Posts for Warp


Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Sir VG wrote:
The verification quality has been greatly tightened in the past couple of years.
Any idea when will they finally implement sorting the game list by publication date (of the speedrun, not the game)? I asked this question on the SDA forum something like 4 years ago and the reply was something along the lines of it being on the works. The site is still identical. It's really annoying having to go through the entire list every time I want to see if there's a new speedrun of something I might want to watch.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
DevilSpree wrote:
The vast majority of SDA runs are done at exceeding poor quality, far worse than TASVideos even uses, is that their only defense for "not TASed"?
I didn't quite understand if you mean that the speedruns are slow and sloppy (even by the standards of a human player), or if you were referring to something else (maybe video encoding quality?) If you were referring to sloppy playing, then there are, indeed, some really egregious examples. For example, when I once checked the speedrun of the Playstation version of Driver, I was simply amazed at how poorly it was done. The player did not only drive poorly and sloppily, but he even several times stopped to look at the (fullscreen) map, several times in a short period of time, and many seconds at a time (ie. he opens the map, looks at it for like 5-10 seconds, then drives for about that much time, then opens the map again, and so on). The run was so horrid that I had to stop watching it after the first level. I don't really understand how such a run gets accepted by SDA. The speedrun of the PC version saved the day, though, as it's of top quality.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
moozooh wrote:
What happened on christmas 2008?
We don't like to talk about it.
Post subject: Re: Far tougher encoding scripts
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
nfq wrote:
Flygon wrote:
As some may have noticed, I've been advertising that I've been encoding movies with a specific script that I've claimed is literally as tough as possible while having no quality loss.
good. so maybe you can make a proper encode of my Turok 3 TAS. the currently published movie has sound desyncs and lacks antialiasing and anisotropic filtering.
What do game emulation settings have anything to do with MPEG-4 video encoding settings? It's a completely different issue.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
moozooh wrote:
Default: auto (1.5 * logical processors, rounded up)
Btw, one could ask why have more threads than processors? (With the formula above, even with one single-core processor you would get two threads. With a dual-core you would get 3 threads. But why? What's the point?) The idea is, AFAIK, that since video encoding is quite I/O-heavy, using more threads than processors actually helps speeding up the process. This is because if there were only as many threads as processors, any thread which is currently doing I/O would have its processor sitting idle (because I/O is so enormously slower than the CPU that the latter has basically nothing to do while it waits for the I/O to finish). Thus if you run 2 threads on one single-core processor, there's a good chance that one of the threads will get this free CPU time for its calculations while the other one is waiting for I/O, hence the CPU will get fully used. The same is true for more processors/cores, naturally. (In fact, with more CPUs and hence more threads the efficiency rate may even be better because it lessens the possibility of the single-core case where both threads are waiting for I/O at the same time.)
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Flygon wrote:
As to why we actually encode in lossless? Mainly because the encodes are so small anyway that keeping them lossless is basically worth that small increase in size for small increase in quality... it's basically a 'why the hell not' scenario.
It would be interesting to see some concrete statistics about this (completely out of honest curiosity and nothing else). What kind of file size differences are we talking about with lossless vs. lossy-with-almost-no-visible-visual-artifacts encodes? Examples from some actual TASes would be best (it doesn't have to be full TASes, as it would take a lot of time to do this testing, just some segments which demonstrate the effect). It wouldn't be surprising, however, if there was little difference between lossless and lossy, due to the nature of the source material (ie. pixel graphics). It's the same with PNG vs JPEG: If we are dealing with photographs or drawings with millions of colors (with color shades, gradients, etc), it's next to impossible for PNG to match a JPEG which still shows no significant amount of visual artifacts. However, when we are talking about things like line graphics or pixel graphics (especially with a very small palette), it becomes quite hard for JPEG to match the sizes of PNG without introducing visible artifacts. (In some cases the sizes might be about the same, but then it makes more sense to use PNG because it is, after all, lossless, so there's no advantage in using JPEG). I would imagine, however, that TASes of more modern consoles, which use millions of colors and may even be 3D, would benefit more from lossy encoding. Sometimes even eg. SNES TASes might do, depending on how many colors the game uses (as well as how much transparency layers...)
