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In the last glitchfest from R&Z, there is shown a very weird glitch: in MGZ, if you are standing on the blue «disk» under the descending ceiling, the game randomly crashes, sometimes even throwing you into… competition mode. I wonder if it’s a memory corruption glitch, which can be abused for speedrunning? marzojr, maybe you have any idea what’s happening?
Link to video
Watch it from 5:50, if you are not familiar with the language
S3&A [Amy amy%] improvement (with Evil_3D & kaan55) — currently in SPZ2
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TheYogWog wrote:
even though I've been using marzojr's LUA HUD, and couldn't TAS nearly as well without it, I still get confused about what each of the 6 number fields at the bottom are supposed to represent. Sorry, but could somebody please just clarify this for me?
First row: X speed, Y speed, ground speed
Second row shows approximated values of the same things in assumption that you press jump button on the next frame
Also, my opinion is: when deciding if a ring attack TAS should be published or not, it should be considered a playaround, and slightly less optimization level should be allowed.
TheYogWog wrote:
So, those are some things I thought you guys might be interested in knowing in case you didn't already. But yes, as I said I do need to work on loop jumping and thanks again WST for being most helpful.
I suggest the algorithm like this:
1. Find the best point to make an up-loop jump
2. Find the best place to start rolling. Usually it’s somewhere near the top of the loop, when the slope angle changes it’s sign
3. Find the best place for down-loop jump.
4. Start rolling again
5. Find the best point to make out-loop jump
Depending on your desired optimization level, this algorithm may become more complex. For example, sometimes (especially in Sonic 2) you miss the best point to make the up-loop jump. Jumping on any frame does not accelerate you, only slows down. In Sonic 3, it’s unlikely to happen, but if it does, you will need to slightly align yourself before the loop (for example, by leaving 1 frame without D-pad input). The same can be said about the 2 other jumps, but down-loop jump and out-loop jumps are usually easier, because it’s enough to choose the proper frame to start rolling, to get the best position. Actually, Sonic 3 is the easiest of all Sonic games for loop acceleration, it’s just my opinion, because you need special positioning maneurs really seldom :)
TheYogWog wrote:
I think it's actually kinda spooky, tbh, the fact that just that 1 tile is not as thick as the rest of the ground there. I'm only half kidding when I say that I swear this game has an otherworldly, almost supernatural quality about its design at times. When it was as being made they couldn't possibly have known that 20 years later TASers might use this and other similarly unlikely exploits in their runs, yet that's what happened.
That’s a backdoor =D
S3&A [Amy amy%] improvement (with Evil_3D & kaan55) — currently in SPZ2
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Of course, it’s not just «ok», but a great news that you are going to turn this into a complete project. I’m deeply impressed by your ring attacks, and they are certainly ones of the best ring attacks I’ve ever seen (but yeah, I enjoyed all the other ring attacks not much less).
The only one thing, which, I beleive, could be improved in this your last run, is when you exit the last tube. It is possible to cancel being thrown high up after it, but I have no idea how to do it (because I usually TAS Amy, and it’s trivial to do with her, unlike with Knuckles). But, as I seen in Qwerty’s, LTRP’s and feeuzz’s runs, they know how to perform it. I also noticed that you strive to avoid braking on objects, but if you do, it takes quite visibilly much time. Actually, you can brake on the objects faster. The idea is: to spindash on the object, you need to have X speed = 0. Regular braking allows to reach such a speed only in the case when your X speed is k*128 (this is the best case scenario). But this happens seldom (unless you know how to force it). So, in the most cases the easiest way to brake on objects quicker is (in assumption that you are moving to the right side):
1. Bring your speed below 128
2. Pressing [<>] forces your speed to exactly 128
3. Pressing [<v][vA][vB][vC][vA][vB][vC] charges the spindash
As far as I understand it, you can press left and down at the same time, because the game performs braking earlier than checking for ability to make a spin dash.
