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Satoryu wrote:
i like what i see in these WIPs. but i fear for this run's future. what exactly is "low glitched"? not using zips to go directly to Eggman, but using them elsewhere is going to be tough to justify when it comes to judging. it could be considered an arbitrary restriction.
Underflow of the horizontal position variable is a very specific abuse of the program, which is different from zipping, and in certain situations would not even require zipping. However, those situations do not exist in this game.
If he additionally does not travel above the level cieiling at any time, this could very easily be justified as "Stays within level boundaries".
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FuzZerd wrote:
I think that fighting knuckles boss in mg2 as knuckles would fall under the "instantly warping from the start of the level to the end" since it works under the same premises.
Rewatch SprintGod's run.
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DDRKhat wrote:
This works fairly ok.
This may be going a step far but. The "speedhack". Any chance you guys have the addresses to those to?
It'd be helpful if I could toggle between Sonic and Tails and still know their speeds etc.
Oh - one small thing. The Camhack goes a bit weird when switched to Tails, Hitboxes and stuff doesn't always show correctly.
And a small Q - Any chance it could center the camera on Tails?
If you use numlock, you can see the base address in RAM of the object you are currently focused on (add FF to the front to use it in ram search). I believe I set the speedometer to cycle with the camera focus, so if you see something in ram search with the same value as the speedometer shows, that'll get you the address.
And it does center the camera on the focused object, but the object will make one frame's worth of movement between the focus coordinates being set and the frame being rendered, which may result in sonic/tails/whatever being slightly off center in camhack if they are moving at high speeds. ... And it only triggers if the object goes offscreen from normal focus. ... Also it doesn't trigger if scroll lock is on.
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ccfreak2k wrote:
If there's a working -recent- build of Gens, what stops someone from just forking and porting the rerecord patch?
Possibility of different sync, and the current Linux version started from an earlier release of gens than the current rerecording version, so it returns everything from C++ to plain C, which makes some of the improvements impossible just to straight-port over to that.
Additionally, at this point, it is probably less works to take the current rerecording SVN code and fix it for linux compatibility, than it would be to take the Linux code and duplicate all the rerecording improvements.
For what it's worth, there's already been a branch made for that purpose, but the guy who was going to be working on it has been really busy (and also kind of got bored with the TAS community...).
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marzojr wrote:
For more quantitative values of his stats, the Sonic Tricks page is quite handy (but it doesn't list the super/hyper forms with speed shoes).
That's because the one doesn't affect the other. If you transform after you hit speed shoes, you get Super Sonic's normal speed. If you transform before you hit speed shoes, you get normal speed shoe speed.
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marzojr wrote:
upthorn wrote:
Unfortunately for marzojr, it's SST slot is dynamically determined based on availability, so I cannot simply give him a RAM address to watch.
Just my luck. As it turns out, I can go through that sprite every single time when going to the right, but failed to do it on all tries when going to the left. Thus, if I were to skip that special stage, I could take advantage of that.
I am using a self-compiled Gens with S3&K camera + speed hacks (straight from CVS); the information it displays can be used to determine the address to watch? I seem to remember that the Sonic hacks also display the object's base RAM address (or at least that is what the comments in 'SonicHackSuite.cpp' state, but I know how comments can get out of synch with the code...).
When numlock is on, each object's base address in RAM should be displayed at the object's center.
Add FF to the front to use it in ram search.
The code pointer is the 4 byte value right at that base address.
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nitsuja wrote:
marzojr wrote:
Also, after the first special stage in AI2, I cannot figure out how to go through the floor except after it has finished falling; I would appreciate any pointers.
... It could be that the platform is swapped out for something else (or simply forgets to check collision for a frame)...
I looked into it, and this is exactly what happens. In Nitsuja's run, the code pointer in its SST slot changes on the frame where sonic would come into contact with it.
Unfortunately for marzojr, it's SST slot is dynamically determined based on availability, so I cannot simply give him a RAM address to watch.
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If there is anyone at this point who still doesn't see the merits in a category like the one described: Watchthesevideos.
And don't forget to mute the sound so you can be sure your entertainment comes from the video and not the commentary.
