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I recently created a YouTube channel with the aim to post every single Doom TAS on dsdarchive.com. There's about 2,300 - 2,400 TAS demos to get through and I'm about 250 in so far, but more are coming! The unfortunate bottleneck is my monthly data limit preventing me from uploading more often.
All videos are posted in 4k 60fps. A small amount of demo smoothing is applied to mitigate slow-mo jitteriness and the sharp snappiness of many fully built demos. The red screen effect upon damage is disabled because some TAS runs take quite a bit of damage, including deliberate damage boosts, and I chose to prioritize being able to clearly see what is happening. Other screen colour effects from certain powerups are unchanged. Dsda-dooms advanced HUD is active and show a bit of extra info: current vs total kills, items collected, time taken, and secrets collected. Every video description includes a copy of the text file submitted by the TAS author alongside the demo and left exactly as-is, unless doing so was too big for the video description in which cases I've manually pruned them and stated this clearly. A download link to the demo file+original text file is included in every description, as well as a download link to the custom map pack if the TAS isn't for one of the official games. Where the creation date isn't mentioned in the text file, I've checked the creation date of the demo file itself and included this. Playlists are created arranging all the demos by their particular map pack and by their author.
It must be stated that Doom TASes do vary quite widely in quality, some are absolutely phenomenal and some fall short of non-TAS runs by a significant margin (to put it politely). While uploading I've made no attempt at distinguishing/ranking/rating them, but I'd happily point you to the "Movies" playlist for much of the really good stuff. Movies are any runs of more than 1 map, including full-game runs.
The channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnOJXrNSVsxzN3xaRRFZbWQ
"Movies" playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtTv9E0NtADzPjPtRMWSU2yV3rHaodqX8
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CoolHandMike wrote:
What exactly was in that custom build though? Is that build public?
XDRE 2.22 is publicly available but my custom build of it isn't, not at all because I'm against sharing it but because I haven't finished making all the changes to it that I would like. Dimon pretty much covered the important stuff: XDRE creates totally vanilla-compatible demo files that can be conveniently played through vanilla compatible source ports, and of course the original exe. My changes to XDRE haven't affected game behaviour, but have added some quality of life features like some handy macro keys and automating more of the brute force process, and (what I consider to be) visual improvements to the UI.
Thank you for the kind words everyone!
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Fredrik wrote:
Doom 2 UV speed is the big one, if you can pull it off. The current best complete TAS (14:02 by RamboBones) is far out of date. There's a faster WIP of the first 20 maps by xepop, now also way out of date. 38_ViTa_38 made a TAS of the first 10 maps a couple of years ago, but it doesn't have the zero press on map07 (and IIRC missing a hypothetical lift trick on map06).
I would like to eventually do a Doom 2 UV-Speed TAS if no-one else beats me to it. Vita's Episode 1 (maps 1-10) TAS is awesome, it was and continues to be a big inspiration to me as I learned how to TAS Doom. At first you don't understand just how much is going on until you view it in XDRE and see all the tiny tricks that add up. It's 36 seconds faster than maps 1-10 of RamboBones' TAS, and as you mentioned lacks the zero press for map 07. It's also 33 seconds faster than maps 1-10 of Zero Masters Nightmare! TAS, which was done in 12:44, and that ZM himself stated wasn't particularly optimized.
Honestly I'd first like to practice more before attempting it. I'm reasonably confident in my TASing ability and am certain I'd be able to improve the 14:02 by at least a few minutes, but I want to be as sharp as possible to squeeze out every tic I could and there are some areas that I'd like to work on before feeling as though I'm as good as I'd like to be. I feel like Doom 2 UV-Speed would be "the big one" and I'd hate to feel as though I could have done better, which I probably would if I attempted the demo now.
What we should all hope for is that Vita decides to do a Doom 2 UV-Speed TAS! He's a freakishly good TASer and IMO if he made one it'd be the closest thing we'd have to being considered unbeatable.
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Zakatos wrote:
Now I understand why that one's called Phobos Anomaly. Yes vote!
Looking forward to next episodes. It would also be great to see some 100% or Nightmare on this.
Thanks for the vote! I plan to do an Episode 2 TAS at some point in the future since a new trick has been found for it since Akse did his 3:02 TAS, but I likely won't do an Episode 3 or 4 one. I am heavily considering making a Doom 2 TAS, though.