(upd) just noticed that you do not jump in the loops. It’s a required part of making optimized runs, because it helps to gain a lot higher speed. The three most commonly used jumps in the loops are up-loop jump, down-loop jump and out-loop jump. Consider reading about them and abusing them for additional acceleration. :)
(upd2) by the way, it’s possible to enter the tubes without loosing speed, but I have experience doing this only with Amy. Apparently, it’s a lot easier to pull off with Amy than with the other characters.
TheYogWog wrote:
Apologies, hadn't noticed.
No problem, got your reply now, I will send you mine soon
S3&A [Amy amy%] improvement (with Evil_3D & kaan55) — currently in SPZ2
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So, I’ve successfully built my first SMD device. I used a very simple circuit:
It works just like a charm, but at first I could not make it working. I checked the plate many times, even replaced the NE555 IC, which I supposed to be broken — no result. The LED was constantly luminous without blinking. Suddenly, when looking for possible short circuit, I’ve realized that today I used a newly bought soldering flux… My guess was right: the source of the problem was the conductive flux. After washing it out and starting the device again, it worked.
Here is a generated picture of the PCB (view from SMD component side). I used a DIP LED (I don’t have SMD ones, yet) and two CR2025 batteries. Resistors and capacitors are 1206-sized.
Cannot provide a photo for now, because I broke my mobile phone. But I will post a photo (or video) next few days. I will also show some [a little more complex] DIP devices I’ve built.
S3&A [Amy amy%] improvement (with Evil_3D & kaan55) — currently in SPZ2
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Guys… I am really so sorry :( but don’t you mind if I still can improve this? :-p
Link to video
(well, youtube chosen not the best frame to become video preview, so, you probably don’t even need to watch the video, to see what I mean)
This may still be improveable, I may have missed one little thing… Have to try it next time.
If Qwerty wants, I may send him the results of my editions, but he’ll have to list me as a co-author then :-p
(upd) Okay, my GHZ1 time is 0:16.55, 3 frames faster than my previous attempt. Is it enough?
GHZ3 can probably be improved too. I am trying to take Amy’s route in that level. The problem is the boss Y position is too high when I come to the boss room this way, and I loose all time I win, but there is still some room for further improvements
S3&A [Amy amy%] improvement (with Evil_3D & kaan55) — currently in SPZ2
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I certainly love #2. Spindashing on what? To where? For what? =D
(obviously, as a TASer of this game, I know the answers, but the feelings of a casual player will be like that)
S3&A [Amy amy%] improvement (with Evil_3D & kaan55) — currently in SPZ2
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Буквально 20 минут назад ходил на почту за посылкой, и вдруг испытал острое чувство того, что окружающую меня обстановку что-то сильно роднит с TASvideos. Несколько секунд пытался понять, что за хрень, потом понял, что боковым зрением увидел стоящую на витрине пачку цветных карандашей с изображёнными на ней персонажами вот из этого пробега :3
Подействовало буквально подсознательно, и если бы я не нашёл глазами эту пачку уже сознательно, потом долго ломал бы голову, что за бред =)
S3&A [Amy amy%] improvement (with Evil_3D & kaan55) — currently in SPZ2
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amaurea wrote:
Personally I would like to see both a glitchless and glitchy max ring TAS and I'm not sure which one I would anticipate the most. I think both should have a place on tasvideos if somebody makes them.
Agree. Ring attacks are a lot harder to optimize than plain speedruns, but their paradox is that even a poorly optimized ring attack shows more beautiful tool-assisted acrobatics than optimized speedruns.
S3&A [Amy amy%] improvement (with Evil_3D & kaan55) — currently in SPZ2
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(apologies about posting the third post in row)
I’ve just made something incredibly incredible for you, friends. Because you are all the best. Hope you, guys, enjoy… :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytn2h2JSayg
Thanks go to:
marzojr for information on hiding the hud (and also for being /dev/null for my brain’s stderr while making this)
AnS for tool assistance in solving my gd issuesupthorn for the level map
S3&A [Amy amy%] improvement (with Evil_3D & kaan55) — currently in SPZ2
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AnS sent me an archive containing his Gens instance.
