Hint to BZero: DeHackEd has a place called Microstorage where you can put WIPs up so people don't have to dodge through ads or "one time only" download limits: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php
EDIT: I will watch your run later when it is done. I like the King's Quest series, but I don't want to bother watching it until you are done because it can get too repetitive (no offense to you or Sierra).
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
I doubt that the microphone is only read once per frame... A 30 (or even 60) hertz sample rate would produce such a horrible sound quality that I don't think any human could determine the words produced, and I doubt a computer would easily do so either. That sample rate would lose sound waves on basically all human ranged frequencies since a 60 Hz sound wave is down in the bass range of sound while the average voice ranges mostly in the kHz range. A low quality voice recording has an 8 kHz sample rate and the average music has a 44.1 kHz sample rate.
It sounds like the easiest way to do microphone commands while still using frame advance and other TAS tools is to pre-record what you want to say and open it in the emulator, which would feed the audio recording to the game through whatever API the DS uses for listening to the microphone as if it was actually being said in real time. Of course, such a sound file would need to be saved in the movie files... Hopefully whoever makes the rerecording emulator will only save the microphone data when the microphone is actually activated or a sound is being played back in the way that I just mentioned.
Or even better: Hold ctrl (or some other button), record, release ctrl, and the emulator inserts all of that microphone input as far as ahead as it lasts. (And it would get inserted into the movie file, FLAC format would probably be best.)
Both would be even better... Unless you can recall the sound you recorded when doing a rerecord, you will have to speak over and over again. Besides, you might want to edit the audio command a bit to make it as short as possible... Such as, speed it up bit by bit until the game can no longer understand it, then use the fastest understandable speed.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
I doubt that the microphone is only read once per frame... A 30 (or even 60) hertz sample rate would produce such a horrible sound quality that I don't think any human could determine the words produced, and I doubt a computer would easily do so either. That sample rate would lose sound waves on basically all human ranged frequencies since a 60 Hz sound wave is down in the bass range of sound while the average voice ranges mostly in the kHz range. A low quality voice recording has an 8 kHz sample rate and the average music has a 44.1 kHz sample rate.
It sounds like the easiest way to do microphone commands while still using frame advance and other TAS tools is to pre-record what you want to say and open it in the emulator, which would feed the audio recording to the game through whatever API the DS uses for listening to the microphone as if it was actually being said in real time. Of course, such a sound file would need to be saved in the movie files... Hopefully whoever makes the rerecording emulator will only save the microphone data when the microphone is actually activated or a sound is being played back in the way that I just mentioned.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
The remote detects the sensor bar, not the other way around. The sensor bar has two infrared LEDs on it and the Wii remote has an infrared camera in the front. These two dots of light allow the Wii to see how far away you are from the TV and how much you are twisting your wrist while you are pointing at the TV.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
IIRC, there have been a few hacks of SM64, but only to make the game look weird (luigi colored clothes, chain chomps in many levels, modified textures, mairo turns into goomba, etc.) instead of changing the level layouts.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
That doesn't address the accelerometers in the wiimote, though... it would be impossible to use motion with frame advance. You'd have to have a series of sliders or something within the emulator to govern each axis of movement and rotation.
Eew... Figuring out the optimal "flick" to do a task in some games will be interesting...
I wonder if the console pays attention to the accelerometers when you move the cursor around though... Meaning if the accelerometer registers zero when you move the pointer from the top of the screen to the bottom (when it should register something since you had to pivot the remote to do that), then will the system become suspicious that you are using non-Nintendo approved controls? If so, the emulator would have to compensate for that by estimating the value of the remote's accelerometers when the cursor is moved.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
I can understand the acts... But the camera angles are another thing. (note the stress on no jerky movements on the camera while still seeing where you are going, if possible)
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
I liked the camera angles from the AKA's 0 star run better in the first Bowser world and the beginning of the second Bowser world because at those points the levels were more or less linear so it was possible to show where you were going without needing to pivot the camera everywhere. You just showed the default side view most of the way through. And I liked the punching of the camera after defeating one of the Bowsers in the previous run :( never mind...
Oh well, the run overall was still entertaining (and unexpected). Here's my first yes vote ever to you!
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
100% means completing the game while collecting all items.
any% means that you finish the game as fast as possible by avoiding items.
In game any% is somewhat unique to this game. There are a few glitches that allow the in-game timer to pause. So that version competes the game with the least in game time on the timer, but not necessarily in the least real time.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
5. My sister played again today, and she got: Munchlax, Munchlax, Munchlax, Munchlax, Weevil, Munchlax, in that order. I'm not joking. (This was in Training mode, by the way, and she was continually spawning Poke-balls, but still.)
