TASVideos

Posted: 10/10/2018 5:02 PM

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feos

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Yes as I said, we prefer this input to be included in the movie, for the sake of completeness and being self-contained. I might highlight in the rules that this is preferred in general. Also I feel that SDA's definition is not what we want at all. They split at freezing character because it's easy to notice: you just keep slashing or punching air, and once the animation stops, you split. But you don't need to do it to make the ending happen any sooner. As I explained above, this cutoff is vague and doesn't easily apply everywhere, so enforcing this would indeed be a bad idea. Perfect for a user maintained wiki page though.

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/10/2018 3:40 PM

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feos

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Publication time isn't changing. And we have several types of publications in that regard, and their movies stop at different points. What if we use something like SDA timing for the end? How do they define it?

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/9/2018 8:28 PM

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feos

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I don't object to adding a textual note to every such publication, telling what time it gets if you stop it at the last frame of real gameplay. But clearly not to the point of adding a secondary movie to every such publication. Not sure where to put all your research tho. If it's in this thread, the rule is always obviously visible, which helps people to get used to it. And the announcement already happened, so why not keep this discussion in one place? What about a wiki page?

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/9/2018 5:44 PM

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feos

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Having post-completion input inside the main movie is preferred, unless the author explicitly wants to exclude it. So no need for truncated versions.

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/8/2018 8:36 PM

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feos

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The manual disagrees.

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/8/2018 7:28 PM

Post subject: Secondary game mode vs. Secondary character

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feos

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If there are several game modes available from the start, we allow every such mode to be published in Vault, counting each of them as vaultable any%. It's also possible to have a movie that beats all such modes in one go. http://tasvideos.org/MovieRules.html#GamesWithAdditionalLevelSetsOrGames If there are optional characters available in the game (not necessarily from the start), we only allow the fastest one to be published in Vault as an any% branch. http://tasvideos.org/MovieClassGuidelines.html#UsesASuboptimalCharacter The question is, how do we distinguish between them? If we have several chars from the start, and they play the same levels, but bosses differ, is it a secondary game mode? If some chars can access route deviations while the game otherwise remains the same, is it a secondary game mode? What if just a few levels are different? If the first release of the game had a char as a DLC, and then it was included and became available from the start, though it plays through the same levels, is it a secondary game mode? In S3&K, Knuckles plays different levels than Sonic, so he can arguably be called a special game mode. In Shovel Knight, the Plague character was a DLC, and then was included in the game. His movie is shorter. He plays the same levels as Shovel Knight. I would not dare to call Shovel Knight a suboptimal character for that game...

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/8/2018 6:10 PM

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feos

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Are we playing lottery again?

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/8/2018 4:37 PM

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feos

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Frame for the pub screenshot?

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/7/2018 6:29 PM

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feos

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Как начнется, я скажу.

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/7/2018 5:41 PM

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feos

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Right, Nach said it's environment implementation, not just API translation.

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/7/2018 5:23 PM

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feos

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After each level, this code is executed:

Language: asm
8F63: 21 5C 72  LD HL, 725Ch   AF:FFAC BC:6000 DE:0000 HL:702C IX:9139 IY:C1DC SP:73FF cnP3h5zSe
8F66: 3A 61 72  LD A, (7261h)  AF:FFAC BC:6000 DE:0000 HL:725C IX:9139 IY:C1DC SP:73FF cnP3h5zSe
8F69: 06 00     LD B, 00h      AF:00AC BC:6000 DE:0000 HL:725C IX:9139 IY:C1DC SP:73FF cnP3h5zSe
8F6B: 4F        LD C, A        AF:00AC BC:0000 DE:0000 HL:725C IX:9139 IY:C1DC SP:73FF cnP3h5zSe
8F6C: 09        ADD HL, BC     AF:00AC BC:0000 DE:0000 HL:725C IX:9139 IY:C1DC SP:73FF cnP3h5zSe
8F6D: 34        INC (HL)       AF:00A4 BC:0000 DE:0000 HL:725C IX:9139 IY:C1DC SP:73FF cnP-h5zSe
8F6E: 7E        LD A, (HL)     AF:0008 BC:0000 DE:0000 HL:725C IX:9139 IY:C1DC SP:73FF cnp3h-zse
8F6F: FE 0B     CP 0Bh         AF:0B08 BC:0000 DE:0000 HL:725C IX:9139 IY:C1DC SP:73FF cnp3h-zse
8F71: DA 77 8F  JP C, 8F77h    AF:0B4A BC:0000 DE:0000 HL:725C IX:9139 IY:C1DC SP:73FF cNp3h-Zse
8F74: 3E 00     LD A, 00h      AF:0B4A BC:0000 DE:0000 HL:725C IX:9139 IY:C1DC SP:73FF cNp3h-Zse
8F76: 77        LD (HL), A     AF:004A BC:0000 DE:0000 HL:725C IX:9139 IY:C1DC SP:73FF cNp3h-Zse
8F77: C3 44 8F  JP 8F44h       AF:004A BC:0000 DE:0000 HL:725C IX:9139 IY:C1DC SP:73FF cNp3h-Zse

$725C is current level, it's loaded to register HL, incremented, compared to 11 (levels start with 0, so last level is 10). If it is 11 now, reset it to 0 and resume execution as usual ($8F44).

