Joined: 9/12/2014
Posts: 543
Location: Waterford, MI
I'm working on a Slots run with this game. No extreme luck manipulation, as far as that goes will be elevator luck and right arm stealing. So by skipping random battles at that point, I can just one shot the bosses easily. I would just simply cast a hipotion(or cure spell) for full health for the next fight. Would have to select it before I get hit so therfore my ATB will fill up quickly afterwards. But still it can freeze if I'm not careful. Meaning I would have slowly go through the results. Which equals a time loss.
Lil_Gecko
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Player (98)
Joined: 4/7/2011
Posts: 520
Few months ago I made a test run up to Wall Market, so I'm quite familiar with the avoid random encounters stuff. If you need someone to take a look at your work, I'll be happy to help.
Joined: 9/12/2014
Posts: 543
Location: Waterford, MI
As for slots, I learned that when you fail game over(or just do something else before game over), the timing is the same for the rest. Like after the first one, the timing is the same as you got for the second one. Also, in garlands video, he said to find Moogle in the second reel, you actually just need to press O once the cait face is showing up. In fact, it seems like garlands video isn't entire true. Don't get me wrong, its helpful, but I don't think its very accurate.
Joined: 9/12/2014
Posts: 543
Location: Waterford, MI
Sorry about the double post. I completed my slots test run of the game. I used only menu skipping to skip encounters. I did fall into redoing some battles on accident(twice). Aps and the attack squad battle that can be escaped. I didn't get a perfect elevator outcome because I was unaware that all you had to do was get the right numbers. I thought that the enemies or the employees would be random too. I didn't do any extreme luck manipulation. Crits in every battle, steal anything I can, etc. But getting crits is just as easy as stealing is. Its all cpu based. I did start getting first turns once I got to Jenova Birth. Getting those first turns became a real pain during disc 2. Here's disc 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVXwvhu5PPE You can watch the rest on the other videos on my channel. During the snowboarding mini game, I will not accept any crashes in that. It would be really embarrassing if I did. My time at the end was 7:38(somewhere around that). Yeah, I know, the world record is much more than that with RTA, but, I didn't do much encounter manipulation, which is apparently vital in this speedrun. Seriously, you lose like an hour worth of time overlooking that.
Experienced player (691)
Joined: 11/23/2013
Posts: 2239
Location: Guatemala
So PSXHawk just came out, a lot of FF games were broken and a remake of this one was announced not to long ago... Surely it's now a better time, right?
Here, my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/dekutony
Lil_Gecko
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Joined: 4/7/2011
Posts: 520
With BizHawk now supporting PSX, I've started to get back to TASing this game. However, loading times in BizHawk are slower than in Psxjin which in turn was slower than PCSX. While it's no big deal, it changes a few thing. Comparison with antd movie is harder since it was done on PCSX and every single transition is way faster in his. Still can compare battles though. Also, about the Random Encounter problem, accepting a battle and escaping is now way slower because of the transitions. So while it may have been the faster solution in PCSX, it might not be in BizHawk. TAS test of the beginning in BizHawk : Link to video I loose about 60 frames to antd in the Guard Scorpion battle due to having very bad luck in Critical Hits during the second part of the fight. However this was the fastest I could get with my RN. I also made up for this loss by not having to Menu Glitch after, saving 80ish frames. So, yeah. Probably going to work on it as a side project when Tetra Master in FF9 will start to be too boring.
Joined: 8/29/2015
Posts: 2
How many frames do you lose per battle ? I think walking can be overall slower, depending on the number of battles and time you take to escape. Oh, BTW, is loading time variable (depending on number of enemies, place of battle...) or is it fixed ? If variable, maybe we can get around trying to get the fastest loading. Anyway, my thought about this is that your TAS, if it ever finishes (because FF TASes are a chore), will bring a great jump to the old one (even if i don't remember it, just know it's very old; if i don't mistake myself with FF9 Any%).
