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Not good. With frequent desyncs, even with GC controls, I put this down. All desyncs only occurred when playing movie back from the start.
-During cabin fight
-During 2nd El Gigante (was able to get past by loading an earlier savestate)
-In sword room in castle
I got through the water room and tried playback from beginning again. To get past 2nd El Gigante, I have a copy of the savestate that worked but can't recreate the state. Also the sword room desynced for a second time.
I need to go back to 2nd El Gigante to resume.
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That's OK, thank you very much for trying.
I am attempting again, still going for a good New Game+ file, this time using GC controls (from 2 dtm files, per my post in Dolphin section). I played through the end of the cabin fight, which I was quite happy with the money collected. Naturally, it desynced in the village before this fight. I'll keep trying. The GC controls seem a bit more reliable. If I only lose 50% of my progress each night I should still eventually make it to the end.
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Dimon: To make things easier, youtube videos are not necessary for verification movie. I'll test out your .dtms and see I they sync for me on Dolphin 5.0-12575. Your desync is typical of what I've experienced.
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I traced desyncs to allowing automatic resumption of recording after end of movie file playback, with or without "Pause at End of Movie". Doing so causes desync (dropped inputs?). Instead I resume recording from a point prior to movie end. I have only experienced maybe one desync so far with this method. Wii controls have been fine.
EDIT: I spoke too soon, playing the entire run from the beginning did another early desync. My method of resuming from a recent save state failed.
EDIT 2: Before my previous attempt, I came up with a strategy for stitching together two .dtm movies, allowing switching of controllers. This works on Dolphin 5.0-10833. Maybe it can be simplified in the future.
Recording Part 1 and Part 2:
1. Set up controls for Part 1, ie Wiimote+Classic
2. Start Recording
3. Play until need to switch controls.
4. Stop recording (don't close game window)
6. Export movie as Part 1.dtm
7. Switch to controls needed for Part 2, ie Gamecube.
8. Start Recording
9. Play until complete.
10. End recording, and save as Part 2.dtm.
Playback from Part 1.dtm and Part 2.dtm:
1. Set up controls for Part 1, ie Wiimote+Classic
2. Ensure "Pause at End of Movie" is enabled.
3. Play Part 1.dtm until it ends.
4. Advance 1 frame.
5. Switch to controls needed for Part 2, ie Gamecube.
6. Stop playback (don't close game window)
7. Start Recording
8. Go into savestates folder and copy dtm.sav
9. In dtm folder paste dtm.sav and rename to Part 2.dtm.sav
10. Exit gameplay
11. Play back Part 2.dtm, which will begin from a reproducible save state (Part 2.dtm.sav) generated by Part 1.dtm.
Further recording:
When exporting after gameplay, a new dtm.sav file will be created by Dolphin, identical to Part 2.dtm.sav, with the same filename as exported dtm. This further enables playback/recoding.
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JosJuice wrote:
Regarding the desync problem, do you mean that having a Wii Remote connected is affecting the inputs of the GameCube controller? Or only the inputs of the Wii Remote?
I've tried recording using only Wiimote with Classic Controller, no GC controller connected. Usually the desyncs seem to manifest as completing an action too early, leading me to assume it is not recording some of the inputs. Examples:
1) when running and turning left into a doorway the playback results in running into the wall to the left of the door (not running far enough before turning).
2) when turning right to shoot a tripwire, playback results in shooting to the left of the tripwire (not turning far enough).
I would say it occurs every few minutes of gameplay.
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JosJuice wrote:
Dimon12321 wrote:
He means, a dtm input file can't have 2 different controller inputs at once. Switching from GC contr. to Wii Remote (and vice versa) is impossible during a movie recording.
You can absolutely have two different controllers at the same time. What you can't do is connect or disconnect a controller during the movie.
If I have both GC controller and Wiimote with nunchuck or classic controller connected, the input of the GC controller does not register duing gameplay.
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Zinfidel wrote:
What I had been doing as a shortcut is comparing my encodes against Ubercapitalist's temp encode since I could access and play it quickly, and there's something about the way his encode is done that throws off the timing compared to mine.
The quick map restart that is done right at the beginning is much faster on his encode, though the rest of the encode then lines up exactly, including the audio. It looks like my ffv1 dumps match up with the emulation though, so maybe he did some editing for his temp.
My temp encode was recorded with xbox gamebar, no other editing was done.
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I think I've narrowed desyncs in Resident Evil 4 Wii to the Wii controls (dolphin seems to randomly drop inputs). I want to play using Gamecube controls. There is an initial screen that can only be passed with Wii controls. My solution is to:
1)start up without recording with Wii controls
2)get past that initial screen
3)at the next screen (data file) pause Dolphin
4)switch to Gamecube controls
5)Start recording dtm
6)resume gameplay with GC controls.
Doing this creates a .dtm.sav file. When playing back the movie, it starts at the data file screen, (skipping the initial wiimote screen) as expected, but this leaves no trace of the initial wii inputs.
How can I make this work for a submittable movie from power on? There does not seem to be a way to start dtm playback after game is started, else I would just provide instructions to get to the data file screen then play the dtm.
Other things tried on Dolphin 5.0-10833:
Recording with both Wii and GC controls connected does not register GC inputs.
Changing from Wii controls to GC controls stops the dtm playback.
