Here is my submission of an improved Vectorman 2 movie, 33.6 seconds (2017 frames) faster than m-eighty’s run. I originally planned to try to do this concurrently with my first Vectorman movie, however I lost motivation for TASing for a while and this got put on hold for 3 or 4 months. But I’m back, and here it is.
This movie was recorded using Gens version 9z, and while it suffered desynchs at times during recording, it was mostly due to shooting a specific block and having it break while I’m playing but not having it break upon playback of the movie. I think I’ve managed to get rid of all the past issues thankfully. I played this on the hardest level, which starts you out only having 3 health points to lose, however I do pick up an extra one in level three that allows me to be a little more liberal with where I take damage (always to save time).
The time saved comes mainly from optimization in all levels, although big gains came from levels 2 (2 seconds), 5 (2 seconds), 18 (3 seconds) and 22 (18 seconds). Overall m-eighty’s movie was pretty good, I only had three or four route changes throughout the movie, and spent most of my time with minor frame shaving for each level.
There are, I’m sure, areas for further optimization, though I’m not sure how much (3-4 total seconds would be a reasonable guess, barring any new major sequence break). I’m still not quite happy with the block climbing just before Shadownose, and I know that Shout and Twist can be done a little faster because I could not get the “random” wind gusts to cooperate at all, although it didn’t cost me too much time. However I’m pretty certain that level 3 is nearly flawless, due to the amount of time I put into it. I hated that level with a passion.
Some general info about the game:
  • Vectorman’s horizontal velocity will continually increase while he’s in the air, so I jump as much as possible (except on some levels). Also, I shoot up at a diagonal anytime I land. This is to preserve my horizontal velocity at 1024, otherwise I would slow down to roughly 860, and have to accelerate again until max speed was regained. Shooting in midair on the rollerblading levels also accomplishes the same thing.
  • I intentionally run into some enemies, but at no time does it slow me down. In level 8 I avoid jumping (which slows me down very slightly) by shooting and then colliding with enemies, most times replenishing my health while I do so (major luck manipulation). Also, I damage boost quite a bit in level 20, just because there’s so many damn enemies on that level (also requiring quite a bit of luck manip., just for my health level to stay up).
  • Turning around on level 19 doesn’t do anything except look funny (and it seemed to decrease the amount of airborne enemies that would spawn).
  • Most bosses lose 16 HPs with a perfectly placed jump boost. I think the only boss that I didn’t maximize this was Shadownose (his very first vulnerable time only allowed me 12 HPs no matter what I did), and the final boss who would only take 12 points off, at best.
Thanks to anyone who gave me advice or helped out, specifically Mike/ m-eighty, Upthorn, moozooh, and adelikat. Any other questions I’d be happy to answer in the discussion. Enjoy!
  • NOTE M-Eighty's movie terminated after pressing start to avoid the final score tally, mine terminates on the first possible frame where the movie continues to the game over screen. This will make my AVI slightly longer, the amount of in game time saved is 163 frames.

NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots of this movie and placed them here. I'm not sure I got the right ROM though. (I tried Vectorman 2 (U) [!].gen, which was the closest match to what you wrote.) Well, here goes! Feel free to clean up the list.
<Pics removed due to generally being too dark. I'll find some better frames>

Truncated: Accepted as an improvement to our current movie.

adelikat: Encoding.


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1697: mmbossman's Genesis Vectorman 2 in 09:01.57
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Been waiting a while for this one. I have no doubt it'll be awesome, but I suppose I'd better watch it just to be sure. EDIT: Just watched it, yeah it's awesome. Dreamsnake in particular is something I'd never have thought of. I assume most of the improvement comes from the final boss, I should post some sort of comparison of level times. One other thing though - in the rollerblading levels, is it as fast, or faster, when you're travelling uphill and are about to get to a straight section, to be a little above the ground and shoot to maintain velocity like you did, or to slow down for a couple of frames and stay "stuck" to the ground like I did?
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I'm watching this gmv right now, but before I finish I'm going to suggest that you go ahead and extend the gmv so it has the same termination point as the one you're obsoleting. This will serve to make the runs more directly comparable, and will prevent the faster movie's AVI from being longer than the slower one's.
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Mike- Don't have the numbers in front of me at the moment, but I saved around 960 frames in the first 21 levels, and slightly over 1000 on level 22. If I edit the movie to end when yours did, I'll have saved right around 900 for the final boss. As for the rollerblading levels, when possible I avoided jumping, but sometimes enemies in my way required me to, and at a couple places I'm not able to stay stuck because I fly up the slope just slightly. So unless there was one particular spot you were thinking of that I might have messed up on, there were reasons for each jump in those levels, since jumping does vary my velocity a little. Edited again cuz I can't read: I'm really not sure if slowing down for a few frames is faster, I seem to remember trying it (3 months ago), and I needed my speed to drop to like 800 to avoid the little trip into the air, which took a while to get back up to the 1524 that is the max speed for the rollerblades. But I could be very wrong, and there might be a few frames more to save in that level. Edit: Quoting the Rules: "The exact termination point is subject to debate. 1. Ending the movie as soon as possible (when no further input is needed to complete the game). * Pros: Shortest possible movies (as for frame count); easy to compare competing movies. Because this is the method I prefer to make my movies, I will not be editing it to create a shorter AVI. However, for comparison purposes, I will reiterate that letting the score tally saved me 163 frames by not pressing start to skip it. It also will create an AVI that is 424 frames (~7 seconds), longer than is theoretically needed, which will mean the AVI produced for this movie will be roughly 26.5 seconds faster than Mikes AVI. I assume this is enough information to compare the two movies, but if anything else is needed, ask.
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Very good and enjoyable run; yessing it.
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The screenshots taken by NESvideoagent were almost all dark and uninteresting, so here are some suggestions for more bright, action shots: 7330, 8353, 9030, 9315, 22893.
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upthorn
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mmbossman wrote:
The screenshots taken by NESvideoagent were almost all dark and uninteresting, so here are some suggestions for more bright, action shots: , , , , .
These?
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Thanks Upthorn, I wasn't quite sure how to do that, or even if I had the ability to without hosting them elsewhere. It's rather sad that those are the most bright shots, although I'm rather fond of number 4.
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Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [978] Genesis Vectorman 2 by mmbossman in 09:01.57
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