just for the record, you checked "copy framebuffer to dram" when making your movie, right?
If the output of your gfx plugin is allowed to influence the behaviour of the game, you'll run into trouble, because the gfx-plugin's output will be different on different hardware, different CPU loads or between different driver versions. No change in mupen can fix this.
Zelda accesses the video ram each time you enter the inventory, and when I tried to play your movie, it always desynced on or shortly after an inventory access.
basically, if you aren't lucky enough to have it keep stable, it has to be redone.
It's funny that they argument that they do not allow runs made with an emulator for legal reasons
IANAL, but buying & dumping the rom should be legal, and won't add more costs than video capturing equipment. It also leads to higher video quality.
Checking for the legality of the used roms isn't their job, they don't check the used games for pirated copys now, do they?
Of course, the real reasons are obvious and understandable - makes me wonder why he argumented this way.
sorry if I didn't do my homework, but is the crouch-stab damage also reset when entering a new room?
if it isn't, you could do the jump-slash way earlier when it's useful instead of hitting air, so I guess it is reset, hm?
I still can't quite figure out how a person so full of hate can dare to say that he's able to give an objective view on the situation and propose good solutions. No amount of complex wording is going to hide that.
Well, the "I rule, I'm the majority"-approach is new. Still not interested in discussion or changes on his side, it seems. He doesn't want the videos properly labeled, he want's them labeled in the most degrading and insulting way, he's clear about that.
Nate wrote:
the thing is that i don't care whether it's descriptive or not. i care about the reaction people have when they see it.
At least he claims to have given up on eradicating TASes now. Too bad, an attempt to eradicate the minority had been a good opportunity for Godwin's Law to kick in and end this stupidity once and for all..
I'm not going to read any more of his posts or the follow-up-discussion, it just makes me sick. I'll just put m2k2 on my filter now, none of my previous visits on their forum were productive or good for my mood in any way.
Sorry Qlev for using your thread for venting.
The idea about the explanation video isn't new (and apparently wasn't new when I suggested it either). Alas, no one has done one yet. I consider putting it at the beginning of each video as overkill though.
I agree that we could make it easier for viewers to educate themselves about TAS's, and from my perception this community has always been open to constructive and not over-the-top suggestions. Changing the wording and length of the disclaimer text is probably an option. My suggestion had been something like this:
"This is a tool-assisted recording. It has been done on an emulator, using slowdowns, savestates and other tools, to overcome limitations of human players like skill and reflex. To see how it was done, visit http://tasvideos.org/introduction/"
Of course, we'd need the video first, and a page designed as an introduction for n00bs, not distracting with philosophical questions unimportant to the newcomer, like WhyAndHow does. I'd help with the page, but can't help on the video.
TAXvideos
There's your X right there. Also, the X can be a wildcard for any kind of movie, it can either be a speedrun, an entertainment run, or something completely different, it just has to be tool-assisted. And it has to be X enough to impress the viewers.
naming-discussion solved, coolness increased.
any.. uhm.. objections?
Fabian,
you cannot just change the meaning of an established term. The S in TAS is speedrun.
Also, Arne_The_great wasn't the first to think of the term "tool-assisted superplay".
btw, there already was a spam-thread, turning into the discussion about the site name, turning into a discussion about the term TAS, turning into a discussion about the goals of this site, turning into a spam-thread. You know what thread I'm talking about, since you posted in it. If you actually try to read it, you'll find enough intelligent and not-so-intelligent views on the speed-vs-entertainment debate.
just an idea that crossed my mind today..
most of the misunderstandings of tool-assisted videos exist because many viewers don't understand the meaning of tool-assistance. It's not trivial to grasp for a casual gamer who is used to real consoles.
There's the Why and How-page, but the explanation about tool-assistance is short, hidden inside a longer text, and is incomplete about the tools used. It links to Using Emulator Tools, but that's technical information for TAS-creators, not education for viewers. And it's way too much text for the average internet user.
My idea is to offer an easier way to learn what tool-assistance is about: create a short introductory movie, so they can see how it's done. This movie should show the creation of a difficult stunt using tool-assistance, recorded using fraps (or similar). A stunt that's impressive, not possible for a human player, and shows the basic tools, including some re-records and frame advancing, maybe luck manipulation and memory viewing.