Did anybody else specifically try the training mode for that? It seems that CtrlAltDestroy is saying that part for a reason... All I have seen so far in the replies is that "oh, that never seems to happen to me during a match." I would try testing this in training mode myself, but I cannot play Brawl until tomorrow...
Also, have you experienced this lack of randomness during a match instead of just in training mode, CtrlAltDestroy? If you have, then that would definitely indicate that something is wrong based on information given by others already.
(I'm just trying to help organize this part of the discussion...)
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
There is only one choice for N64 - Mupen64 v8. You can find it here: http://jxq.skuzz.com/emu/all.html#n64 (you don't need either of the two patches, just download the one with the star).
The ROM needed is easy enough: Super Mario 64 (U) [!].z64
The default video, audio, and controller plugins should work fine since SM64 can be rendered well by basically any of them (although a better video plugin is needed for the pretty dissolve effect, that really shouldn't matter).
To play the video, load the ROM and then go to Utilities>Movie>Start Movie Playback... The rest should be self-explanatory.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
By the way, KQV for DOS does allow keyboard control of the "mouse" in the game. It is the numpad with the num lock turned off (the 5 key is what scrolls through the different commands, IIRC). Of course, it probably would be way inferior to the speed of a mouse... With the mouse, you could easily have it simply "jump" to where you want to click, but that can't happen with the keyboard.
If a TAS is made for KQV for DOS, would the diskette or CD version be used?
<rant topic="DosBox">
In my opinion, adding and improving TAS tools for DosBox will make this site prepared for future emulators because they will probably have very similar problems along with other problems. It is better to figure out the current problems before even more complex emulators come along when people want to see TAS's of last generation's game systems five to ten years from now (if not sooner).
I know that the SMS rerecording emulator came out recently, but that is still an 8-bit gaming system, which appears to be similar to the NES (in emulator implementation, not quality). I'm not saying that old games should stop being TASed, but soon enough people will want more modern games when modern emulation improves.
DOS is much more varied than any other system supported by this site since the machine could be made of different hardware. Although the next few emulators to get rerecording functionality may not be so variant, there are still a few issues present in DOS that also exist in the next emulators. Besides the GameBoy DS and a few lesser known gaming systems, I do not see any rerecording emulators coming up that use cartridges/ROMs. All of them use a CD drive (or a similar media). DOS can use a CD drive for some of its games. So there are a few challenges in DOS that are similar to upcoming challenges.
This rant may be slightly misplaced, but here is my opinion anyway.
</rant>
EDIT: If this game is ever made into a TAS on the DosBox (when somebody makes the rerecording version more reliable), a more definite limit on the maximum number of cycles a game can be run with needs to be created because Graham walks faster while you control him when you have more cycles, although everything else moves at the same speed (assuming that you don't make the number of cycles very low).
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
In Paper Mario, there is a load game screen. If there is no save file created, all four slots will be empty. When you choose one, it prompts for a name to be inputted so the save state can be labeled. After pressing OK, it prompts if you are sure that is the name you want and you push OK again. Then the game starts. This is how this speedrun should start out.
However, in the broken WIP, the input for the game assumed that a save state with no progress had already been created for the game. When you select it, it just prompts to make sure that you want to load the game and you push OK. If you had no save file, the game would desynchronize due to the lack of inputting the name for the save file.
Earlier I proposed that, if done fast enough, it may not matter whether the movie player had a save state or not if the input assumed that the game did not have a save state because there is time for resynchronization between the cutscene and when the first talk balloon appears. But then I realized that the game would probably desynchronize later due to possible extra or fewer modifications to the RNG seed or whatever the game uses for random number generation.
Therefore, the speed run must be made to assume no save state AND the player of the movie must delete any existing save states to prevent immediate desynchronization. However, the current movie assumes that there is a save state. So in order to watch it, you must create an existing empty save state so the game will play properly. As darth said, the future WIPs will assume no save state because that makes the most sense.
