Post subject: Dolphin DTM Format Changes
Fog
Experienced player (626)
Joined: 4/5/2014
Posts: 459
It was recently brought to my attention that the Dolphin DTM Format was making the site report some inaccurate game times for submissions and publications. To remedy this, I have modified the DTM file format to include a tick count. This tick count is the most accurate way of timing for Dolphin, as it it grabs the ticks from the CPU. This change has been officially made a part of Dolphin as of revision 4.0-1902, which can be found here: https://dolphin-emu.org/download/dev/ddce7e97788d921fc984686a98bbe0d51d1de8ca/ As is it is now an official part of Dolphin, we are recommending any future TASes to use revision 4.0-1902 or later. Legacy DTM file formats are still supported and will be accepted by TASVideos, but will retain a warning on the top of submissions indicating possible incorrect times.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11268
Location: RU
Will you convert the RE4 submission file so that I can upload it, to be re-parsed?
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.
Fog
Experienced player (626)
Joined: 4/5/2014
Posts: 459
feos wrote:
Will you convert the RE4 submission file so that I can upload it, to be re-parsed?
just reupload and the time will be fine
Dimon12321
He/Him
Active player (480)
Joined: 4/5/2014
Posts: 1126
Location: Ukraine
How important is it to use this version for people who have 32-bit Windows? P.S: What features has 64-bit Dolphin? How much memory it takes? Why do 2 GB (I personally have 3,28 GB) can't cope its full workability?
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.
Warepire
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Editor
Joined: 3/2/2010
Posts: 2174
Location: A little to the left of nowhere (Sweden)
Dimon12321 wrote:
P.S: What features has 64-bit Dolphin? How much memory it takes? Why do 2 GB (I personally have 3,28 GB) can't cope its full workability?
This explanation will require basic understanding of CPUs, unfortunately I cannot describe it simpler, someone else might though. The 64 bit dolphin is for 64 bit CPUs, which you might very well have even if you have 32 bit Windows, depends on how old your computer is. If you have a 64-bit CPU, I advice you to update your Windows to 64 bit, and also installing up to 8 GB of RAM (RAM is pretty cheap these days, I know Ukraine isn't doing so well right now though due to all the conflicts, but hopefully that should settle) The reason for 32 bit being dropped is best explained here: https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2014/05/19/obituary-32bit/ In short: 32 bit CPUs and 32 bit operating systems don't have the necessary prospects to emulate a GameCube or Wii really well and the more accurate Dolphin got the harder it was to maintain the 32 bit version, to the point where the developers decided it was better to drop it as the 32 bit version kept ending up broken. The reason for the difficulty to maintain 32 bit was that the 32 bit architecture lacks several useful CPU instructions in combination with being limited to ~3.5 GB of RAM (the Wii uses more RAM than that) making most of the 32 bit version require complicated solutions to work around those issues.
Fog
Experienced player (626)
Joined: 4/5/2014
Posts: 459
It is possible for me to back port these changes to an earlier version of Dolphin. However, if you're working on a Gamecube run on an earlier version of Dolphin, you shouldn't run into any issues with incorrect times (the warning is a catch-all for previous versions of the file format)
Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11268
Location: RU
For the reference: http://tasvideos.org/DTM.html
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.