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EZGames69 wrote:
There was a problem I ran into with Super Cobra where the movie header didn’t list “PAL 1” to adjust the time for PAL playback, however I found that it still shows the incorrect time even if PAL 1 is on.
I made a ticket here a week ago: https://github.com/TASVideos/BizHawk/issues/2684
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Link to video
(I had to mute part of the video due to copyright claim.)
Catching up on some stuff. Here is a resync of Operation C that I console verified. The original does not sync in level 2, so I redid parts of it (the second boss is a few frames faster.) But I didn't keep track of lag in level 3 so I don't know if it's faster overall, it's too much of a hassle to compare to VBA.
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FCEUX simply takes 2 frames before turning the ppu on. It's hard coded in there. This is well known to be incorrect, but most games don't do anything before the ppu is ready so it doesn't matter in many cases. It really only matters for games that run their RNG in the idle loops between frame code.
And since NES console verification is mostly poll based, and no polls are happening, it's almost invisible.
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HandsomeRudy wrote:
It's probably too late but:
Round 43, faster solution: LRRRRLRRRRRRRUUUUUUULLLLLLLLRRRLLLLRLRRRRR
I'm sorry I didn't find this earlier, my own TAS projects are keeping me rather busy. Also, I wasn't expecting to find anything.
I'll add you as co-author.
I won't be re-syncing this for a while though. So I guess set it to delayed for now, unless HandsomeRudy makes a new bk2. It will be a few weeks before I get to it.
That's too many letters for me to follow, but I'm guessing you mean push the top block off the left edge before dropping down and moving the bottom block into place. This does save time, I'll get the movie resynced (again) and post a new file. Thanks for the tip.
EDIT: New file: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/70768304310313796
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feos wrote:
I tried comparing the 2 video dumps, and it's a nightmare to figure out actual frame numbers that come from VBA, because it dumps the same frame several times on screen transitions and possibly in other situations. So maybe my numbers are messed up, but still worth checking.
.
.
.
Slowly making my way through these. Some are false positives (seem to be some frame rules occasionally mess things up.) Others are mistakes, I also found some new improvements.
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http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/70526268622635359
Complete game WIP here.
The refights are mostly the same as the original. There is a lot of extra lag once respawning in the main lobby after each fight, not really surprising considering how much lag has added up in the game so far.
Also a lot of extra lag on Sigma, maybe destroying some of his green ball attacks can cut down on it, but sometimes that also causes extra lag too, I'll try some things and see what happens.
I think this is close to done though. I console verified up to the start of Sigma 3, which is also good as it means all the extra lag is at least accurate to console.
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Turns out zero can make a time saving in Hornet's stage:
This saves about 1.5 seconds, and I think this is enough to guarantee zero to be faster overall.
I had resynced zero up to sigma 3, and zero is slightly slower in sigma 2 which about cancels out the timesave in sigma 1. With saber 2 he can beat the boss a bit faster though.
Without this timesave it was neck and neck, really within frames, it would have been difficult to actually conclude that zero was faster, but I think this new time save is enough to put zero over the top.
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Here are the two runs resynced and working in the most recent BizHawk:
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/36428673262038989http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/70450743255778683
Here is a version of one of the runs that works in mesen 0.98, but not BizHawk (current mesen (0.99) doesn't appear to load .bk2 files anymore):
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/53160118032498328
I'm not sure if we ever did anything with SRAM in the previous testing so maybe that has something to do with the problems we had? Also these will only work from power on and again only sometimes.
I had looked at the code before, and it doesn't run any DCM stuff, it just reads 4 times, maybe the controller code is just meant to be used for different projects possibly using it.
Thanks for the testing so far!
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Very Cool! I've always wanted to see Punch Out work on console, nice to see it finally happen.
8 minutes is further then previous attempts have made it on bionic commando, which I seem to remember only made it to around 5. I think I recall testing that run on Mesen also and it worked out fine, so emulation shouldn't be an issue. But it's also been too long now for me to give any accurate details about it.
Seems like you are making rapid progress on NES though, cool stuff!
Thinking back to when I was briefly working on NES verifications with true, the biggest mystery seemed to be the Streemerz runs. They don't use the DMC channel, so it seemed like they really should work on console, but we could never get them to. Not sure what your goals are but if you want a challenge that is probably the biggest (non-DMC related) issue out there.