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Wouldn't it be preferable to just start a section of this site for that? I mean we already have a good framework for the stuff, it's just a matter of setting separate standards for the new category.
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CtrlAltDestroy wrote:
Most possibilities of entertainment have been covered by the actual speedruns....
This is less and less true as time goes by and oler runs are obsoleted by faster ones.
Sometimes, (especially in early megaman games) the entertaining things ended up costing time and the game was not known well enough for this to be understood at the time.
More often, though, it is just that it takes more work to be entertaining, and it is much harder for the author to judge fairly, so it falls by the wayside. This has been the case in several of my own submissions. Especially Sonic 1, where I felt that I had no chance of living up to JXQ's style on the wait times, so I did not really even try.
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DarkKobold wrote:
upthorn wrote:
There's no reason that people shouldn't be able to use its useful functions directly in the channel like they always could before.
They will, once Nach gets the bot up and running.
Why should Nach have to do more work to reimplement something when there's a perfectly working version available already if someone would just remove the blocks rendering it useless?
The situation is ridiculous and unrespectable.
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moozooh wrote:
upthorn wrote:
Speaking of this, why is BisqBot mutebanned instead of simply making the .cards (and other silly) triggers bannable offenses?
Because it forces people to pm him instead. They get their play, no-one is forced to read garbage lines, no-one has to be banned, everybody wins.
Except people who have enough IRC windows open already that PMing a bot becomes a huge pain in the ass.
There's no reason that people shouldn't be able to use its useful functions directly in the channel like they always could before.
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Xkeeper wrote:
I think at this point it might be a good idea to just open an alternate site for non-TAS playarounds, since the idea is clearly wanted but unacceptable in this environment.
Dude, no. It should happen here.
mmbossman wrote:
Xkeeper wrote:
I think at this point it might be a good idea to just open an alternate site for non-TAS playarounds, since the idea is clearly wanted but unacceptable in this environment.
Maybe you and alden could look into that.
Dude, no. It should happen here.
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mmbossman wrote:
Xkeeper wrote:
I must say that I really love all the hate you guys pile on about .cards/etc. Was it really that bad?
Just like your chronic dissatisfaction with everything related to the site, it was cute at first, but got old very, very quickly.
Speaking of this, why is BisqBot mutebanned instead of simply making the .cards (and other silly) triggers bannable offenses?
I imagine bisqbot's .cl and other similar useful features will be very difficult to reimplement, but the way things stand, it's been made a pain in the ass for people who want to use them.
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I agree with Zurreco about a middle ground.
We should make up a whole series of icons consisting of one video game character in a megaman helmet, and randomly select which one to display. (or cycle them daily, or some other option)
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My suggestions:
Don't:
restrict new user's submissions (discourages new users/only adds more clog for judges/coders).
ban new users just because their first submissions are terrible and don't meet guideliness.
Do:
Email new users a link to the rules and FAQ pages.
Create a forum user account at the same time as the wiki/submissions account.
Subscribe new authors to their workbench thread, so any comments on their submissions show up in their email.
This assumes ignorance rather than malicious intent. If the problem is that they don't understand how things work, or their own submissions' weak points, put it right in their faces where they can see it easily.
And if they are making intentionally bad submissions just to be jerks, the resulting bulk of mail to their address could discourage the behavior.
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nitsuja wrote:
Then since you want to look at Tails instead of Sonic, there's a line in SonicHackSuite.cpp you can change:
#elif defined S2
const unsigned int P1OFFSET = 0xFFB000;
I believe Tails is at 0xFFB040 instead of 0xFFB000.
It should also be easy to change it into something non-constant if you want to be able to switch back and forth. For a really quick example that I think would work but isn't necessarily the best way to do it:
#elif defined S2
//const unsigned int P1OFFSET = 0xFFB000; // <-- disabled
// Focus on Tails if caps lock is on, or Sonic if caps lock is off
#define P1OFFSET (GetKeyState(VK_CAPITAL) ? 0xFFB040 : 0xFFB000)
Actually, the code he'd be compiling that from already has the ability to change camera focus through the object table just by using page-up and page-down (also "home" to reset on sonic).
