Posts for Samsara


Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
Can't believe you're still 12 after all these years. EDIT: Jokes aside, glad to see you're supposedly reformed. The best thing to do is to just pick a game and start optimizing it. It's easier to start learning through practice. Pick anything you want, upload some Userfiles, post them and get some feedback, then use that feedback to improve yourself.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
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:
Dropping the popularity factor introduces confusion: "What? You guys think the run of this obscure game is better than OoT, SM64 and Yoshi Island? Are you goosey?"
You're forgetting that, yes, runs of these obscure games ARE better than "slide backwards for a while until you warp to a new location", "slide backwards for a while until you warp to a new location", and SMW2. If I had to choose between rewatching one of those runs and rewatching something like Magician Lord... well, I'll just say that I already rewatched Magician Lord yesterday after mentioning it in my post. And it's still a goddamn great run. Sure, the "We need to show off how we destroy games people know well" argument has a little bit of ground, but the popular games already have most of their tricks known. It's nothing new for the audience when Link rolls into an enemy and shoots off backwards at ridiculous speeds. Parallel universes in SM64 are an actual goddamn meme, and BLJs have been known for basically decades at this point. Moat Skip was announced, what, months in advance of the actual run? So people already knew it was possible long before the run was submitted. The level of SMW2 play from people like CarlSagan and triHex (which goes to show exactly how dated my knowledge is) is basically TAS-level at this point, so I could make the same argument for demoting that game as you did for Gimmick. I could also make the argument that people have achieved 0-star runs of SM64 and we shouldn't showcase it because of that. I could also make the argument that the Majora's Mask run we're currently showcasing has been actively beaten in RTA with the discovery of new tricks and we shouldn't showcase it because of that. I could say that zips are being replicated in Sonic 3 as well. But sure, let's go with Gimmick, which still has a level of TAS precision so insanely high that RTA still isn't coming close to matching it even with a full minute advantage due to new tricks. A game no one's ever heard of is going to be new and fresh and exciting for everyone regardless of what kind of game it is. It's going to tell people "You don't need to find a popular game to make an amazing TAS". We don't need to give these games any more praise and attention than they're already getting with their 6 awards, Stars, notable improvement flags, console verification flags, GDQ exposure, actual gaming media exposure... Like moozooh said, they're going to be seen no matter what. Someone familiar with speedrunning and finding the site for the first time, whether it be through GDQ or other means, is immediately going to look for the games they know regardless of what's being recommended to them. Things like SMW and SMB3 are going to get way more hits just based off GDQs alone, they don't exactly need to be recommended. And keep in mind that one of the most popular TASes on the site is Family Feud. People love that run to death, and who the hell has ever cared about the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game cartridge of the classic television game show Family Feud? Part of what I love about the site and one of the defining factors of what I deem my favorite runs is how unexpected they are. Going from having never heard of a game to having it be one of my favorite TASes of all time is an experience I adore. I'm always so much more impressed by those runs. Putting them on the same level as a Mario or a Metroid just feels natural. Is anyone going to be driven away by looking at Newcomer Recs and seeing Magician Lord there next to Yoshi's Island? No. They're going to wonder why this weird Arcade game is being put on the same level as Yoshi's Island, and that's going to make them want to watch it more. I'm not exactly a good representation of the average viewer, but when I first found the site and started looking through all the runs, things like Gimmick stood out to me as being extremely entertaining runs of games I'd never heard of. Having had a passing interest in it for so long is what drove me to update the any% TAS, and it's what will drive me to update 100% in the future. I'm not saying we should ONLY showcase "unpopular" games or that we should actively demote "popular" games, but that the popularity of the game should not be a factor at all in regards to what we showcase. We shouldn't have to limit Stars or Newcomer Recs to just a select group of games that "deserve it" more than any other.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
