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http://desmume.org
Desmume 0.9.6 finally released!
This is a big release for the TAS community. 0.9.6 offers a big increase in lag reduction and more accurate emulation. As demonstrated in this submission, 0.9.6 is finally the matured emulator we've been wanting. In addition it has lots of fixes related to save/loadstating & movie making.
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Randil wrote:
It seems that the frame count field isn't working properly in some submissions. My Kid Icarus TAS has the frame count 66878 in the frame count field, while the movie file in reality has the frame count 80375.
That's very much off, I wonder why. No formula should come out to that. Can you find any other example of it being off? Maybe there is a fluke with that one.
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Moved topic to FCEUX subforum.
As for your problem you will have to elaborate on terms like "screws up" and "cant' complete a level". There are many ways in which something can screw up. Does it crash? Does it not record? What emulator version are you using? What is your method for starting to record?
The more details the more I can help you.
Vista is certainly more problematic but XP or 7 but many people TAS with using FCEUX + Vista everyday.
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http://code.google.com/p/tastools/
I added a utility call Fm2-PlayerRemove. If a fm2 movie has gamepad 2 or fourscore enabled unintentionally a 1 player movie can unnecessarily have 2-4 controllers of input data. Given that they are text files, this can increase the size significantly. It also slows down savestates and loadstates while TASing, and movie loading. Especially for slower computers and long movies, it is highly recommended you strip your movies if they have extra controller input.
This program will strip the unnecessary controllers and fix the header flags to reduce it down to just 1.
If you are a windows user, simply drag & drop the input file on the .exe and you are done!
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DevilSpree wrote:
The submissions I watch are in AVI. People actually submit (and watch...?) the .fcm files or whatever the movie ones are?
It is .fm2 these days. and yes, they HAVE to submit the input file for it to be published, and many people choose to watch it that way.
As for cross platform issues, that is a concern here. Having said that, the rerecording versions of VBA, GENS, PCSX, and VBjin are all windows only at this time. TASing of PC-FX is currently linux only (not that there is any demand for TASing of that console).
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Yes, the DS requires more power to emulate than a playstation. Desmume runs well on a nice computer. Now go get a nice computer if you expect to "speedrun" on it. Or better yet, use a real DS.
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Hell yes, please finish this run!!!
And yes the milestyle jumps are annoying. Those are what killed my motivation when I tried to do this TAS. I hope you succeed where I failed miserably.
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Actually FCEUX has not surpassed it in accuracy (yet). But as far as rerecording & related tools, FCEUX is a no brainer. And for 99% of games, the accuracy difference isn't an issue.
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address 0016 has something to do with this. It is an 8 frame timer that runs most things about the game.
My guess is that it increases 1 per frame except every 8th frame as per that timer. I'm pretty sure it is more complex than that, but that timer definitely affects acceleration (which is really annoying for optimizing a TAS).
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TRT wrote:
I remember the agony that was 8-Tower. My result looked sloppy, unfortunately :(.
GOD, I hate that section.
5-2 has Mario not facing left all the way. Is that for luck manipulation?
Probably not, but it apparently doesn't lose time. I was going off frame count for level endings and I had no loss of time there.
2) 5-3 has Mario land on an upward slope. Does he lose speed for that one frame?
1 frame on an upward slope is going to be a cost of about 1-2 speed. 1 speed is 1/16 of a pixel, hardly enough to cost a frame anywhere.
3) How were you able to compare your run with mine effectively (since I remember my run desyncing quite often for many people)
I got your run to sync, though it was tricky in a few spots. Just had to match your firmware settings, use the right emulator version, and some other issues I think. But for the most part, I didn't have trouble.
Anyways, this certainly deserves to be published :P.
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Derakon wrote:
What was that weird delay right before the flag in 5-1 for?
To avoid a certain time on the timer that would cause fireworks. Some extra frames were also spent there for some map screen luck manipulation.
I assume that getting the top of the flagpole is slower than hitting it partway up
Anything under the flag itself is going to be equally as fast. So anything up to 1000 of a score.
and that spinning in the shell is slower than constantly jumping.
Spinning with the shell is 44 speed. Constantly jumping is 48.
That latter would also explain why you lose the blue shell -- so you can run on the moving platforms in the castle.
Among other reasons, yes. I lose it in that level because that is another level where I must wait for the timer. And the timer runs while taking damage. Thus most of the time loss is negated. The benefits of regular mario aren't just for moving platforms. It is for corner and super-corner boosting, and sliding as well.
I also assume that getting Tiny Mario and his improved walljumping into the penultimate level is impossible, or at least not helpful. Is it not possible to get him to the checkpoint, die, and then come back at the checkpoint with the wandering platform ready?
Unfortunately mini-mario is no match for that level. Even getting to the check point isn't possible IIRC. I think TRT even tested this and found it would be significantly slower anyway. I'll be honest though, I didn't look into this concept with much depth.
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Cabbagefat wrote:
Great run, but you missed something that could've increased the time by quite a bit. The bull hat is obtainable by getting an onion if your already big, so the first few levels could've been run faster (the 2nd set of blocks you come across in the 1st level has an onion in it I believe). The specific Bull Hat upgrade is mainly for when your small.
Seems you are right. I just improved level 1 bv 415 frames, so this is quite a significant improvement to be made. I guess I am working on a v2 now.
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You beat me to it! This was a lot more intense than I expected. I was thinking there would need to be a lot of strategy and planning for this. Instead you just machine-gun punch your opponents to death, I didn't expect that :o
Yes vote.
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I agree it shouldn't be used for temporary movies. Also, such usages are rather rare from what I've seen. Typically we have one quality encode per submission/publication.
