!
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Hutch wrote:
Huh, cool, thanks for the video... :P
Seeing that jumping when not in a charge is better is surprising to me, I would've thought that covering more distance in the same time would mean that spyro is at a greater height when he reaches the edge, but apparently games don't like to conform to normal laws of physics!
This is explained by the fact that you get slightly more height from jumping normally, so you can hover higher on sort distances ;)
But I'm not here to talk about that skip... I'm here to tell you guys news about the fixing of the Anti-Piracy problem!
Hyperbug did it! He managed to fix PSXjin so it runs Spyro 3 without triggering the Anti-Piracy protection! I also tested that new version thoroughly: I did a full 117% playthrough and both defeated the sorceress in Midnight mountain and in the super Bonus Round! I also checked the atlas after the credits and I wasn't missing anything (What made me need to get rid of the Protection was the fact that the game removed an egg in Sheila's when I was doing Byrd's)
I don't know if Hyperbug did anything to make the new fix of the emulator official yet (I did not find anything on both this forum and the PSXjin site), but I'm looking forward to it.
Both any% and 117% can be completed now.
THOUGH...
The game is now playing completely differently... By that I mean, there are slight differences everywhere, making my movie completely desynced. Lag frames are at completely different places and loading seem to be slightly longer on the new version. Which means I'm gonna need to go through the process of resyncing or reTASing everything.
I'm mostly gonna be doing the second (reTASing) as I know of a lot of places were far from being optimal (Every turnaround before Molten Crater, Sunny Villa Skateboarding, Everything with Sheila...)
Every video you guys are gonna see from now is gonna be updated WIPs (Older ones will still be available on my channel). You will also be able to find level by level comparison videos between old TAS and new TAS.
Full 117% TAS is slowly coming, get ready for the show! (You have a couple of months to get ready :°)
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I got good news and bad news again...
Good news: We managed to fix the emulator rather than fixing the ISO, which means 100% legit ISO (Which, as of Hyperbug, would have been super duper hard to fix, because of checksums everywhere)
Bad news: The TAS is completely Desynced... So I'll be working on resyncing it (And maybe improving some parts!) during the next few weeks (basically reTASing it with a base)
I'm also gonna reupload the WIPs as they are gonna get resynced... Some things might change, and hopefully for the fastest.
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Okay guys, I have Bad News, and Good News...
Bad News is:
The Anti-Piracy protection striked way earlier than we all expected...
It turns out that when I got to the Sheila door in Spooky Swamp, it was closed even though I completed her level way earlier in the TAS... I opened the Atlas there and I don't have Sheila's End of Level egg anymore...
Going through a little bit of research, I found out that the game deliberately removed that one egg from my inventory as I got Byrd's End of Level egg... I made sure I saw things right with RAM watches and all that and the egg is removed at the moment the Humming Bird starts her speach before giving you your egg (The egg count is not affected in any way though)
On the first look of things, I thought the TAS was over untill new emu or some shit like that was found.
BUT
Good News is:
A cool guy, Hyperbug, was doing some Spyro 2 game hack stuff and he heard of my problem (He was in my chat at that moment). He offered his help to try to modify the ISO (So basically hack the game) so the Anti-Piracy protection won't trigger.
Progress so far are encouraging. He managed to find, using a slightly modified version of PSXjin to have memory breakpoints and all that, the addresses that, if modified to the same value, prevent the EoL egg from Sheila's Alp from being removed.
Now I have a question related to that...
Since it will not be an "original" ISO of the game (Slightly hacked...) but it doesn't alter the intended gameplay, I wonder if the TASVideos community will accept the final TAS as a Valid TAS.
Official replies as well as opinion replies are welcomed :)
