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I haven't done anything in the past few weeks as well.
ActRaiser has plenty of random lag frames, even in the simulation. When there are lag frames, you should check if it is possible to reduce or avoid them. Sometimes deliberately losing a frame or more can save frames overall by reducing lag. It's always wise to go back and check the lag frames, especially random lag.
Here is the lua script for the jump boost/crest boost, which also has hitboxes and other enemy information. https://www.dropbox.com/s/wijdq3qciattnm4/ActRaiser%20HUD-Act%20%28U%29.lua?dl=0 Feel free to modify the script with any other memory addresses you are using.
I played around with the script to remember how it works, and started thinking about various routes in the first half. I guess the lower(ground) route should be checked again with the jump/crest boosts and damage boosting to see if it is faster (with jump and crest boosts the entire depression area located right before the the bramble when landing out of the trees, provided that the bee is in the right spot) can be crossed in a single jump , as well as a few alternates of getting out of trees earlier than the current TAS. Getting the apple at the checkpoint negates any damage taken in the first half. I was also looking at using Y+B boost off a ledge, but I doubt that is useful in this stage.
I had looked at the guide on TASVideos for the Bizhawk movie format, but it wasn't clear how it should be formatted. Here is the new file which should work. https://www.dropbox.com/s/vuqshgsct8sz4gb/zidanax%2Cdunnius-actraiser.smv-Bizhawk.zip?dl=0
I remember the zipping glitch movie file, but I was never able to get it to load. You would have to try a bunch of different versions from 1.4.3 up to 1.5.2, which was available at the time, but was not used for the any% because of lack of lua support. I'll have to see if I can get it to load because I would like to see it. It would be awesome if it could be used.
edit: updated the movie output file.
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I apologize for taking so long to get back to you. I have been extremely busy with a sudden heavy workload, which has been a thing for the last couple of years, and has slowed down my TASing. I wrote an SMV editor while TASing this, and so I now added an export button for the Bizhawk format. Here is the exported input file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t3tl3szuxreserk/zidanax%2Cdunnius-actraiser.smv-Bizhawk.txt.zip
Currently I can use RAM Watch to read the memory addresses of those two values, unless you mean something more than that.
My script would tell you when you could jump or crest boost as well as display the values, but it is easy enough to read the values from RAM watch.
dunnius wrote:
I noticed while working on Kasandora that the pointer movement affects where things are built, and thusly the time it takes.
Could you elaborate on this? I can't tell if you're talking about a level of detail beyond what it sounds like.
Basically the way the pointer is moved as well as its current location affects where the houses and food structures are built, which then affects where things are built later on. This affects the amount of time it takes to build depending on how far away the furthest build point is. Another thing to check is if the path taken to the build is random. The overall idea is to bot test to find the overall movement that has the least net construction time which includes the lag frames before the construction phase where it decides where to build, the time moving the pointer, and any extra miracle time. This applies especially in Kasandora because of the long waiting period and the wide open map, but is something that could benefit the other towns as well.
especially since I use the time consuming strategy of not even referencing the old TAS until after I finish the level. I feel that strategy is responsible for most of my ideas, improvements, and fun.
This is a good thing to do because you may discover something that Zidanax and I overlooked. You should at least do a quick and dirty test TAS to test your ideas. I have a few other ideas for the simulations as well, so I will also have to do a test TAS as well.
Do you use discord?
I haven't used discord, but I see there is a Linux client so I guess I will now.
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One thing to keep in mind when comparing runs is the difference in the amount of HP after beating the boss. Because the health bar refills, the difference of HP makes a very small difference in the number of frames. Of course damage boosting has priority, but damage on a boss should be avoided if it doesn't save time over the refill time.
I looked through the TAS resource to refresh my memory on things, and I remember why I never got around to this. The movement on the Action is a bit complicated. I made a lua script for the jump and crest boosts to know when it is optimal to jump or use the height boost, which I can find if you need it, unless you made one. But yes, the planning for chain of optimal boosts kept me away from TASing immediately, so I am glad you are taking this up.
As I had mentioned, the plans I have for the simulations involve reducing the amount of time for the Town Under Construction cycle. I noticed while working on Kasandora that the pointer movement affects where things are built, and thusly the time it takes. I didn't have time to mess around too much with that back then, but now that I am familiar with bot testing it is a big focus. I need to watch the TAS again to remember what other ideas for improvements I had.
My bot testing will take a while, so I think you should work on the JP Special Mode first. You won't have to worry about Stardust in that mode! Plus, it will make it easy to redo parts if you discover something later on. Having to redo the simulation parts is a bit annoying.
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The easter egg which causes temporary infinite MP (during which the music plays faster) can be done on either version. There are 2 ways to do this. The one shown in the video is the easier of the two and can be done much earlier. It is done by getting the sword, and then without reloading the game, enter the screen where fairy 1 is located. The other way is to kill 3 worms with a single wave magic. This causes tracks to show up in the sand as the bonus animation. Because of the magic requirement, this can only be done later in the game, and is also more difficult to set up.
