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The topic has been put forward before, but not much has come of it. I personally really like the idea of having text or audio commentary on a run, and it almost always increases my enjoyment of the work. Still, it's not really that supported or pushed.
There has been an increase of lua subtitle runs. I'm not sure if they're still as common as they were when they first came out, but that's a really good option.
Still, I'd like to see in movie commentaries be more supported.
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Maybe a ban on passing through the center of solid objects? This would allow corner boosting and other uses of sprite ejection. Still, I think Aglar will find counter examples, and I don't know if it's necessary.
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I skipped ahead to Scrap Brain Zone 2 and 3 to see what the thread has become about and yes, I understand where people are coming from. The run exploits a quirk in the programming of the game to bypass an obstacle that should probably not be possible to bypass, thus skipping a significant portion of the level.
However, I think we should look at precedence in this case. Low glitch runs on TASvideos have never been about being glitchless. The reason for a low glitch run is when a certain glitch or trick becomes so game breaking and prevalent that it is used to the detriment of all other tricks and gameplay. The Pulseman low glitch run still uses the floor sinking glitch. It was accepted because that's still a significant change in gameplay. The Super Metroid runs without the x-ray beam glitch still have multiple glitches of their own. While Scrap Brain Zone 3 looks like Sonic suddenly tripped, fell in a hole and can't get out, I don't think that those instances should be any reason for the run to be rejected.
I don't want people to become so afraid of doing these kinds of runs that it's never attempted. It's already happened to Super Mario 64 and that annoys me to no end. If we want to do "only programmer intended" routes, that gets into the realm of tool assisted walkthroughs (which is something I really should get started on. I've had that idea for over a year now).
As for my personal opinions on the glitches, I'm okay with them. They happen quickly and are only a small portion of the run. I look forward to many more runs which follow this same spirit.
EDIT: After watching the youtube encode, I vote yes. This is what I've been waiting for: a run on Sonic that has the large amount of gameplay the older Sonic runs had without the lack of precision.
My biggest complaint is that you could have probably used some of the waiting times better. Many of them feel like waiting times. I saw that you did hide some of them, though, and I have no idea how you could have done it, so I won't make too big a deal of it.
I'd like to thank you for changing up the final boss fight. It's actually entertaining now.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZLI4EL7lUs
This posed a few problems for me with the simulation sections. I'm not sure I found the best solution for sync points, but it was the best I could think of. If anyone has a better suggestion for what to use, please let me know. Also, this is the only one so far where popping is noticeable. Not sure how I can fix that.
EDIT: Nevermind, I decided to actually open up the audio file in audacity and manually go through the process of eliminating the pops. Let me know if you'd like new sync points.
EDIT2: Updated video
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So this was my idea for how to handle games like Megaman where the levels can be chosen in any order, but they all have to be played. What do you think? Does it work? Is it too confusing?
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What do you have as your two movie files?
Youtube doesn't seem to like my video. Shame that. I'm not quite sure what the problem is and probably don't have time to really look into it right now. Will try later.
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Alright. Youtube uncapped. Unfortunately, I can't reupload the Sonic 3 and Knuckles runs because I have deleted the video files off my computer. But future runs over the cap should be fine.
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Comparison video
Part 1Part 2
I may do the rest of the obsoletions to present day later, but the game is hex edit friendly, which means I have to go through the entire run for just a few changes in a few levels.
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Sure. That's part of the reason I posted the script.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some links to post (should have a long time ago. Hopefully it isn't seen as spamming).
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Just necroing this topic to say that I've started this project up again. I'll post the script I'm using so other people can make them, too. It would be nice if we can eventually get to the point where there's one for every movie we can reasonably do it for (not holding my breath, though). It would help people understand where improvements come from, making the site a little more user friendly (maybe?).
Also, I noticed in another thread that someone thought it was a mistake I was only using the left channel. I do this because I put sync points in more often than the music changes. Thus as the movie goes along, the music between the two tracks would get more and more out of sync, which I would find annoying. I use the left channel, since it's the slower one and would have the music "stop" less often.
My script. some numbers may have to be changed based on the system the game comes from.
a = Open( "oldermovie.avi", "oldauthor" )
b = Open("newermovie.avi", "newauthor")
v = 0
p = 0
old = a.Trim(0, 362)
new = b.Trim(0, 360)
final = Format (old, new, v, p)
p = AddFrameDiff (old, new)
v = v + AddFrameDiff (old, new)
old = a.Trim(1829, 2578)
new = b.Trim(1829, 2515)
final = final + Format (old, new, v, p)
p = AddFrameDiff (old, new)
v = v + AddFrameDiff (old, new)
return final
function addBlankClip(clip a, clip b) {
max = Max(a.FrameCount, b.FrameCount)
result = (a.FrameCount != max) ? (a + BlankClip(a, length=max-
a.FrameCount)).FreezeFrame(a.FrameCount, max - 1, a.FrameCount - 1) : a
return result
}
function FormatTime(int ms) {
s = ms / 1000
ms = ms % 1000
m = s / 60
s = s % 60
h = m / 60
m = m % 60
return String(m, "%02.0f") + ":" + String(s, "%02.0f") + "." +
String(ms, "%03.0f")
}
function AddFrameDiff(clip a, clip b) {
FrameDiff = (a.FrameCount - b.FrameCount)
return FrameDiff
}
function Open(string FileName, string Title) {
AVISource(FileName)
AddBorders(2, 20, 2, 20)
Subtitle(Title, align=2, text_color=$00FFFFFF)
ScriptClip("""Subtitle("Frame: " + String(current_frame) + "\nTime:
" + FormatTime(Round(Float(current_frame * 1000) * Float
(FrameRateDenominator) / Float(FrameRateNumerator))), text_color=$00FFFFFF,
lsp=1, size=10.0)""")
ConvertToYV24(matrix="PC.601", chromaresample="point" )
ConvertToYV12(matrix="PC.601", chromaresample="lanczos4")
}
function Format (clip a, clip b, int FrameDiff, int FrameGain) {
left = AddBlankClip (a, b)
right = AddBlankClip (b, a)
AudioDub(StackHorizontal(left, right), MixAudio(left, right, 1.0,
0.0))
Subtitle("Frames gained (last): " + String (FrameGain, "%.0f"),
y=250, align=2, size=10)
Subtitle("Frames gained (total): " + String(FrameDiff, "%05.0f"),
align=2, size=10)
}
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After watching the first video of the youtube encode, I would like to ask if at all possible that that commentary be added to the final encode. Some of it may have to change to acknowledge the fact that this run is already submitted. Would Touch_me be willing to rewrite the intro?
Also, after the first video, it looks pretty awesome. I may vote later, but so far it's looking like a yes.
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I'm having problems with the encode in multiple video players. In VLC, there is no sound. In SMPlayer, the picture freezes frequently. Both of these players have worked fine for every other official encode I've played from the site.
Windows Media plays it fine, though.