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So I am down to last stage of Mercenaries: the Base. I don't want to use the NTSC GC version since it only has 101 enemies. The NTSC Wii version (RB4E08) has 117 enemies. This requires a new verification movie to unlock Mercenaries and Wesker. I tried making a verification movie, with the dual purpose of making it suitable for a New Game+. I had over 500,000 pesetas before the cabin fight and decided to see if the movie would play through. It desynced just before finding Luis, when I had about 100,000 pesetas. I tried playing again continuing from that point, and again got desync a few minutes later. I tried getting through the main game a couple years ago with similar result, it seems Dolphin is just not up to TASing the Wii version. I have only wiimote+classic controller (can't use only GC controller due to needing Wiimote to get past first screen), no memcard, dualcore off on Dolphin 5.0-10833. I may just longplay it with no savestates just to get the unlocks without trying for New Game+, but it may have the same desync trouble when I attempt Base TAS. Any suggestions?
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Dimon12321 wrote:
Never liked this map. Glad to see you've completed it.
Voting Yes.
Wow, there's an improvement: User movie #65132350819009759
Thanks! Here is the improvement. This has slightly more entertaining use of waiting time at the end, and movie ends sooner. YouTube temp encode is updated.
User movie #65144844001593442
Would someone with rights please replace this file in my submission?
Edit: Thank you slamo for the file replacement.
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Here is the final Part 4E1-4E5, the Endgame:
Link to video
----------
Vykan12: Thanks for your strategies. Where I deviated I probably should have followed them more closely.
----------
I'm ready to start submission. I have a couple options for ending the movie, which should I submit?
1. Final input is start of Ike's attack on Ashera. This plays pre/post battle video and continues until a dialog screen with user scrolling is reached. This is shown in the above video.
2. After initiating Ike's last attack, continue skipping cutscenes and scrolling through dialog text until much later the "Fin" screen is reached and can be faded with final input. Unfortunately after this Dolphin hangs up on a black screen and doesn't continue to battle records.
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deuxhero wrote:
OK, so it was just easier to strength elesewhere.
Would getting the coin in the prison chapter and RNG manipulating to give a +3 might bonus when forging the supersword have been worth the speed loss in getting it and extra menus? It seems like it would have let Edward kill the boss next chapter without Nolan and that tiger at the end in one round at least.
It seems that the coin type is loaded as an object with the rest of the level, and there is no way to manipulate it during gameplay. The only way I have to check what card a coin gives is to collect it and finish the level. Maybe coins could be manipulated if I enabled saves at the beginning.
Here is Part 2 of 4:
Link to video
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Vykan12 wrote:
I watched your WIP, seems fine, except player phase is inconsistently skipped optimally, and not holding start when enemies attack to avoid the spinning yellow triangle pointer.
Hope you keep it up, as I don't currently have a PC capable of TASing this game.
What do you mean by player phases inconsistently skipped? I know once I forgot to skip the experience meter fill.
Thanks for the tip about holding start when enemy attack.
I have gotten up to chapter 1-5 by playing real time with save states, testing different orders of attacks until getting a decent result for level ups. I then record video, and follow the steps of that video to make an optimized TAS. This method has decent results, but isn't practical for getting perfect (or close) level ups or getting low% criticals. there's just too few combinations of moves which take too long to highly optimize. I ran into an RNG desync using this method, and traced it to this:
The RNG cycles whenever the attack cursor for a ranged attack unit highlights an enemy ~on a diagonal~. RNG can be incremented by going back and forth between the enemy select and weapon select screens (slow). If there are two or more enemies in attack range, jumping between a diagonal enemy and another enemy will cycle RNG (fast). The RNG value is the same for each of these cycles regardless of which unit is used or which diagonal enemy is highlighted.
I am partway through 1-5, and have set up for a wrath/resolve Edward for next chapter. I am leaning toward just continuing with what I have, and using the above RNG cycle method from this point forward. I know I could win more battles with less stats with new RNG method. Thoughts?
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Link to video
I've gone through the first two maps.
I manipulate the RNG by the order which units are moved.
Something that also alters RNG is visiting a house, canceling the scene quickly or slowly will alter RNG.
This is a new game, no bonus transfers from Path of Radiance, and no option to turn off battle animations. I've searched for real time speedruns and all I've found use NG+ or transfers.
Is this run worth continuing?
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feos wrote:
Does anyone see any visual glitches in these 2 encodes?
They look the same to me, no glitches. I get a glitch running OpenGL on iGPU where laser line doesn't appear, but your video doesn't have that problem.
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This game seems to run well. I experimented a bit and the RNG appears to only change depending on when the game is started. In prologue with 3 weakened enemies surrounding Edward, a 10% chance critical would activate no matter which enemy was attacked on that turn. It seems the best way to go is to work smart with whatever the RNG gives and adjust order of unit actions. Battle Save abuse could be used if there is a moment where it is very important to get good RNG, where the result outweighs the time spent (unlikely for speedrun).
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Dimon12321 wrote:
jlun2 wrote:
Given how there's only a finite amount of NPCs, would it make more sense not to grab some of the timers?
Timers are required to make some more enemies appear.
Yes, in hindsight 2:00 or 2:30 worth of time extensions could be skipped. The barn and tower timers each spawn enemies and must be grabbed.
EDIT: Upon experimentation, the first 90 second timer needs to be grabbed and Wesker needs to be out of the house by 3:15 in order for three ganados to spawn.
jlun2 wrote:
Would you ever do max scores of other stages as well, and maybe max scores for characters?
Castle and Village are done, leaving Base and Waterworld. I'm considering Base on Wii (more enemies than GC) or Waterworld on GC. I don't think other characters have higher scoring potential than Wesker.