About issue #1:
adelikat, the problem isn't the resolution, but the palette depth. Dega fails at reproducing the 12-bit colors of the Game Gear, using 9-bit colors instead (according to Maxim).
About issue #2:
shinydoofy, the headers might be correct, but Dega still ignores them, and relies only on the extension anyway. For example, renaming Sonic Triple Trouble from .gg to .sms, will get you this:
, even if the country code in the header is 7 (GG international).
But sure, this is something that can be implemented, I only wonder why no other emulator checks the header though. I seem to remember there was a legitimate reason to do so, but since I can't remember which it was, I'll assume I was wrong and you were right.
Anyway, adelikat, if adding a flag, it's easy enough to keep compatibility with older movies, since they all are SMS only. Setting a bit to 1 somewhere will do the trick, I think there are a few spare bytes, which are supposed to be 0 by definition right now.
In contrast to what I wrote above, since it turns out that Dega really has GG emulation problems, I will cancel this submission. But first I'd still like to see the "SMS" in the title changed to "GG". Once that is done I'll send this to the gruefood with no regrets.
Ok, in order to have Game Gear movies accepted, there are at least two points to be sorted out.
Dega is inaccurate
Differentiate GG and SMS roms
About point number 1, I contacted Maxim, one smspower's webmasters, and THE authority then it comes to 8-bit sega consoles. What he says is always correct.
For the record, it should be noted that Dega is overall inaccurate, it's probably the worst SMS/GG emulator of the bunch nowadays, as other emulators (which unfortunately don't support rerecording) such as Fusion, Regen, eSMS, and some others, are much more accurate in general (also with regard to SMS games). But, as Upthorn mentioned, Dega actually have additional palette issues with GG games.
My query to Maxim was the following:
nineko wrote:
Hi, sorry to ask you such a question, but on tasvideos.org someone mentioned that Dega doesn't emulate Game Gear games properly because of its palette...
I know Dega isn't accurate in general, you already mentioned that once, but do you know if there are any significative differencies in the level of accuracy between Master System and Game Gear games?
And here is Maxim's response:
Maxim wrote:
The GG has 12-bit colour but Dega interprets it wrong, I think it truncates it to 9 bit. A good game to compare is FIFA Soccer, its pitch uses close shades of green which look awful in Dega.
It is probably a 5 minute fix for someone who is set up for working on it. Try contacting the maintainer of the TAS version.
So, point number 1 is an actual problem that should be addressed.
Instead, with regard to point number 2, that's a non-problem, as the rom extension is conclusive in this case. I know it seems weird, but the only way to differentiate a GG rom from an SMS rom is to rely on its filename, as the header isn't conclusive (there is a byte, used also for the country, that might be used for this purpose but sometimes it carries wrong information). In fact, all the emulators (afaik), including the ones I mentioned above, rely on the extension to determine if they should run in GG or in SMS mode. This can be easily checked by renaming a .gg rom to .sms and vice-versa. Since the rom format is exactly the same, SMS games will (almost?) always run fine on a GG, and GG games will technically run on an SMS, though the limited color palette and the lack of a proper start button will probably crash or lock up the game before the first screen. This to say that modifications to the mmv format aren't needed, since it already carries the rom name, and the format can be detected by looking for ".gg" and ".sms". Adding a flag would just postpone a check already done by the emulator itself with the same logic.
... there are several SMS emulators (of which Dega is one) that do not properly emulate Game Gear games.
hm, this might be a problem for your Sonic GG TAS alden. And anyone else that might be working on one.
Yeah exactly D:
I sent a PM to Maxim (one of smspower's webmasters) to know more about this issue. Because, we all know Dega is inaccurate in general, I didn't know it was even more inaccurate for Game Gear titles. I'll start a thread in the Dega forum once he replies. Maybe my tas will be rejected, but at least I'll help alden with his one :)
For the record, as I said (and I'll bring it back later in that future thread of mine), there is no need at all for any additional flags. Even emulators, all of them afaik (including Fusion, Regen, Gens+, ...) just rely on the filename to determine if a game should be played in gg or sms mode, as the header isn't conclusive. Any Master System game will load on a Game Gear, and any Game Gear game will load on a Master System (though broken and possibly won't get past the first screen because of palette and key issues). You can see that if you rename your .gg roms to .sms and vice versa. The extension is the only thing we can use to differentiate. A flag would just be a waste of a byte (or a bit if you're smart).
