Posted: 6/21/2012 9:32 PM
Post subject: Emulator netplay for multi-author runs and research
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scrimpeh
Editor, Skilled player (1441)
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Sincerest Apologies if such a topic already exists, but I have not found one like it. We've seen our fair share of multi-author runs and TASers livestreaming their work, for the sake of insight or entertainment (...I guess there are people who like to watch others TAS), but such an approach has got several downfalls. I imagine that a lot of effort could be saved by integrating netplay properly into rr-emulators, with one or more people being able to witness live TASing. Not only would it save a lot of processing power and bandwidth, but it woud allow people to see the emulator window without the quality loss (and potentially less delay) of a livestream video. Most of all, however, it would allow watchers to participate in the making of the TAS and research of the game, by, for example, monitoring RAM Addresses, handling Lua scripts or maintaining spreadsheets and other ancilliary files independently from the TASer. Additionally, game control could be passed between players, allowing them to quickly and easily switch roles. Implementing such a feature would likely also include the functionality of sending savestates and movie files on the fly between TASers. I don't know just how much effort it would be to create such a functionality, but I assume that it's going to make co-author runs a lot easier and a lot more involved. What do you guys think? Tl;dr - Rerecording emulators with netplay support. Y/n?
Posted: 6/21/2012 9:35 PM
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Noxxa
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Sounds like a cool idea. The questions I have though, are how feasible all this is, how much work it would require, and whether all that work would be worth it. It seems like it would be a lot of work for a cool option, which probably wouldn't even be used all that often.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Posted: 6/22/2012 3:50 AM
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ais523
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Joined: 7/11/2010
Posts: 1029
dwangoAC and I already do this with nethack-tas-tools (to the point where occasionally we both end up sending input to the game at once), but we have the advantage there that the TASing tools are all text-based so we can use stock terminal multiplexers for that. Is there some sort of "multiplayer VPN" that could be used to achieve something similar with emulators? I guess on Linux, you could perhaps do it with some sort of multiplexed X forwarding, but that option isn't available on Windows.
Posted: 6/22/2012 4:01 AM
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feos
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Is saving a state on one computer gonna save this state on another computer too? This gives instead of 20 slots only 10 for both.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Posted: 7/16/2012 6:03 AM
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Dacicus
Editor, Player (69)
Joined: 6/22/2005
Posts: 1050
Xkeeper was working on implementing netplay for emulators via Lua. I don't know what the latest status is, since he was banned from this site, but he has some sample videos on YouTube.
Current Projects: TAS: Wizards & Warriors III.
Posted: 7/16/2012 1:55 PM
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BigBoct
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I remember in ZSNES netplay, loading a state on one computer would automatically send it to the other computer and load it there too.
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Posted: 7/17/2012 6:42 AM
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Warp
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Posts: 7698
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feos wrote:
This gives instead of 20 slots only 10 for both.
Why must there be a limited number of savestate slots anyways?