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/7/2018 8:26 AM

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feos

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Can someone elaborate on the differences between paths and endings? I'm trying to watch and read different resources, and it's still not clear. EDIT: I figured out some of it. Level 1 is common, and then levels 2-6 have alternate paths where the difficulty is generally higher due to limited continues and more focus on environmental challenges than on fighting. As the author says, the alt path's difficulty curve is flat, while for the main path it's constantly rising to compensate for infinite retries and gaining more skill as you play. Alt paths seem to contain special items that unlock level 7. Completing it gives you ending A and reveals the end of the game story. Completing level 6 using the alt path gives you ending B, and completing it the usual way gives you ending C. B seems to be the fastest ending. Did I get everything right?

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/6/2018 4:29 PM

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feos

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~~He falls down here for me. https://i.imgur.com/AXeLVip.png Lubuntu 18.04 i686 Linux 4.15.0-36-generic Game config as provided by the author~~ Fixed by setting VM screen to 2560x1600. Game window needs to fully fit into the screen to work. https://i.imgur.com/UMtS9aV.png Disabling SW rendering also lets the game run at full speed on my garbage host (3-4fps with it enabled).

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/6/2018 1:58 PM

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feos

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That's the least of evils imo.

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/6/2018 12:14 PM

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feos

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I noticed that there's no verb that can be made out of "translayer" other than even more ominous "translay". - What does your tool do? - It translays! - Translays whom? O_o So what about "translaytor"? It "translaytes" - serves as a layer that translates API calls.

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/6/2018 11:58 AM

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feos

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Thanks for noticing!

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/5/2018 10:26 PM

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feos

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Sorry for all these questions, this case is really crazy. libTAS seems to be limited to 100k fps. Where does that number come from?

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/5/2018 9:44 PM

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feos

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Does the game actually render all those 1000fps frames? Maybe the game engine is supposed to support it just fine, and input polling work at that rate, but video rate sounds way overkill.

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/5/2018 9:20 PM

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feos

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When the rules for DOS movie were created, the main point was that the movie should be using PC specs the game was released for. For example, games that expect slow CPU and are tied to CPU speed, which was common when CPUs were slow, must be TASed with such slow CPU specs. Games that have arbitrarily fast CPU in mind and rely on monitor refresh rate instead, may use as high specs as JPC-RR allows. Does 1000fps setting relate to any real world device this game might be targeting? This number feels fairly arbitrary. If we allow literally anything, the next movie might be forcing 9999999999999999999999999999fps.

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/5/2018 2:28 PM

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feos

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The game shows its empty window and instantly dies.

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/5/2018 2:19 PM

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feos

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Okay, and the game itself has fixed speed for all its movements? Or that also changes?

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/4/2018 8:37 PM

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feos

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game/x86_64/vvvvvv.x86_64 doesn't start either

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/4/2018 7:02 PM

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feos

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Does the game provide any documented options to adjust framerate? I see framerate=1000 in the config file of the movie. How is this option forwarded to the game?

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/4/2018 5:38 PM

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feos

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Okay, I've read it all, and this problem is very dark and complicated. Probably the most dangerous aspect is the black box nature of the hack that removes DRM. The hack may introduce viruses/miners. It may affect functionality of the game, obviously or subtly. We may not be playing the original game anymore, but literally a hack no one has guarantees about. Another aspect results from it. If we want to fight this black box reality, we have to apply easy and documented hacks by ourselves. That will help making it transparent. But it will blatantly mean we're endorsing DRM hacking for real! Now this doesn't smell even remotely legal. Then, hacked no-DRM versions of games may be taken down following the current tendencies, or they may be different and non-compatible, leading to impossible to sync TASes after some time. If no one dumped an obscure 30 year old C64 game, and its original image is literally non-existent, we really have to allow hacked versions of it at least. But just like with C64 disk games converted to cart format (which is impossible with stock C64) we can't say "Okay, we allow hacked versions already, now let's also allow hacking existing good dumps too". When the official DRM version is available, and official no-DRM version doesn't exist, preferring the no-DRM hack does feel like encouraging hacking DRM out. And of course, cases when a DRM game simply does not sync. Or its sync is dependent on your outdated USB muse driver. Or on your GPU. Like, the DRM system may be set up to check those just for good measure. And it's made sure to never tell, which really "helps" us. So far I lean towards disallowing no-DRM hacks unless the DRM prevents movie sync. But when we want to allow them for such lost cases, all the other problems say hi. Doesn't look like it can be gracefully resolved by a compromise really. And because of how dangerously shaky this ground is, I'd disallow no-DRM hacks altogether, and simply deal with rejecting movies that don't sync on unmodified PC games. Because once again, you either agree on installing arbitrary trash within a hack, or provide transparent ways to illegally apply such hacks to official games. I don't see a way out.

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

Posted: 10/4/2018 2:57 PM

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feos

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Completion times are not absolute. There are lots of ways to measure them, and we allow them all as long as main gameplay remains reasonably optimal. It's in line with how we compare improvements: cutscenes are disregarded, load times are disregarded, ending is disregarded, text speed, amount of dialog boxes, BIOS screen - all this is irrelevant when we want to compare optimality of main gameplay. We allow authors to stop the movie in 2 different ways: either one neatly sets up the last actions in advance, and stops the movie way before they occur by themselves, or one manually forces the last actions to occur ASAP, and then stops the movie. So the same is allowed for post-completion input: we have a preference that this is included, but we allow it to be dropped too.

Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.

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