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:
- runs of popular games
This shouldn't be criteria at all. If a newcomer comes to the site, they're already most likely going to watch runs of popular games. Why should we have to tell them to do that? Why not promote some lesser-known games with mind-blowing runs that show newcomers that it's possible to make some ridiculous stuff in games other than Mario and Metroid? [2641] Arcade Magician Lord by £e Nécroyeur in 07:17.73 This comes to mind for me instantly when I think of a run I'd recommend to a newcomer. It's short, it's obvious that this isn't how the game's meant to be played, it's glitchy, it's fast as hell, it's hilarious and captivating to watch. And it's not well-known. It's the kind of surprise the site needs to promote. "What's this game?" "Why is the site recommending it to me?" "WHY IS THIS THE BEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN" That's what I want people to think. In short, don't remove anything for being an "unpopular game", and don't consider anything solely based on the game's popularity.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
Samsara wrote:
But I guess they're not Mega Man runs, so it doesn't matter.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
But I guess they're not Mega Man runs, so it doesn't matter.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
AngerFist wrote:
It's pretty obvious who should win SNES TASer of the year
lxx4xNx6xxl wrote:
I definitely believe Hetfield90 will be SNES TASer of 2016 as well
Stop. Put at least a little thought into your choice instead of "HE TASED A MEGA MANS HE'S THE BESTEST EVER!!!!" This kind of behavior makes the Awards completely meaningless.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
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:
But while we're at it, I want to discuss one more thing. The Gimmick 100% run has been replicated RTA a while ago, so this run, while still being superb, doesn't stand out of skilled real-time speedruns anymore. It's arguably the run that's the least different from the paths that are possible RTA, out of all the recommended runs. Also, it was the run that I picked myself, while all the rest were spotted by the crowd as the runs that blew their minds. So I suggest that when we flag the MK64, we unflag Gimmick.
The current 100% RTA record is still over a minute slower, and that's including the 45-60 second advantage it has for using the new skips/clips, so the reasoning is a bit flawed in that regard. RTA also uses safer strats, so it's not exactly "replicating" the TAS. I'd vote for Gimmick to stay. We honestly don't need to throw it away in favor of more Mario. There's nothing wrong with having both co-exist, except for "rules" that hardly anyone agree on in the first place.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
Alyosha wrote:
Also please replace the submission file with this one: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/34501518718338775
Done.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
User movie #34554351600061670 It's possible without any edits, but still not acceptable at all.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
Scepheo disappears for months and maybe shows up for a day or so in-between. It's safe to say that, yes, he's not working on this anymore.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
From the Vault rules change thread:
Mothrayas wrote:
Team-based sports and sports running with a fixed time, such as baseball, football, soccer, or basketball are not eligible. The run must not be seen as trivial. If a run consists of doing a trivial strategy, made only nontrivial by having to do it over the course of several rounds, it will still be judged as trivial. For example, bowling games where the player gets a strike with ten pins every time.
Completely trivial baseball run which breaks several rules.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
Try branches instead of markers.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
In case anyone missed it, I added a temp encode (of the new run) to the submission text.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
Alyosha wrote:
5.54 is what is possible with no slowdowns other then gear changes. Whether or not that is possible would probably need a disassembly of the game.
