TASVideos

Hello, and welcome to the new TASVideos! With a new site comes a new thread for reporting bugs and requesting features. The new TASVideos is much more receptive to change than the old one, so don't hold back! We can actually fix and add things easily, now! It's highly recommended you also post to the Github issues page for easier tracking: https://github.com/TASVideos/tasvideos/issues

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 1/2/2022 8:52 AM

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

OnehundredthCoin wrote:

The rerecord count actually isn't a joke ._. Given that a lot of walking optimization in this game is just "randomly, out of the blue, releasing L or R for a frame will save time" and "randomly, out of the blue, pressing D for a frame will save time", the only thing I could really do was sit there and delete/insert frames until I noticed my X position going in the right direction. TAStudio + Auto-Restore + Genesis core being fast was a blessing to be able to get this out quickly. I promise I'll write actual information on the run when I wake up.

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 1/1/2022 11:14 PM

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

zst wrote:

I took another look, and it seems to me the only reason we don't have a 1 player movie is because no one ever created or submitted one. There's nothing holding one back from being submitted, accepted, or published, so if you have one, feel free to submit!

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 1/1/2022 8:26 PM

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

We got there! \o/

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 1/1/2022 1:38 AM

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

I, uh, I've got a lot to say about the rookies this year, and a lot of nominations that I genuinely believe in because of it. The only reason I'm not nominating literally all of the candidates is because I'm explicitly forcing myself not to in order to keep the nomination process simple. This was honestly an incredible rookie year, anyone could win and I would fully believe they deserve it. I've divided my still very many nominations into a few different categories. The names are in no particular order, and names are only listed once even though individuals may qualify for multiple lists: Dedication Natetheman223 eien86 DyllonStej naruko OnehundredthCoin Reseren DJ Incendration Putting in tons of time and effort into their craft and into their interests, continuing forth in spite of adversities on many different levels, and always coming back and improving themselves in sometimes even unexpected ways. This really has been an amazing year, not just for the advancement of many different games and series, but for the art of TASing in general. Contribution Randomno PracticalTAS ikuyo OceanBagel weils Was a bit hard to think of a category name to describe how I view this group, but this is essentially people who went above and beyond to provide things for the site. Not even just their TASes, but their community engagement and contributions to helping the site itself. Keeping TASvideos alive matters a LOT to me in rookie nominations, and once again, we've had an incredible field of people doing that. Potential Darkman425 DarkShamilKhan Katistrofic2 mxlenny94 Riyan I'm terminally around TASvideos, I admit. I take note of nearly everyone who comes into the site and I sorta watch what they all do from the shadows, except it isn't as creepy as I'm making it sound. What I see from this group is, of course, pure potential. That's not to say they need to improve, of course, but I see a lot coming from them in the coming weeks, months, and hopefully years of the site. Some may have been around for a while, some may have just joined, but I see the exact same thing in them all, and that's a healthy future on this site, whether as contributors or active community members.

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 12/27/2021 6:31 PM
(Edited: 1/26/2022 5:09 AM)

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

Reading the submission text for the current Luigi's Mansion submission made me realize that the way we handle branchless publications is pretty inconsistent. It's so inconsistent that I can't actually explain how we currently do it, since it seems to vary wildly from game to game. I'll use Luigi's Mansion as the first example: [2587] GC Luigi's Mansion "Hidden Mansion" by solarplex in 10:11.85 [3090] GC Luigi's Mansion "Hidden Mansion, in bounds" by Malleoz in 54:21.70 The run currently labeled as "chest glitch" was branchless prior to the publication of the run that is now branchless. Reading the submission thread for the branchless run, it seems the discussion of this choice was all of two posts, and it led to something that doesn't quite make sense with how we handle other, similar situations. EDIT: I updated the branches here, this example no longer applies. There's also the fun situation that has been Aria of Sorrow branching: [1129] GBA Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow "warp glitch" by klmz in 06:46.20 [1024] GBA Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow "warp glitch" by zggzdydp in 12:06.73 [1478] GBA Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow by Kriole in 20:58.62 [456] GBA Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow by Atma in 27:45.57 This is not a single obsoletion chain, but as of me writing this post, it sure looks like one. The branches for AoS have been inconsistent since the start, and even right now it's tough to say exactly how it should be handled, as the "warp glitch" category now stands with a "game end glitch" run due to a new way of calling the ending without defeating the final boss. My proposal here is to consistently apply branchless in the same way we do for EarthBound: [4361] SNES EarthBound by illayaya in 57:17.02 [3769] SNES EarthBound "in bounds" by tutelarfiber7 in 3:10:11.57 The branchless run for EarthBound heavily uses out-of-bounds glitching, much like "chest glitch" Luigi's Mansion, while the much longer run that avoids OoB is explicitly labeled as such. This makes a lot more sense to me. Branchless, in my opinion, should be comparable to any%, no "game end glitch". That is, if a run lacks a branch, it should be assumed to be the fastest completion of a game under circumstances that do not involve an unnatural calling of a game's ending. With this, the new Luigi's Mansion submission and the current "chest glitch" publication would have their branches removed (let's not get into the Hidden Mansion discourse here), and the run that avoids OoB would be labeled as "inbounds" or something similar. Aria of Sorrow would still be tricky, but we could easily make a judgement call here and say that the current 20 minute publication can remain branchless, as we wouldn't necessarily accept a fastest no-GEG run (as far as I can tell, it would look the exact same as the GEG run, just with fighting the final boss). I suppose this is also a call for branches like "warps" and "1 key" to be removed as well, as I feel they're just redundant tags for any% when branchless should be handling their jobs. If we want to keep having explicitly assigned branches for any% movies, it honestly makes more sense to me to not have any movie be branchless at all, and just start universally using "any%" as a branch. God, this site's complicated sometimes, innit?

