Link to video
132 frames saved on this segment over my previous WIP. 960 frames were saved by redoing the previous two segments. I'm now 8543 frames ahead of my original rough draft.
Now to never see the next segment get finished because I'm close to getting another sequence break to work in that segment but at the same time I haven't made much headway on it recently.
I never got that one potential sequence break to work so instead have this Arcterra Second Visit with a bunch of smaller new sequence breaks instead:
Link to video
This takes advantage of a newly found clip type called the reflex angle clip that allowed me to pass through those force fields where they intersect. This and another out of bounds results in a route change where I delay collecting the fault line artifact until last. As such I had to estimate how much time it took for me to collect it and take it into account when determining how far ahead I am.
I estimate I am 9764 frames ahead of the rough draft.
I'm looking forward to the next segment, VDO which has a ton of newer stuff.
VDO WIP 2:
Link to video
I saved about 1018 frames on this segment. Not sure where I am at total due to the route change in Arcterra.
Cretaphid 2 is the most complicated Cretaphid to TAS due to the target color behavior not being as nice as the others. In the last phase not all targets at the same height change colors at the same time meaning I was unable to destroy all targets at the same height with bombs at once. Instead I did it with two sets of bombs.
The door started to close back up when I grabbed the health, but firing another shot kept it open.
Well the main point of the game is to collect the 8 Octoliths (2 per planet) each obtained by defeating a boss and then use them at the Alimbic Cannon on Alinos then go to Oubliette and defeat Gorea. To get to the Octoliths you need to collect the 3 artifacts corresponding to the stronghold portal that leads to a boss.
I only have half the Octoliths, but a significant fraction of the artifacts (2/3 for most planets, 1/3 for the last Arcterra Octolith) needed to get the remaining Octoliths, meaning that the remaining visits will be short for the most part. So maybe a third of the game or so.
I'm not sure how to go about adding subtitles but I guess I could do that.
VDO is complete:
Link to video
8994 frames saved on VDO, after the next segment, the rough draft and my final draft will converge and I can do direct comparisons again.
Slench 4 took a long while to do, it's easily the hardest slench to optimize and I also have to be entertaining during the "figure 8's" as I call them.
There's some sort of subtitle format that contains timestamps and corresponding subtitles. You can send it to an encoder to have softsubs or hardsubs added on an encode (in this case you'd probably want "soft subtitles" that the user can turn off), and I think you can add it as subtitles to YouTube as well. I'd suggest contacting an encoder and asking them what sort of format they want subtitles in.
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Beautiful looking wip as always MG2. Have you ever considered working on Metroid Prime? I think it would be nice to see either you working alone or collaborating with ItsPersonnal since you obviously have done great progress with this game and if anyone can quickly adapt to Metroid Prime's mechanics, it's definitely you.
Funny thing is that what actually happened was the other way around: I was more familiar with the console primes than I was Hunters until I started research back in January. Using some of the same principles as sequence breaks in some of the other primes, yet acknowledging the differences helped me come up with some solutions that the Hunters RTA community wouldn't have thought of... especially when it comes to traveling between rooms while out of bounds.
Currently I have my doubts about my computer being able to run dolphin well, and even if it could, I wouldn't want the console Primes to be my first TAS with it, especially not prime 1. I'd probably want to tackle prime 2 first because it's my favorite prime. I keep up with developments with the games though.
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
It would be a dream come true if you'd work on Prime 2 :P Please give it a shot and see how your computer handles running Dolphin. Speaking of which, as you probably are well aware of, it has come a long way since 4.0.2 but enough of being off topic, looking forward to future progress.
I have 6/8 Octoliths which are needed to unlock the final area (which is pretty short) and the final boss. The visits required to collect the remaining Octoliths aren't very long either so I'm very close to the end.
Also something I forgot to mention: that battlehammer shot where I hit myself was needed to avoid having an encounter with another hunter/guardians in the next room, and that is one of the rooms where the doors lock if there is an encounter.
Alinos 3 WIP 1
Link to video
20939 frames ahead total (and more health which saves time later).
I figured since I have been slow about TASing lately that I'd upload what I have done for the third trip to Alinos so far.
Skipping the step without using missiles is actually pretty tricky and requires some clever usage of slopes to maintain vertical speed.
Dann found a new clip:
Link to video
Allows you to skip the guardian fight in Sanctorus. Probably saves a few seconds.
I'm not redoing the TAS yet, I want to work on other games first.
EDIT: And then Dann found a way to do VDO 1-Trip on console.
Link to video
This clip should also be faster for TAS, the window clip isn't exactly the fastest thing in the world.