Lil_Gecko
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Player (98)
Joined: 4/7/2011
Posts: 520
There is a difference of about 300 frames per battle. But it's not just that, intro is slower, transition between field is slower. In term of gameplay, there's not much differences between antd and me. Maybe 100 frames at most. But I've got the train skip, which wasn't known while antd was doing his TAS and that saved a lot of time. But instead of being in the lead, I'm 2 minutes 30 seconds behind after Air Buster. Since the gameplay is faster, and BizHawk is the accurate one, it's no big deal in the end. Stutter-steping will never ever be slower than accepting a battle. But it can be slower than Menu Glitching. About a frame is lost per step of stutter and MG costs 83 frames. So you have to walk for a lot of steps for it to loose time. Loading time before a battle is indeed variable. Can be instant start up to 60ish frames. Number and type of ennemies however is fixed per field depending on your last battle, so the only way to manipulate a faster loading time would be to have those 2 battles in 2 differents fields. It's gonna be very rare if ever. Here have a WIP 2 : Link to video
Joined: 8/29/2015
Posts: 2
Wow, that's a huge loss. But hey, the deal for accuracy (the only thing i don't like in emulators; i want to load as fast as i can if not TASing, which i never did) Yeah, i forgot about stutter stepping. I was thinking about the way you avoided battles in FF9, running whenever possible and walking only when a battle should have occured). Maybe MG can be useful in the world map, since it can require a lot of steps (especially if it has a sequence like FF9 Oeilvert)
Lil_Gecko
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Joined: 4/7/2011
Posts: 520
Menu Glitching is also useful when there is 2 battles in a row that cannot be avoided with stutter-steping. There will be one at the beginning of WIP 3. I'll have to check when I'll get there, but iirc, battles in the World Map are not subject to the same rules. They can be avoided by simply going in another direction for one frame.
Joined: 9/12/2014
Posts: 543
Location: Waterford, MI
Menu skipping on the world map doesn't work. Moving in different directions does influence the rng yes, but also changing views does as well. Moving the camera around does too. During my testrun of this game, thanks to the lack of knowledge on world map encouters, I fell into random encounters inevitably because one step closer and I get it. I could have avoided it, but that would mean watching the whole thing while in fast forward until I get to it, which back then I didn't find worth while.
filwac
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Joined: 12/12/2009
Posts: 29
Location: Forever floating in a secret world
What are the addresses for the enemy ATB gauges? I have F5BBD for player position 1, F5C01 for pos 2, and F5C45 for pos 3, but I'd like to see enemy ATB as well. I set up this watch file a long time ago. I'm not even sure where I got the ones I have. Also I'd like the x pos and/or y pos address. Or one that tells me if I'm moving or not. If it matters I'm using PSXjin 2.0.2 svn0. Any help would be much appreciated
Waiting takes too long
Lil_Gecko
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Player (98)
Joined: 4/7/2011
Posts: 520
I got the same addresses for Characters ATB in BizHawk. From my watch file : Ennemy 1 : F5D11 Ennemy 2 : F5CCD Ennemy 3 : F5D55 Ennemy 4 : F5D99 I haven't search for X/Y position yet, but might take a look in the upcoming days.
filwac
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Joined: 12/12/2009
Posts: 29
Location: Forever floating in a secret world
Awesome! Thanks, with these plus the dialog script I might have the willpower to make it past Temple of the ancients this time. Too bad that file is gone. Materia Keeper was not fun. MINOR EDIT: How does that train skip work? Just talk to her and trigger the red guy on the same frame? I haven't gotten there yet so it'll be a bit before I can test it out myself.
Waiting takes too long
filwac
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Joined: 12/12/2009
Posts: 29
Location: Forever floating in a secret world
When are the starting stats determined for Cloud? I can't seem to manipulate them for some reason. I always end up with: HP: 302/302 MP: 54/56 (Yep. Less than full MP) Strength: 18 Dexterity: 6 Vitality: 16 Magic: 23 Spirit: 17 Luck: 14 Or are they set? According to the Party Mechanics Guide on gamefaqs I should have: HP: 314/314 MP: 54/54 Strength: 20 Dexterity: 6 Vitality: 16 Magic: 19 Spirit: 17 Luck: 14 That guide is for the PC version though; I'm on the PSX version. Are the starting stats that different or am I missing something?