I've checked all *.dll files with md5sum and found no difference. Finally I've started his Gens and run the test Lua script. It worked just fine. So, the source of the problem is certainly Gens itself. I used SVN nightly builds (rev 304 and rev 327), but AnS sent me gens_11b.exe.
Yesterday I workarounded the issue by writing the results of emu.gdscreenshot calls into files and further processing by standalone Lua script, but now I got a chance to finally write a complete Lua script for Gens, which would solve my task. So, thank you once again, AnS.
S3&A [Amy amy%] improvement (with Evil_3D & kaan55) — currently in SPZ2
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True, your links are brilliant, this is exactly what I was looking for, thank you very much! So, isn’t it the case when the bakery shop is full of car mechanics? :)
(upd) I’ve just realized that electronic devices are made with tool assistance, so it’s actually not that much of off topic… :)
S3&A [Amy amy%] improvement (with Evil_3D & kaan55) — currently in SPZ2
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Espyo wrote:
seemed optimized
Lol, beleive me, it’s optimized to absolutely unhealthy level :)
By the way,
marzojr wrote:
By jumping at the right spot by the entrance to the tunnels, you don't slow down and thus save a considerable amount of time. With Tails, taking the upper route was the faster option.
Is this trick really new? I had abused it in one of mine and Qwerty’s very early Amy@S3K WIPs. You may clearly see how I added it between WIP-2 and WIP-3.
(upd) did not notice that it’s not listed in «new tricks» section. Nevermind :)
S3&A [Amy amy%] improvement (with Evil_3D & kaan55) — currently in SPZ2
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Well, I posted it in «Off topic», and since some of our members build devices for hardware TAS verification, is really having such a thread worse than having discussions about My Little Pony, Mars One, math and physics, programmimg? Also I have no mood to join other communities…
I have to thank you all for your replies, but I don’t think the shown applet is suitable for my purpose — it’s good for those who already have some experience. My goal is to help my friends start from scratch, and I beleive, there should be available «classical» books, I even know a few ones, but they all are written by Russian authors, and I doubt they are translated into English language. Also Russia has it’s own system of naming electronic components. You know, up to early 1990s it was an extremely closed country, and even electronic components were not imported. Instead, a lot of local components were manufactured. For example, Russian replacement for NE555 would be КР1006ВИ1 (available in SMD format as КФ1006ВИ1), replacement of 78L05 would be, for example, КР1181ЕН5 (and there are a plenty of other replacements). Some of them are absolutely the same — hardware clones, in other words. Others just do the same function and have the same pinout, but the inner side differs a lot. That’s another reason why I don’t think why Russian books are suitable for newbie in electronics from USA or Japan, for example. In case you are wondering — even nowadays the Russian electronic components are still manufactured, despite the fact that it’s economically inefficient and the technology significally degradated during heavy economic crisis in 1990s
Derakon wrote:
When I was in college I took one digital engineering course that had an awful (seriously, the UI was a trainwreck) computer-aided design program for setting up circuits that served a similar purpose.
Out of curiousity, was it MicroCap?
S3&A [Amy amy%] improvement (with Evil_3D & kaan55) — currently in SPZ2
my TAS channel · If I ever come into your dream, I’ll be riding an eggship :)
It works just like a charm, but at first I could not make it working. I checked the plate many times, even replaced the NE555 IC, which I supposed to be broken — no result. The LED was constantly luminous without blinking. Suddenly, when looking for possible short circuit, I’ve realized that today I used a newly bought soldering flux… My guess was right: the source of the problem was the conductive flux. After washing it out and starting the device again, it worked.
Here is a generated picture of the PCB (view from SMD component side). I used a DIP LED (I don’t have SMD ones, yet) and two CR2025 batteries. Resistors and capacitors are 1206-sized.
Cannot provide a photo for now, because I broke my mobile phone. But I will post a photo (or video) next few days. I will also show some [a little more complex] DIP devices I’ve built.