Post subject: Red Steel (desyncs)
Dimon12321
He/Him
Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (597)
Joined: 4/5/2014
Posts: 1227
Location: Romania
About a month ago, I got a wish to TAS a first person shooter, but finding a short one was tricky. I stopped at Red Steel because it has the most classic style of gameplay: a simple hallway shooter where you go from point A to point B. Besides shooting, there are sword duels where you dance with your Wiimote. They are crappy, but simple. Link to video The game is not popular at all. Most videos are in 480p or even 360p and have not many views, so the future TAS won't attract much people, only if you want to beat another game. I've already TASed first 3 missions and a small part of 4th, but the movie desyncs by the end of mission 2. The playback isn't correct even if you load it from a savestate, so it's not possible to TAS the whole game well. The game has plenty of loading screens and unskippable cutscenes, so the whole TAS may take more than 2 hours. Game ID: REDE41 MD5: df682f4bcf92c0bfdef6f02ec0ef2247 Here is my input file: User movie #49973328122807715. If you have much time, you can try to play it back. No major glitches were used though they would sighnificantly accelerate the TAS. I tried to find something, but got only this: Link to video Seems like it's possible to clip a single wall. I can't go in-bounds from the other side or shoot someone. Anyway, it's something like a warning topic. Let's wait for a better TASing tools in Dolphin.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.
Active player (466)
Joined: 3/30/2012
Posts: 405
https://youtu.be/_HJqSh1vLDA I'm not sure where in the game this is at, or how much gameplay it skips, but this is a video I found when I was trying to route Red Steel for an RTA attempt. Ultimately I stopped routing it because this game is too boring. Red Steel 2 is a much better game, but Dolphin doesn't emulate Motion+ so it's not TASable right now. Does this game let you skip cutscenes if you play after beating the game? If so, a NewGame+ TAS would be far better to watch.
Dimon12321
He/Him
Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (597)
Joined: 4/5/2014
Posts: 1227
Location: Romania
FitterSpace wrote:
Does this game let you skip cutscenes if you play after beating the game? If so, a NewGame+ TAS would be far better to watch.
I'm out of ideas. Dolphin seems to read the memory card, but, when I playback the input file, I create a new profile again and give it a saveslot, whatever if I delete Wii folder from DolphinEmulator or not. Even if it works, my verification movie will also get out of sync somewhere at the beginning This franchise is beyond our influeince for now =) Passing by...
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.
Active player (466)
Joined: 3/30/2012
Posts: 405
Oh yeah, I forgot that Wii TASes can't start from a save file because they will desync every time. Have you considered TASing any other first-person shooters on GameCube/Wii?
Dimon12321
He/Him
Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (597)
Joined: 4/5/2014
Posts: 1227
Location: Romania
FitterSpace wrote:
Oh yeah, I forgot that Wii TASes can't start from a save file because they will desync every time. Have you considered TASing any other first-person shooters on GameCube/Wii?
I read somewhere that it's possible to include the memcard at the start of the movie. It's actual for GC TASing, right? No, but I tried some third person shooters, like RE4, Dead Rising and Trigger Man. Also tried The House of the Dead: Overkill, but it's a rail shooter. I'm interested in TASing Serious Sam: Next Encounter, but I can't find a memory card with all levels completed to test glitches shown in 1st and 2nd encounter speedruns and build the TAS route. The problem is the movement, especially in a game like Red Steel. It's so complex to follow the shortest routes!
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.
Active player (466)
Joined: 3/30/2012
Posts: 405
Dimon12321 wrote:
FitterSpace wrote:
Oh yeah, I forgot that Wii TASes can't start from a save file because they will desync every time. Have you considered TASing any other first-person shooters on GameCube/Wii?
I read somewhere that it's possible to include the memcard at the start of the movie. It's actual for GC TASing, right? No, but I tried some third person shooters, like RE4, Dead Rising and Trigger Man. Also tried The House of the Dead: Overkill, but it's a rail shooter. I'm interested in TASing Serious Sam: Next Encounter, but I can't find a memory card with all levels completed to test glitches shown in 1st and 2nd encounter speedruns and build the TAS route. The problem is the movement, especially in a game like Red Steel. It's so complex to follow the shortest routes!
The memory card works perfectly fine for GameCube games. I have a bit of advice, though. If you're going to start from a memory card, make the verification movie before starting the TAS. There could be other factors besides beating the game that can affect the run somehow. For my TAS of GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, it will only sync up on my computer with my personal save file because there are stats like total score and total playtime that somehow affect RNG. So be sure you make your verification movie before starting the TAS so you don't have to run into any of the problems I did with that TAS. TASing movement in a first-person shooter is tricky at first. You should have seen how bad I was at TASing 007: Nightfire when I first started out. It was a nightmare! But after practicing for a while, I really got the hang of it. TASing the camera movement from a first-person perspective is hard to grasp, especially if you're used to TASing third-person games. But you'll get the hang of it after a little while. Although I'd recommend starting with an FPS that doesn't use pointer controls, since those are a little easier to work with, in my opinion.
Dimon12321
He/Him
Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (597)
Joined: 4/5/2014
Posts: 1227
Location: Romania
Sure, but, to be frank, I was just enjoying your TAS. I found a pair of moments with possible improvements, but they are nothing across the entire TAS. "Who cares?" - I would say. These games are too complex to fight for every frame and complete each section for several times.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.
Active player (466)
Joined: 3/30/2012
Posts: 405
Dimon12321 wrote:
Sure, but, to be frank, I was just enjoying your TAS. I found a pair of moments with possible improvements, but they are nothing across the entire TAS. "Who cares?" - I would say. These games are too complex to fight for every frame and complete each section for several times.
It's important to try to make everything as perfect as possible in a TAS, but it's never something I would lose sleep over. There's no such thing as a perfect TAS for a 3D game like this. Even a game as optimized as Super Mario 64 still has occasional improvements to single stars being found every now and then. In my opinion, a TAS that isn't completely perfect everywhere is better than no TAS at all.
Experienced player (788)
Joined: 2/5/2012
Posts: 1805
Location: Brasil
i agree with fitterspace
I want all good TAS inside TASvideos, it's my motto. TAS i'm interested: Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS? i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.
Dimon12321
He/Him
Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (597)
Joined: 4/5/2014
Posts: 1227
Location: Romania
Here is my final video where I almost complete mission 2. The footage was recorded on the 20th of September. I had it mounted just today. Link to video
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.