But, as I said, this thread isn't the place to address those issues, since they go beyond my Chuck Rock tas. I'll start a thread in the Dega forum as soon as Maxim replies to me. He is THE authority when it comes to 8-bit sega consoles, so I'm definitely interested into hearing his word.
Back on topic, I still believe in good faith and I won't cancel this submission. This game is no worse than some other published ones.
Rom extension is reliable in this case, because that's what the emulators use to determine the console too. If you rename a .gg rom into .sms it will boot into sms mode (with higher resolution and broken palette) and vice-versa. There is no other way to tell if a rom is gg or sms.
By the way, the mixed response (yes and no are almost even) makes me wonder if I should try to hex the 40-frames improvement found by Cardboard in. To be honest that jump never looked really optimised to me, but I didn't try to hex it in not to fuck the rng. But I will, if that would give this better chances of publication...
edit: as I thought, hexing that improvement in makes the movie desync in level 2 because a frog behaves differently. So I'd rather keep those 42 frames out, because there is a much bigger loss of time later.
So I wonder what is the reason that prevented the ones who voted no from commenting on my early wips and help me find better strategies.
And now I also wonder what's going to happen. Let's see what we have here, the first movie for a console, with known improvements, with some of the audience who thinks it's boring. Sure the NSMB episode set a very tricky precedent. Though my name isn't written in orange letters so I already know how it's going to end...
Dega emulates both SMS and GG. I don't know how MMV files handle that internally, though. It's possible that the format doesn't take that in consideration. Your best bet would be to check the extension of the ROM, which is .sms or .gg accordingly.
Screen resolution is 160x144 (like the Game Boy). On-screen colours without programming tricks are 32, from a palette of 4096. Refresh rate is always 60Hz.
Voted meh: too repetitive, most of the times you were just pushing the opponent to the right corner. Though, I could watch it all without fast forwarding. So I'm not voting no, but don't expect me to vote yes.
Thanks :)
But without a good strategy for level 3's boss, this project dies here.
I can beat it, I could beat it even on my real game gear when I was 8... But I doubt a TAS where I lose 3 lives while fighting a boss would look good :(
I failed once again.
For the record, did you notice that when the glitch occurs, some letters appear in the score? I think one of those screenshots should be used:
Or, since Mario and the viruses disappear during the glitch, I thought to edit the screenshot to preserve them (though this is against the policy I think since I altered a screenshot):
/me exits NesVideoAgent mode
Looks good so far :D
I can't wait to see the finished version of this :)
Also, Sonikkustar, let me know if you'd like to get an encode of your WIPs, I'm up for that. Though I won't make encodes without permission.
I didn't know there was a Super Nes version, but I just looked for some footage on Youtube, and I can tell you that it's different.
I can also tell that it's different from the Genesis version as well: the settings and the enemies are similar, but the level layouts and the controls are different.
I'd record an AVI of this W.I.P. but apparently only the Linux build of Dega can dump AVI files...
, even if the country code in the header is 7 (GG international).
But sure, this is something that can be implemented, I only wonder why no other emulator checks the header though. I seem to remember there was a legitimate reason to do so, but since I can't remember which it was, I'll assume I was wrong and you were right.
Anyway, adelikat, if adding a flag, it's easy enough to keep compatibility with older movies, since they all are SMS only. Setting a bit to 1 somewhere will do the trick, I think there are a few spare bytes, which are supposed to be 0 by definition right now.
Or, since Mario and the viruses disappear during the glitch, I thought to edit the screenshot to preserve them (though this is against the policy I think since I altered a screenshot):
/me exits NesVideoAgent mode