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
On the linux side of the world mencoder is the de-facto tool for that. Unlike VirtualDub, mencoder is command-line based, and thus has a slightly steeper learning curve, but once you learn to use it it can become really handy, especially since using it and a suitable shell script you can automatize all kinds of tasks (such as splitting a video into segments of 10 minutes each). That way you only have to write the script once and then just run it on any video. (I don't know if VirtualDub supports scripts or similar preset tasks.)
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
DevilSpree wrote:
The majority of PC users use Windows anyway (except for the cheapskates that don't wanna pay, then they use a free Linux mod)
Wouldn't want to start a holy war here, but I would nevertheless like to correct a misconception (even if you didn't write that seriously): Most linux users do not use linux because they are "cheapskates that don't wanna pay", as if Windows was the desirable OS and linux was some kind of backup OS which you have to resort to if you don't have the money to buy Windows (and are too honest to use an illegal pirated version). In fact, I'm pretty sure that a quite significant portion of linux users (especially here, since most people here are gamers) have both linux and windows (some/most of them legally purchased) on their PC, but they choose to use mainly linux and use windows only when they have to (eg. to play games). I have both systems (and completely legally purchased at that), and I spend the vast majority of time in linux and use windows almost exclusively for playing games. The real reasons for this are complex, and I really don't want to delve into that (because it's the source of holy wars). Suffice to say, though, that it's certainly not because they are "cheapskates that don't wanna pay". And besides, don't forget Mac users. While the average Mac user probably doesn't fit the profile of a typical TASer (because they usually are neither computer nerds nor HC gamers; yeah, I'm not stereotyping here at all ;) ), there probably are a few here as well.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Patashu wrote:
Assuming input is polled for at a finite number of times, you could just have a list of inputs as per normal, only it would read a line from the file once per input polling not once per frame.
It would probably conserve a lot of space if only input changes were stored in the movie file rather than the input for each individual poll. (In other words, "this key is pressed/released for the next x polls" instead of having the input x times repeated in the file).
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
I think that the faint illusion of depth in the two-frame gif animations comes from the frames alternating slowly enough (so as for the brain to perceive it as an animation). I believe that if they alternated so fast that you couldn't see the animation, you would simply see two superimposed images, and since there's no visible animation between them, it might be that there's no depth perception either. You could as well alpha-blend the two images together into a single still image. I have to admit, though, that I haven't tried this nor seen any actual examples of the two frames alternating really fast (like at 60 or 120 fps), so this is just pure guessing.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
arflech wrote:
but then there's no northernmost or southernmost point
There is, in the same sense as "eastmost" and "westmost" point... (although rather than a point it's a line).
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Noob Irdoh wrote:
I am really sorry if I caused all this trouble. I was under the impression that archive.org was the host of choice because I saw many other people uploading movies there, and I just went with that. Which is understandable, as there are no ads, no download caps, nothing of the bad things which usually come from Mediafire, Megaupload, and so on. Last time I checked, those hosts were extremely discouraged.
The above is all sensible, but the next paragraph caused me a brain aneurysm:
That said, I realise that this can't possibly continue, so I'm hereby requesting to have my Movie Editor powers removed, I won't make any other encodes in the future.
I didn't follow the logic here. Could you please explain your rationale? I don't understand it. The suggestion in the original post is that we should start using the free service at archive.org more responsibly and according to its stated purpose, which makes sense.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
arflech wrote:
I think the idea of turning the North and South edges of the map into warp zones where you pick a direction and thereby choose where you end up (on the respective edges) is a bit closer to a realistic depiction of a sphere, and probably as close as you can get without introducing the distortions of an actual rectangular projection, in which higher latitutes are stretched out because smaller lines of latitude are made to fit in the same length.
Only if you don't mind that when you reach the north pole, you are suddenly teleported to the opposite side of the planet... :) A mathematically correct depiction would be that when you go out of the upper edge, you appear again on the upper edge, but at a distance which is half of the total width of the world map (in other words, 180 degrees apart in the original coordinates).
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
honorableJay wrote:
Man, I gotta make me a pair of glasses for this. I had to use the monochrome encode, load it into two players, then zoom each screen and position them correctly so I could do the cross-eyed method and get the proper look
You are doing it the hard way. Switch the videos and then put a piece of paper between the two videos, perpendicular to the screen, and then put your nose on the other edge. This way your left eye will only see the left video and not be confused by the right video, and vice-versa. Then look towards the distance until both videos coincide.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Graveworm wrote:
(The center of the map is one pole and the edges are another, do I win?)
