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Dacicus's encode has credits, while this video ends abruptly.
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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There's weird discrepancy between how this video ends and how the AVI SD ends, but even stranger is the fact that the latter shows 1 more rerecord in subtitles. I suspect it was edited by Bisqwit just for that encode.
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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There's a strange audio glitch at 37:56 not present in the SD encode: like a few frames of audio were dropped.
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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Probably final suggestions for this version:
USUSA ((U)) versions are preferred
Somebody might read this as "us" and get confused.
Games that run in PAL60 mode (like on WiiGameCube)
Not sure why I changed the console when I copied the logic from the current rules. It says GameCube there.
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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Samsara wrote:
This is pretty much direct from the current rules, and I have no idea how to fix it here. It might have to wait until we start doing explicit changes.
Uh I didn't read the whole thing in the original rules. It says
(An example would be movies that start from SRAM, use passwords, etc.)
which is super outdated, because the rules already allow this kinda stuff. I think this bullet point can be removed.Samsara wrote:
Gonna call this a technical thing as well, and definitely not just because my eyes are glazing over trying to make heads or tails of it right now.
The list would not be as wordy. I wonder if it still feels too technical:
NTSC is almost always preferred over PAL, unless there are version exclusive changes to a PAL release that warrant its usage, or if the PAL release runs at 60hz instead of 50hz. US versions ((U)) are preferred, as a majority of our audience is English speaking, though any NTSC release can be used interchangeably.
Using a PAL version of the game is allowed in some situations:
Games for handheld consoles (like GameBoy)
Games run in PAL60 mode (like on Wii GameCube)
Commodore 64 games that don't work correctly in NTSC mode (PAL mode should be used)
Games released in PAL Asia for Famiclones (NTSC or Dendy/Hybrid mode should be used)
Sega Master System games released in Brazil (NTSC mode can be used)
Actually feels like it belongs to legitimate environment rules instead, but we can always just link.
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.
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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zaphod77 wrote:
c64 preservation (https://rittwage.com/c64pp/dp.php?pg=database) is an authority on if an original is PAL or NTSC for games released on disk. Look up the game there if it's a disk image.
How was that database created? Also it says "THIS DOMAIN IS GOING AWAY" so I'm not sure if it will reliably persist.
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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Almost a month in the queue, and very little interest. For ROM hacks, we need them to be entertaining enough to get to Moons, and also to feature obviously unique content compared to the main game.
Last time (11 years ago), this hack absolutely didn't fly. Now, as someone who doesn't know the game, I found it extremely boring (tho I can say the same about the base game too maybe because it doesn't feature Mike's actual fighting style at all). And the only gameplay difference I see without prior knowledge of either game is that this hack does indeed look easier. Voted No.
It would be great if more people watched this movie and posted opinions about how entertaining it is, and how different it looks from the original 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.
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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Sounds good now.
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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It's only independent if it doesn't depend on prior completion.
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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HappyLee wrote:
Sorry that I don't know much about the technical details, but are there lots of NES games can be done this way just like SMB3? What about SMB1? Thanks.
How many games out of the NES library have the DPCM bug?
Every game on a NES console has the DPCM bug.
Not all games implement a DPCM bug workaround.
And even less games have a DPCM bug workaround that can be exploited.
And in most of the cases where you can exploit from the first frame of input, you're just going to end up with a crash you can't manipulate.
The principle applied here is not a rare way to trigger the credits, but a rare way to trigger a crash.
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Your improvement movie may even be slowerlonger than the published run, but it is still considered an improvement if it improves upon gameplay.
"Slower" feels like it describes execution. The case we're describing here is then the movie is at the same time faster and longer.
Glitches that specifically rely on poor emulation must be avoided, evenespecially if the published movie uses them.
In those cases we want to explicitly encourage an improvement.
Some exceptions are made to this, though these exceptions are usually explicit in the published run's judgement or publication text.
