Nobody seems to speedrun or TAS this which is a shame because there's some big potential for an entertaining run (which I aim to make sometime in the future)
It's basically your typical hot wheels game; wonky physics, reboot-tier cutscenes, and lots of fast.
Current exploits that I've found so far:
Quick-Dash - The game has an "Attack" mechanic, when you press the L or R triggers you will quickly side-dash in that direction. There is a 15 frame delay before you can dash in the same direction again, but there is no delay between alternating side-dashes. You can dash to the right, wait 5 frames, dash to the left, then dash to the right again on the next frame, which allows you to spam dashes and cancel out the delay. This helps for sharp turns and maintaining speed.
Object Boosting - Side-dashing into objects/other cars/walls at certain angles can give you a large speed-boost or send you flying up into the air, which makes it possible to perform shortcuts in some levels. This can be exploited heavily throughout the game, however it requires a lot of re-recording because slightly different angles, what frame you side-dash on, and what other buttons you're holding can hugely affect where the boost sends you.
Quick-Turns - Similar to Object boosting in that you side-dash into a wall, however at certain angles your car will bounce off the wall, turn ~90 degrees (depending on the angle you start at) and continue in that direction with minimal speed loss. On some levels it saves more time/speed than attempting to drift around a sharp corner.
Note: The in-game speedometer does not accurately read how fast you're going. It is reading a simulated engine instead of the actual velocity of the car, so if you gain any speed from an object boost or other exploit, it is not going to show up on the speedometer because the speedometer is capped to whatever "maximum engine speed" the car you're using is set to. You could be flying through the air at 300 MPH and the speedometer will read 0 because you aren't holding the A button.
Here's a test TAS that I made the other day, using some of said exploits.
The attempted object boost in this run was a bit of a failure, I would aim for much better in an actual WR attempt.
Link to video
There is a story mode and a challenge mode to the game, I was planning on running the challenge mode only. Getting the fastest car in the game requires you to beat the adventure mode first but I'm not sure a newgame+ run is allowed in TAS?
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2822
Location: Northern California
Felix wrote:
Getting the fastest car in the game requires you to beat the adventure mode first but I'm not sure a newgame+ run is allowed in TAS?
NG+ runs are acceptable as long as you provide a verification file. Just record a second input file of beating adventure mode, make sure it syncs, then start from there when you do the run proper.
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 BlueskywarmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Nobody seems to speedrun or TAS this which is a shame because there's some big potential for an entertaining run (which I aim to make sometime in the future)
It's basically your typical hot wheels game; wonky physics, reboot-tier cutscenes, and lots of fast.
Current exploits that I've found so far:
Quick-Dash - The game has an "Attack" mechanic, when you press the L or R triggers you will quickly side-dash in that direction. There is a 15 frame delay before you can dash in the same direction again, but there is no delay between alternating side-dashes. You can dash to the right, wait 5 frames, dash to the left, then dash to the right again on the next frame, which allows you to spam dashes and cancel out the delay. This helps for sharp turns and maintaining speed.
Object Boosting - Side-dashing into objects/other cars/walls at certain angles can give you a large speed-boost or send you flying up into the air, which makes it possible to perform shortcuts in some levels. This can be exploited heavily throughout the game, however it requires a lot of re-recording because slightly different angles, what frame you side-dash on, and what other buttons you're holding can hugely affect where the boost sends you.
Quick-Turns - Similar to Object boosting in that you side-dash into a wall, however at certain angles your car will bounce off the wall, turn ~90 degrees (depending on the angle you start at) and continue in that direction with minimal speed loss. On some levels it saves more time/speed than attempting to drift around a sharp corner.
Note: The in-game speedometer does not accurately read how fast you're going. It is reading a simulated engine instead of the actual velocity of the car, so if you gain any speed from an object boost or other exploit, it is not going to show up on the speedometer because the speedometer is capped to whatever "maximum engine speed" the car you're using is set to. You could be flying through the air at 300 MPH and the speedometer will read 0 because you aren't holding the A button.
Here's a test TAS that I made the other day, using some of said exploits.
The attempted object boost in this run was a bit of a failure, I would aim for much better in an actual WR attempt.
Link to video
There is a story mode and a challenge mode to the game, I was planning on running the challenge mode only. Getting the fastest car in the game requires you to beat the adventure mode first but I'm not sure a newgame+ run is allowed in TAS?
I did a little TAS run of this challenge a while ago:
Link to video
It's not optimized though, I actually didn't know you could skip the ramp... (and I realize you can't use the car I used when you start the game)
Those L R attack bumps are very useful when boosting I've found out, especially when you can use L and R right after each other.
Getting the fastest car in the game requires you to beat the adventure mode first but I'm not sure a newgame+ run is allowed in TAS?
NG+ runs are acceptable as long as you provide a verification file. Just record a second input file of beating adventure mode, make sure it syncs, then start from there when you do the run proper.