Also, I worked on an Episode 1 UV-Max (100%) TAS some time ago, I was nearly finished and then my hard drive decided to die. I still haven't quite summoned up the enthusiasm to go through all the work again.
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Thanks for accepting the run Slamo!
Yes, as Dimon said if you don't mind please use the PrBoom+ Source Port for superior results. Speaking of Smooth Demo Playback, if you do decide to use it, there is a setting "Smooth Demo Playback Factor" which changes, well, the degree of smoothness. 1 is the lowest setting with no real perceptible difference and 16 is as smooth as it goes. I think 6 is the default factor when the setting is on, but personally I think that 3 is the sweet spot. For the video I included in the original post SDP was turned off. SDP off would be obviously the closest to actual real gameplay but having it on makes it more enjoyable to the majority of viewers so I guess it depends on your thoughts about strict authenticity vs enjoyment.
Either way, thank you for your time and effort!
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Fredrik wrote:
Looks like 1 second could be saved on e1m3 by manipulating monsters to keep a door open, and perhaps on e1m5 (door to the central room) too?
Unfortunately for me you are correct. Those are things that the old 3:45 TAS does and I didn't, and are IMO the weakest points of my demo. The e1m3 one would would be difficult to make happen while still getting to the door as fast, though considering there was 28 frames (35 per second) between me opening the door and passing through it, I could technically spend close to a second of extra time performing different actions to manipulate their behaviour favourably while still saving time overall if I succeeded. What really sucks is that in e1m5 it seems to be simply a matter of going a little bit closer to the window on my way to grabbing the yellow key so that they see Doomguy and wake up, and they then seem to fairly reliably open the door for you that way - reliably enough that some basic RNG manipulation could probably get it to happen fairly easily. They're some frustrating things to realise only after having finished the demo.
Other than a few movement imperfections in a few places, those doors are (to me at least) the only strikingly obvious ways that time could be improved and would be the most notable things to improve if someone were to rebuild this demo.
There's a way to clip into the outside courtyard that you look at while in the void in e1m8 that doesn't require the help of an enemy - it's in fact the only way to beat the level in the "No Monsters" category. It's been theorised that it may be possible to perform a void glide from this courtyard, which would be faster than having to wait for an enemy to help you and would save a few seconds. Try as I might I couldn't get this to happen, but if a method is discovered I'd consider redoing this TAS with the aforementioned e1m3 & e1m5 improvements as part of the goal.
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PLANET wrote:
What is this message about:
"ALERTS POSSIBLY COMPROMISING MOVIE INTEGRITY:
Skill 3
1 players"? (top of the submission page)
This is Skill 4... : P
As Dimon said the demo header information is read incorrectly. As Samsara told me on Discord, it counts the difficulties as:
0 - ITYTD
1 - HNTR
2 - HMP
3 - UV
4 - NM
Instead of 1-5. Dunno how "1 player" could be concerning though, haha.
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Dimon12321 wrote:
Did you count turbo movement (MF51 ... MF127 and so on for other 3 directions)? As far as I can tell, nothing can produce the movement of this "power" unless -turbo 255 was added to arguments before launching Doom.
With regular speeds there are 101 running speed values and 101 strafing speed values. With shorttics there are 255 turning values. You can fire or not fire, and you can use and not use. I did make a mistake, though, I accidentally counted there as being 9 different weapon switching buttons while there are in fact only 7, two of the buttons switch to two weapons. So the actual number is: 101 x 101 x 255 x 2 x 2 x 7 = 72,835,140. Whoops.
With turbo speeds, the number is 464,278,500.
EDIT:
PLANET wrote:
Just a quick question - since the level statuses are skipped for the time sake...
Could be please provide the level finishing times (optionally - if you want to do it - the whole info, as in kills/items/secrets % (perhaps even number/number format eg. 1/10) along with time/par/total) in the description or here?
(the way that DooM normally shows it)
If so - thank you even more! That would be pretty sweet.
Somehow missed this comment! I will edit this information into the original description.
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Hikaruon wrote:
I loved e1m8, you can think to do an run to all 9 levels?
It's a very cool trick! Going to the ninth level isn't required for a UV-Speed route, but other than an individual level UV-Speed run there are a couple of Episode 1 categories where going to e1m9 would be necessary. The Nightmare! All Secrets, No Monsters 100% secrets, and UV-Max (all kills and all secrets) categories would require you to go here.
