I've been trying to record input files for Goldeneye: 007 Wii and they sync up perfectly on my own computer, but not on anybody else's. What are some things that I can do to make sure my work doesn't desync on other people's computers? I'm aware that Wii remote motion can cause desyncs but this game has full gamecube controller support, which i'm taking advantage of while TASing.
I'm using Dolphin 4.0-9440. If there is a better version of dolphin that doesn't desync as often, let me know.
Are all Wiimotes set to None, so that they won't interfere?
Yes they are set to none. The only input i'm using is my Gamecube controller adapter. When doing the full TAS i will be using a standard controller with the TAS input but right now i'm just recording my inputs in real time with savestates. I've heard that savestates can cause desyncs in Wii games but i don't know how to prevent that from happening. I've also started testing on Dolphin 4.0-9450, which is the latest development version.
My favorite version of dolphin to use is 4.0-8965 but for some reason "Start Recording Input" doesn't seem to do anything. This is the same for 4.0-8246. "Play input recording" works as expected.
I'm certain my settings are correct for TASing. I have Dual Core and Idle skipping off, no cheats, JIT recompiler, DSP LLE recompiler, no gamecube memory cards inserted (although i don't think that matters for wii games), and everything on the Wii tab is turned off. To my knowledge, none of the graphics settings affect TASing but please let me know if they do.
EDIT: I started an input recording on 4.0-9450 and TASed a small portion of the game. The menus, the opening cutscene, and the first 20 seconds of real gameplay. I made sure to use lots of savestates as well as frame advance. I was still using the gamecube controller adapter. I did not get any desyncs even though i used more savestates than i did before. I'm not sure if the Dolphin version made a difference or maybe i just got lucky. Assuming the rest of the game is stable, the TAS should begin soon.
Have you tried posting the config file and input file here? Maybe if they follow the same settings it would work?
Well i'm playing back the same .dtm on multiple computers and it only seems to work on the computer i recorded on. Other people i've talked to seem to be having the same issue. Check my edit in my previous post. I downloaded the latest dev version and the first part of the game syncs up just fine. I will make a rough TAS of the first level just to make sure it syncs up.
Okay, i think i found the problem. Using the newer dolphin version definitely made a difference. I just did a playthrough of the first level with lots of savestates and frame advance and it synced up perfectly on both of my computers. I'm going to send the .dtm to some other people and see if it works for them as well.
The more recent Dolphin version really helped out. I made two .dtm's that synced up on 4.0-9540 but i made 5 that didn't sync up on 4.0-9440. I'm not sure what they could have changed between those versions but it doesn't really matter to me as long as it works.
Okay, i think i found the problem. Using the newer dolphin version definitely made a difference. I just did a playthrough of the first level with lots of savestates and frame advance and it synced up perfectly on both of my computers. I'm going to send the .dtm to some other people and see if it works for them as well.
The more recent Dolphin version really helped out. I made two .dtm's that synced up on 4.0-9540 but i made 5 that didn't sync up on 4.0-9440. I'm not sure what they could have changed between those versions but it doesn't really matter to me as long as it works.
There have been no changes between 4.0-9440 and 4.0-9450 that can affect this. The only changes are to the readme file (which isn't even shipped with development builds), the installer (which isn't shipped with development builds either), and the default INIs for a few games that aren't GoldenEye 007. The reason must be something else, or maybe you just got lucky.
Okay, i think i found the problem. Using the newer dolphin version definitely made a difference. I just did a playthrough of the first level with lots of savestates and frame advance and it synced up perfectly on both of my computers. I'm going to send the .dtm to some other people and see if it works for them as well.
The more recent Dolphin version really helped out. I made two .dtm's that synced up on 4.0-9540 but i made 5 that didn't sync up on 4.0-9440. I'm not sure what they could have changed between those versions but it doesn't really matter to me as long as it works.
There have been no changes between 4.0-9440 and 4.0-9450 that can affect this. The only changes are to the readme file (which isn't even shipped with development builds), the installer (which isn't shipped with development builds either), and the default INIs for a few games that aren't GoldenEye 007. The reason must be something else, or maybe you just got lucky.
I'm not sure what i've been doing differently. I saw a post from JMC47 in this part of the forum and he said doing something wrong with savestates can cause desyncs. He didn't go into too much detail so i'm not sure what to avoid when making a full TAS.
So for the past few days i've been trying to get a full playthrough .dtm for Goldeneye and i've been having a lot of problems with it. It keeps desyncing at random points in the game for no apparent reason.
I've gotten a few people to play back the .dtm's on their computers and one person told me it desynced at the end of a certain level. So i re-played the rest of the game from that point. Then for no apparent reason, it desynced at an earlier point in the game.
