(Link to video)
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TowerFall Ascension is a multiplayer arena game first released on the Ouya by the name TowerFall in 2013, then later ported to other consoles and PC. The Dark World expansion pack was released two years later. While focusing on multiplayer, this game features a Trials mode where a single player must shoot targets. The present TAS completes all 48 trials of the game, including ones from Dark World expansion.
Below the same video slowed down to 0.25x speed (and still 60 fps). Sorry for the crappy audio.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: libTAS 1.3.1
  • Completes all 48 trials
  • Aims at fastest in-game time, then fastest real-time
  • Genre: Platform, Fighting

Tricks

(Most of the tricks described here are taken from http://towerfall.wikidot.com/how-to-play )

Dodge-slide

A standard ability, but very important for the following tricks. Pressing the Dodge button while ducking executes a Dodge-slide, which is an horizontal Dodge with a higher velocity than a normal Dodge.

Dodge Canceling

The base of most tricks of the game is the ability to cancel a Dodge at any point by pressing the same or another Dodge button (Hyper Dash), or by jumping if the player is on the ground (jump-cancel). When Dodging, the player starts at a high initial speed, then it decreases rapidly. When a Dodge is canceled by another Dodge, the player keeps the Dodge speed, allowing him to move faster than running speed. A Dodge can be canceled on the first frame after the Dodge for the highest speed. A cancelled dodge also enters the cooldown period earlier, allowing the player to execute another Dodge earlier.

Super Jump

A Super Jump combines a dodge-slide with a jump-cancel. The player must perform a dodge-slide immediately followed by a jump-cancel. The added momentum from the dodge-slide will propel the player forward into the air a great distance.

Hyper Jump

A Hyper Jump is a Super Jump combined with a Hyper Dash. It's executed by performing a dodge-slide, followed immediately by a Dodge cancel, and then a jump. This method gives the highest momentum boost to the player allowing for jumps of huge distances. This is the best way to gain massive speed and launch yourself across the map, since slides are faster than dodges and air friction is lower than ground friction.

Hyper Wing

If a player possesses wings they can perform a technique that sees them fly rapidly upwards into the air. It is performed by jumping with wings when airborne followed immediately by an upwards Hyper Dash.

Air Aiming

During a Hyper Jump, holding the arrow button slightly decreases the air friction, but we loose the player control when aiming in the air.

Framerate choice

Because of the Dodge cancel mechanics, the sooner you cancel the Dodge, the higher speed you gain. As a consequence, a higher framerate gives access to higher speed. The game does not lock the framerate, it depends either on your monitor refresh rate when vsync is on, or your computer processing power when vsync is off. The game engine supports high framerates without any problem. As an example, at a very high framerate (1000 fps), a Hyper Jump gives a velocity 15% higher than at 60 fps. So I decided to record this TAS at a framerate of 1000 fps. This value was chosen for multiple reasons. First, the increased velocity is negligible after around 300 fps. Also, the in-game timer is precise to the millisecond, and behaves correctly regarding frame advancing (advancing one frame always increases the timer by exactly one millisecond). This allows us to complete stages at the best precision displayed by the game.
Edit: I conducted more research on the framerate dependent speed. I took Twilight Spire II stage because you can do an hyper jump across the whole screen. For each framerate value, I performed an hyper jump to the right, using the following inputs: down+right+dash1, right+dash2, right+jump, then I hold these last inputs until getting to the right wall. Before touching the right wall, I released and pressed jump again to buffer a wall jump. Then, I write down the in-game time of first frame of the wall jump animation. The obtained values are:
Framerate (Hz)WJ time
301,533
351,314
401,15
451,022
500,92
550,836
600,766
700,742
800,725
900,711
1000,700
1100,700
1200,691
1400,678
1600,668
1800,666
2000,660
2500,652
3000,646
3500,642
4000,640
4500,637
5000,636
6000,633
7000,630
8000,628
9000,627
10000,627
15000,624
20000,622
30000,621
50000,619
100000,619
The distance traveled is 28 tiles and 6 pixels (so 28.6 tiles because one tile is 10 pixels), so by plotting the character speed in tiles/s over the frame length (in seconds, inverse of the above framerate), we obtain the following graph:

