I suggest using Dolphin 4.0 since I assume GCN emulation would be far more stable between revisions there, so forward compatibility wouldn't be too much of an issue there unlike 3.5.
I was able to sync up until the 9900ptas drop on the regular Dolphin 3.5, so I will probably use a good TASing revision of that if you all know of one. The syncing process between 3.0 and 3.5 involves delaying the inputs in 3.5 by the number of frames 3.0 is behind. As long as the VI is the same value at the end of each loading screen, the RNG seems to match up on both. This ended up wasting 2 frames overall (I lost 4 frames in the opening, but gained 2 frames during actual gameplay). I wonder if that would work with 3.5 to 4.0...it's worth testing I suppose, although load times in 4.0 are several seconds faster in the beginning screens.
Me and Magnum66 decided to go back to RE4 glitch hunting some days ago. In order to test new sequence breaks it's far easier for us to have walk through walls with levitate/descend: http://geckocodes.org/index.php?c=RB4E08
See code "Levitate/Descend". I'm running the newest Dolphin and I can get the code to work (as I am walking through walls) but any idea how you levitate/descend from the instructions given?
"code based on zits
Right- set execution for levitate
Left- set execution for descend
Up- execute
down- return"
One of the main reasons for levitation is the 5-3 Ruins OoB just before you fight Krauser. The two levels you can OoB down from leave you either to high or to low to see if the door has an open prompt. You could use levitation to place yourself at door height and if the prompt is there you potentially have a Krauser skip if you could figure out how to lower/raise yourself like the 5-1 OoB.
Basic walk through walls has also shown that you can entirely skip the mine cart and operate the lift. Magnum told me that years ago he used to talk to Derek and Derek somehow managed to drop down from a ledge at the beginning of 4-3 into a "blank" world. He could never replicate it though.
What good news! A new TAS WIP by SoulCal and a new glitch hunting by TheThrillness and Magnum66... that's awsome, seriously. Good luck guys!
Edit: I don't know how to levitate thanks to these codes, but you can change your height by walking on stairs from OoB. It's tricky since it's easy to go back in bounds. I already tested this potential Krauser skip on console but the "open" didn't appear when I reached the door :(
I tried to sync my run on Dolphin 4.0, but no luck. I delayed the intro by about 3 seconds to compensate that the game boots up about 3 seconds faster (before any controller input is even allowed). The load times from then on seem similar for gameplay though, but for some reason 4.0 loads the first area exactly 1 VI sooner (but the frame count is the same) and causes a desync. Surprisingly though, Leon even headshots the first enemy the same way, but the grenade drop doesn't appear. Both 3.5 and 4.0 are loading the first area within the same # of frames, but 4.0 is 1 VI faster, and what I think causes the desync. I don't see a way of correcting this at all, since RE4 uses a weird polling thing of every 2 VIs is 1 single input, and some loading areas add (or delete?) a single VI.
Anyway...any objections to me using 3.5? Any good TASing revisions of that? I just want to keep my 9900ptas drop b/c of how rare it is.
I don't see anything wrong with using 3.5. Any 3.5 revision that syncs the latest version of your run should be a good build to TAS on (all have TAS input, supposedly desync-proof savestates, etc). I'm most familiar with 3.5-1729, which has the added benefit of corresponding with an existing A/V sync Dolphin build, but I'm not sure if your run will sync on a 3.5 revision that new.
Uh...I don't think using an older revision is a good idea since it's less accurate. Does an "improvement" like that even count as an improvement if it can't be done on a later revision of the emulator? :o
Who says that the loading times are more accurate? Slower doesn't automatically mean more accurate.
Also with disc based games it varies from console to console, so what is "accurate" anyway?
SoulCal, I think if you are going to do a new TAS of this game you should use the newest version of dolphin if at all possible.
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
It is more accurate if the newest version of dolphin loads the loading times several seconds faster. And before, dolphin wasn't so keen on emulating loading times. Even when SoulCal did his tas of resident evil, he said even though dolphin emulates loading times of this game, the loading times were quicker compared with a console. Doing it on 4.0.2 which loads them even faster is the wrong approach in my opinion.
I wasn't referring to loading times in regards with accuracy. I was referring to emulation for games in general. For example, Spider man 2, Spongebob, and most likely a lot more games run much better in 4.0+ than 3.5.
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Yeah I am all for upgrading and using the latest version of Dolphin for the sake of improved emulation in various fields. Like the the examples you gave though I am not sure what you mean by "much better". Guessing you meant they run a bit faster and less texture glitches. In this case, I am not so sure if it's good to upgrade. But alas, enough of off topicness :D
Here's just a quick encode of my new WIP. Besides obviously being faster than my previous 1-1, I have an extra 1800ptas and an extra grenade.
Link to video
Some things to note:
1. The version I'm using is the normal 3.5 version from the official site. I was able to sync my old run up until the 9900ptas drop, but strangely it's from a different enemy than when I used 3.0.
2. I take a hit early on to lower the game's difficulty. I hope to lower it enough to make Del Lago take 1 less harpoon to kill
3. I may redo the village part to get an herb in addition to the money and two hand grenades. This way I can take a hit later on while still being in the green.
4. To me, it looks like I make some unoptimized movements in the trip wire about 3:24. You might be able to see that I make some extra turns and movements. For reasons unknown to me, this actually saved 2frames. Why switching between left and right is faster may have to do that I'm moving more south on the map for a few frames, which gets me to the door sooner. I'd like to work with someone on TASing this game, so I don't miss out on any other potential frame savers like that.
EDIT: Does anyone have skills on analyzing game's memory or finding the RNG? I was able to get double 9900drops in the village area, but unfortunately the drop is in a useless spot. If I could provide my dtm to someone, they might be able to analyze the memory to find out what parameter causes different item drops.
Any help you or others could provide would be appreciated, even if it's just something as simple as manipulating the right item drops. I'd say this is actually one of the easier 3D games to TAS, since Leon's movement is digital and not analog. The most tedious part is spending 100s of loadstates to get 1 single grenade, and that's not assuming the grenade is actually in a place that is beneficial for a speedrun. :/
So far, I'm 203 VIs (at 60VI/sec) ahead of my old TAS, or about 3 seconds.
Link to video
I'm also sticking with the Japanese version, because the PAL versions have very odd polling. I have External Frame Buffer set to "real" because it changes the polling to 60/sec instead of 30/sec, and also fixes the frame dump to be 30fps. The game is at 30fps, so every other frame is an input frame, so if I want to press A every other frame it looks like AA00AA00AA00. With PAL though, the game polls like A0AA0AA0AA0. It's weird due to PAL being at 25fps.
Hey, I remembered you asking whether or not disk loading times affect ingame time. Since they finally fixed it in the latest Dolphin, can you try and find out?
Nice progress SoulCal! I particularly enjoyed your *caught it bear trap*/*get grabbed*(trap cancel)/*blown up* (grab cancel)/13.2k peseta magic trick :)
"But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends:
A day is like a thousand years to the Lord,
and a thousand years is like a day"
-2 Peter 3:8 NLT
"But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends:
A day is like a thousand years to the Lord,
and a thousand years is like a day"
-2 Peter 3:8 NLT