Welp, I guess I'm doing that now. I'll need to set aside some time to learn how to read what I'm looking at, but I'm determined to figure this out.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
Link to video This is about 4 seconds faster than what I have on my main file. EDIT: Amazingly, I think this actually makes movement sections a lot easier to optimize. The fact that it outruns the screen adds a lot of leeway to be able to do things like grab new weapons or slow down to avoid being grabbed by other enemies. It stays on the ground so I don't have to worry about jump-kicking into enemies or houses, it doesn't collide with enemies at all so that's never an issue. It keeps both players together and within throwing distance so minibosses are less of a problem (notice the Pink Phantom being taken out instantaneously with a single throw as opposed to having to fire at it)... I'm estimating it would save around 15 seconds on Pink's stage overall, which is pretty substantial, but implementing it would still mean redoing 10 minutes of autoscroller that took over a month of work initially. I've basically confirmed there's no way in hell I can just resync Green's stage (even a tiny delay means it desyncs instantly), so it's looking like Pink's redux is going to have to wait for the next version of the run, assuming I or someone else ever gets around to it.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
Your first account is still limited, and judging from the submission text I can already see a huge number of problems with this submission as well. Using your original account, assuming you still have access to it, please keep runs to the forums until you have proven that you are capable of submitting high quality, publishable runs. We will lift the limitations then. As for this account, we'll have to disable it unless you have completely lost access to your original... But of course, we'll have to limit this one in turn.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
There aren't enough sections of pure horizontal movement for this glitch to make the run unwatchable. On top of that, there's the added challenge of routing vertical movement, mainly because quick drops actually move you diagonally downward at a fairly fast rate while you're in the air: There's also the need to route around enemies so that they're not thrown, the issue of lag reduction because of Blue firing every time he quick drops, the fact that I'd have to get the conditions right every time (both players need to be in close proximity and facing away from where they want to move)... Despite how ridiculously fast it is, it's not actually going to save a ridiculous amount of time. Plus, if I can't get most of my current work to sync with a new beginning (and I seriously doubt I will), the glitch won't be used until 11 minutes into the run, and it'll take another 5-6 minutes to reach a stage where it'll be used for a long period of time. So I don't think it'll detract from the entertainment at all, only add to it.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
So I think I'm going to redo a fair amount of my progress for a reason I'm presenting without comment: Link to video EDIT: Except I'm commenting on it. This is an optimized version of a movement technique Sonikkustar posted about years ago, which I initially disregarded since the way he did it gave absolutely no horizontal speed whatsoever. I ended up trying it anyway while working in Black's stage and, to my surprise... Well, just look at it. For reasons related to the color Green and my personal sanity, I won't be redoing the entirety of the run. It would save a few seconds in Pink's stage but I don't think it's worth spending another solid month or two re-optimizing Green's stage just for a few extra seconds. I'm going to strike out my progress from the middle of Orange's stage and implement it from there, starting from just after the Yellow Phantom and continuing on through the end of the run. Though, before I do that, I'd like to see how hex-friendly the game is. If I can copy over Green's stage and Orange's autoscrolling section and have it perfectly sync on a file that uses this movement tech in Pink's stage then, like a Tumblr post of a genderswapped Finding Nemo character, it'll be hunky dory. Otherwise, it'll still be used for most of the movement in the run. And that's fine.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Post subject: Re: I didn't see frame advance or AVI dumping options in PPSSPP.
Samsara
She/They
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DJ Incendration wrote:
I didn't see any frame advance or AVI recording options on PPSSPP. I use 0.9.9.1 for Windows, but I haven't been able to find it. What's my OP?
You're very, very far behind on PPSSPP versions. The latest is 1.3, which is where the starter TAS tools are. Note that there's no movie file format yet, so it cannot actually be used to TAS. OP = opening post, which appears to just be your email address and some broken tags.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
Hoandjzj wrote:
Great game, awesome TAS and, what? Vault... It's not fair...
You're literally the only person to give positive feedback to this movie. It's fair.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
Fog is currently in the process of adding TAS tools to PPSSPP. Some features are already implemented (frame advance, AVI dumping), but others will take much longer to implement. Implementation into BizHawk may come in the far future: There were some early efforts, but if I remember correctly it was too problematic of a process at the time. You may want to edit that OP.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
He's asking you to upload the DTM so we can compare it easier.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2123)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2794
Location: Northern California
ABC is fascinating on a technical level, but would only make for an interesting run if the "walk in place for 10 hours" stuff is cut out. "Max coins" has no entertainment value on any level and would be received incredibly poorly, especially for Super Mario 64 and its magical ability to gain twenty times more votes than 95% of the submissions we normally get.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.