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Generally for TASing you want to use the most recent revision. Movies made on anything before 4.0-3595 are being deprecated for site submission anyway, so if you intend to submit a TAS here then... Yeah, go with the most recent version.
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Just watched this and I have a couple questions, since I'm not familiar enough with the game to accurately judge the level of optimization.
1. There are quite a few awkward-looking moments where you take wide turns to avoid enemies. Is it possible to manipulate these enemies in any other way or are their patterns completely fixed? I thought it was a movement issue at first but the rest of the turning throughout the run looks tight.
2. About how much do you think the boss battles can be improved? Would it be worth going back through and attempting to improve them all?
The run strikes me as more of a "reactionary" run rather than a fully planned-out TAS run, where you're more reacting to what the game gives you rather than planning around it in advance and potentially manipulating it away, but that could just be the game not being manipulable in any other way than needing those sloppy-looking moments.
EDIT: Notes/optimization questions from a rewatch. Timestamps from the encode:
From the encode:
0:43 - definitely looks like manipulating enemy movement, seems short enough, but it does beg the question of how much enemies can be manipulated in general apart from just moving to a certain place at a certain time
1:05 - is transforming there the only way to deal with that section? you transform back shortly afterward, so it seems like a couple unnecessary transformations
1:17 - just a questionable part in general, but that may be something related to how the game handles transformations. more specifically, could you transform earlier and start falling faster?
1:29 - also manipulating enemy movement, but surely there's a faster way around it?
2:15 - is this the only way you can deal with this section? couldn't you just shoot out everything blocking your way using robot form in the upper corridor? or is that not an option? it would be a viable if it's less than 20-25 seconds by my count
3:03 - another weird transformation moment. do those enemies completely block your movement in ship form or something? it looks like you fly right through one after that
3:25 - this fight... could that last enemy be handled better/earlier? having to transform and move away then come back just to kill it really doesn't look good
Those are some specific moments, most of the rest of the run either looks fairly tight or it's just the same weird, questionable stuff as 1:17.
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Do these files contain any gameplay footage or is it just the BIOS screen/opening titles? All you're doing is providing a temp encode, if unnecessary footage is tripping you up then just cut it from the script and go with what works.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
While this line (Line 5) should work in theory, it actually doesn't. You have to individually source and resize each AVI before splicing them together.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
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On that note, is it a verified good dump? Lower left corner of the BizHawk window should be a green checkmark. If it's a question block, find a new bin/cue.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
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Something must have snapped in my brain, because I'm honestly considering taking this on as a future project. Specifically a future project. I've been on a pretty solid streak of TASing one "underappreciated" game that I unironically enjoy a year, and I think this is the perfect candidate for this year.
This is merely an interest post to hopefully start the discussion back up, despite the discussion being 3 years old and outdated. I definitely won't be getting around to this for a while, with a few other low and high profile projects on my plate at the moment, but eventually it will happen. Perhaps I'll begin this Quest in 64 days, who knows.
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Some people just tend to get really, inexplicably upset over the most trivial things.
Let's not bring personal matters into submission threads, kay? Both of y'all need to nip this in the bud before it flies out of proportion.
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My honest thought is that he just doesn't understand the purpose of the site and most likely doesn't speak English. Part of my quick cancellations is to try to get him to post here for an explanation, but it hasn't worked so far...
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Link to video
This is simultaneously more and less painful than I remember. It's around 6-7 seconds faster than my last WIP. The bulk of that comes from finding a way to constantly reduce lag in Stage 2 by constantly punching the air, but there are some solid optimizations in the other stages as well. End of Stage 2 is about 10 frames slower since the platforms... I guess they're emulated more accurately, since they act far differently than they did on BizHawk 1.6.1, so that's a small loss there. To make up for it, the end of Stage 3 is vastly improved for the same reason, where I end up getting zipped up onto the goal platform instead of having to fly around onto it.
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I don't think anyone's making fun of you. You've just always had a nasty habit of not being able to eloquently get your point across, which almost always leads people to make the wrong conclusions about your arguments.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | CohostwarmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
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I don't see this thread going anywhere salvageable. The best we're probably going to get is "I understand, but still disagree" coming from both sides (if you can count "Warp" and "everyone else" as sides, really). I'll be locking the thread if it starts going further south from here, so if anyone wants to keep it open for some unknown reason, now's the time to try to come to an understanding. Or, preferably, a conclusion.
EDIT: I need to word things a lot better and think before I moderate from now on. I apologize and won't be locking the topic at all.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | CohostwarmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
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WST wrote:
In my opinion, these encodes have way more relation to the game itself, than to that particular topic
But they really don't. There's absolutely no point to having them plastered in a community that, generally, doesn't care about MLP. It'd be like going to a Nintendo forum and posting videos with nothing but Sega characters.
When there's a specific thread for fans of a specific show, and someone plans on creating content that revolves around that specific show, it's not unreasonable to expect said content to be posted in that specific thread. It's not unreasonable to assume a vast majority of the public has no intention of viewing this encode, and that a smaller minority is going to actively detest it. Meanwhile, the audience that the encode appeals to is already the entire audience of the MLP thread. So posting it there means it'll reach the exact same people without the hassle of 5 or 6 posts that say nothing but "why" from people who can't help but shitpost when presented with the opportunity. So only posting them to the MLP thread is a win/win: The entire target audience still sees the encode, while everyone outside of the target audience isn't forced to look at it. Nobody complains, and the less people are complaining, the better.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | CohostwarmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
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Had to vote Yes because I still love how ridiculous it is.
Super cheap temp encode:
Link to video
I can't dump it properly (seems others have the same problem) so I just recorded it with my OBS setup.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | CohostwarmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.