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 12/27/2021 5:35 PM

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

Following some discussion, we have decided to ~~correct a grievous error of mine~~ unobsolete this movie! The branch has been updated to reflect its zipless nature.

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 12/27/2021 5:27 PM

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

feos wrote:

What I want to talk about only affects the "warp glitch" obsoletion chain, so these are safe to touch. I'd like to be the one to un-obsolete all souls inbounds, though, since I was the one that decided to obsolete it in the first place, and I like symbolism and accountability.

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 12/27/2021 5:20 PM

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

feos wrote:

Correct. There's a bit more to talk about with AoS branching, but I'll bring that up in the relevant thread.

Thank you!

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 12/26/2021 8:47 PM
(Edited: 4/19/2022 11:13 PM)

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

Fortranm wrote:

Maybe "failure" is too strong of a word, but it's definitely not a success. Like I said, there is no logical reason for us to reject this. The goal choice makes perfect sense, there's a high level of optimization, and people find the run very entertaining. Anything outside of that should not matter. The only reason it matters right now is because we're waiting on the opportunity and the feedback to be able to change.

In cases of things like unfixable sync issues and poor optimization, yes, rejection is perfectly fine, but for a movie where the only thing """wrong""" is that we don't currently account for the goal choice, it's unacceptable to me to outright reject it. A rejection in this case can only send a negative message: "You did great, people love your run, and there's nothing wrong with your category, but we still can't accept it. Tough luck." I've always made it a point with rejections like these in the past to say that the rules can and likely will change to be able to account for these movies, but the fact of the matter remains that these rejections just shouldn't be happening in the first place. I've said it before: If we reject a movie, everybody involved should understand the reasoning. Not just us, but the author and the audience as well.

I'm in the process of drafting up a proposal for allowing SRAM-anchored movies as standard, as it's something that I've seen people asking for, and a change I want to happen myself. I just don't think a movie should have to remain unjudged on the workbench for potentially weeks or months because a change is waiting for community feedback and consensus that might not be coming in immediately. I do agree that I'd much rather see this delayed than rejected, but ideally it shouldn't have to come to either.

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 12/26/2021 7:28 PM
(Edited: 4/19/2022 11:13 PM)

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

Fortranm wrote:

To be fair, that's an old run from the same author. This submission is also on Nico, for the record. This is one of those runs that triggers my feeling of "If we reject this, then that's a failure on our part and not the author's". It's a solid record and it's entertaining, there's pretty much no reason to reject it. The site really shouldn't need to be about "unique content" and "difference" anymore as long as the goal makes sense, which it does to me. I'd argue the same for Maxim boss rush as well if that ever gets submitted. We shouldn't feel like we have to wait for a rule change or a new class to be able to accept something that might not perfectly fit what we currently have in place. If we're going to be making those changes in the future anyway, why not bend the rules now? It's not like we're going to make these kinds of runs less acceptable.

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 12/26/2021 7:11 PM

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

feos wrote:

[1478] GBA Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow by Kriole in 20:58.62 also avoids OoB glitches. I feel like if we revive all souls, this run should similarly be branched as "inbounds". "warp glitch" should also be rebranched to GEG, but that's not relevant to the discussion. The death glitch is the warp glitch, my apologies for not being clearer about that. Prior to that glitch being discovered and used, the glitched Aria of Sorrow publication only used zipping, and was branchless. Holy hell did we really have two branchless runs of AoS published at the same time at one point, what is with this game ._.

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 12/26/2021 5:04 PM

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

feos wrote:

They're all related, but different enough to warrant the usage of separate categories in my opinion. Both zipping and the death glitch allow you to go out of bounds, but death glitch allows for a lot more freedom in where you can go. Basically, loading certain "rooms" out of bounds will crash the game, which limits how powerful zipping is as you're always going through room transitions. Death glitch completely disables room transitions, allowing for essentially unimpeded map traversal, including through OoB areas that would otherwise crash the game since they're not being loaded. Death glitch and zipping are both used in the published "all souls" movie, where Kriole's movie avoids them completely, and the routes differ drastically between the two runs.

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 12/25/2021 5:24 PM

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

I'm with feos on this one. I'm not necessarily against the idea of someone hacking away at SRAM or a savestate to start their showcase run from, but we shouldn't be accepting anything that is completely unverified. I think at the very least, we need a written record of what was modified and a set of reproduction steps that anyone on their own can follow to be able to generate the same files (or at least something similar enough) that the author used. Ideally, though, these kinds of things are accomplished with Game Genie/Action Replay, or even something like a Lua script that runs alongside the movie and pokes/freezes RAM at the right spots. Consider it futureproofing: If someone 10 years down the line wants to improve such a run, they're not going to be using the same emulator or the same tools. Providing just a savestate or just SRAM is going to be meaningless to them. Written records of repro steps, or more universal things like Game Genie and Lua, are going to stay useful essentially forever.

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 12/22/2021 4:56 PM

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

Any updates on the improvement file? No rush if it isn't done, just wanted to make sure I didn't miss some sort of resolution.

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posted: 12/21/2021 6:14 PM

Quote

Samsara

She/They

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)

Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California

feos wrote:

I've added this to the OP for a little more exposure. This feels very strong to me, with my only concerns being similarities to current Moons and the nature of user judgement as a whole, though those aren't huge concerns and they should be able to be rooted out fairly easily. How does this sound to everyone else?

TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost

warmCabin wrote:

Posts for Samsara