If on-screen-displays are visible and menu items are used instead of hotkeys it should be mostly self-explanatory, but maybe additional subtitles could be added.
some ideas for the stunt (no idea if they take too long for a short movie):
the 0% break on Metroid Fusion (no luck manipulation though)
Super Metroid: enter lower Norfair suitless, and manipulate a 20 energy drop
Super Metroid: Phantoon quick kill. manipulate some missile drops from him, use the memory viewer to monitor his health, kill him.
a crowded fighting scene in a 2D Zelda, with a manipulated bomb drop
Aria of Sorrow Boss fight with manipulated soul drop
btw, this is just an idea, not an offer to create such a movie - I'm no good at TAS'ing. ;)
opinions?
yeah, except that you must not fail once when getting power bomb early, or you'll have to restart the whole maze. joy for anyone who dares to try it unassisted!
well, suddenly being logged out and wondering why it doesn't keep my cookies after logging in isn't really "low-profile".
I don't think a name has to be replaced with an accurate description (you look as much like a cookie as I look like a bath tub - it's just a name).
Of course I'm biased to the name I'm used to, so don't ask me.
It was created by one guy--the programming is quite good but the game design is not.
Is that really true? Sure, it was put together by one man (Manfred Trenz), but it is heavily based on Turrican 1 and Turrican 2 (that were released 2 years earlier). I know Trenz worked on the earlier games as well, but I really doubt that the things he reused were 100% his own. Does anyone have more information than the ingame-credits?
I'll watch the run when I'm back at my home computer.
Edit: yes vote
I haven't really reviewed your code structures, but I'm pretty sure that this
5) Plug-ins.
Plugin for every format should have next functions(one plugin = one format):
isn't needed. IMHO a simple description of the format (like you mentioned above) and a generic loader that can parse those descriptions is probably enough.
Saves you the trouble of compiling seperate dll's and dublicating code.
of course smv>vbm conversion is not any useful
there's no reason for artifical limitations. If a user really wants to do such a conversion (e.g. for different releases of the same game), just let him. Sure, problems will arise when the consoles have a different amount of buttons, but don't make it more restrictive than you have to.
It'd be nice to meet you guys, but I think I'll pass. I suck at console games (dito tournaments), I don't see a point to meet in real life to discuss movies, I don't speak finnish, and it's somewhat expensive from germany for just one day.
I wish you lots of fun though :)
Right now I can't even load roms in it. Anyone had any better luck?
yes, by passing the rom via command line. rom loading and the cheat thingy seem to be the only things I have trouble with. Set output scaling to "opengl" for a speed increase. Disable sound hardware acceleration in winecfg if your sound fails or stutters.
I use a simple bash-script to start snes9x, adjust the paths as needed.
#!/bin/bash
ROM=$(ls -1 ~/wine_c_drive/snes9x/roms/*$1* | grep .smc | sed 's!.*/snes9x/roms/!!')
ROMC=$(ls -1 ~/wine_c_drive/snes9x/roms/*$1* | grep .smc | sed 's!.*/snes9x/roms/!!' | wc -l)
if [ "x$ROMC" == "x1" ] ; then
echo "Using Rom: $ROM .."
cd ~/wine_c_drive/snes9x/roms/
wine "C:\\snes9x\\snes9x.exe" "C:\\snes9x\\roms\\$ROM"
exit
fi
echo "not sure what ROM to use. Matching ROMs:"
echo "$ROM"
exit
run via: ./snes9x.sh Metroi*Redes*1.0 or something.
well, either that, or configure your file manager to open .smc-files with snes9x.
Ninjas don't die, they just vanish ;)
I never played the game (except now for a few minutes before watching), but the movie entertained me. Although the last boss-fight was a letdown (I was surprised to see the game finished, I expected something more interesting for the last boss), I'll give this a yes-vote. How unexpected.
Clear Time: 14:19
Item Collection Rate: 79.7%
even saved the animals, just to annoy JXQ. :p
btw, why is samus allowed to walljump after losing the boots?
well, I stumbled upon it, so I took it. Until now I don't see any reason to use it in a speedrun. Once you know the secrets, you can live without the xray.
of course I can't guarantee anything since I didn't complete the hack yet, but it's functionality didn't change, so how could it be needed?
As linear of Metroid Fusion? almost. You can't get the next thing without the previous thing. its evil. so no, you're more or less stuck on a specific path.
well, there's no certain order between high-jump-boots, wave, spazer and x-ray-scope, they can be grabbed in any order after aquiring speedbooster. the boots even between grapple and speed booster. Right now I don't see any forced path (although it was much more restrictive at first).
now that I can walk around freely, explore everything and do what I want, I really start to like the hack. Having enough options is much better than being forced into a certain puzzle. If I can't solve one room, I'll just pick another first.
