Posts for SoapAgent

Posted: 2/18/2022 12:35 AM
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SoapAgent
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I suppose this could warrant a post. Basically, I discovered(?) that you can suspend dash "storage"/wall clip state by sliding (I didn't exactly discover it, since it's a known trick in WL3, but I also sincerely doubt that I was the first to find it in this game either). This means that it is possible to clip out of bounds in the far right of the second room of the Really Final Chapter. Due to how the level is laid out in ROM, this allows us to get inside the tile data for the 5th room and enter a door to the 6th, skipping a couple rooms along the way and eliminating the need to deal with the quite slow 4th room, saving 3 in-game seconds from mugg's TAS. User movie #637807299845550294 Link to video Another thing to note is that slide-buffering a clip makes finding wall clip positions significantly easier than fishing for a good lineup with the dashjump method (although maybe "easier" isn't what we want here since this method is not as direct or fast). It also allows clipping into spaces where there is not room to dashjump (an example that comes to mind is the tiny Wario room in 5-2 Storm the Castle, and I think possibly the top of the "bee bounce" room in 3-4). I also found a way to get a wall clip with only 1 tile of walking space, similar to Wario Land 3's turnaround wall clips used in N4 in the Any% route. I don't know if there is any reason to use a trick like this, but I still made a quick movie just in case: User movie #637807399158871261 And here is one last wall clip style that I don't think I've seen in this game yet — water clips (technically, they're water-buffered clips, since the actual clipping happens in the air still, but I'm just calling them what the WL3 community calls them): User movie #637807409719924707 I'd be curious to see how any of these could be used in a full level TAS, although the last two that I shared may be too specific of use cases. Who knows?
Posted: 12/2/2021 2:27 AM
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SoapAgent
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What is seen in this movie is certainly superhuman. It exhibits excellent control over jumps, always landing in just the right spots. My favorite moment, though, was flipping the "Automatic Pause" switch at the beginning while waiting to be able to confirm the selection. Minor nitpick; the freeruns during the coin deluges didn't seem as coherent or directed, except for the first one which collected all coins. But it takes up a mere fraction of the excellence that is this run, and it certainly doesn't take away any time. Yes vote, naturally. Excited to see an official 3D encode.
Posted: 11/16/2021 9:34 AM
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SoapAgent
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Okay, I actually have some new thoughts on this. Or rather, I'm rereading other people's thoughts in this thread, and I think using entirely unique objects for all 220 levels might be too much challenge on my part without enough reward. I particularly like Chef Stef's suggestion to aim for unique and unexpected solutions in puzzle levels, but aim mostly for speed in action levels. A TAS of this game could potentially take two directions: a demonstration of the quirks of the game concept (i.e. using unusual synonyms, finding bizarrely creative ways to solve a basic challenge), or a demonstration of the quirks of the game engine (mainly aiming for speed, using various clipping glitches and speed tricks which are each only possible with a select set of items). I just feel like stretching all the more broken items in the game across some arbitrary spread out levels will make lots of other sections of such a long TAS feel quite bland, and having more varied goals will make for a better demonstration of both. If a viewer doesn't like one approach, they can just skip half of each world, although I imagine both approaches should have their appeal if I can execute them well. In any case, performing the speed tricks reliably and quickly is a good example of superhuman play, since they usually involve precise touchscreen positioning and attention to detail that can't be accomplished as fast in an RTA context. I don't want to get too far in WIP without hearing some current thoughts regarding goals from other people interested in a TAS of this game, since there are a lot of potential courses of action.
Posted: 11/15/2021 12:38 AM
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SoapAgent
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Really_Tall wrote:
You may want to Ask a Judge about the acceptability of this release compared to the original release, especially if using button inputs instead of touchscreen inputs is slower, or if there are other notable differences.
