Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
I've looked over a number of our pages:
http://tasvideos.org/WhyAndHow.htmlhttp://tasvideos.org/FAQ.htmlhttp://tasvideos.org/Helping.htmlhttp://tasvideos.org/GenericTips.htmlhttp://tasvideos.org/CommonTricks.html
Nothing here actually tells an uneducated person how to make a TAS movie.
A new user who only knows some video games he played on his N64 or something comes here for the first time, watches a video or two, and thinks he wants to do the same thing for another game he has. But he has no idea where to start.
We need a "Creating" page. Can editors please work on this?
I'm thinking we start off by briefly explaining what emulators are, and how our emulators provide special features for TASing. Then with careful planning one can record themselves playing these games, using these special features, being mindful of our tricks and rules.
We don't need a full A-Z on a single page, but we need something more coherent than random assortment of links, none of which give a full picture.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
This would best be called "New Players' Guide" or "Newbies' Guide" or "Starting Out" or something equally intuitive.
If we were particularly ambitious, we could select a game and derive a full tutorial from it, but I suspect that's overkill.
Joined: 11/4/2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Australia, Victoria
I think the main problem with guides is that they don't give human interaction to solve questions that may be unexpected and therefor unanswerable in a guide.
May I suggest perhaps a list of people that may be able to volunteer to help new people?
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
Flygon wrote:
I think the main problem with guides is that they don't give human interaction to solve questions that may be unexpected and therefor unanswerable in a guide.
That's what The Newbie Corner is for, and that should be prominently linked in this guide/tutorial/whatever (possibly during the introduction: "If you have questions and/or would like help with the process, visit The Newbie Corner in our forums...")
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
I think you're both missing the point. We don't need a real demonstration, or mentors. We need something which really explains what TASs are in a friendly "this is amazing" and a "you can do it too" fashion, with some pointers on how to get started.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Actually in the guide on Getting Started with TAS, I think it is relevant to show a full game TASed. Something small and easy to TAS.
You start to define the emulator, the tools in it. What is a TAS, what are the standards of the sites. Where you should post, and a link to a video tutorial. I guess someone could make a small Super Mario Bros 1 TAS that doesn't need to be fully optimised, but should show some trick, and some neat technique.
It should be easy so that a new user could do the same TAS from the videos. And then from there, they can start learning how to TAS harder games but the basic will be covered.
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
I have started to create a page entitled TAS How To. Since I am not the most experienced TASer by a long shot, I would value input greatly from those that have been doing this a lot longer than I have.
...should resemble playing the game at the actual console.
*on the actual console.
It is also noteworthy to point out that one should start with a game that one is familiar with.
Also, wouldn't video tutorials with audio commentary be a good idea? Personally, I have an easier time watching someone do something than just reading how it is done.
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
Kriole wrote:
TAS How To wrote:
...should resemble playing the game at the actual console.
*on the actual console.
Fixed...
Kriole wrote:
It is also noteworthy to point out that one should start with a game that one is familiar with.
...and added. I'm hoping that other editors will be willing to clean up the content so that I don't have to make every change.
Kriole wrote:
Also, wouldn't video tutorials with audio commentary be a good idea? Personally, I have an easier time watching someone do something than just reading how it is done.
It would be a good idea; leaving people with nothing in the absence of such a tutorial is not desirable, however.
Also, wouldn't video tutorials with audio commentary be a good idea? Personally, I have an easier time watching someone do something than just reading how it is done.
.
It would be a good idea; leaving people with nothing in the absence of such a tutorial is not desirable, however.
Must peoples that keep over looking the "getting started" section are'nt necessary familiar with english, but if there a way to have embedded substile support in japan/deutch/spanish with user-friendly interface for switching between languages... this should be a neat idea. Just need translator I suppose.
ZeXr0 wrote:
I guess someone could make a small Super Mario Bros 1 TAS that doesn't need to be fully optimised, but should show some trick, and some neat technique.
This is the tricky part. If your talking about trick like pass thought wall/brick, double jump on regular wall or the flag glitch, this is going to impress the viewer for sure but after he might been unable to repeat this himself, since it require to have quite a good knowledge about how the memory viewer works. I feel like simply slowing down the emulator at 25, 10%, 5% without frame-by-frame is enough for a beginner that just want to play around and have some quick action and fun.
Of course, after there might be some intermediate-level Tuto-TAS videos explaining about important concepts like memory search and basic glitch from classical game..etc.
Now talking about it, how basic does the tutorial should be? An ambiguous step-by-step from scratch with someone downloading the emulator, downloading closed-source plugins/games from different sites, then doing the minimal configuration sound rather bad must time. Althought this is *the place* where must new comer are getting stuck.