Individual times

StageTime
Sacred Ground I1.151
Sacred Ground II1.542
Sacred Ground III1.082
Twilight Spire I0.770
Twilight Spire II0.812
Twilight Spire III1.392
Backfire I1.307
Backfire II1.144
Backfire III2.106
Flight I1.375
Flight II2.618
Flight III2.002
Mirage I1.180
Mirage II1.726
Mirage III1.678
Thornwood I1.359
Thornwood II1.739
Thornwood III2.036
Frostfang Keep I1.745
Frostfang Keep II1.688
Frostfang Keep III1.602
King's Court I1.761
King's Court II1.701
King's Court III1.210
Sunken City I1.392
Sunken City II2.066
Sunken City III1.387
Moonstone I1.641
Moonstone II1.648
Moonstone III1.365
TowerForge I0.620
TowerForge II1.529
TowerForge III0.762
Ascension I2.305
Ascension II2.227
Ascension III1.562
The Amaranth I1.128
The Amaranth II1.900
The Amaranth III1.448
Dreadwood I1.360
Dreadwood II1.534
Dreadwood III2.201
Darkfang I1.259
Darkfang II1.382
Darkfang III1.637
Cataclysm I1.384
Cataclysm II1.602
Cataclysm III1.777
Total1:13.842
Suggested screenshot: 135663
feos: Submissions with questionable settings need me. Judging...
feos: Replaced with a movie that uses a code to unlock all the trials. Verified sync on 1.3.3.1 version of the game.
feos: Set the branch label that makes it obvious that this movie forces the OS to V-Sync at 1000 frames per second - a value that an original target OS for this game doesn't offer. libTAS intercepts the time functions of the OS and makes the game think that it runs at this framerate, while in reality it's not an option.
feos: We found out "1000 fps" is the most correct spelling.
feos: Finally, the actual judgment.
This movie's goal is completing all the 48 trials the game has, including the locked ones, it unlocks them by using a cheat code, and here's the screen it reaches in the end, showing the results: https://i.imgur.com/JPFchgP.png
I don't think this goal can be considered full completion, because there is also a Quest mode of the main game and of the Dark World DLC. I don't know if it makes sense to beat all Quest levels and all trials in a single movie, this would need some discussion whether we count that as full completion or not.
This movie also happens to abuse the environment in a way not expected by the developers. This is similar to inserting an NTSC-only game into a PAL console and abusing the resulting glitches.
Why is this comparable?
Because the authentic environment the game is developed for is a part of the challenge that the game is. For consoles it just happens to be locked and sealed, and we do not allow to break its integrity. Simply because you can not casually modify your console and then expect legitimacy for your speedrun that abuses these tweaks.
But why do we allow it here?
Because IBM PC officially has open architecture, and one is expected to build their own PC using whatever compatible (or incompatible!) components they can afford.
Yet this obviously doesn't mean that every game can run just fine on any architecture. Quite the opposite: games are usually developed and tested only against a limited set of hardware and software configurations. Those configurations are then announced as minimal, supported, and/or recommended computer specs the game is designed to work on. And on some others (or even some of the intended ones) it may glitch out and become unplayable.
So we allow this to some extent, if it can be proven that a game was designed for some configuration, and it was used. But when one uses configuration not even expected by the developers, we try to limit this approach as not entirely legitimate when it comes to blatantly clear speedrun records. We do not allow abusing unintended environment for Vault. And most importantly: we do not encourage anyone to abuse unintended environment at all. This means a movie doing it may be obsoleted by the one that avoids it if there are gameplay improvements otherwise.
Here's the post speaking of all the aspects of this problem, and here's what our updated Rules say on that matter.
Now, why 1000 fps exactly?
The author provided insight on how this game engine works at higher framerates. After some relatively high framerate value, the trick this movie abuses starts saving less and less time, and its usefulness caps out at around 500 fps.
This movie also aims for in-game time over real time, and milliseconds are the most precise unit of time measurement its timer can work with. So using higher framerate won't affect the in-game timer, because there's no more speedrun benefit for the trick that needs high framerate.
This is still quite arbitrary, but the feedback of this movie is quite positive, so with the about clause on obsoletion, we can allow it here.
Accepting to Moons.
fsvgm777: Processing.