Ah, may as well 100% the whole game then :v
gamerfreak5665 wrote:
I did a little TAS run of this challenge a while ago:
Link to video
It's not optimized though, I actually didn't know you could skip the ramp... (and I realize you can't use the car I used when you start the game)
Those L R attack bumps are very useful when boosting I've found out, especially when you can use L and R right after each other.
I saw that after I uploaded my video! I hadn't thought of quick-dashing to aid turning, helps a lot in some places.
After quite a bit of testing today I've discovered a few things.
Before you start anything you have to navigate to the options and set the game to easy mode or else enemies take a million hits to kill... the game defaults to the hard difficulty and you'd be wasting a ton of time if you don't switch it to easy at the start...
Doing adventure mode from scratch will mean there's a certain sequence of cars to use throughout the game.
MS-T Suzuka for missions 1-3 (44 speed, 40 grip, 30 stunt)
Jaded for missions 4-10 (62 speed, 50 grip, 60 stunt)
Greased Lightnin' for mission 11 (70 speed, 30 grip, 40 stunt. Mission 11 is two long sequences of driving/avoiding obstacles so having a faster car here will definitely help.)
Vulture for mission 12 (80 speed, 50 grip, 90 stunt)
Arachnarod for missions 13 and 14 (92 speed, 25 grip, 50 stunt)
After beating adventure mode you get the "HW Prototype 12" (100 speed, 25 grip, 60 stunt) which will be the fastest car to use for the challenge levels and while collecting things in joyride.
I saw that after I uploaded my video! I hadn't thought of quick-dashing to aid turning, helps a lot in some places.
After quite a bit of testing today I've discovered a few things.
Before you start anything you have to navigate to the options and set the game to easy mode or else enemies take a million hits to kill... the game defaults to the hard difficulty and you'd be wasting a ton of time if you don't switch it to easy at the start...
Doing adventure mode from scratch will mean there's a certain sequence of cars to use throughout the game.
MS-T Suzuka for missions 1-3 (44 speed, 40 grip, 30 stunt)
Jaded for missions 4-10 (62 speed, 50 grip, 60 stunt)
Greased Lightnin' for mission 11 (70 speed, 30 grip, 40 stunt. Mission 11 is two long sequences of driving/avoiding obstacles so having a faster car here will definitely help.)
Vulture for mission 12 (80 speed, 50 grip, 90 stunt)
Arachnarod for missions 13 and 14 (92 speed, 25 grip, 50 stunt)
After beating adventure mode you get the "HW Prototype 12" (100 speed, 25 grip, 60 stunt) which will be the fastest car to use for the challenge levels and while collecting things in joyride.
The TASVideos standard is to use hardest difficulty. There's been a move away from this, but it's still relevant.
One question. What if you drove diagonal and mashed L or R so you moved on a straight course?
Message me here for my discord.
Current Project: Psycho Waluigi
Project on wait list: None?
The TASVideos standard is to use hardest difficulty. There's been a move away from this, but it's still relevant.
One question. What if you drove diagonal and mashed L or R so you moved on a straight course?
My best guess would be it would be faster to just go straight, however testing may prove the opposite.
Felix wrote:
I saw that after I uploaded my video! I hadn't thought of quick-dashing to aid turning, helps a lot in some places.
After quite a bit of testing today I've discovered a few things.
Before you start anything you have to navigate to the options and set the game to easy mode or else enemies take a million hits to kill... the game defaults to the hard difficulty and you'd be wasting a ton of time if you don't switch it to easy at the start...
Doing adventure mode from scratch will mean there's a certain sequence of cars to use throughout the game.
MS-T Suzuka for missions 1-3 (44 speed, 40 grip, 30 stunt)
Jaded for missions 4-10 (62 speed, 50 grip, 60 stunt)
Greased Lightnin' for mission 11 (70 speed, 30 grip, 40 stunt. Mission 11 is two long sequences of driving/avoiding obstacles so having a faster car here will definitely help.)
Vulture for mission 12 (80 speed, 50 grip, 90 stunt)
Arachnarod for missions 13 and 14 (92 speed, 25 grip, 50 stunt)
After beating adventure mode you get the "HW Prototype 12" (100 speed, 25 grip, 60 stunt) which will be the fastest car to use for the challenge levels and while collecting things in joyride.
Yeah, using the fastest car possible while during adventure is obviously the best idea.
I'm excited you want to make a run of this in the future! Let me know if there's anything I can do to help with the run. I played this game all the time as a kid haha
The TASVideos standard is to use hardest difficulty. There's been a move away from this, but it's still relevant.
One question. What if you drove diagonal and mashed L or R so you moved on a straight course?
Using the hardest difficulty instead the easiest difficulty means that the run will end up being about +5 minutes longer than it should be. There is a lot of "Kill 3 enemies" objectives throughout the adventure mode, on the easiest difficulty they only take 2-3 hits to kill, on the hardest, 20-30. You only get like, 8 shots out of your weapon before you have to go find a ramp and do stunts off it to recharge the weapon (or go find a different weapon) so it would be wasting a ton of my time and the viewer's time.
