I've a question. When playing back a video, there are two fractions on the status bar. I assume one of them is the number of frames, but what is the other one?
During playback: frames_played/frames_total (input_samples_played/input_samples_total)
During recording: frames_recorded (input_samples_recorded)
Basically, the input samples count is like the frame count except it doesn't count frames where the game doesn't request input, such as when it's lagging or loading certain things (or in the case of some games like Mario 64, every other frame).
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
Hey, just tried my first proper TAS on the N64. I did about 10 minutes and played back to see how it looked.
The video played but not as i had done i.e. i was running into walls and the buttons i pressed were shown in the video at the correct time just not the right place.
Dunno if this is a stupid question though...
Turok 3, but it hasn't desynced anymore now that I changed the RSP plugin. So it probably had nothing to do with the lag.
But some games, like Perfect Dark always desyncs for me. That game doesn't seem to work so well, it takes like a minute to load a state.
EDIT: I keep getting desyncs now again, maybe the reason is "Flawed savestates" and/or "Loading savestates and/or entering keys too fast, especially in Famtasia or Mupen64" because I only get the desyncs when I use many save states and the desyncs often happens in the same places.
When you resume recording by loading a savestate, it should update the internal ROM name in the movie to whatever ROM is currently running.
No, that's not what i meant. I mean... when i make a movie there's always a default name (which seems to be the same as the "internal name", whatever that is), i was wondering if the default name could be changed, because in some games it has a ":" and file names can't have ":" for some reason.
anyway, it doesn't matter much because i can just write another name.
Make sure you advance 50 or so frames after you make a savestate, might help with the desyncs.
Did you try to switch around interpreter/recompiler in the rsp if it's laggy?
I'm pretty sure I advance a lot more than 50 frames because I don't use frame advance.
The game doesn't lag more than on console.
I think the game is just emulated unreliably, like Perfect Dark.
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
I'm doing an N64 TAS at the moment. However it gets to a certain frame and freezes, every time.
Chances are that this is just a bad ROM, however, are then any suggestions as to if it could be anything else?
I don't really fancy redoing everything...
Check your ROM with GoodN64, it's detects good and bad ROMs almost flawlessly.
And N64 emulation itself is still a shacky topic, many games don't run properly or at all.
Joined: 2/28/2006
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Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil
shacky emulators, not roms
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Bisqwit wrote:
Is not possible to set frame advance so it continues till the grapihics are updated instead of just update to the next frame.
Maybe it shouldn't be the default since you can sometimes miss opportunities for input, but that's a good suggestion for an option that should be fairly easy to add.
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
Sigh...N64 TASing is infuriating. It either freezes, Desyncs or just plain doesnt work.
In fact that raises something i need to ask. I read that when Guanobowl was making his OoT TAS he had massive Desync problems, but did he always use the same rom or did he change each time? Now this isn't explained very well in the FAQ, but is desyncing a chance process. For example, if i make a movie on my computer and it desyncs would someone else be able to make a similar movie with the same ROM and emulator but have it go smoothly.
One important thing when you make a n64 movie is to uncheck raw data in the input settings. I don't think it's mentioned in the FAQ, so you might not know.
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
Yeah, i did that but the movie i made still desynced (it wasn't a full movie thank god) so i just deleted the ROM, however, the rom itself played well so im wondering if desyncing is by chance and so i could just download the rom again and persevere.
Yeah, i did that but the movie i made still desynced
You did that before or after making the movie? You have to do it before making the movie or it won't work. If you make it using this input plugin then you don't have to worry about that setting, although that is not the only thing that might be causing desync.
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
It was before. My input wont register at all if its on haha.
In the FAQ it says desync can be a shaky rom, does that mean that if a movie made by that rom desyncs then it will EVERY time. Or is it possible to start over and have the run go fine using the same rom?
Desyncs tend to be unpredictable and depend on the game (and emulator). Even if it desyncs a lot, usually it doesn't always desync in the same place, so you can still record a good movie by watching every section of gameplay after you do it (from an earlier savestate that you didn't use for recording), and re-doing that section until it doesn't desync, before moving on. That works for games like Ocarina of Time, Donkey Kong Country 2, and Sonic CD. Those can all be TASed although it is more frustrating to do than normal.
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
Quick question. I'm making a movie, when i resumed record the file played back perfectly, however, when i tried to find the file on my computer it wasn't there.
I did a seardch for all .m64 files and it wasn't found.
This is extremely annoying. Any ideas as to what could have happened?
Mukki, that sounds like the same problem I had in Turok 3. When I made a movie, the default name was: "Turok 3: Shadow of O (USA).m64"
It's not good because it has a ":" in the filename, and files can't have that kind of character (at least not in Windows), so the file just dissapears into nothingness or something :s... it can still be played back though.
To solve the problem, next time you make a movie, write your own custom name when you make a movie if the default name has "prohibited characters" (/ \ : * ? " < > |)