Not obvious what an exception may be made for. Also do we still make such exceptions? I think we prefer fixing the rule to match the agreed scenario.
There are a few mentions of obsoletion in other chapters. I think it would be useful if everything related to obsoletion is grouped in one place (which is also why we grouped all Vault/Standard clauses together).This also needs to be mentioned in some form:
For movies of games without a definite ending, a movie which chooses a later ending point can obsolete one which chose an earlier ending point if the rest of the content is matched between the two.
For games that have a second quest or loop, you are allowed to play only the first quest. The second quest is only required to be included if gameplay is significantly different.
If the nature of the second loop is that it's a harder difficulty mode, we may allow it without the first quest. Same spirit as when you use a code to access this hard(est) difficulty.
SRAM and in-game codes are under "Movie must be complete"
That's true, but it doesn't mention that save-anchored movies must be entertaining (as of right now).
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The sound of the countdown at the end is still behind the visuals (easy to check by when it stops).
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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Try replaying it until the last frame and saving the movie.
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.
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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keylie wrote:
Unfortunately this game has been updated since, so the runner executable does not work anymore.
Is there no way to get the version that works?
- Download the Windows version of Unworthy through Steam while using the "speedrunner_spirit" beta branch (right-clic on game > Betas > speedrunner_spirit)
This also sounds like it will only (probably) work for a short period of time. Using a beta version is questionable in itself, and without info on what exact version it's known to work on, this may be a future problem to get this movie to replay (provided it still works).
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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Alternately, you may end when the in-game difficulty (enemy speed, AI, etc.) stops increasing.
I don't mind to make this an alternative ending point, but I should clarify that currently it works as an extension of "all content". If you want, you can play even further after all content is completed, but not instead of completing 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.
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Samsara wrote:
The idea that a custom framework absolutely needs to have built-in lossless AVI capture for us to accept it is kind of an absurd thing to ask of people. With our publication standards as they are currently, the argument is really just a them or us situation regarding the heavy amounts of work that goes into our current quality standards for publication. Either we have to spend days or possibly weeks figuring out how to encode something to our insanely perfectionist standards, or we have to force every custom framework dev to implement features that are specifically only for us.
It's always a scale.
There are things that are absolutely necessary (ability to rerecord and replay movies), things that are extremely good to have (determinism, ability to dump audio-video at all, AV sync), things that are nice (ability to capture on-screen display into video), and things that are only for uber geeks (debuggers).
If it's feasible to have the most good things, we're happy. If things are limited, but reliable, we like it. If basic needs are hard to satisfy, we don't like it, but still do it (accept and process). If the most basic needs are impossible to meet, we don't accept.
For any candidate tool, there would be this list (possibly with priorities assigned), and some agreement on minimal acceptable cutoff. I'm fine with lowering the standards.
The most painful publications I remember were still not about lossless encoding of every frame being hard, they were about no way to capture syncing AV while also syncing the movie itself. Sounds like the only painless solution for those is capturing them using some kind of an external screengrabber. Which is probably worth discussing as an option.
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There's one more requirement:
The only kind of input this custom movie format supports should be the input that the game directly supports and provides to the player. What regular player can not do, should not be possible in the input format either.
For example, in some games, movie format may allow to set character coordinates or velocity directly, without having to hit input keys to get there gradually. We don't want to allow that. TAS environment should be as close as possible to running the game in an emulator of whatever device it runs on.
Scepheo wrote:
feos wrote:
Elaborate on the differences between these 2, and on (again) how emulating Doom altogether is better than making an internal movie for it (have fun expanding that principle to Hourglass too).
As you yourself said; maintaining a strict policy for which game engine movies we accept is impossible, and this will eventually go wrong. This is the first reason I'm against it. The second reason is that game engine replays aren't the same thing as TASes. In the case of Half Life 2, replay files contain actor positions rather than input, which means that completely impossible movements (like going through walls) is possible by hex editing these. In the case of Doom, it is impossible to control the menu, while this is very much part of the game. If a menu related glitch was found, a TAS would be allowed to (and in fact should) exploit: something that wouldn't be possible with demo files.