Not to derail the thread but Dimon12321 (in addition to being a cool dude and encoding the Episode 1 TAS above) has in the past done an individual level e1m9 UV-Speed TAS. Here it is if you're interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-soLcUdRbA
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Warp wrote:
I also assume that the inhumanely fast turning speed is achieved by mouse turning controls. I suppose it could be theoretically achievable with real-life hardware?
Turning this quickly can be accomplished in real time with a mouse, yep, these turning speeds using keyboard input aren't possible. I have thought about making a TAS using only the turning speeds available for keyboard input, but this would take far too long for the extremely niche product it would end up becoming, haha.
This is going beyond answering your question, I know, but your comment got me thinking. Within a single frame there are technically 93,645,180 different input combinations possible, accounting for the full range of running speeds, strafing speeds, turning angles, weapon changes, potential firing, and "using" switches and doors. With the TASing program I used, XDRE, you can manually enter all of this information for each frame but this range of running/strafing speeds is all possible with real hardware by using the mouse to strafe and produce forward movement. Strictly theoretically speaking, everything here could be achieved with real-life hardware, but the extent to which many aspects of this TAS are out of reach to real life players cannot be overstated.
TLDR version: it can get really complicated really fast. Longer version:
Some rough maths - I forget the exact figure but I think the minimum distance that Doomguy can move in one frame, on each the X and Y axis, is somewhere in the neighborhood of between 1/63000 and 1/65000 of a unit (For reference, Doomguy is 32 units wide, so that's somewhere around 1/2,000,000 of the width of the player). That's on one axis, so considering doom movement is on an X & Y axis... well, as you can imagine the exact specifics of your position can vary very, very widely and some tricks really do require that level of granularity and specificity. For example, when performing a trick called the 0.000000 trick you need to be EXACTLY as close to a wall as you can be, and then your momentum can be maintained in multiple directions even while your position is not changing (adding to the difficulty of this, you then need to keep your momentum below a certain value or it then disappears completely) (...AND it only works on certain walls and when travelling in certain directions) (...AND when the walls happen to be on a blockmap grid 64x64 units wide, the laws governing momentum caps are changed). In order to collide with a wall AND be in this exact position when you do so AND do so in a way that you don't lose all speed upon contact AND have a high enough speed for the trick to be worth it but have a low enough momentum that you don't exceed the momentum cap, brute forcing the inputs for the frames immediately preceding this trick becomes absolutely necessary. Typically I'll set up the previous dozen or so frames manually in such a way that I can reliably find the correct inputs while brute forcing a relatively small number of potential inputs, but the way I set it up, the program searches through a range of 1,896,129 inputs over two frames. Going back to the question of physical hardware, the strafing/moving inputs would need to be controlled by mouse movement, and the frantic and extremely precise movement would be a very big ask of real physical hardware even if it were somehow mechanically operated.
Anyway, speaking of that trick. Realistically speaking, when this is properly executed it'll typically save about five/ten or so frames. I just checked and I went through this process 30 times in this tas. Probably the most obvious example is at 1:20 of Dimons video, where I get thrown forward and to the left as soon as the door opens, having accumulated my momentum for 22 frames while the door opens.
There's also the wallrunning trick which, while not as absolutely precise as the trick above, does require you to be very very close to a wall and making sure you get as close to the wall to make the trick work while not actually bumping into it and losing speed is quite complicated, so this generally takes quite a process of manually adjusting your movement and monitoring your position/momentum/speed data.
Now that I've written all this, it strikes me that I'm doing so on a part of the internet that is well accustomed to the complexities and intricacies of TASing, I'm still getting used to that. Still, perhaps my rambling will be interesting to someone!
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Hello,
I've just tried submitting a TAS Demo and have encountered an error. It's a TAS for Doom, and the demo format is mydemo.lmp, but when submitting a zipped Doom demo, I am told: "The given ZIP file does not contain a valid movie file, or contains too many files". The zipped upload contains no other files and I have made sure that the .lmp extension is correctly named. The .lmp file format is specifically mentioned as being acceptable in the Movie Rules section. I have tried both .lmp and .LMP.
Can someone please tell me, what am I doing wrong and what can I do to fix it?
