Joined: 4/3/2007
Posts: 27
Hello, I were looking in the Snes Tases forum and found that Topic, it's awesome because I always loved this game and thought it was so much not known as much as it deserved. I looked at your 2 finished runs, the 2 are really excellent and the 2nd is faster that's true, but you forgot just two things : 1) You surely don't know but you can RUN when hooked from the up-side! That would save time in the 4th level. 2)Sometimes you look like you mess up a little bit, or don't hit the boss as soon or as much as you could, I'd want to know if it's because of Luck-Manipulation or other things (like at the Last Boss you don't hit his heart 2 times every time you go for hitting it, or maybe it's my eyes lol) Well I really hope that they will fix the problem with the ZMV's here, and I hope you won't mind re-doing it one last time (if RUN for lvl4 is worth it), but anyway there is not much randomness in this game, all is very precise I'd say. And also, at some times you could do a bit of "messing around" while waiting for, say, a boss to come at hittable range. It's already a nearly perfect run anyway.
BigBoct
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1. No, I did not know you could ceiling-dash. 2. On the final boss, I don't quite recall what the missed hits were from. On most of the others, I was trading speed for entertainment. IMO, the game gets beat in quite good time, no reason I can't slow down a bit and do a cool boss fight instead of a fast one. I'll run Stage 4 tonight and see if the ceiling dash makes an appreciable difference. (Honestly, I kinda hope it doesn't; the Stage 4 and 5 boss fights took a LOT of redos before they didn't desync, and I've no idea how to hex-edit so I wouldn't have to redo Stage 5.) And I'm glad you liked them.
Previous Name: boct1584
Joined: 4/3/2007
Posts: 27
Ah ok I see, thanks for the answer^^. Well it's great to make some creative art when it's the good moment, the run is totally perfect to me. I already woudn't have hoped someone would get to it lol. At stage 4 you optimized it quite well anyway, and the ceiling-dash is only when the ceiling is above you, but you can keep the speed you gain on to a vertical ceiling. It also means you could go over those "firing E.T." still ceiling-dashing. If it save much time I hope there's a way to either do Bosses to not having desyncs, or for hex editing maybe you just have to know where to find the editable frames and change them. Either way I hope it won't be too long before NESvideos accept the run of the first ZMV ever made here! I prefer ZSNES too. Much easier to manage stopping a record and retaking it where you were later IMHO.
Joined: 4/3/2007
Posts: 27
So had you been able to see if the dash-ceiling trick saves time ? Tell me what it gives once you tried please. If there's any need for Hex-Editing, they did a guide here just for that : http://tasvideos.org/HexEditing.html
BigBoct
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The ceiling-dash definitely saved some time in Stage 4, but I'm waiting until I finish re-running the stage (right now, I just beat Red Saber) before I do a framecount comparison. The hex-editing page is good, but unfortunately there's nothing there about doing it for ZMVs, presumably because there's almost nobody here who uses ZSNES.
Previous Name: boct1584
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
You'll need to read the spec on the ZMV format which, according to Nach, comes with the ZSNES sourcecode.
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Stage 4 is finished; ceiling-dash saved about ten seconds. I'll look into the hex-editing later, but I think I'm just gonna redo Stage 5 entirely; the only thing I was really satisfied with from last time was staying airborne the entire fight with Abomination. And Dromiceius, could you tell Nach to check his PMs? I have no idea how to get in touch with him (other than that), and he's had one from me requesting the ZMV script be fixed sitting in his inbox for a while now.
Previous Name: boct1584
Joined: 10/3/2005
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Er, by "according to Nach" I meant "according to something he wrote on the ZSNES forum," where you can probably get in touch with him. I don't know him personally. Also, if by ZMV script you mean for uploading submissions to TASvideos, then you'd want to nag Bisqwit. I don't know if Nach can actually help you with that.
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Here's my current run; I re-redid Stage 4 from Red Saber on because I wasn't happy with it. I've only saved another 44 frames (up to about 11 seconds now) but it looks MUCH better IMO. http://rapidshare.com/files/91656095/Solon-RunsaberStage4-3rdRun.zip.html (And I tried asking Bisqwit about the ZMV script; he's the one who mentioned Nach.)
Previous Name: boct1584
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Posts: 27
I just saw Stage 4 and it's great how you remade it, you saved time on the flames geyser part, but are you sure that on the "long ceiling going right then down" part you shouldn't have ceiling-dashed all the way and above the creatures up to the next part of the level ?
BigBoct
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Yeah, I'm pretty sure that dropping where I do is faster. Anyway, I'm re-re-finished, clocking in at JUST under 55,000 frames. Quite happy with that; if I'm remembering where I clocked in last time properly, it's about 1,600 frames improved from that. http://rapidshare.com/files/92445674/solon-runsaberfinal-3.zip.html
Previous Name: boct1584
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I'm happy now, it looks so much perfect, and you saved much time with just two levels, I think this is done for a long time. Now you just have to submit your movie (zipped before, with 7-zip or something else) by going here http://tasvideos.org/SubmitMovie.html , and put in your real name (if you want) and a comment of explanations for the movie. It should be all you have to do.