I don't see any reason why an updated, official release of the same game should present any problems with its ability to be accepted, as the only differences that affect TASing make it better. (Well, besides the few seconds in selecting the game at the beginning, but it approximately evens out because you can skip the opening credits afterwards, which you couldn't do before) Either way, here are the key changes introduced in the Scribblenauts Collection rerelease:
  • Button input can now be used to control Maxwell. This allows for much more precise and immediate control of Maxwell. With button input, Maxwell can jump whenever a jump button is pressed, and he won't auto-jump next to a ledge unless the player tells him to. Button input also allows for a double jump glitch that enables more interesting platforming than just summoning a flying machine to get over every 2 foot high ledge. In the unlikely event that touchscreen input is preferred for something, it still can be used (it's a hybrid layout).
  • The camera doesn't try to lock on Maxwell every time you are manipulating something off-screen. In general, it seems to let the player control it just fine.
  • An oversight in word recognition has been corrected. Formerly, to bypass the restrictions of Advanced Mode (you must beat the level 3 times in a row, but each time you must use a different set of items), you could literally enter a single letter and a space before a word and the game wouldn't recognize it as an item you had already used. In the rerelease, this no longer works, so you can't cheese Advanced Mode. For our purposes, this isn't that important, since I don't plan to do advanced mode for every level (that would take upward of 6 hours), but it's worth mentioning.
  • An oversight/bug allowing the player to move the Starite in an action level wherever they want has been fixed. Formerly, there was some setup involving attaching the Starite to handcuffs, attaching those to a bag, basket, etc., then putting the Starite inside the bag. This made it possible to move the bag with the Starite in it, but also cheapens the effect of playing through all the levels.
Per the above, I feel that there is no reason to use the old version when this one is more conducive to creative TASing.
Really_Tall wrote:
SMWAgent09AF wrote:
Another goal of mine is to never repeat objects, so I'll have to decide where it is most important to do vehicle clips, spring clips and the like.
Is this goal equivalent to getting the "All New" Merit in every stage? I think the speed/entertainment tradeoff to use only unique objects makes sense for the game, and if it can be neatly defined based on that Merit then that's handy (in the case that someone wants to obsolete the movie while following the same goals, for example).
This almost works, but unfortunately there are a couple cases where this won't be an accurate measure of if the goal was met. For some reason, if Maxwell holds or wears an object in a level, this will count as an object that the player summoned, even if it was already a part of the level. (This can even be seen in a couple levels in the WIP above.) If you hold an object that you have summoned in a previous level, you will fail the "All New" merit, regardless of if you wrote it yourself. Also, if you beat a level without summoning anything, you won't get the merit. (This is less important, since you will notice that nothing was summoned anyway, but it does mean it isn't that neatly defined.) Now that I think about it, I wonder if I should go for all merits? There is one specific merit that effectively requires me to summon a bunch of stale objects, and then sandbag in a level for about a minute, but it could be worth it since few people have seen it (it is glitched and unobtainable in the original release). I don't want to make this decision on my own and then find that I've done quite a bit of unnecessary work, so I would appreciate other people giving their thoughts here.
Posted: 10/29/2021 4:19 AM
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SoapAgent
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I have made my own WIP of the puzzle portion of the first world, although I used the Scribblenauts Collection release of the game, as it allows for button input, which makes for a much better TASing experience. Button controls also allow for a very easy glitch: the double jump. It is very self-explanatory, but I will say that it allows for several levels to require 1 less object when there is something that is just barely out of reach otherwise, and it may allow for small optimizations in other levels. Movie file: User movie #75167431570737622 Encode (using Lua text to substitute for the top screen, for a more console-like screen resolution): Link to video I don't want to make this post too long, but I will say that I feel like I typically want to go for more technically impressive or interesting/entertaining solutions (I'm particularly proud of what I came up with for P1-5, and also P1-9). This means that I don't really want to do a "cop out" solution for a level like P1-8 where you just use an "apocalypse object" to get rid of everything. Another goal of mine is to never repeat objects, so I'll have to decide where it is most important to do vehicle clips, spring clips and the like. Here is a list of objects I've used so far: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TDRPkPElwoH2oEZqTlXZcc0Jq-catRBaCrTTogD5Mo8/#gid=793384863 Feedback is welcomed/appreciated. Let me know if I should take a different approach!
