Quick update: stopped trying on Curvature (we'ill just be stuck with a strat 3 frames slower than WR, because I don't intend on ever going back on this level. If anyone is machostic, feel free to 'try' to improve it, but the strat is so precise that it's almonst impossible to replicate consistently, even in a TAS.
Next level up is Progenitor (aka WINDO4 in the J rom, thanks for levels not being named in Japan, and I have no idea why)
If you haven't watched it alderaly:
Link to video
The Progenitor strat is the first in that video. Our strat will be inspired off that mainly (mostly for the end bounce) but with a lot of improvements: looking to save 30 to (if we get a really good strat) 75 frames here.
It's a really cool strat, so I won't show much of it (want to keep it secret).
Here is a pretty sub-optimised WIP:
Link to video
(I've saved since then 2 frames on this start).
The main thing that worries Silver is getting a bounce at the beginning of the level and bouncing all the way through the level. In my eyes, it isn't possible because of air time limitations, but it we do make it the strat is gonna be absolutely sick (we're looking at an over 3 second time save here). Will be experimenting with it for the next 2-3 days.
The keyword here is 'looks'. Because of boosting, this sub-optimised strat is 2 frames faster.
Fladdermus is long long dead, this video is 6 years old..
Currently experimentating with another strat that boosts left and does a much harder bounce.
Also Touch&Roll has really good 3D:
Holy s**t.
Link to video
If the bounce showcased in this video is possible to exploit, we're looking at a 12-14 frame time save here ALONG with the initial improvements. This gets the bounce MUCH MUCH earlier.
it's happening
Link to video
I have really really high hopes for this level now. This is the road to the strat man knew only as a dream, the full bounce Progenitor strat.
Link to video
Note that this is NOT a failed attempt, I can continue after this but it requires insane grinding of the rails which I will do later (as grinding on rails is a bitch to optimise).
This is the best start I can do, unless a better bounce is found.
Note that I can't bounce ACROSS the level because you can't bounce off 1 pixel wide rails if your vertical speed is too high and your horizontal speed too low; you will just awkwardly boop and go back on the rails. If it would be possible to gather more speed, bouncing across the ENTIRE level would be possible.
I call this the best I can do is because all movement is diagonal except for one frame of 52,0.
Something better can be made if I bounced to the right again, got enough speed to fly up to the side of the right rail and grind the rail from there, and it's probably doable now that I think about it.
Nothing of note is being accomplished.
This is the list of every single name that appears on-screen in the J credits. Each space means it appears on a different screen. The reason I wrote this down is because at the end of each world, you get the credits (they are the same each time) but they can be skipped with a soft reset within the game (L + R + Start + Select) thankfully. However, the last credits will not be skipped, and this is where this can be used: the credits are a little minigame in which you can break blocks with the names of the staff.
Link to video
The credits can be used to write stuff with the names, for example:
YUTAKA
KAWASAKI
becomes
TA
S
I don't know if this is doable since you can end inputs before credits - so it probably isn't; but I'll do a credits TAS (on J, which is different from the video above) and show it on my channel if they cannot be done.
I've also started filling the game resources page for this game.
Just found a 'new' glitch: border quickgrinding.
Link to video
This is a variant of 'coiling' (see page 1) except it requires you to be falling downwards and does not need two solid platforms on top of each other to work. It has the same effects: get near a solid platform without colliding with it, but in the border quickgrinding case, it actually puts you into a 'grinding' state which can be used to switch to the grinding state temporarly and get more horizontal speed by abusing the frame in which you quickgrind.
A lot of talk for one thing: it's almonst totally useless, unless there is a level in which we find a new strat which requires a lot of quickgrinding (and even then, won't need to be used much).
So this rail I just bounced off we'ill call 'the stupid bounce' which is at the spot where the first banana is going down.
The Fladdermus bounce happens right after that, at the second banana going down.
It is not possible to use the stupid bounce to go straight to the goal, unless we slow down to gather more speed (which will make us just lose more time) but rather using the stupid bounce as a way to get to the Fladdermus bounce, then going possibly straight through the goal since the stupid bounce will have redirected our angle: we won't have to bounce off the right rail to get to the goal again.
This can give up some extra speed BEFORE doing the Fladdermus bounce and save a bit of time.
Okay, so I think Aiai got really happy from having a perfect balance on a 1px wide rail and went into euphoria
Link to video
What's happening here is that in this euphoric state, as long as inputs are not more to the left than 216,0 on touchscreen (which makes him fall), any inputs will NOT influence Aiai's speed nor angle for about 40 frames. I did a small example in this video, but all speed values and angles are the same no matter what I try.
Aiai is locked into a life of pure joy and happiness forever for about half a second before going back to his life of being tortured in a plastic fiber ball.
Link to video
How does this game still manage to give me a constant load of s** every single day? It's been two months and it still manages to impress me.
