Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player
(128)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
Oh god, some of the enemies in hell don't scale with level. I'm currently level 9, in an area where you would normally be level 25+ (with weapons that do 5x more damage). One enemy just took over a minute to kill. Guess i better make sure i have smoke bombs to avoid those.
And i'm glad to hear people are actually interested in a run of this game.
Yeah, i saw that last night, it works great. And thanks for all the recent fixes.
CoolKirby wrote:
Why are the new Dolphin releases on EmuCR and not the Dolphin-Emulator Download page?
EmuCR appears to be a third party site that just compiles every new version of various emulators. Not sure why team dolphin doesn't always post the newest revisions.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player
(128)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
Just finished act 5 boss on my shura play through. Everything is still syncing pretty well, and with read only fixed now, it's fairly painless. I should hopefully be done with this in a few days, and then i can get started on my actual tas through shigirui. Which, i honestly don't expect to take more than a week or two.
Honestly though, as i replay through it, i'm starting to think this is a fairly terrible game to tas. There aren't any glitches that i'm aware of, and with little to no random encounters, the game is like 80% travel (50 mins in so far, boss times were 1:30, 2:00 2:00, 3:00, 3:00 or something like that, and they could be shortened by probably 20% at least with tasing). Still, i've already done so much work prepping the run, i'd hate to not do it, especially since it really would not be too difficult to do. And of course since i've never tasd before, it never hurts to start with something easy.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player
(128)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
C13 wrote:
I was also thinking about TASing the game, but my computer wasn't powerful enough to handle the emulation. I would've needed a new computer. :(
No computer is going to run dolphin at 60 fps with tasable settings, since you have to turn off dual core, and idle skipping. I've been tasing on my laptop which runs at about 15-25 fps, and it's not a problem at all. It's a bit annoying when playing back to check for desyncs, but it makes no difference when actually tasing. I'd say that as long as your computer isn't 10 years old and not capable of even running dolphin, you should give it a shot.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player
(128)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
It appears to be caused by loading a save state in read only mode. So it seems like the problem should always fix itself, when you then save over the save stated you used. The only time it should actually cause a problem is if you playback a movie, load a state, then continue recording without reloading a save state from before you last closed dolphin.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player
(128)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
Ok, i've got a problem in 235 that is completely breaking my movies. A new header is being randomly made in the middle of my .dtm files, causing a desync. Deleting the extra header does not make it sync. I have no idea what causes it. I uploaded a .dtm with an example of it, in case it's useful to anyone in figuring it out.
http://www.mediafire.com/?t5fvo2i42pugg6s
edit: Entire first 0x1000 bytes are duplicated. Deleting that however still does not make it sync.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player
(128)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
The error message was exactly what you stated, and included which byte the files differed at. I've also never attempted to load a save state from a previous version (except once, and when it crashed dolphin, i assumed it would never work).
It was happening every single time i loaded a save state in 234 (including if i saved a state, then immediately loaded it, regardless of whether read only was on or off). In 235, now it looks like it just happens if i load a save state after the current frame, such as:
1. start recording
2. save state 1
3. stop recording
4. play back recording with read only
5. load state 1 before reaching it.
I have definitely never done anything of the sort that would actually cause a desync.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player
(128)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
SoulCal wrote:
rog wrote:
If you start recording, make a save state right away, go through the menu at the beginning of the game, and make a second save state, then turn on read only mode, then load save state 1, what happens?
This works, however it is not what I want. I click the X to shut down Dolphin, it prompts me to save my dtm; which I do, and name it something like RE4.dtm and it is placed in the "Recordings" folder. If I play back RE4.dtm, then loadstate1, it will not play back from the point savestate1 is at, specifically because savestate1 was not created from RE4.dtm (which is that new error Nitsuja put in).
Try turning off panic handlers. It should work, regardless of the error. If not, can you try it in a different game? If it still doesn't work, you'll probably want to talk to nitsuja about it, because read only works perfectly for me in 235.
rog wrote:
Prior to 3.0-234, it would simply say movie ended, and it would not go any further.
This is partially untrue. Read-only mode sorta worked with older revisions. Say you have a dtm file(say 1000 frames long), open Dolphin, then play the dtm back and create a savestate at frame 500, then close Dolphin again. If you play back that same dtm and did loadstate, it would resume playback at frame 500. The "Movie End" message would appear only if you didn't create a savestate while playing it back. Don't think I'm crazy, cause I know this to be fact for older revisions. But like I said, this method forces the TASer to play back the dtm file regardless, so there's no point.
[/quote]That's correct, it would work when playing back a movie, but as you said, that is useless.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player
(128)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
You should be able to do exactly that with 235.
After closing and reopening dolphin are you playing back the movie (the one you saved at frame 200)? or simply starting the game, and loading save state 1?
If you start recording, make a save state right away, go through the menu at the beginning of the game, and make a second save state, then turn on read only mode, then load save state 1, what happens?
Prior to 3.0-234, it would simply say movie ended, and it would not go any further. However after 3.0-234, it should play back until the point where you loaded the first save state. Does that not happen?
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player
(128)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
SoulCal wrote:
CoolKirby wrote:
Also, nitsuja said that trying to load a savestate from another movie will give you an error message stating that the savestate you are attempting to load is not from the movie you are currently editing. This should help make sure you don't load another dtm's savestate into your current movie.