Waiting takes too long
XkyRauh
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Joined: 6/9/2005
Posts: 171
Location: Southern California
Stupid question, but are those the stats before the initial fight, or for after the post-first-fight level-up?
filwac
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Joined: 12/12/2009
Posts: 29
Location: Forever floating in a secret world
Before. I can manipulate the first fight levelup. I thought I could with the pre fight stats too
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Joined: 9/7/2005
Posts: 144
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
The base stats listed in the FAQ are "correct", but Cloud comes equipped with Ice and Lightning materia initially, which each have an effect on his magic (+2), strength (-1), MP (+2%) and HP (-2%). Everything looks okay to me.
This guy are sick.
filwac
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Joined: 12/12/2009
Posts: 29
Location: Forever floating in a secret world
Cant believe i forgot about the effect materia has on stats lol OK, so: https://youtu.be/qW5WxAX5BPk and www.antd.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/visible-invisible-cloud-glitch.png how does he get it to display all that info at the edges? Or, more accurately, how do i do that?
Waiting takes too long
Samsara
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Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2823
Location: Northern California
filwac wrote:
how does he get it to display all that info at the edges? Or, more accurately, how do i do that?
Looks like Lua scripting to me. If you're working in BizHawk and you know how to code in Lua, you can expand upon that with a little bit of work.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family. Now infrequently posting on Bluesky
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
filwac
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Joined: 12/12/2009
Posts: 29
Location: Forever floating in a secret world
Sadly I don't know how to code in lua. I don't even know the ram addresses of things like danger value, x y z position and so on. Even w/o Lua I still want the addresses for those. As for using BizHawk, I just spent a good 3 hours trying to get it to work. Can't just load the bin. Or ISO. Or ccd. Or img. No, instead I apparently have to open the cue file -_- Will lua scripts used in PSXjin not work in BizHawk? I get an error when attempting to use the text skip one
Waiting takes too long
Post subject: Re: lua script help
Player (75)
Joined: 8/26/2015
Posts: 70
Indeed, PSXjin lua scripts aren't quite compatible with BizHawk. For example, this script (was this the script in question?) only needs a couple of things changed:
  • memory.readbyte(addr) ==> mainmemory.readbyte(addr)
  • joypad.set(player,buttons) ==> joypad.set(buttons,player)
I believe the following modified version should work (if that is actually the right script), but can't test it right now.
Language: lua

Dialog = 0x000832A0; while true do for i = 0,5,1 do X = mainmemory.readbyte(Dialog+i*0x30); X = X % 8; if (X == 6) or (X == 4) then joypad.set({["circle"]=true},1) end; end; emu.frameadvance(); end;
filwac
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Joined: 12/12/2009
Posts: 29
Location: Forever floating in a secret world
That was indeed the script, and it works now, thank you. Now if I can just figure out why I'm getting so much lag (been getting it even before using any lua scripts) I'll be pretty much set. As it is now though it's not worth playing, especially since PSXjin runs it smoothly. I'd rather have the functionality of BizHawk though, at least for TASing.
Waiting takes too long
Samsara
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Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2823
Location: Northern California
filwac wrote:
Now if I can just figure out why I'm getting so much lag (been getting it even before using any lua scripts) I'll be pretty much set. As it is now though it's not worth playing, especially since PSXjin runs it smoothly. I'd rather have the functionality of BizHawk though, at least for TASing.
In-game lag or the emulator itself being slow? If it's in-game lag, then that's just emulator accuracy, since BizHawk blows PSXjin out of the water on that front. If it's the game running slower than 60fps, that's not a huge issue since you'll be TASing in frame advance anyway. The only thing it'd impact is watching back your progress. Either way, use BizHawk. PSXjin is being deprecated, anyway.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family. Now infrequently posting on Bluesky
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
filwac
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Joined: 12/12/2009
Posts: 29
Location: Forever floating in a secret world
Ah, so it is just In-Game lag. Once encoded it looks fine. I really don't want to have to encode to see it every time though, especially if I just need to watch a small part to see how it looks at fullspeed. This seems like it'll really increase realtime spent. And it's not like I plan on submitting or anything. I dunno. I'll stick with PSXjin for just playing, and try just using BizHawk for TAS unless it drives me sufficiently crazy. I just wish it would play back properly without sacrificing accuracy.
Waiting takes too long