P.S. Whenever I say save state above, I mean the in-game save file, not the memory snapshot save states.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
Well, it's nice to know that this speed run will look as well as it should with little flicker thanks to the Rice OpenGL plug-in, assuming that it will work faithfully all the way through. I wonder what's with this game and flicker... I already know what's up with the menu background mess-up and the fireworks at the end; you must have read every frame on in Jabo's plugin for it to render correctly since there appears to be a secondary buffer that is supposed to make the background of the menu semitransparent (and apparently that buffer is also used for the fireworks at the end), but Jabo does not seem to update that buffer unless read every frame is turned on... I don't know how Rice handles that since I haven't tried it yet. The flicker elsewhere must be caused by some similar non-standard way of rendering the game images. It always seems to be worse (with Jabo) when there are more characters on the screen.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
Actually, if all you do to make a new save file is (after selecting a file) press A, up, left, and A twice, you should be fine in the end. It would line up perfectly when there is no save file and when there is, there will just be a slight delay between when the first dialog box appears and when you make it go away. At least, that would be in theory. It depends on how long it takes to do everything after pressing A for the first time above... If you can get the delay to be less than the time it takes for the first dialog to print out its message you can still have just enough time to synch up again when you press B and A to make the dialog go away. If it takes too long, you end up one command ahead and you get a big problem.
Then again... The difference could mess up the game later if the two different actions affect the RNG. I think you should do this TAS as if there was no save file originally though because most likely most people would watch this run once. Even if they don't, you can add a comment to warn that the save file must be deleted before running the game. That's better than asking them to create an empty save file for you...
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
Well, I guess it is marked "bad" because it was a home-made ROM dump (right?)... The CRC is still the same though... After right clicking my ROM to show its properties, its RP Ini Code is 65EEE53A-ED7D733C-C45 and its RP MD5 is A722F8161FF489943191330BF8416496, whatever that is supposed to mean. But your rom might be ok to do the run on... I don't know.
So that means you are working on a save file that was made before the run started, even though the save file is at first play... We need a judge to see whether that is ok or not.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
The run appears to be good so far. I see a few pauses after dialog ends while you are talking to the Goomba family though... Does the game process input frame-by-frame or is there a delay that you can't get past?
Oh, when I tried watching the video with Rice 6.1.4, it kind of stopped playing after showing the castle flying away due to Bowser's power. The quality was good, but it appears that Rice 6.1.4 may not fully work with Paper Mario (unless it works better with OpenGL, but I haven't tried that). But I ran the speed run with Jabo Direct3D8 and nothing unusual happened, although it flickered a lot... I remember flickering when I played this game with Jabo before, but not that much at the beginning... Oh well. Only if my video card supported all of Glide's functions...
By the way, are you absolutely sure that the first thing you did when starting the game was make a new save file with a one character name? If not, that could explain why the speed run did not work before and why now pressing A twice actually works (and there is no up or down arrow pressed during that, otherwise the selection would have been no). Hold on... That means that Mupen64 does not ignore the save files... So that means that in order to play back the movie you must have a save folder clean of Paper Mario save states so the game won't desynch when you create a "new" save state, or keep it the way you have it and instruct those who watch this movie to create a new save file in a slot before playing the movie. I will leave this up to somebody else with Mupen64 to think about this... Maybe a discussion over IRC will bring attention to this problem.
Why are all of the save states and the save file called "Paper Mario (U) [!] (bad dump)"? I hope you are using the "good" dump now...
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
Somehow it worked after the umpteenth try. I guess this must be because I actually allowed it to run for a while and actually open a newly created save file through coincidence. I will watch it in a bit.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
Hmm... I just put my own save file in the save directory and nothing changed... There is a huge lag between when you press start to access the load file menu and when it actually appears, so maybe it is just me. Let me try this on my better computer...
EDIT: Nothing changed as in no save file appeared to actually load. Maybe Mupen64 ignores save files on purpose.
EDIT 2: My other computer does no better. I tried Jabo_Direct3D8 and Rice 6.1.4 and neither made any difference. I even changed the RSP plugin and nothing changed. The lag I experienced on this computer was only a little pause in the emulation, but maybe that is all that is needed to cause the desynch.
What happens is that save file 1 is selected, A is entered, and then it becomes obvious that something went wrong because nothing happens for a while and then a bunch of commands are entered. Try playing it on your computer and see if it does the same thing.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
I have tried to watch your m64 video on my emulator. Unfortunately, it appears that you are loading a save file instead of making a new save file. You need to delete whatever save files for Paper Mario there are in the save directory of Mupen 64 rerecording. Unless you can fix it by editing the m64 file somehow, it appears that you may need to restart the run so anybody that has the ROM and a good enough computer can watch it without needing the avi.
If you are not doing that, then either there is an issue like in Zelda Majora's Mask where the movie desynchs when trying to make the save file or my computer is lagging in such a way that it desynchs at the start... :(
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.