• Emulator: Mupen64 Anti-DS
  • Aims for fastest in-game times while also trying for fastest overall time whenever possible.
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Heavy luck manipulation
  • Completes bonus levels
Graphics plugin: Run synchs with either Jabo Direct3D8 1.6 or Rice Video Plugin 6.1.1 or later version.
NOTE TO ENCODERS: Run can be encoded with Glide64 Napalm WX if using some savestates and pasting segments together. I'll provide savestates and more info on this later. Since both Rice and Jabo has severe graphical issues this is definately the approach i recommend(Napalm has no graphical issues whatsoever).
Input plugin: TAS input plugin 0.6(2 controllers enabled) Sound plugin: Jabo DirectSound 1.6 RSP plugin: RSP Emulation Plugin
This run improves on Rising tempest's previous TAS, however it is overall slower because it beats 2 additional bonus levels because most poeple wanted to see those included. For this reason, run doesn't end at or ever show the credits, i tried to make this work but it wasn't possible. Option was between doing all levels and ending at credits and i chose to do all levels. So instead movie ends at fadeout of final level.
This is the first full TAS run where i've truly aimed for absolute perfection. This run accomplishes that goal in ways i could never have imagined when i started. Almost every level is completed in a time below what was believed to be the lowest possible time before run was started. I should also note that every level is a TAS record, i.e no level has ever been TAS'ed faster than in this run(not counting decimals). The improvements on individual levels compared to previous run are the following:
Level      | This run | Rising Tempest | Improvement
-
Dam          1:47       1:49             0:02 
Facility     0:49       0:52             0:03
Runway       0:33       0:35             0:02
Surface 1    1:44       1:48             0:04
Bunker 1     0:54       0:59             0:05
Silo         1:07       1:14             0:07
Frigate      0:56       1:08             0:12
Surface 2    1:10       1:16             0:06
Bunker 2     0:40       0:48             0:08
Statue       2:15       2:17             0:02
Archives     0:51       0:54             0:03
Streets      1:50       1:54             0:04
Depot        0:42       0:48             0:06
Train        1:40       1:44             0:04
Jungle       0:49       0:51             0:02
Control      3:51       3:57             0:06
Caverns      1:19       1:22             0:03
Cradle       0:32       0:34             0:02
-
Total:                                   1:21

Bonus levels against previous TAS records:

Level      | This run | Previous Record | Improvement
-
Aztec        1:18       1:29              0:11
Egypt        0:42       0:44              0:02
-
Total                                     0:13

The making of this run:

Originally this runs started when Jack(Rising Tempest) asked me if i wanted to be a co-author in an improvement run. Sometime after i started the Dam level and i simply kept going and finished it. At this point i hadn't had alot of contact with Jack and in the end i continued the run by myself. In the beginning, Simon used to do TAS'es alongside my own which was a big factor later on in perfecting alot of levels. We were able to compare runs and TT's and this made it possible to improve levels more than i probably would've done had i done it alone. When reaching the Surface 2 level Simon made his first contribution to the movie when i asked him to do the beginning of the level for me. On the next level, Bunker 2, i ran into some problems about halfway through the run and after countless attempts of trying to manipulate a guard holding a safe key, i gave up. At this point, Simon took over the whole run. He finished Bunker 2, and also did Statue and Archives levels. After this almost a year passed without any furhter progress. Mostly because this run aimed to beat all previous TAS records and the standing record on Streets was 1:51 by Simon which we thought was unbeatable with the control style used(because leaning can't be done which makes the Valentin strafing slower). However, roughly a year later Simon told me is was "about time" to continue the run so we made a try on Streets. Originally we planned to co-author the rest of the run but by coincidence, i ended up doing all the input for Streets. I also continued on with Depot and at this point, we decided that i'd do the rest of the game by myself. The times gotten here in the second half of the run were mindblowing both to myself and Simon and hopefully the rest of the communities following the progress. I managed to finish the run in only a few weeks after returning.

