Joined: 9/12/2014
Posts: 541
Location: Waterford, MI
Hmm, looks like the nico vid is down on youtube link that was provided.
It was clearly made on worse tools than we have today, so this will be a remake of that. I cant believe the "longplay" on cubex55 is only like 25 minutes slower. My guess is loading time difference.
Im not restarting the run with the optimized route btw. Just want it done with.. which is gonna be a while because I have to work.. Ill set 30 minutes everyday for this.
Joined: 9/12/2014
Posts: 541
Location: Waterford, MI
Yeah, well Im currently past Andro centimun, and a death I felt was inevitable at a hairpin, where the only way around is to come to a near full stop. Using Alto beedo with upgrades to turning, cooling and such.
Ill post an encode tomorrow. Ill probably redo it as it looks pretty bad..
[Edit] Im restarting the run tomorrow to follow this:
Link to video
At least I have something to compare to.
That run uses a very outdated 100% route, using Bullseye all the way. I recommend looking at some more recent runs for that category (and don't be afraid to check out the PC runs).
Current project: Gex 3 any%
Paused: Gex 64 any%
There are no N64 emulators. Just SM64 emulators with hacky support for all the other games.
Joined: 9/12/2014
Posts: 541
Location: Waterford, MI
Restarting the run and following the guide, and I faced a problem already.. You cant seem to trade parts in to cut down price. Maybe its an emulation bug?
Does anyone know how to do this on n64? If its an emulator bug, Ill just have to wait. I can tas the pc version using pcem and libtas, but Ive had trouble compiling pcem and am waiting for bizhawk to port it.
Work will come to a halt now until a solution is found.
Joined: 9/12/2014
Posts: 541
Location: Waterford, MI
Sorry for the late response, but trade in values are different on n64 then pc. I was following the pc speedrun, and the trade value didnt match the n64 version.
Again, pcem CAN be tased, which means I can tas the pc version, but Ive had trouble with that so Im waiting for it to be ported to bizhawk.
I'm sorry, but I don't really understand what is supposed to be different between versions here. You should join our Discord server, it's a nice community and I'm sure we can help you: https://discord.gg/c8P9dA
Current project: Gex 3 any%
Paused: Gex 64 any%
There are no N64 emulators. Just SM64 emulators with hacky support for all the other games.
Joined: 9/12/2014
Posts: 541
Location: Waterford, MI
I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I've now lost interest in this project due to learning about how to use lua scripts in bizhawk. Moving on to a different project.
I'm just gonna wait until PCem is ported to bizhawk so I can run the pc version. And thats a promise.
Joined: 9/12/2014
Posts: 541
Location: Waterford, MI
I'll be restarting the run using Anakin only. Really glad I found the junkyard trading.
At least it will look tased. Reason being for Anakin only is because of his turning is great. Which really cut my motivation before.
Joined: 9/12/2014
Posts: 541
Location: Waterford, MI
The world record for any% looks so optimized that a tas wouldnt make much of a difference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6aGab9jhgc
Yeah, thats one of the reasons why people keep changing their mind about what to tas lol
Joined: 11/21/2019
Posts: 247
Location: Washington
I was surprised that there wasn't a TAS for this game and decided to play around with the game to see what I could do. Exactly like InfamousKnight said though, it's pretty disheartening right away to build and compare a single lap on Executioner for an any% run against the ace's world record.
I've tried mimicking his exact movements to no avail - I actually get worse times than he does the closer I try to make it. So I've done my own movement and vascilate between maybe 1 second ahead of him, to less than a few milliseconds. Either ace's movement is so optimized and excellent that a TAS really just doesn't have a lot of room for improvement, or I am seriously bad at this game to the point that I can't figure out why I'm slower.
Maybe someone who's better aquainted with this game can chime in on what might be going on here? I know from conversations on the SWE1R discord that the N64 is traditionally handicapped compared to the PC version (that ace is playing on) due to two main factors: the N64 version runs at 24 fps which affects traction, and the N64's analog stick is restricted to a circular gate, meaning cornering while holding a boost is much harder. The second reason is a moot point (as far as I can tell) for an emulator though since the analog range is totally unlocked. I'm not sure if the first reason factors into the problems.
I'd like to note that while I can only just barely stay ahead of ace's WR run, I'm able to stay ahead of Hyuudoro's N64 WR more consistently, though I'm only 1 second ahead of his lap time (I think due staging boosts at different times).
Link to video
This is looking quite good, you seem to have looked into the route and watched the right runs. I'd still recommend to get in touch with the community to make sure you are using the very best route possible, people like Ace know more than I do. You want to go for the most optimal pods on each track, since a TAS doesn't have to worry about consistency, use any skip available and get perfect boost patterns.
Now for the movement, this is the main advantage of the PC version. On PC, you can use separate buttons/keys for nose up and charging the boost, while all the console releases (including the newest ones on Switch/PS4) just combine these two functions. If you have TAS movement you can obviously reduce this massive disadvantage, but you can not always expect to match the top PC times. Hyuu's N64 runs are very strong and you should be aware that he uses a Hori pad to somewhat negate the boosting issue, but in a TAS, beating them is absolutely required.
Being able to choose a framerate is another PC advantage. If you were to play the PC version without an external software to change your framerate, you'd get an uncapped framerate based on your hardware, which would be very broken in a 21 year old game designed to run on Windows 98. For that reason, the community forces PC runners to set the framerate between 24 and 60. There is no single optimal framerate in this game, it depends on the track and the situation, but 24 like on N64 is actually quite good in most cases. The mian advantage it offers is during sliding, one of the most important movement techniques.
I really hope you continue this TAS, feel free to ask me and the community any questions, we'd love to see a TAS!
Current project: Gex 3 any%
Paused: Gex 64 any%
There are no N64 emulators. Just SM64 emulators with hacky support for all the other games.
Joined: 11/21/2019
Posts: 247
Location: Washington
It has been 6 months and 7 days since I last posted in this thread and I am happy to report that the any% TAS for this game has been completed! It's been a long journey and it changed from an exploratory TAS I did to see if there was interest to a team project with the SWE1:R speedrunning community.
Lots and lots and lots of RNG was manipulated and lots of lines were optimized in the making and I made it just shy of one of the milestone times of 30:XX for an any% run. The run will be submitted in some days time as I work on the submission notes since there's a lot to say!
New TASes by goofbrush, an attempt at the famous Abyss skip and a demonstration of a newly discovered skip on Dethro's Revenge.
Link to videoLink to video
Since Dethro's is part of any%, the skip could have potential as an improvement to the published run. But as of now, the skip has not yet been proven to work under any% conditions (Mawhonic with only the upgrades available in the run).
Current project: Gex 3 any%
Paused: Gex 64 any%
There are no N64 emulators. Just SM64 emulators with hacky support for all the other games.
Joined: 11/21/2019
Posts: 247
Location: Washington
That new Dethro's skip is just something else, wow. I remember in my TAS that I had to conserve boost near the end of the lap for the straighter sections coming up, but without that conservation of boost maybe Mawhonic has the necessary speed.
If someone in the community has a laptop with Intel UHD graphics (sync requirement), they should be able to use my movie file to experiment with this. It's not in the cards for me right to try unfortunately.