Should internal dumping be a requirement?
Lack of it uses to lead to complicated setups that are not always consistent. I had to dump my latest DOOM publication on several versions of kkapture and PrBoom, with all sorts of config tweaks, to figure out why something mysteriously breaks in every scenario I try. Not only this makes it hard to learn for regular encoders/publishers (we don't want to depend on having PhD people on staff), it also makes encoders hate the complicated setup, dream of getting rid of it, and try to dodge having to deal with it. This is why we dropped support for mupen64 and pcsx. Their encoding was absolute nightmare.
Should compatibility with a lossless capture program like KKapture be required?
kkapture can do lossy encoding too, but overall, if there's no way to record AV internally, kkapture has to be supported since it captures AV on API level, which is more stable and leads to less possibility of info loss. Other tools are usually much worse at this. And as I said, kkapture may also be a hell to handle.
Or are we open to recording lossily?
It looks terrible at low resolutions. And even more terrible after you upscale that for youtube.
How deterministic do we want it to be at minimum? Would it be acceptable if you need a specific video card sometimes like dolphin?
Poor determinism leads to another level of nightmares and blackouts, for tasers, judges, and publishers. If we don't have anyone available with the magic PC spec, the movie will end up forever in the queue or rejected anyway. We don't want TASing to depend on real world luck.
Overall here's the list of dumping needs that I compiled after having dealt with all sorts of complicated encoding setups at tasvideos: http://tasvideos.org/LawsOfTAS/OnVideoDumping.html The farther a potential new emulator or framework is from those, the less I will want to have it accepted. We also have 2 worthwhile pages by the previous senior publisher: http://tasvideos.org/Natt/SyncHallOfShame.html and http://tasvideos.org/Natt/CaptureHallOfShame.html
Agreed on all the rest.
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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Kill screens, assuming they are impossible to complete under any circumstances
To match the point above, it needs to say "a killscreen".
For games that have "infinite" levels, including a looping set of stages, you may end after all unique content (enemies, level layouts, game mechanics, etc.) is exhausted.
As an extension of this, one is also allowed to play until difficulty stops increasing.
Regional differences such as text and cutscene length are completely discounted when considering improvements. Only actual gameplay is considered to be an improvement. If your movie has 600 fewer frames solely due to version differences, your total improvement must be more than 600 frames.
I feel this should be a new paragraph.
Individual game modes (level sets, episodes), including those unlocked using passwords, are also acceptable as separate branches.
Missing stuff:
The triviality clause! While there are some plans regarding it, we're gonna need it for rules that would boil down to it to get dropped.Unofficial games. Bootlegs, homebrews, prototypes, etc. While I don't feel very strong about limiting them the way the current rules do, there should still be some discussion on what to do with them in the end. I don't even ask to copy the current rules over, just some general info that makes sense to you.
Regarding converted ROMs, I'm not sure. We don't want to depend on 3rd party converters unless we can host them. There's also Thread #21609: #6624: Chamale's Wii MLB Power Pros 2008 "Success mode" in 21:34.17. But things that work on actual device would be fine most of the time.
Image integrity. Some games glitch out if you replace the disk with something else. While great for crazy showcase, That would need a special place to be designed to host such things (also planned).
As for that one game that asks you to insert arbitrary images, I feel it would be fair to allow inserting official games for the same system to make it easier for the player. But I'm not sure where this clause should be placed.
What do we do with Standard regulations?
We'll be revising score attack rules very soon, but for now it should be good to mention that infinite loop techniques are not allowed (ones that delay completion indefinitely to score more points).Arcade continues are an infinite source of lives, and they make the game easier. We'll see what to do with them later, should be safe to append to the cheats clause for now.Obsoletion chapter is incredibly wordy right now, but we need at least some basic info about it mentioned somewhere.