Then i played the movie back on my other computer and it desyncs at different places. So the full playthrough .dtm will only sync on the computer it was made on and it desyncs at random places on all other computers.
Is there a good guide to Wii TASing that shows all the proper settings to use? I'm wondering if it's some setting that i've changed that's causing all this to happen.
Wait. Different places on the same computer? Does it always desync now? If so, and at the same time its always a different place, maybe it help if you posted the dtm here or the dolphin forums so a dev can check out?
Is it okay if I post a dropbox link to the .dtm? Or is there somewhere i can upload it to on this site?
It syncs up perfectly fine on my own computer, but desyncs on every other computer it's been tested on. even weirder is that it desyncs in different places. For one guy it desynced at 270,000 frames and on another computer it desynced at around 400,000.
edit: i should be more clear about what's going on. I sent the .dtm to two people to test on their computers. One person told me it desynced at 270k frames in. the other person has yet to respond to me. I tested the .dtm on my laptop (which is not the computer the .dtm was made on) and it did not desync at that point. instead it desynced much later in the run at around 400k frames in. My question is, why does this happen and is there a way to prevent it? So far it only syncs up on the computer it was made on and nowhere else.
Any link's fine. There's a host here for this site, but other 3rd party sites works fine as well. If it always works fine on your computer, but not on others, was there any setting that you changed from default?
Any link's fine. There's a host here for this site, but other 3rd party sites works fine as well. If it always works fine on your computer, but not on others, was there any setting that you changed from default?
I'm going to try to make a complete .dtm again on Dolphin 5.0 with default settings (except dual core and idle skipping will be off). I'll edit this post when i can confirm if it syncs or not.
I assume using the official gamecube controller adapter for Wii U won't cause desyncs? Please let me know if it does.
EDIT: I made another test TAS on Dolphin 5.0 with default settings, except i have dual core and idle skipping turned off as well as DSP LLE recompiler checked. The playthrough got really far into the game but unfortunately desynced again in Jungle, which is almost at the end of the game. I will replay the rest of the game from that level and see if i can fix this issue. I'll post here again when that is done.
So i replayed the rest of the game before the desync happened and unfortunately it happens again in the same place. the Xenia fight in Jungle is as far as the game can get from what I can tell. I will keep trying to figure out the problem but I won't post anything else here until it gets solved.
Okay, this is the last post i'm going to make here, because i finally found the issue!
The problem was the Gamecube controller adapter. On my main computer i was using that to record my test .dtm files. On my laptop i had "standard controller" selected and it would desync at seemingly random places every time. So i plug my gamecube controller adapter into my laptop and it syncs! So for anybody else out there that has problems with desyncing, make sure your controller input is set to the same thing on all computers. For the full TAS i will use standard controller with the TAS input so it should sync on everybody's computer as long as they use the same settings as i did.
Okay, this is the last post i'm going to make here, because i finally found the issue!
The problem was the Gamecube controller adapter. On my main computer i was using that to record my test .dtm files. On my laptop i had "standard controller" selected and it would desync at seemingly random places every time. So i plug my gamecube controller adapter into my laptop and it syncs! So for anybody else out there that has problems with desyncing, make sure your controller input is set to the same thing on all computers. For the full TAS i will use standard controller with the TAS input so it should sync on everybody's computer as long as they use the same settings as i did.
That sounds like a bug (either the desync, or this option not saved onto file). Please try reporting it to the dolphin issue tracker:
https://bugs.dolphin-emu.org/
But hey, nice you finally found the reason why. Hope it actually does fixes it.
Okay, this is the last post i'm going to make here, because i finally found the issue!
The problem was the Gamecube controller adapter. On my main computer i was using that to record my test .dtm files. On my laptop i had "standard controller" selected and it would desync at seemingly random places every time. So i plug my gamecube controller adapter into my laptop and it syncs! So for anybody else out there that has problems with desyncing, make sure your controller input is set to the same thing on all computers. For the full TAS i will use standard controller with the TAS input so it should sync on everybody's computer as long as they use the same settings as i did.
That sounds like a bug (either the desync, or this option not saved onto file). Please try reporting it to the dolphin issue tracker:
https://bugs.dolphin-emu.org/
But hey, nice you finally found the reason why. Hope it actually does fixes it.
I am playing back the entire movie on my laptop just to make sure it syncs completely. I started from a savestate before since it takes about 6 hours to watch the whole .dtm. Hopefully it actually syncs up and it wasn't just because of the savestate. Either way, it's proof that this game can sync up properly. I believe it was my fault it didn't sync up, not the game. I will still report the bug so maybe that'll be fixed in the future.