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I found a way to save four minutes off the Green Beret jungle section by alerting and desyncing the Green Beret:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obov9q0odIo
This may be able to save time for a speedrun of the Virtual Console version, but I am not able to test that version on emulator. Can someone else please test this? There are two things here: 1) Moving to the next screen must be done at the same time as Green Beret. 2) The punch in the upper left screen(second punch) must be done right before he changes direction in that corner. That is what causes the Green Beret to desync. The first and last punches are done so that Green Beret does not outrun Solid Snake.
I also found a way to save a couple minutes on the egg by using a deathwarp, and also the deathwarp can be used in quite a few places to save multiple minutes.
I have been busy planning the route, but because drops are on a running timer that does not reset, I am unable to make a test TAS that will reflect what the final will look like. So I decided to start the actual TAS and hope everything works out. I just got done with the Black Color fight, which looks cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFIPf2Okt5g
I found some other miscellaneous stuff as well:
I can make a guard float off the screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSfWXLGcpXc
The game gets confused when doing a double KO at the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShfAvoK1Qlo
Speaking of getting confused, how about a game crash? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3AfDV89_H4
Here is a glitch in the swamp, but is not useful unfortunately. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4ELJMrwzvo
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I vote for new category, "warps". It is possible in the future that this could evolve into "game end glitch" by using a different path in the glitch realm, or perhaps a way to activate this from the clock tower will be found, which would skip more game play. This is already different enough from "Grant", and adding one more category is fine because this is a game that is made with branching paths in mind.
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I guess 4-2 will be the "elephant in the room" for getting a hole in one in each level. The levels were done very quickly, so there was no chance of being bored.
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It confused me way back when, but only briefly (this was on SNES9x super old version). I realized quickly that the AVI recording was what I wanted to record the video.
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FCEUX also sometimes does the same thing. I always make a save state at the end before stopping the movie recording, and if the file doesn't save, then I reload it in record mode and load the save state, which forces it to write.
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andrewg wrote:
More and more I feel like I'm finding it hard to trust any above average gaming performance. Maybe I'm just a grump now, but many ridiculous speedruns (and other) come along often that I'm just not sure I believe. I may believe they are humanly possible, but I feel I'm questioning runs more.
That's why live streaming speedrun attempts is important and must be encouraged. Luckily in today's world this is easy to do.
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Voted yes because this is much more entertaining than sitting through 52 game overs. I haven't watched the new test TAS on nico because its player doesn't work for me, but I'm sure it is similar enough to the obsolete TAS that it would not be as entertaining as this one.
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thommy3 wrote:
There are other published (mini)golf or pool runs on the site, so i wondered at first. Some are more interesting i agree,
this one http://tasvideos.org/2730M.html probably isn't.
I guess if the Gummy Bears had faster load times, the run would really benefit.
Since that mini-golf TAS was published and is in vault, I don't see why any mini-golf that plays all levels (which makes it a speedrun) that is optimized should be rejected. I don't see any difference in overall goal between this TAS and the published mini-golf TAS. I think that even despite the load screens, this TAS is more interesting.
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Yes vote for making a very hard game look easy.
Interestingly, the version that I played appears to be a different version of this; I seem to recall different screen layouts on some of the higher levels. It was on my brother's Atari XL which used floppies and had programs to translate from other version, so I don't know what version that could be unless my brother and I can get it loaded.
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Voting on your own submission is frowned upon.
I should mention that I voted yes. The bounce back in flying mode is ridiculous in conjunction with small areas to maneuver during some of the "bosses" make me wonder how that would be done in realtime.
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Hi shevek! This appears to be a very difficult game done very well.
In level 7, at 6:51 in scrimpeh's video, is travelling in the lower path and then turning around done to trigger the enemies above so that they are out of the way when you take the upper path?
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That is a good question. How much time, excluding the load time for the menu screen and starting the game which should not count, would the Tengen version save?
My opinion is use the original Namco version because it is the official version.
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<feos> arandomgameTASer: k
<SpikeyMuffin> arandomgameTASer: k
<arandomgameTASer> SpikeyMuffin: k
<fsvgm777> arandomgameTASer: k
<Warepire> fsvgm777 : k
<arandomgameTASer> fsvgm777: k
<SpikeyMuffin> fsvgm777: k
<fsvgm777> Warepire: k
* feos : k
* SpikeyMuffin : k
* Warepire : k
* fsvgm777 : k
* arandomgameTASer says to shut the fuck up
<Warepire> arandomgameTASer: You ruined it
<SpikeyMuffin> arandomgameTASer: You ruined it
<arandomgameTASer> Warepire: how could u ruin it