Rules for systems: Should we have a subpages under MovieRules for each system?
Movie formats: Looks like it needs to be an automatic thing, also not sure where.
I've been thinking the entire day about consolidating regulations about TAS environments. There's a ton of info all around the current rules, and also some info in various places of the draft.
We explicitly allow running a game in any config variant of the official and intended environment, unless it causes bugs that hinder gameplay, visuals, or audio. Important term: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_architecture
For consoles and other devices with closed architecture, we don't allow deviations from official and intended environment. If it's a game released for PAL PlayStation, we run it in emulated PAL PlayStation, with all authentic config. But we allow better GBx modes unless it causes problems.
For open architecture, we're more open too. Emulating officially supported environment is also allowed of course. And deviations may be allowed depending on their effect on gameplay: improving framerate or audio-visuals is a good thing. Running incompatible hardware is not.
This would automatically resolve most of libTAS rules too.
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When you upload a reencode of an obsoleted movie to TASVideosChannel, disable subscriber notifications.
When you're at Video details, scroll down and click SHOW MORE. Below Licence you will see a checkbox saying Publish to subscriptions feed and notify subscribers. Uncheck it! This way after the video is added to the publication and becomes public automatically, it won't flood the feed of TVC subscribers.
Waiting for 2 hours for such an upload is not needed when making it public.
After publishing a movie, the timeout is still 4 hours, and after making a regular reencode public, it's 2 hours.
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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Done.
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.
What encoding specifications are best for .mp4 files?
For your original mp4 to work in the online player we currently require the file to have:
audio: aac
video: h.264
moov atom: front
pixel format: yuv420p
If this is not the case we will derive a new mp4 with the file name suffix .ia.mp4
Too bad Archive can't stream 4:2:2 video. That would fit Rec601 so nicely and also look great at 2x, but nope.
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Use an official release of an approved emulator. Use interimdevelopment builds at your own risk.
I agree with ThunderAxe31. Or maybe we can drop the second sentence altogether in the summary?
You may not change emulator settings to gain in-game speed advantages, such as running 50hz PAL games in 60hz NTSC mode.
I'm bad at english, but we need to mention that we don't want settings that are inaccurate to the actual emulated device. If some setting gives speed advantage and is present on the real device, it's fine to use it (generally).
Any release version or patch of a game may be used, though you should be able to explain why you chose that version.
Could the patch be confused with ROM/image modifications also called patches?
- Always record new movies from power-on. Starting from a savestate is not allowed.
- SRAM-anchored movies are allowed, but they require a verification movie that creates the necessary SRAM. This verification movie does not need to be optimized.
We might need users to know the difference between emulator savestates and in-game saves. The latter can be SRAM-based, but SRAM may have other meanings too. In branches and tags we call those just saves (save glitch, save corruption). Again not sure how to word this well.
Cheat codes and passwords are only allowed to access harder difficulties and/or bonus content.
ROM or RAM modification, such as Game Genie and Action Replay, is not allowed.
Game Genie modifies the ROM.
Your movie file must sync from beginning to end for multiple people. If any extra steps or settings are required for sync, they must all be stated in your submission text.
Every movie will indeed be replayed by several people, but the wording implies it has to be sent to other people for sync verification before submitting. While this would actually be a great practice, I dunno how to word this softer.
- Do not submit other authors' movies without their explicit permission.
- Do not plagiarize. This is grounds for an immediate site ban.
Don't these 2 mean the same thing?
Any%: Completing a game in the fastest time possible.
We use the term fastest completion officially instead of any%, because the former is more descriptive.
-- If the fastest time for a game is an ACE run, we also allow a separate any% branch that foregoes it.
Wasn't ACE confused with major skip glitch here?
The definition of a major skip varies from game to game, but is generally defined as an unintended skip of otherwise unavoidable content.
Would gameplay sound better here?
