A few weeks ago I was approached by SDA's cyghfer (known here as Orange_Claw_Hammer) for advice on making a realtime run of Trip World. I was more than happy to oblige, being a huge fan of the game. However, he quickly found numerous improvements to my run, some of them quite major and interesting. I decided to look into making a v3 of this and soon started to find various aditional improvements myself. This new run is 2900 frames (48.33s) faster than my currently published movie. Most boss battles, miniboss battles and the majority of World 2 are unchanged from the old run.
World
Improvement
Total
1
805
805
2
90
895
3
1148
2043
4
263
2306
5
594
2900
General Improvements
Optimisation of Oscillating Velocity
When I made my first two versions last year I didn't use RAM Search despite the fact that I had been using it competently for a few years. This game's RAM is very difficult to figure out. I found the X co-ordinate quite by accident this time around. It is consigned to a single byte and increases by several pixels per frame while walking so one can only test 'greater thans' over a very short period. This was not helped by the fact that cheat search in the old vba was very difficult to use. However, when I found the positioning addresses the velocity addresses were close by. I saved several frames throughout the run after discovering that the velocity oscillates between 15, 16 and 17 when either normal, mouse or big Yacopu. When you jump the value remains constant and by pressing A on the correct frame you can get the value to go as high as 18.
Hopping Glitch
Probably reponsible for the most improvement. When in flying form Yacopu's top velocity is 24 (it is reduced to 23 on every 16th frame for a single frame). However, if A is pressed for a single frame on take-off and again when the ground is reached Yacopu gets a slight velocity boost (usually up to 25-26 on the first bounce) and if repeated the previous boost is not cleared properly and another boost is piled on top (usually 29-30) on the second bounce and so on until Yacopu is impeded. The highest velocity I was able to get with this technique was 37.
Big Yacopu Glitch.
When using the Big Yacopu boosting trick his velocity usually goes up to 47 and slowly decreases. However, in certain situations if one presses the opposite direction for 3-4 frames before B is pressed Yacopu gets a huge boost to a velocity of 65!
Transformation Optimisation
Rather than transforming on the first frame possible you can jump forward for a few frames before transforming to allow the momentum to carry you forward. Similarly, transforming before entering certain screens can save time by avoiding cool-down animations and utilising the transformation's faster Y-velocity. Discovered by cyghfer
General precision
Of course, the odd frame here and there. Mainly World 2 boss, World 4 miniboss and the final boss are improved by a few frames through slightly different strats.
Individual Level Improvements / Comments.
World 1
A couple of seconds are saved by using the momentum from the steep slopes while in flying form. Discovered by cyghfer
World 2
Using the falling leaf in screen 3 to optimise entrance into screen 4 saves about 40 frames. More time is saved later as a result because I make the slope before the transformation kicks in and so the momentum carries me during the animation avoiding the need to stop.
World 3
Flying over the water and transforming while falling instead of swimming in fish form. Discovered by cyghfer
In the wind screen the wind effects don't affect the top of the screen for some reason allowing for a huge improvement. Discovered by cyghfer
World 4
Because of the hopping glitch I am able to get to the mouse fruit fast enough to make the ball unneccessary in this instance.
It is possible to glitch out of the miniboss area, but you end up stuck in a wall only able to move upwards. If someone could figure out how to get out of the wall or how to get in the wall of a level that you travel upwards in using this method you could save some nice time (See: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/459414923/tripworldglitch.vbm).
World 5
Likewise, the hopping glitch makes it faster to fly through this level.
Thanks
Huge thanks to cyghfer; firstly, for finding such numerous and awesome improvements; secondly, for sharing these improvements with me; and thirdly, for watching my WIPs and offering constructive criticism and ideas for further improvement. I await his realtime run with bated breath, it should be very awesome indeed and I hope that he enjoys this TAS.
Aims for Fastest Time
Abuses Programming Errors in the Game
Manipulates Luck
Genre: Platform
Flygon: Added YouTube module at 2x native resolution (1x was literally too small to use properly, there wasn't even a full screen option).
Baxter: Nice improvement to the published movie. Accepting.
Heh, Mukki I saw you were improving your run because I was reading your page a few hours ago, and here it is :D
I can't wait to watch, and I am sure it will be a yes.
EDIT: also claiming for encoding.
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
Very nice! The flying looks a lot better, and it's nice to see the windy part get skipped. Now it would be nice if there was a way in World 5 to avoid having to wait for those conveyor belt blocks.
Two small optimization concerns in World 5: 1. You hit the mouse powerup on it's right side, which looks like it loses a little time compared to hitting it on the left (if that's possible). 2. When transforming back out of final form for the last fight, can you jump first so that you fall down the hole while transforming? You currently wait on top of the hole until you're normal again.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically.
Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.)
Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html)
Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature!
Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
mklip2001 wrote:
Two small optimization concerns in World 5: 1. You hit the mouse powerup on it's right side, which looks like it loses a little time compared to hitting it on the left (if that's possible). 2. When transforming back out of final form for the last fight, can you jump first so that you fall down the hole while transforming? You currently wait on top of the hole until you're normal again.
1. I can see what you are thinking. If I go over it and catch it on the other side the momentum will carry me a few pixels further. Unfortunately, this isn't how it works. The transformations by fruit are slightly different to the B transformations. When you grab the fruit you transform on the specific pixel the fruit is on and the game doesn't allow you to move.
2. You can't jump when transforming. Even if you hold the jump button all the way on the last frame possible before the transformation animation begins you still hit the ground before the trap door opens.
I also have a question, for the 4th miniboss, does it go towards you or automatically to the left. It seems like you could jump it and then fight it from the right side so you would be close to the door after the fight is done.
Hooray, the submission is here!
I'm very glad that I was able to find the improvements I did and contribute to a much faster and more entertaining TAS. Thank you for testing all my suggestions and creating this great improvement in such short time. I quite enjoyed watching the final encode.
There was one thing I noticed that could possibly be improved - when automatically transforming from big Yacopu back to normal Yacopu after killing part 2 of the final boss, I wonder if jumping before entering the transform animation would eliminate that small amount of time where you're hovering in the air during the transformation. Perhaps there's a glitch where if you have 0 vertical velocity, you're undergoing an item-related transformation, and the floor falls out from under you, you don't fall through; but it might not be the case if you have downward vertical velocity.
Other than that it looks excellent. Somehow I forgot to remark on possibly my favorite new trick of the run - getting that little push from the World 1 'midboss' which allows you to start flying at the beginning of the next screen. Hopefully I will be able to produce a speedrun that incorporates some of the new strategies on display here, but I must admit, the improvements discovered heighten the difficulty of the run quite a bit. Like I said, the flying-bouncing is brutal! And there is no way I'll be able to come close to the flying in Worlds 3 & 5.
I would vote a wholehearted yes! if I could.
edit: I've also been wondering if the following is possible: instead of turning around and shooting the big robot blocking your way in World 5 when you're speeding to the final boss chamber, what if you could time a jump so you land on the little sword guy's head and immediately jump again so you clear the top of the robot?
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
Kyman wrote:
for the 4th miniboss, does it go towards you or automatically to the left. It seems like you could jump it and then fight it from the right side so you would be close to the door after the fight is done.
It's possible to jump the big dude, but not the little dude, so you have to defeat them both (if you want to do it quickly) from that side.
Orange Claw Hammer wrote:
There was one thing I noticed that could possibly be improved - when automatically transforming from big Yacopu back to normal Yacopu after killing part 2 of the final boss, I wonder if jumping before entering the transform animation would eliminate that small amount of time where you're hovering in the air during the transformation. Perhaps there's a glitch where if you have 0 vertical velocity, you're undergoing an item-related transformation, and the floor falls out from under you, you don't fall through; but it might not be the case if you have downward vertical velocity.
The problem isn't that I don't jump, it is that there is no point in jumping. If I jump as high as I can on the last frame before Yacopu transforms he still hits the ground before the transformation is over and before the trapdoor opens.
Orange Claw Hammer wrote:
I've also been wondering if the following is possible: instead of turning around and shooting the big robot blocking your way in World 5 when you're speeding to the final boss chamber, what if you could time a jump so you land on the little sword guy's head and immediately jump again so you clear the top of the robot?
Very good spot. This is 12 frames faster and I hadn't noticed it. However, this wouldn't count as an improvment as I have to wait to transform back to normal Yacopu before fighting the final boss and so the 12 frames wouldn't be kept anyway (I saved 40 frames over my last run between the fruit and last boss and lost it all). It may be worth updating for style, but the run has already been encoded etc. and that would just be mean.
It's something to consider if this ever gets improved again (for example, if someone finds a way to utilize that getting inside the wall glitch!), but yeah, no need to update the submission for an ultimately cosmetic change.
Can't wait to see this go up on the site!
Joined: 11/4/2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Australia, Victoria
I'm actually planning on making experimental encodes in the future and polling users on them... though, it'll take a while. Mainly because I can't actually wrap my head around AviSynth's FPS reduction feature.
I'm actually planning on making experimental encodes in the future and polling users on them... though, it'll take a while. Mainly because I can't actually wrap my head around AviSynth's FPS reduction feature.
This movie has been published.
The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie.
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[1597] GB Trip World by Mukki in 06:11.42