It could work in theory, but as someone already said, you would get extreme distortions at the edges (because all the edges would in fact be one single point projected onto them). As an additional note: Some JRPGs explicitly refer to things being "North" and "South", clearly referring to the upper edge of the map being "North" and the lower edge being "South". For example Dragon Warrior 7 makes explicit references to this. Of course this introduces a huge logical gap. When you go out of the map from the North edge, you are basically teleported to the South edge. Clearly the game acts in its terminology like the world was spherical and the "poles" were at the upper and lower edges, but doesn't address this teleportation issue. One could conceive a really far-fetched explanation that people in this toroidal planet, for whatever reason, have decided to map the planet's surface onto a rectangle and decided to call one of the division lines as the dividing line between "North" and "South", much like Earth has a Greenwich meridian which divides geographical coordinates into "East" and "West"
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Dada wrote:
Warp wrote:
Can existing temporary files be removed from archive.org in order to fix the damage already done?
A curator might, and the only person that I know is a curator for the video games section is Radix from SDA.
Maybe we should build an official list of files to remove from archive.org and kindly ask him (or someone else who has the rights) if he could remove them?
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Mitjitsu wrote:
I should remind you that Wario World is by far the best game on Virtual Boy and it's distinctly average at best. What do you think that implies about other games for the system? In order to justify accepting a new emu on the site there should at least be several games for the system that get people excited.
I would be interested in understanding what is it that you are arguing here. Are you saying that this run should not be published because Virtual Boy has only 20 games published? Are you saying that the already-existing emulator should not be accepted as a valid emulator for the same reason? What? I don't really get it. Could you please explain?
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Can existing temporary files be removed from archive.org in order to fix the damage already done?
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Espyo wrote:
Though I have to say that, atm, I can't recall any JRPG that works like that.
Most Dragon Warrior games are examples.
Post subject: JRPG world maps fridge logic
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
I suddenly realized something. Have you noticed how in most JRPGs when you travel on the overworld, if you traverse out of the world map from the left edge you appear on the right edge, and likewise if you traverse out of the upper edge you appear on the lower edge? Thus the world is just one contiguous surface, like Earth, really. If you don't think too much about it, it makes perfect sense and is logical. But stop a minute to actually think about it. Consider Earth's world map, eg: If you traverse out of the left edge, you just continue on the right edge. They are connected. So this is ok. However, what happens when you traverse out of the upper edge? Certainly you don't suddenly appear on the lower edge! The upper and lower edges are not connected! (Instead, you appear on the upper edge again, just on a different place.) So how exactly does this work with JRPG world maps? You can't connect both edges like it was a contiguous surface like that. At least not if you are trying to depict the spherical surface of a planet. The only possible explanation is that the planet has actually the shape of a torus. The only way a rectangular area can have both opposing edges connected is if it represents the surface of a toroidal shape. Thus the planets in most JRPGs are toroidal. Of course this raises the question how such a planet can possibly form.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
arflech wrote:
Dial-up networking is old-school, several years older than the Internet in fact, but ancient modems can still work with modern gear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9dpXHnJXaE
That was actually one of the coolest videos I have seen in a long time.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
mmbossman wrote:
Tub wrote:
7 systems, if you're stupid enough to own an actual apple computer
Now why'd you have to go and say that? Please try and leave fanboyisms and flamewar starters out of an (thusfar) interesting thread.
I totally agree. Such a provocative (and even insulting) comment was totally uncalled for and completely out of place.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Flygon wrote:
I noticed this too, wouldn't it make more sense for the extension to be something like .vby instead?
Why does it have to be limited to three characters? The three-character-extension limitation was removed from PC systems... what? Something like 15 years ago? Why do we have to stick with it in 2010?
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
What could be the longest set of emulators which could be run in this way, excluding recursion (ie. emulator X in system A runs emulator Y in system B, which runs system A), which could actually be runnable (at least in theory)?
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
The video and the screenshots work quite well with red-green glasses. First true 3D TAS ever. Cool.