My own thoughts:

This run is far better than i ever expected it to be. And while some minor improvements do exist, I consider this run to be as close to maxed out as Goldeneye can get. Some levels like Streets where luck manipulation is extremely heavy had everything going right and the time is so fast that i think it would be extremely hard to even tie. I'm very proud of how the run turned out and i hope everyone can enjoy it as much as i do myself :)

Tricks used:

On Surface 1, i shoot through the window of a hut to make the guard with the key come out.
On Bunker 1, i use 2.3 control style to shoot during cinema, this to alert a guard so he can open two doors for me. I also shoot close to Boris in beginning so he'll get his hands up earlier and therefor start walking earlier.
On Silo and Aztec, i do little quickpauses to speed up any full pause coming later.
On Frigate, i manipulate every hostage to choose the closest escape point.
On Surface 2, i shoot a camera through the trees to save some time. This is done at earliest possible moment cause the camera is not loaded until this point.
On Bunker 2, we lure the clipboard guard early, which usually makes a safe key guard take a bad route, however, if you're fast enough, he'll take a good route, this saved 5 seconds.
On Statue, Trevelyan is shot so he can start talking earlier.
On Archives, 2.3 control style is used to get an earlier slap in beginning.
On Streets, a grenade is used to destroy a roadblock allowing Bond to run through it.
On Depot, 2.3 control style is used to destroy a screen during cinema, this is part of an objective and also attracts guards who open a roller door for you.
On Train, i use a weapon switching trick to use ZMG and Laser at the same time. This doesn't save anything but adds alot to entertainment.
On Jungle i once again use 2.3 control style to be able to throw mines instantly.
On Control, i shoot Natalyas legs many times so that she'll have a shorter distance to run when escaping.
On Cradle, i use a grenade to kill both Trevelyan and destroy a console at the same time. This completes both objectives on this level.
On Aztec, i lure 2 guards to open a glass door for me, saving a ton of time. I also input the guidence data in the end of the level instead of in the beginning.
On Egypt, i warp a solid stone door without even opening it!
I'm not gonna go into further details on each level because i could write endless details about them.

Possible improvements:

While most levels are executed perfectly, two minor mistakes were made in this run(and couldn't be helped since this was discovered long after run had started):
1. Control style 2.4 had been a better choice. It was discovered that bonds forward speed is the value that can accelerate after a certain time and 2.4 allows you to do this during cinemas.
2. Using aim crosshair for some shots was believed to not decelerate Bond if only held for a single frame. Further memory watching proved that this was false and therefor some speed was lost on some levels. This might still work with 2.4.

Special Thanks:

Simon Sternis, for support/help throughout run, especially for taking over the run when i gave up.
Jack Wedge, for creating the previous run which has been an inspiration and a source for comparising.
The-Elite community, for all years of developing strats and also for an overall interrest in the run.
Tasvideos community, for helpful ideas, help with memory watching and also great support throughout the run.

Mukki: Judging...
Mukki: Fantastic work here, no question. Despite the fact that a good encode is yet to be uploaded I may as well accept this now as an improvement to the currently published run. It is a no-brainer. Hopefully this can be published with a Glide64 Napalm WX encode.
Aktan: My next project....