This is not strictly "100%": Categories such as "all levels", "best ending" and "maximum score" are also acceptable forms of full completion if the game has no other definition.
I think we want to say it's not always literally "100%". Not strictly "100%" looks to me like sometimes we're fine with just reaching 99% out of 100%. As always, I'm bad at english.
Individual game modes or level sets, including those unlocked using passwords, are also acceptable as separate branches.
As a general rule, your chosen game should have optimizable gameplay and an ending.
An ending in the game is not a requirement. If there's none, we define it ourselves.
Moons is a class that holds a variety of goals curated by the TASvideos community. Game and goal choice does not matter as much here, as long as it is widely approved by the community. It is recommended you ask for feedback in advance before starting a Moons-oriented run.
To reflect the current system, we need to mention entertainment. Long-term too, goals that can not possibly go to Standard will have to be entertaining, like playarounds.
Gameplay must be accurate to console
We emulate computers too.
Your submission must be reproducible. That is, multiple people must verifywill be verifying that your input file syncs on an officially released build of an accepted emulator. Use development/interim builds at your own risk, as input files created on them may not sync even on the next official release. Anything that could affect sync, such as emulator settings or config options, must be stated in the submission text so that Judges and Publishers have the best chance of verifying your submission. If a game is not emulated well at all, it may not be accepted until the accuracy improves, as emulation bugs could provide unintentional advantages to a TAS or ruin the overall experience (?).
Note: Dolphin's Beta and Development builds are considered official releases, and they are preferred to stable releases.
I think sync requirements should be a separate section. I don't think they are a part of console accuracy.
Also I wouldn't say Dolphin interims are preferred. They may still be non-trivial to get a video from, and there are versions to avoid completely. Stables are the safest, and for the rest we need to link this thread probably.
Outside modification of a game or a system BIOS is not allowed: This includes Game Genie and Action Replay cheats as well as direct modification of game files, such as on a PC or Linux game.
If it's the only way to make the game work for a TAS, and it doesn't alter gameplay, modification is allowed (still safer to ask judges).
Use the correct version of a game
I suggest turning this section into regular text with examples as bullet points. Making it a nested list feels like it's just to large to grasp. After all, the points are rather independent.
Virtual Console (VC) and other ROMs extracted from official emulators are allowed, though the original release ROM is usually preferred. VC is preferred if it is the only official English release of a game, or if it provides unique features not in the original release, such as different gameplay or new game modes.
This should mention that the extracted game should actually be fully playable, without audio/visual bugs and bugs that hinder gameplay. This is important because some VC games heavily depend on their VC environment and don't function properly without it. Playing them as VC games without extraction should always be allowed imo.
SRAM-anchored movies require a verification file, which must be provided in the submission.
- This verification file should create the exact SRAM state that's used in the submission. It does not have to be optimized or even TASed at all, the only purpose it serves is to verify that your submission starts from a legitimate state.
Should we note that the initial verification movie should still start from power-on? Also the wording should involve in-game saves to be more generic.
- For games that loop a set of levels endlessly, the final level before the game loops must be completed at minimum. If difficulty continues to increase on successive loops, you have the option of continuing until the difficulty stops increasing. Continuing is preferred, but not required.
- For games with "infinite" levels, you may end after all unique content (enemies, level layouts, game mechanics, etc.) is exhausted.
The current rules don't allow to stop at the end of the first loop if there's still unique content after it.
Unnecessary input should be trimmed to the last input required to reach your chosen endpoint.
Somewhere we should mention that TAS timing starts from console power-on and ends on last required input.
For games with post-credits input or high score screens, you are not required to include those inputs in your input file. You may provide a separate file with these inputs for the purposes of our publication encodes.
It's preferred to have this extra input in the main file.
If you're aiming for speed, your submission must beat, or at least match, all known records.
The movie must be properly attributed
Mention that all files submitted to the site are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.
I'll go through omitted sections in another post.
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.