Also the recent Battletoads runs would be cool to see, but they would only work from power on, and then will only work occasionally, but should be doable.
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So I didn't notice it before, but in level 36 MattyXB is able to switch characters while an enemy animation is still on screen. This is apparently a glitch where if another enemy is despawning, or a tower of block collapses completes you have 1 frame to switch characters before the game switches to tracking the other defeated enemies. Apparently he didn't realize it either because this glitch can be used in several places throughout the run.
I also found a few more ladder optimizations and improved the strategy in level 35.
Here is an almost 15 second improvement:
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/70408149362496710
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Tom Sawyer and Lethal enforcers are gone thanks to Lobsterzelda.
Catrap is on the workbench but needs a little more work, should be done shortly.
Will try to do the remaining GB/C games on the list.
EDIT: Catrap done. Asmik World is VERY tedious but I'm making progress
EDIT2: Asmik World done
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Awesome I'm glad to hear about more NES console verification work happening. Please do Mike Tyson's Punch Out if you can. The previous TAS sycned on both NESHawk and Mesen but desynced on console, I don't think the current TAS has been tried though. Also Bionic Commando would be a good one. This one didn't work previously due to bot limitations (interrupt fired mid polling routine and the bot timed out the request if I remember correctly) so it would be a good test case.
That's some good info on N64. That's probably the one I have the most interest in, even just characterizing which games can work with current technology would be a big step.
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Jules wrote:
Anyway, I just checked right now, and my WIP has two rounds faster than this submission:
- In level 10, it is a few frames faster to go down the ladder before walking off the edge after pushing the rock down.
- In level 17, after you kill the first enemy, it's a bit faster to go down the ladder before walking off the ledge... so basically the same idea as the above.
(...) Going to do Boomer's world?:)
Interesting, I didn't notice that before, even though I thought I remembered looking into it. I'll have to go over the run again and look for similar spots.
Yes I will try Boomer's world in the near future, as well as the remaining GB\C runs from the 'First 500' thread. I can't really think about BizHawk dev. stuff right now but Lobsterzelda's work on Lethal Enforcers has given me motivation!
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HandsomeRudy wrote:
Meh vote.
Would this save some time?
Round 91, 50:49 in video, kill that bottom level creature first, then stand still below that boulder, switch characters and go kill the other creature.
Yup, that's definitely a time save, good catch, (not sure how I missed that.)
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Here is a more careful comparison up to catfish's stage. Currently Zero is ~160 frames ahead.
X route:
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/70254910989155755
Zero route:
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/70254895436613917
Just based on known factors, zero will lose 2 seconds to the 2 remaining bosses, but regain them on velguarder. In addition ~100 frames will be saved once I need to switch back to X.
So zero has to do the next 2 levels within about 250 frames of X to stay ahead. It seems almost doable, but my last attempt made it seem far off. I'm going to retry though since it just seems so close.
EDIT: I did a rough draft of X's climb in Catfish's stage. It turns out you also have to add a lot of lag to X's climb as well, it seems like VBA did not emulate this game especially accurately. He can still do it a bit faster then zero, but it's really not by much. I think not accounting for lag in X's resync is what led me to think that zero would be a lot slower, now that I am re-syncing and doing a direct comparison, zero isn't losing much time in Catfish's stage. he will still ose a good chunk of time in Hornet's stage, this is unavoidable, but maybe with enough work it will work out. At the very least, I have plenty of money in both runs, at this point it's basically a non-issue.
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Wow nice work, I admit I also just assumed the old run was doing things as fast as possible and didn't really look into it.
Maybe I'll have to look into the 2 old gameboy games Catrap and Asmik World now that this one and Tom Sawyer will be gone.
This saves about 1.5 seconds, and I think this is enough to guarantee zero to be faster overall.
I had resynced zero up to sigma 3, and zero is slightly slower in sigma 2 which about cancels out the timesave in sigma 1. With saber 2 he can beat the boss a bit faster though.
Without this timesave it was neck and neck, really within frames, it would have been difficult to actually conclude that zero was faster, but I think this new time save is enough to put zero over the top.