nfq
Player (92)
Joined: 5/10/2005
Posts: 1204
Because of the bad quality and graphical glitches of the first encode, I decided to make a better encode of the last five levels that were whoarded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5-OkQ6I_K4
Joined: 7/21/2006
Posts: 747
Location: Northern Hemisphere
I wanted to vote no because you skipped the between-level menus so fast that I couldn't read the Intel and follow the story. But then I voted yes because this is a work of art.
Joined: 3/17/2009
Posts: 496
how's the encode without graphical issues comming along?
Joined: 4/29/2006
Posts: 70
Synx wrote:
how's the encode without graphical issues comming along?
Mupen, or more specifically, Glide64 crashes for me when starting the the Video Dump. Anyone successfully can video dump with the napalm pack?
Warepire
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Editor
Joined: 3/2/2010
Posts: 2174
Location: A little to the left of nowhere (Sweden)
Undie wrote:
Synx wrote:
how's the encode without graphical issues comming along?
Mupen, or more specifically, Glide64 crashes for me when starting the the Video Dump. Anyone successfully can video dump with the napalm pack?
Dumping with the internal routines or using the modified .kkapture available at the Mupen64 emulator section?
Active player (301)
Joined: 9/2/2006
Posts: 504
I have no idea how to "correctly" dump this video but using the modified .kkapture guide i was able to dump without problems(it seems). However i used the lagarith lossless codec and x264 didn't seem to like that plus i can't playback the movie in any program, i.e i have no idea if it actually produced anything good. But at least it didn't crash. (I was able to dump a perfect quality video using FFV1 but it was too slow framerate and totally out of synch with sound)
nfq
Player (92)
Joined: 5/10/2005
Posts: 1204
I could make a youtube encode, but I'm not sure if it would be acceptable as an official encode because they always seem to be 1080p nowadays (I can only capture at 720p), so maybe it's better to leave it to someone like flygon? Then I also have the 16-bit color issue with Napalm... it isn't very visible on some levels like Cradle though. What do you guys think?
Active player (301)
Joined: 9/2/2006
Posts: 504
avoid 16-bit at all costs :p
Joined: 2/3/2011
Posts: 6
Awesome job on this Henrik/Simon. Nonstop entertainment, even during the Natalya protect!
GabCM
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Joined: 5/5/2009
Posts: 901
Location: QC, Canada
nfq wrote:
I could make a youtube encode, but I'm not sure if it would be acceptable as an official encode because they always seem to be 1080p nowadays (I can only capture at 720p), so maybe it's better to leave it to someone like flygon?
I'd like to try, but the only problem is, even with 580 GB of free hard drive space, I'm not sure it's enough space. And also, I'd like to know the real rerecord count. Can someone find it?
Publisher
Joined: 4/23/2009
Posts: 1283
Mister Epic wrote:
I'd like to try, but the only problem is, even with 580 GB of free hard drive space, I'm not sure it's enough space.
This is why it is HIGHLY recommend you use Lagarith to capture, as all the duplicate frames will take almost 0 bytes. It should NOT take 500+ GB to capture at 1920x1440 res. Note: I have added this to my queue of things to encode, but it will be a while.
Editor, Experienced player (851)
Joined: 8/12/2008
Posts: 845
Location: Québec, Canada
I will try to at least do the SD encode (since I got this movie to sync well with Glide64).
Publisher
Joined: 4/23/2009
Posts: 1283
Wyster wrote:
I have no idea how to "correctly" dump this video but using the modified .kkapture guide i was able to dump without problems(it seems). However i used the lagarith lossless codec and x264 didn't seem to like that plus i can't playback the movie in any program, i.e i have no idea if it actually produced anything good. But at least it didn't crash. (I was able to dump a perfect quality video using FFV1 but it was too slow framerate and totally out of synch with sound)
That's weird that you cannot play it back at all. VLC has Lagarith available to decode so you could try that, but even VDub doesn't work? If not, it is why x264 is failing. You might want to try to reinstall it.
nfq
Player (92)
Joined: 5/10/2005
Posts: 1204
Wyster wrote:
(I was able to dump a perfect quality video using FFV1 but it was too slow framerate and totally out of synch with sound)
Could also be that it just appears to be too slow if the computer is not fast enough to play it back at such high bitrate. x264 to worked for me with .kkapture, but I had to check zero latency. I also got proper colors with this, so thanks Aktan. The instructions made it look like it would be hard to use, but it wasn't so hard. I would imagine x264 would compress much better than lagarith, so I'd use that.
Mister Epic wrote:
And also, I'd like to know the real rerecord count. Can someone find it?
Wyster said it was 399XXX, which is about 400000, but for long and optimized movies the actual re-record count is often a bit more than what the movie file says because you sometimes delete progress and restart from an older backup.
sgrunt
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Emulator Coder
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
Wyster wrote:
(I was able to dump a perfect quality video using FFV1 but it was too slow framerate and totally out of synch with sound)
FFV1 isn't really meant for direct playback (you end up with the video lagging sound as you described as your video player - which were you using, by the way? - struggles to play back the video), but it makes a reasonable input for further encoding steps. Did you try feeding the results from that into the rest of the encoding process?
nfq wrote:
I would imagine x264 would compress much better than lagarith, so I'd use x264.
It does - at the expense of an RGB-to-YV12 conversion completely outside your control. So, if you don't mind a hit in visual quality, by all means proceed, but I recommend against it.
Active player (301)
Joined: 9/2/2006
Posts: 504
And also, I'd like to know the real rerecord count. Can someone find it?
Checked my old file and it's 398438. A little less than i thought but this is the "real" number.
Did you try feeding the results from that into the rest of the encoding process?
Nope i didn't realize it might actually be a correct result after all, i'm gonna test this now. Used VLC for playback btw.
Publisher
Joined: 4/23/2009
Posts: 1283
Wyster wrote:
Nope i didn't realize it might actually be a correct result after all, i'm gonna test this now. Used VLC for playback btw.
VLC didn't playback the Lagarith file correctly? That's interesting. I would really recommend you try reinstalling the codec. It sounds like something screwed up.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
sgrunt wrote:
nfq wrote:
I would imagine x264 would compress much better than lagarith, so I'd use x264.
It does - at the expense of an RGB-to-YV12 conversion completely outside your control. So, if you don't mind a hit in visual quality, by all means proceed, but I recommend against it.
Does the visual quality really degrade that much in a high-resolution N64 game (which is quite different from games using pixel graphics)? (And even if some color shade gets changed just so slightly, is it really that catastrophic? We are not visual arts purists...)
Publisher
Joined: 4/23/2009
Posts: 1283
Warp wrote:
Does the visual quality really degrade that much in a high-resolution N64 game (which is quite different from games using pixel graphics)? (And even if some color shade gets changed just so slightly, is it really that catastrophic? We are not visual arts purists...)
Contrary to popular belief, the SD N64 encodes are not high resolution. Aka 320x240. Also N64 is a mixture of 3D and pixel art. The amount of pixel art is minor as it is usually the HUD, but it's still there. Since the capture is at a larger resolution, the color loss is less noticeable, but once re-sized to 320x240, it may still be quite visible. Then there is also the problem of H.264 hacked into the AVI container, regardless if there are b-frames or not. But that's a different issue. You could be around 1-2 frames off in sync due to this.
Player (165)
Joined: 4/27/2006
Posts: 304
Location: Eastern Canada
Well, I like my run better from an egomaniacal perspective, but this is obviously superior. Yes vote.
Active player (301)
Joined: 9/2/2006
Posts: 504
VLC didn't playback the Lagarith file correctly? That's interesting. I would really recommend you try reinstalling the codec. It sounds like something screwed up.
I tried reinstalling with no results. And according to every online source i could find VLC does not nor has never supported Lagarith playback? btw, when i feed the dumped video to x264 i get the message "resize [error]: input colorspace Unknown format is not supported". Any ideas how to fix this? Edit: Here are some other screenshots to consider: ^^My personal favorite along with "too slow james!"
GabCM
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Joined: 5/5/2009
Posts: 901
Location: QC, Canada
Aktan wrote:
Mister Epic wrote:
I'd like to try, but the only problem is, even with 580 GB of free hard drive space, I'm not sure it's enough space.
This is why it is HIGHLY recommend you use Lagarith to capture, as all the duplicate frames will take almost 0 bytes. It should NOT take 500+ GB to capture at 1920x1440 res. Note: I have added this to my queue of things to encode, but it will be a while.
I forgot that Lagarith exists. lol Anyway, it's up to you Aktan.
Publisher
Joined: 4/23/2009
Posts: 1283
Wyster wrote:
I tried reinstalling with no results. And according to every online source i could find VLC does not nor has never supported Lagarith playback?
I am apparently wrong. I meant MPlayer instead of VLC. My bad.
Wyster wrote:
btw, when i feed the dumped video to x264 i get the message "resize [error]: input colorspace Unknown format is not supported". Any ideas how to fix this?
Again, this is related to the codec and weird why no DirectShow players can play the file. When you reinstalled, did you reinstall VLC or Lagarith? I meant to reinstall Lagarith.
Publisher
Joined: 4/23/2009
Posts: 1283
Nahoc wrote:
I will try to at least do the SD encode (since I got this movie to sync well with Glide64).
Since I can't seem to grab you on IM or IRC, I'll post it here. I hope when you make the SD encode that you can capture at a higher resolution so you can do some AA.
BoursinBurger
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Joined: 12/18/2008
Posts: 33
Location: SC
I vote for Trevelyan saying "Too slow, James" while getting shot in the face for the screenshot.