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Posted: 12/2/2018 9:22 AM
Post subject: Movie published
Quote
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15577
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [3833] Linux TowerFall Ascension "all trials, 1000 fps" by keylie in 03:26.75
Posted: 12/2/2018 9:33 AM
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Patashu
He/Him
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4043
Congrats on the groundbreaking publication, keylie!
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Posted: 1/5/2019 3:01 AM
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brunovalads
Editor, Player (175)
Joined: 4/7/2015
Posts: 331
Location: Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
For the sake of curiosity, here's a comparison between the TAS and the current WRs for each level, with "ratio" being TAS time / WR time, and "1-ratio" representing how fast the TAS is compared to the current WRs (on average, it's 23,4% faster). 
Stage               TAS     Dev     WR      ratio   1-ratio
Sacred Ground I     1,151	1,700	1,382	83,3%	16,7%
Sacred Ground II    1,542	2,300	1,685	91,5%	8,5%
Sacred Ground III   1,082	2,400	1,296	83,5%	16,5%
Twilight Spire I    0,770	1,300	0,787	97,8%	2,2%
Twilight Spire II   0,812	1,200	1,106	73,4%	26,6%
Twilight Spire III  1,392	2,200	1,652	84,3%	15,7%
Backfire I          1,307	2,400	1,744	74,9%	25,1%
Backfire II         1,144	1,900	1,355	84,4%	15,6%
Backfire III        2,106	3,000	2,496	84,4%	15,6%
Flight I            1,375	2,100	1,568	87,7%	12,3%
Flight II           2,618	4,100	3,113	84,1%	15,9%
Flight III          2,002	2,600	2,448	81,8%	18,2%
Mirage I            1,180	2,400	1,722	68,5%	31,5%
Mirage II           1,726	2,500	1,963	87,9%	12,1%
Mirage III          1,678	3,300	2,493	67,3%	32,7%
Thornwood I         1,359	3,000	2,208	61,5%	38,5%
Thornwood II        1,739	3,000	2,396	72,6%	27,4%
Thornwood III       2,036	3,800	2,768	73,6%	26,4%
Frostfang Keep I    1,745	2,600	1,832	95,3%	4,7%
Frostfang Keep II   1,688	2,900	2,260	74,7%	25,3%
Frostfang Keep III  1,602	3,000	2,139	74,9%	25,1%
King's Court I      1,761	2,300	1,782	98,8%	1,2%
King's Court II     1,701	3,500	2,436	69,8%	30,2%
King's Court III    1,210	2,600	2,231	54,2%	45,8%
Sunken City I       1,392	2,700	2,246	62,0%	38,0%
Sunken City II      2,066	4,100	2,732	75,6%	24,4%
Sunken City III     1,387	3,600	2,354	58,9%	41,1%
Moonstone I         1,641	2,800	2,318	70,8%	29,2%
Moonstone II        1,648	2,600	1,831	90,0%	10,0%
Moonstone III       1,365	2,300	1,764	77,4%	22,6%
TowerForge I        0,620	1,000	0,877	70,7%	29,3%
TowerForge II       1,529	2,300	1,881	81,3%	18,7%
TowerForge III      0,762	1,800	1,152	66,1%	33,9%
Ascension I         2,305	4,100	3,018	76,4%	23,6%
Ascension II        2,227	3,300	2,694	82,7%	17,3%
Ascension III       1,562	4,100	2,790	56,0%	44,0%
The Amaranth I      1,128	1,850	1,768	63,8%	36,2%
The Amaranth II     1,900	2,500	2,381	79,8%	20,2%
The Amaranth III    1,448	2,250	2,167	66,8%	33,2%
Dreadwood I         1,360	1,750	1,537	88,5%	11,5%
Dreadwood II        1,534	1,950	1,869	82,1%	17,9%
Dreadwood III       2,201	3,500	3,407	64,6%	35,4%
Darkfang I          1,259	2,000	1,891	66,6%	33,4%
Darkfang II         1,382	2,550	2,433	56,8%	43,2%
Darkfang III        1,637	2,200	2,134	76,7%	23,3%
Cataclysm I         1,384	1,700	1,508	91,8%	8,2%
Cataclysm II        1,602	2,200	1,927	83,1%	16,9%
Cataclysm III       1,777	2,350	2,312	76,9%	23,1%
Games are basically math with a visual representation of this math, that's why I make the scripts, to re-see games as math. My things: YouTube, GitHub, Pastebin, Twitter
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