Driving diagonally and quick-boosting might work, I'll have to test that. There is a potential problem with that though, your car tilts when it's drifting and if you try to quick-boost you'll end up hopping off the ground and messing up the turn.
gamerfreak5665 wrote:
I'm excited you want to make a run of this in the future! Let me know if there's anything I can do to help with the run. I played this game all the time as a kid haha
There's potential for a huge skip on adventure 4. When you start, you're supposed to turn left, but if you turn right, there's a tunnel that leads almost straight to the end, which would save a ton of time. However, a door closes before you can make it to the tunnel and even if you do make it to the door before it closes, it's a solid wall blocking the path.
If there was a reproducible way to phase through one of the back-corners of the area and fall out of bounds with enough speed to make it to the mission endzone (or at least get past that friggin door) that would be amazing. I've been picking that level apart though and I can't seem to get any results :c
The closest I got was dashing against the door while going max speed, you -kinda- phase through the ground but nowhere near far enough to go under the door. I've only tested with Jaded however, it might work with other cars.
The TASVideos standard is to use hardest difficulty. There's been a move away from this, but it's still relevant.
One question. What if you drove diagonal and mashed L or R so you moved on a straight course?
My best guess would be it would be faster to just go straight, however testing may prove the opposite.
The thing that will determine how fast that would be (and at what angle you drive) is based on how many times you can sidestep per second.
Since it seems very clear that sidestepping is much faster than normal driving
Message me here for my discord.
Current Project: Psycho Waluigi
Project on wait list: None?
The thing that will determine how fast that would be (and at what angle you drive) is based on how many times you can sidestep per second.
Since it seems very clear that sidestepping is much faster than normal driving
The amount of distance your side-dash covers is based on the car's forward velocity however, you can't just turn sideways at the start and spam it with the engine off.
The thing that will determine how fast that would be (and at what angle you drive) is based on how many times you can sidestep per second.
Since it seems very clear that sidestepping is much faster than normal driving
The amount of distance your side-dash covers is based on the car's forward velocity however, you can't just turn sideways at the start and spam it with the engine off.
Oh, See, I'm thinking of it in Sonic Unleashed terms, which has sidestepping always at the same speed, but if you're not running fast enough, it will turn your facing.
That's why you have to drive diagonally, so you get both the normal movement, and the boost.
EDIT: Picture only confused.
Message me here for my discord.
Current Project: Psycho Waluigi
Project on wait list: None?
Oh, See, I'm thinking of it in Sonic Unleashed terms, which has sidestepping always at the same speed, but if you're not running fast enough, it will turn your facing.
That's why you have to drive diagonally, so you get both the normal movement, and the boost.
EDIT: Picture only confused.
Okay so I just did a bunch of testing. Diagonal quick-dashing appears to save around 1-2 frames per second compared to driving completely straight.
I turned left for 9-10 frames while accelerating down a straight road, then quick-dashed every 5-8 frames to move in a straight line. Over a 5-6 second period it was 10 frames faster than driving completely straight.
I guess doing that throughout the run would add up and also help you get a better angle for any upcoming turns.
Oh, See, I'm thinking of it in Sonic Unleashed terms, which has sidestepping always at the same speed, but if you're not running fast enough, it will turn your facing.
That's why you have to drive diagonally, so you get both the normal movement, and the boost.
EDIT: Picture only confused.
Okay so I just did a bunch of testing. Diagonal quick-dashing appears to save around 1-2 frames per second compared to driving completely straight.
I turned left for 9-10 frames while accelerating down a straight road, then quick-dashed every 5-8 frames to move in a straight line. Over a 5-6 second period it was 10 frames faster than driving completely straight.
I guess doing that throughout the run would add up and also help you get a better angle for any upcoming turns.
Yay!
Now, here's the next question. Or, next 3 questions, if you're being pedantic.
Is there an optimal angle and quickdash rate universally, or does it have to be handled on a segment by segment basis?
Could it be possible that the fastest globally or in a situation be to not quickdash as much as possible?
Is it ever worth it to reverse the Polarity of the quickdash+turn combo? (That is, switching from turning right and quickdashing left to turning left and quickdashing right, or vice versa)
Message me here for my discord.
Current Project: Psycho Waluigi
Project on wait list: None?
It sounds like you guys should frame-war over a simple track/mission until you have the optimal racing lines with quick dashing down pat.
The best proof of optimality is a time the other person can't beat, after all!
It sounds like you guys should frame-war over a simple track/mission until you have the optimal racing lines with quick dashing down pat.
The best proof of optimality is a time the other person can't beat, after all!
Sounds OK, I'll need to get the game though.
Message me here for my discord.
Current Project: Psycho Waluigi
Project on wait list: None?