Yeah, I see that message now. How can I make it so I don't have to rewatch my TAS everytime I want to add something? I want to be able to just loadstate at a part of the game, and then it continues the playback from there. Is that not possible yet Nitsuja? I have done read-only mode on older revisions, but I have to create a savestate during playback of a dtm so it can continue playing from that point when I do loadstate, but that defeats the purpose since I have to watch my run anyway.
Turn on read only if you want to play back, then load the savestate you want to start playing from. If you want to continue recording from the save state, turn off read only before loading it.
Read only was broken before 234. That's not how it's supposed to (or does anymore) work. You can pause while recording, turn on read only, then load your last save state, and it'll play back from that save state up until the point you were at.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player
(128)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
I did bump into that issue that you talked about Wak017 with modifying the dtm length. I'm searching to see if there are hex bytes somewhere that tell us how long the playback is (there should be).
It's at 0xd, and is backwards. So, looking at one of my .dtms, i have AF 25 01 00. This would be 000125af, or 75183 frames. The entire format is explained at http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/wiki/TAS_Tasks
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player
(128)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
nitsuja wrote:
rog wrote:
it gives an error every time you load a state (turn off panic handlers)
What error are you getting, by the way, and in which game? I'm not seeing this in WW, at least when loading savestates made in the same version.
If you're seeing an error that says "Warning: You loaded a save whose movie mismatches", don't ignore that, it means you loaded a savestate incorrectly and it's trying to warn you about the desync that's going to cause if you don't fix it.
It's fixed in 235. I believe the error was something like that, but it was a lie, and synced fine regardless of errors (which occurred every single time a state was loaded for me, in muramasa)
edit: actually it's not fixed, just got it in 235.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player
(128)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
MUGG wrote:
probably it is that big because you're dumping it uncompressed. Dump it in lagarith or h.264 (lossless).
How do you do that? The only options it gives me is is microsoft RLE, microsoft video 1, intel IYUV, intel IYUV (again), fraps video decompressor, and uncompressed. All of them but uncompressed and microsoft video 1 are broken. Microsoft video 1 gives incredibly awful quality, but as a result the file size is very small.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player
(128)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
Read only is fixed, for really real this time in 234. it gives an error every time you load a state (turn off panic handlers), and seems prone to desyncing smetimes (i made a save state right in the opening menu right before selecting difficulty, and ~10% of the time, it selected the default difficult, instead of the one it was supposed to). Have not done extensive testing on it, but my guess is that as long as it syncs right away, it'll sync all the way through.
testing my movies now to see if they still sync, will report back later.
Muramasa is completely unplayable on 234. This is actually not even too bad, since i can see my character. Haven't tried any other games to see if affects other games. It's syncing so far though, so whatever if i have to record in an earlier version.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player
(128)
Joined: 12/3/2011
Posts: 1579
Frame data on jumping/falling:
falling and landing twice: 3730
jumping once: 3724
Falling once then jumping from the branch: 3730
falling then jumping midair: 3724
double jumping: 3724
falling twice, hold down on second fall: 3732
jump, then extra jump for no reason: 3729
jump, then double jump from the ground: 3729
jump, double jump, hold down after second jump peaks: 3739
testing was done on a screen that started up high, has a small drop onto a branch right away, then quickly drops again, much further, to the ground. The number is the first frame that the screen is completely black to load the next area.
Based on this data, it seems that jumping does not cost any frames, but landing costs 5. Holding down while falling is slower, with the exact amount of frames lost obviously depending on the height falling. I'm not sure where the extra frame is coming from when falling from the ledge to the branch. My first thought was that falling cost 1 frame, but it can't since falling then jumping from midair still ended at frame 3724. I doubt it will ever come up in an actual run though, so whatever.
others:
changing weapons/items outside battle costs no frames
picking up items also costs no frames.
pressing down for 1 frame (used for luck manipulation to avoid random encounters) costs 1 frame.
pressing back for 1 frame costs no frames (? triple checked this, it's right, but i have no idea why).
releasing the joystick for 1 or 2 frame also costs no frames, but after 3 frames, it costs 1 frame.
Interesting results at the end. I was not expecting to be able avoid encounters without wasting any frames. It's especially strange since she does indeed turn around, or start to stop, but apparently keeps moving forward at the same speed regardless. Anyway, I'll work on attack patterns and damage another time.
current route:
act 1: hold right, kill boss.
act 2: small one screen detour to buy 2 bronze mirrors, and smoke bombs, then hold right, kill boss.
act 3: use mirror to warp to starting screen. In suruga, take a 10 screen (5 screens, then turn around)) detour to activate shrine. This saves 3 screens over using the previous shrine i pass in Izu.
act 4: use mirror, buy more mirrors and smoke bombs in suruga from merchant.
There is a bronze mirror in shinano that can be had for 94-99 frames. This would save 30 mon buying one. Not sure if that's worth it, will need to see exactly how much money i have when i reach the merchant in suruga (as well as exactly how many mirrors i need at that point). If it allows me to buy an extra smoke bomb, it will almost certainly be worth taking 99 frames to get to it.
Will plan out route further as i continue playing through.