BigBoct
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I know the drill with submitting; I've tried to twice (EDIT: three times) now. The script which checks to make sure the ZMV is valid hasn't been updated for ZSNES v1.51, so until Nach or someone else gets around to it, I can't submit it. And Nach apparently doesn't visit often; he's had a PM from me waiting in his Inbox for quite a while now.
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Try submitting again, sorry, I didn't see your PM till now.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
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It worked. Thanks a lot, and no worries about taking your time getting to it.
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Unfortunately, my run has been rejected. I'm a bit surprised, but ah well. I'll just try again. As of now, I'm at the electric arcs early in Stage 2; here's my run through Stage 1. Only about 20 frames ahead so far, but I think it looks better. http://rapidshare.com/files/93241700/Runsaber-4th-Stage1.zip.html
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Okay, finally got my motivation back. Stage 2 is finished; 533 frames saved total. Under 15 minutes seems like a serious possibility. http://rapidshare.com/files/102654596/Runsaber4th-Stage2.rar.html
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Stage 3 is finished, and with it, the part of the redo I was dreading; manipulating enemy positions over the spike pit right after the eagle boss. I didn't get it quite as smoothly as in either of my other runs (think I lost about half a second) but it still looks good. http://rapidshare.com/files/104639290/Runsaber4th-Stage3.rar.html I'm hoping to have it finished and submitted in about a week.
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http://rapidshare.com/files/104918710/Runsaber4th-Stage4.rar.html Now about 800 frames ahead. I don't know if I'll break 15 minutes, but I'm quite happy with my progress.
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http://tasvideos.org/1925S.html Show your support!
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I'm working on improving the run again. As of Red Saber in Stage 2, I'm 400 or so frames faster than my published run. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to prevent a Cloud Surfer from dropping off his cloud, which continues sailing on and results in Red Saber spawning being delayed about 59 frames. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AQJ8W6C7 http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?unzmmn0zdyv Unfortunately, Filespace appears to have died, and I doubt DeHackEd plans to make Microstorage ZMV-compatible.
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Samsara
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I'm taking a crack at this game. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1691132420/Run%20Saber%20%28U%29%20%5B!%5D.smv Currently 165 frames ahead of the WIP in the last post, as of the last hit on the miniboss. Mostly optimization all throughout and taking a few different routes when possible. There's a weird timing difference between ZSNES and Snes9x that allows for the splash screens to be cleared 66 frames faster on ZSNES, so the total improvement is actually 231 frames. Tubified: Link to video Edit: Up to 223 frames ahead at the first frame of the boss's spawn animation, though I'm still working things out. Edit: And 274 frames ahead after the first boss. How do you even GET a boss that's that random with invincibility time?
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
BigBoct
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If you're in the air at the right time, you can avoid the "Boss Defeated" pose. That was the purpose of my being in the air after taking them out in my published run. Anyway, it's good to see someone else taking a crack at this. I had been doing some work on it, but couldn't figure out how to bypass the intro in SNES9X the way I did in ZSNES.
Previous Name: boct1584
Samsara
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boct1584 wrote:
If you're in the air at the right time, you can avoid the "Boss Defeated" pose. That was the purpose of my being in the air after taking them out in my published run. Anyway, it's good to see someone else taking a crack at this. I had been doing some work on it, but couldn't figure out how to bypass the intro in SNES9X the way I did in ZSNES.
Ha, I knew that would be mentioned. That was just me ending the video in a flashy way (the input file ends right before) I end up jumping from the girder to skip the pose (and save some climbing time). Up to the first miniboss of Stage 2 now. I had gone through Red Saber but there was a desync, which was actually really nice because I wasn't happy with the battles anyway (and it allowed me to save a half-second of time :3). http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/776523367/Run%20Saber%20%28U%29%20%5B!%5D.smv Not sure how correct my calculations are, but this should be 462 frames faster than the WIP. I'll Tube it in a bit. Tubed. Link to video
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.
Samsara
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http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1088712134/Run%20Saber%20%28U%29%20%5B!%5D.smv Up to Stage 3 and currently 1331 frames ahead of the published run. The Stage 2 boss battle is a cop-out, I admit, but it's going to be reworked. Just wanted to show off an easy way to win that fight. I'm still not TOO happy with the minibosses. The head is rather erratic with its movement, and Red Saber and the rock boss have varying invulnerability times. Edit: Tubin' up the new boss battle (and the rest of Tong City). There. Link to video Edit2: Just realized that the microstorage links are broken. I'll tinyurl them from now on.
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.