The reason I hadn't replied to this yet is because I assume he wants one pre-compiled, and I've been too busy lately to compile a version from gens_11a and upload it somewhere public for him.
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DDRKhat wrote:
upthorn wrote:
Not counting time spent in special stages, you have lost 2130 frames (35.5 seconds) in EH1, compared to entering no special stages.
Gee. I wonder why I'm loosing time doing something extra.
upthorn wrote:
By comparison, if you entered only one special stage, at the third lamp post, you could probably get away with only 3 to 5 seconds loss.
If we assume about the same time loss for each emerald, we get 2130 * (7/3) = 4970 frames (1 minute 22.8 seconds) of in-level time loss.
Whereas 3 to 5seconds per emerald * 7emeralds = 21 to 35 seconds of total in-level time loss.
Yes, this will require more work from you, but it'll provide a savings of 47 to 61 seconds, which is way too much to shrug off. In fact, collecting a single chaos emerald would have to lose you almost 12 seconds in each level it's done in for this not to pay off better.
I'll leave you or someone else to this then. Seeing as you clearly have this calculated deeply and (From the sounds of it) was planning to do it.
The only calculations I've done have been off of your work. I was trying to help. Nice to see it was appreciated...
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DDRKhat wrote:
And as I said, I personally feel it would become quite cumbersome having to mess around getting Emeralds in later zones where such solid routes without emeralds have already been posted.
DDRKhat wrote:
DDRKhat wrote:
Times so far:
Notes:
Enter [S]pecial[S]tage is from the moment control is granted, until the moment the screen begins to flash to special stage
Complete [S]pecial[S]stage is from the moment control is granted, until screen is completely faded out (and input is ignored)
Complete Stage is from the moment control is granted, until the signpost is hit.
Enter SS1: 579->1424 (14 seconds)
Complete SS1: 1581->6771 (86.5 seconds)
Enter SS2: 6921->7697 (12.9 seconds)
Complete SS2: 7855->13632 (96.3 seconds)
Enter SS3: 13782->15031 (20.8 seconds)
Complete SS3: 15188->21830 (110.7 seconds)
Not counting time spent in special stages (6921-1424 + 13782-7967 + 21980-15031 = 18261 frames (5 minutes 4.35 seconds), you have lost 2130 frames (35.5 seconds) in EH1, compared to entering no special stages. (1424-579+7697-6921+15031-13782+22286-21980 = 3176; 1625-579 = 1046; 3176-1046 = 2130)
By comparison, if you entered only one special stage, at the third lamp post, you could probably get away with only 3 to 5 seconds loss.
If we assume about the same time loss for each emerald, we get 2130 * (7/3) = 4970 frames (1 minute 22.8 seconds) of in-level time loss.
Whereas 3 to 5seconds per emerald * 7emeralds = 21 to 35 seconds of total in-level time loss.
Yes, this will require more work from you, but it'll provide a savings of 47 to 61 seconds, which is way too much to shrug off. In fact, collecting a single chaos emerald would have to lose you almost 12 seconds in each level it's done in for this not to pay off better.
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Fuzzerd is correct, because of all the backtracking necessary to recollect 50 rings after each stage, it is overall slower to get super sonic on EHZ. Ideally your route should collect 50 rings before any given lamp post with minimal time spent not moving right at high speeds. To this effect, it is probably faster not to get more than 1 emerald per act of any given zone, and definitely better not to get more than 2 or 3. There is still plenty of time to collect them, this way you can get ~2 seconds detours on 5-7 levels (10-14 seconds total), instead of the ~40 seconds of detours on necessary to get all the emeralds in EHZ. Additionally, this preserves more of a sense of speed in the TAS, and more of the sense of the game's flow, by minimizing the frequency of interruptions.
With Knuckles, the all-emeralds-on-EHZ route would be a bit more viable, because he doesn't lose all his rings upon entering a special stage, but it would still be faster to save at least two for CPZ.
Incidentally, the Sonic 2 maps at The Sonic Center were recently updated with a batch I made. 100% scaled, all rings and objects shown, with hitboxes and solidity.
They should be quite helpful for route planning. (except sky chase).
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