Posted: 7/27/2021 5:10 AM
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SoapAgent
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Actually, ignore my above post. Upon further inspection, it appears that saving and reloading the level (through the in-game save menu) is necessary in order to get the platform to appear there. I didn't realize that there are portions of OoB that are affected by saving, and I thought the saving in speedruns is done purely for making the wall clip setup much easier. (It's definitely used for that too, but I guess it has two functions.) I feel kind of dumb for not testing this since I assumed that saving was only for RTA consistency, but there are at least a couple cases in the previous game where saving and reloading changes the OoB so I guess I'm not too surprised. Anyway, after I finish what I'm doing in gambatte, I'll look into if the newly discovered emu-only glitch room behaves "improperly" (i.e. like the other emulators) in GBHawk.
Posted: 7/23/2021 11:55 PM
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SoapAgent
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Fortranm wrote:
Link to video Link to video
^^ these are emulator-only. I believe a TAS can use a faster setup to get to the zombie room in order to get to the "lamp room" than what humans can do, though, in case someone wants to do this new any% route. A "true" credits warp can only currently be done on 3DS for now.
Posted: 7/23/2021 10:59 PM
Post subject: Wario Land 3 OoB
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SoapAgent
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I was told to post this here. Basically, GBHawk doesn't emulate the OoB in Wario Land 3 properly, or at least not in this level. Below are videos from different platforms showing how the OoB is supposed to behave for the purposes of a speedrun: Gameboy Interface (Twitch clip) Gameboy Player (Twitch clip) 3DS Virtual Console (Twitch clip) BGB 1.5.8 (YouTube, timestamped) I couldn't find a run on the speedrun.com leaderboard that was definitely on gambatte, so I recorded it myself. I do have more powerups than you would normally have in a speedrun, but that doesn't affect the OoB in this particular case. gambatte-speedrun (YouTube, timestamped) In the preceding videos, Wario falls down about 2 screens while hugging the left wall. Next, he heads right a bit before reaching the bottom of the screen for the third time and a jump is buffered by holding A. He lands on a 3 or 4 tile wide platform in OoB, but immediately jumps and is able to get hit by the Pneumo (the mosquito-thing that inflates Wario). Meanwhile, in GBHawk, this platform is missing, and other features of OoB are also incorrect (At the bottom, there should be blocks that Wario can dash into that will make unloaded tiles appear a deep blue. At the top of the RAM, there should be plenty of garbage; however, there is just a solid ceiling). I believe this is similar to or the same as how this OoB behaves in VBA, but I don't know for sure. Anyway, here is an HD encode of a LOTAD that shows how the OoB doesn't behave properly in GBHawk (starting at around the 1-minute mark): YouTube link I wasn't anticipating that the first OoB section wouldn't work. I originally stumbled upon this problem because I wanted to test a new OoB room that only works on emulator, behaves slightly differently on 3DS, and crashes the game on original hardware. However, I cannot even get to that room because I have to be in this version of the level (daytime, without the blue snake door open), and in order to get to the correct section of the level without the blue snake door, this first bit of OoB has to be used. If I had to guess, even if I used cheat codes to move Wario into the proper in-bounds room and performed the setup to get into OoB there, that room would probably not be accessible in the first place. Movie used for the above video: User movie #73008826659546776
Posted: 7/11/2021 4:14 AM
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SoapAgent
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So far I've completed the first 3 worlds. Some information I've gathered throughout this project:
    Punching and using the special weapon both make Mr. Tuff decelerate on the ground. This can be bypassed by attacking in midair. The weapon that I collected at the beginning of the 1st level (technically the second, but you can play the levels in any order) is the strongest, and therefore the fastest, weapon. In-level lag frames can rarely be reduced by disabling the HUD (L button). Even if this isn't possible, the game only ever lags one frame at a time in most cases so it's no big deal. If Mr. Tuff falls from a high place, he will crash down and be stuck crouching for a second or so. This can be bypassed by timing an attack to expire the frame after he lands.