I'm fine with every single other instance of bad collision, okay, cool, but this takes the cake.
Just found this
Link to video
Seems like an obscure earlier version of the game. What you see here is all the graphics are different, some levels are different and the physics are probably different (I've seen things happen that wouldn't happen in the rom I currently have.)
0 idea what this is or where to get it. Any ideas? This also changes most of the level orders from the scarce screenshots I've seen, but I don't know how to get it..
It's 100% a Japanese rom (just from looking at the stage names) which makes it even harder to find as I speak 0 japanese and have no idea where to go to find it.
I also thought so at first, but it is supposedly a completely playable prototype: I've found screenshots from reviewing sites and some obscure sites which all 'play' it.
There are even earlier screenshots of the game but these do not mention any sign of being playable (same bg color on touch screen, same flat look on the ball, and same non-descriptive level names), hovewer the game is at an even earlier state with level order, different levels.
The main reason I didn't dismiss it is because this version shown in the video actually looks more polished than the final version.. There is a direction indicator, the models are more polished and the gameplay is smoother. There would be 0 reason to cut most of these features from the game.
I'll keep wondering.
More than a week without an update?! What has been happening?
Actually, nothing that's interesting enough to show. I've been optimising grinding:
Link to video
All of it is done manually (since this is the only time I will have to do it for such a long period of time). The main point of doing all this grinding right now is because it will be easier to find an optimal Fladdermus bounce this way (since the 1-3 all bananas strat cannot use that bounce; saves me a lot of trouble optimising it now) LOL DISREGARD THAT GOT THE ALL BANANA STRAT BY DUMB LUCK WHILE TRYING TO FIND THE TIME STRAT L M A O just kidding was unoptimised
Now, the thing with doing this type of grinding is that sure, it's optimised, but if you watch closely it is optimised very tightly: all movement is in a array of about 16 positions (all going forward) and I grind so hard that in this video, Aiai looks like he's grinding the left side of the rail, but in reality Aiai doens't actually grind off the top of the left side of the rail, but the side!!
Why is this important? When we want to get back on the right side of the rail to execute the Fladdermus bounce (because none of the grinding frames allow to get the Fladdermus bounce if we get 'back on track' without slowing down, and I've monitored them) we will have to:
1. Find the earliest frame in our grinding section we can get back on track and still get the bounce (although it won't result in a full Fladdermus bounce because the angle is too low, see the "cya nerd" video).
2. Redirect grinding to the right side of the rail without falling down inbetween the two rails, because it would slow us down, just enough that the Fladdermus bounce makes us travel enough distance (since we will have the right angle). We don't want to go too much right or it will waste one frame.
3. Find the right frame to start going upright to hit the Fladdermus bounce, hold upleft as the collision happens (2 frames before the hit) and hope it works.
All of these are not easy things. Finding the earliest frame at which I can redirect the grinding to the right side of the rail, because starting too early will waste frames and starting too late will not get the bounce: the problem is it is reliant both the frame at which we start grinding to the right side AND the distance we go right: I could start at an earlier frame (that didn't get the bounce before in the initial situation, which is the main problem: this adds a lot more situations in which I can start redirecting the grinding right), but if it's too early we'ill waste time; I could start later, at a frame in which we alderaly get the Fladdermus bounce without redirecting, but in that case redirecting us right would lose 1 to 2 frames, so now the 'sweet spot' between these two options has to be found.
Once that sweet spot is found, the grinding to the right itself is another problem: we have to keep an exact position to get the right angle for about.. 12 to 30+ frames, all while grinding in itself! So a frame that could work in theory would not work in practice because the array of inputs we have while grinding to the right of that rail is even more limited, so once I start grinding I have very little options and unless a good position is found, the directions are so limited just a pixel different in the stylus touchscreen position (230,0 or 231,0 for example) can mean the difference between I will be forced to either fall or grind more to the left which will not get the bounce.
All in all, extremely tough to find. It's a World 1 level though, so it's not surprising that it's this tough.
Entierely redoing Curvature (bad start). Currently at around 7500 rerecords for this level.
Link to video
New start that saves around 18 frames compared to old.
Just discovered something: found the ram adress for Aiai's angle (the location he looks at) and for SOME REASON, Aiai's angle is slightly adjusted to the right each time you start a new level (before the start of the level, where you fall off).
This means doing a right boost is faster in situations where no other factors come into play. All of the levels are unchanged, but it is good to know.
Link to video
Beats the Fladdermus TAS by a whopping .07 seconds, the human record by .30 seconds, all while collecting all bananas.
The normal strat (aka not all bananas) I estimate to be around 51.3x .
Movie (not bothered to upload it to userfiles)
Beats the Fladdermus TAS by a whopping .07 seconds, the human record by .30 seconds, all while collecting all bananas.
The normal strat (aka not all bananas) I estimate to be around 51.3x .