Movie #72724853710699089 HD50 encode with input: Link to video
Posted: 7/2/2021 12:15 AM
Post subject: Mr. Tuff (prototype)
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SoapAgent
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Mr. Tuff is a game that was developed by SCi, but was never finished (?) or released. Despite this, the last known prototype (from 5 Dec 1994) is fully beatable and looks quite polished. The game has a speedrun.com board, which is how I initially discovered it, and I wanted to see what a TAS of the game could look like. I have started work on an any% TAS, and I got through the first world. It probably isn't ultra-optimized, but it's a start. First world WIP HD50 encode: Link to video[/userfile]
Posted: 6/3/2021 9:05 PM
Post subject: Re: 100% TAS
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TheKDX7 wrote:
In your video (WIP3), from 12:15 to 12:21 you push the stove. You can probably avoid falling back on the platform below, which would avoid the automatic auto-scroll of the screen. As is the case in the video from ISM. https://youtu.be/VXRG9oi-as8?t=720
It's true, preventing the screen from scrolling would save time. However, as it stands, I didn't find a possible way to do this myself. I think that, because of how the boiler RNG works, it probably requires a bit of luck to get the right pushes quickly enough in sequence, since otherwise you end up waiting too long for RNG and the boiler falls down since it's in midair. I suspect that emulation issues are also a factor, since even the canceled All Chests TAS from a couple years ago will desync on newer versions of BizHawk as soon as something involving golf/boilers/etc. comes up, and ISMin's TAS is from 2012. I also probably don't have as much patience as ISM, but I do remember spending a good couple hours on this when doing my own sweep through the 3rd WIP. edit: Okay, I just spent 20 minutes redoing that segment and actually got it to work, saving 82 frames. Time to resync the 60 levels after it, accounting for RNG :/ Here's hoping I don't lose 30 of those frames to worse golf luck and 100 more frames to wolfenboss patterns.
Posted: 5/31/2021 8:09 PM
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SoapAgent
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jlun2 wrote:
Good luck! In my experience with the prequel, OoB routes are mostly TAS-only (this game also has OoB), so you're likely forced to change much of the route (using the OoB visualization script). Just like the previous game, much of it is unexplored, so you probably will find something new.
OoB cannot be accessed quite as easily as in WL2, since wall clipping into a closed space makes Wario crouched and unable to jump. Instead, you need to get into a transformation that allows Wario to stand in the wall without crouching and jump beyond the bounds of the level. The only actual out of bounds I have accessed so far in this TAS is a shortcut in S3 Red, which can be seen in the WIP video I posted (about 46 minutes in). It is true, there is plenty of unexplored OoB in the game, but judging from what everyone's discovered so far, getting anything OoB takes way too long in comparison with the intended way. Since the goal of this TAS is to ultimately get every treasure and every music coin, sequence breaking accomplishes very little besides overworld optimization. If you are thinking of other tricks, like wall clips, transformation climbs, and the screen scroll glitch (all of which can be done in WL2 afaik), then rest assured there is plenty of that in here. Anyway, I had to take a short break from this over the weekend and some of last week, but at the moment I have finished 67 levels, and the movie clocks in at about 1 hour and 37 minutes. The levels only get longer from here, and I still have 15 levels with music coins to collect. I'll probably upload a 4th WIP after I get 75 treasures, and I encourage everyone who sees this or the previous WIP to look for improvements that I may have missed.
Posted: 5/11/2021 11:00 PM
Post subject: 100% TAS
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SoapAgent
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Hi all, I am a relatively new RTA runner of Wario Land 3, and I decided to review/improve the RTA route for 100% and make a TAS out of it. I have currently done a little over an hour of the movie, which I estimate will clock in at about 3h25m in the end. I don't know how familiar people are with this game here, as this topic hasn't been posted in for a while, but I would appreciate any feedback or optimizations anyone notices. I am including a YouTube link to the most recent WIP as of this writing below. Some informational documents and some bk2 movies are in the Drive folder in the video's description. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsxMcLMykvA Thanks! This is my first post here; please let me know if I'm doing something wrong (: