Posts for Xander

Xander
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Location: Canada
This is an interesting idea but I don't think your exact functionality is currently possible. Lua only has access to reading RAM, not controller inputs. So thus far, when I have wanted the A button to trigger something in lua, I found a flag for the A button being pressed in RAM and used that (but this would overlap with whatever the A button is intended to do in that specific game). You would need a controller hotkey that calls some lua function. I'll try and look into this eventually when I get some free time. As a side note for deleting the savestates: I think you can keep a set of say 10 savestates and overwrite the oldest every time instead of deleting them as time goes on.
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Xander
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Location: Canada
When the wiimote is not moving (no additional forces acting on it), it should measure an acceleration of 9.8m/s/s "up" (opposing gravity). The value 512 is a net acceleration of 0 along any given axis. So, X: 512, Y: 512, Z: 616, would have a measured acceleration of 104 units in the Z+ direction. This would be laying flat, as seen in this diagram (which shows the accelerometer axes): Arguably, the wiimote is "inactive" so long as it's not moving, meaning the magnitude of the acceleration is approximately 98 (assuming 1 unit is about 10cm/s/s). i.e. sqrt((x-512)^2 + (y-512)^2 + (z-512)^2) ≈ 98. Note that I've seen my real wiimote measure anywhere from 90 to 100 units while completely still so the error on the equality is very rough.
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Xander
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Location: Canada
I am signing up The Galaxy Brains - BillyWAR - PurpleSun - Shadow64 - Xander (confirmation will be sent on Discord)
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Xander
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One of my favourite games. One of my favourite TASes. Absolutely incredible work. I especially loved the wall clips since I wasn't expecting to see that in Brawl
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Xander
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Location: Canada
Ramzi wrote:
I'm conversing and asking questions. You say "arguing" as if it were a hostile activity, but I'm merely trying to collaborate.
Arguments do not have to be hostile. We are supporting claims with evidence and you are disregarding them. We are trying to help you understand the situation and collaborate as well.
Ramzi wrote:
Do you think things like the bottle glitch in Ocarina of Time, door warping in GoldenEye, fast pauses in GoldenEye, screen warping in the 2D Zeldas, or sliding through walls in the Super Mario Bros. 1 and 3 could have been anticipated through code alone, even if the original source code was available?
Quite frankly, yes. I think that is the general consensus from everyone except you. This is what we are trying to explain but you keep waving it off by saying "but how can you know?" As a programmer you should understand that you can look at code and walk through it to see errors / unintended side effects. I appreciate the enthusiasm for this, and by all means try what you're trying for fun, but do not expect it to work. Here's some info that might be of use: Mario can face 65536 angles, high and low magnitudes will make a difference. This is a miniscule amount of info compared to what is available on Discord.
Ramzi wrote:
Can you explain this a bit more? What causes the softlock, and why would an upwarp be the mechanism to fix it? And does that method of softlocking occur in vanilla, even if a level editor was used to create a custom environment to allow it?
The video you linked is on a ROM Hack. The creator of that ROM Hack programmed it so that if you get stuck in a squish it will teleport Mario up to get him out of the softlock. This will never happen in the vanilla game.
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Xander
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Controller inputs don't cause bit flips. The people who decompiled the game would've known that a long time ago if they saw any possibility for it in the code. If someone were to brute force every combination of inputs that lasts 9 seconds and prove me wrong I would be very impressed.
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Xander
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Location: Canada
Ramzi wrote:
This video shows the upwarp without a hanging ceiling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV1dzNzRYkU
That video is done on a ROM Hack which has extra anti-softlock code. It is unrelated. The pannenkoek video didn't aim to replicate it frame by frame but to demonstrate what would need to happen in order for the upwarp to occur - it shows that Mario didn't warp to the ceiling but a bit in Mario's height appears to have flipped. No sequence of inputs alone is going to cause that to happen. A lot of people have looked at this in depth, if you want to talk with any of those people I suggest joining the SM64 TASing discord server https://discord.gg/ECskvyF
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Xander
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Getting this game on TASVids is getting me hype for Any% too, just gotta get to work ;) I would like to clarify that when I say "this is the only known crash in Super Mario Galaxy," it's the only known replicable crash. There was one at the end of loopdeeloop and one in loopdeeswoop. The second one is interesting because it has the same conditions (should be doing the spin animation because of the sling star) but it's been done successfully on console multiple times. I already know the major issues with this run:
    1. The cutscenes are super long for such a (relatively) short run 2. It branches off from Any% at loopdeeloop
But what do you guys think: does it slow it down too much, or does the fast paced gameplay, and ultra janky out of bounds make up for it? And I want to add that there's a known setup for the Fastest Softlock at the end of the first level. If I were to submit something like that would the same issues be too problematic for a run like that? I didn't include too much in the submission text because this run is mainly about the crash. If you have any questions about tricks like midairs or IBFs feel free to ask. There's a lot of small movement tech that can go unnoticed by people who haven't had any speedrunning experience with the game. Hope you guys enjoyed :D
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Xander
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nburgin wrote:
I looked at the playlist, and I just want to say I'm really impressed with how you handled the Star Bunnies on Gateway. Also, the whole thing looks great. I'm sure it's going to make a splash when it's finally complete.
Thank you! No level will be a surprise since I'll upload them all before hand, but it should still make a splash as you put it (I hope) :P Also, the japanese TASer uploaded a part 3 not too long ago. I feel like that's worth noting in this thread: Link to video
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Post subject: Progress Update
Xander
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Hey! It's been a while since my last post so I figured it was about time for an update! I recently finished Surfing 101 with a brand new ridiculous skip which you can find right here: Link to video I originally hoped to be out of the terrace by the end of my summer break but that didn't happen because I put time into some explanation videos for Loopdeeloop (which i recommend checking out in the description of that video). The new goal is be out of the terrace by the end of the year which should be feasible (I work super slowly if you couldn't tell). Since loop is done that means I have all the levels leading up to it completed as well which includes Honeyhive 1, 2, and 3 which you can find in the playlist I linked to in a previous post. I also uploaded my current WIP DTM to the userfiles if anyone is curious: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/49310736434472168 Also, if you want to know the route I will be using, you can get the splits for it here: https://www.speedrun.com/smgalaxy/resources It's labelled Any% No Toy Time Route by me (Xander). It's a bit complicated and I plan to do a writeup as to why this is the fastest route but I dont have that right now so just trust me.
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Post subject: Re: Updated important information for TASing with Dolphin
Xander
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Location: Canada
JosJuice wrote:
If the game doesn't use bounding box or some other GPU readback feature like EFB copies to RAM or EFB access from CPU (Super Mario Sunshine says hi), you can use whatever hardware, backend and enhancements you want without worrying about desyncs.
How can you tell if a game uses one of those features?
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Post subject: Re: Path settings & .lua file & .dtm editing is possible?
Xander
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Soig wrote:
3. .dtm editing: I've seen that GC's movie could be edited. How about making a tool which can change .dtm to .txt?(Of course it can also change .txt to .dtm) So that I can edit wii's movie. That must be useful very well.
This is what my last post was about. I've been working with a bunch of people and so far we've modded Dolphin 5.0 to spit out the input display to "D:/inputs.txt" (if you don't have a D drive you can use a USB). We are currently trying to get those inputs back in so we can go from .txt to .dtm. My modded version of Dolphin: https://mega.nz/#F!9Gg31Jya!j8Y1VO43l8bTyF3-iMiooQ Side note it's a debug build so it runs slower. Code can be found here: https://github.com/dolphin-emu/dolphin/tree/5.0
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Post subject: Hex Editing DTMs?
Xander
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Location: Canada
I am wondering how I can hex edit DTMs to string together ILs. Many people have linked me to the DTM page here on tasvideos and sonicpacker's tutorial for hex editing m64s which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC7kPZ0Kwds I'm guessing the main difference between DTMs and m64s is the header size/how much the inputs need to be offset (when sp adds 1024 when calculating where the frame is in hex)(?). I've tried copying inputs this way and even when I should end up with some garbage input, it changes absolutely nothing; what I had originally still plays. It may be important to note that I'm working with 2 wiimotes, the first having a nunchuck extension. If anyone knows how to do this help would be very much appreciated, Thanks in advance.
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Xander
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Location: Canada
CoolKirby wrote:
Very nicely done! The skips in Good Egg 1 were particularly cool. Looking forward to more of your work!
Thank you! I have good egg 2 out now, except it seems improvable so I'm going back to make it even faster ;) Here's a link to the playlist im uploading these to: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX-UHl4lUQzuLyU9SC6AolZW4odODr5Wf I'll probably only post here when I hit landmarks like maybe 5 or 10 stars so I don't spam.
OmnipotentEntity wrote:
There's an easy way to determine if it's needed. Go through an RTA run and count the number of star bits available for pickup (or easily obtainable) outside of the normal grinding segments. This will take only a few hours, and as mentioned it will save you a hell of a lot of time. With any luck, there will be a clear surplus, and you don't have to worry about routing star bits too much. There are clearly a massive number of star bits available, and this is the most likely option (you collected over 100 without stopping on the first star.) But this way you can confirm it.
Easier said then done, the world record for 120 is just over 6 hours. The situation on starbits is a bit complicated to explain but regardless I won't be doing 120. I might to something like that for this any% though to find out which stars it's worth getting starbits in because the notification at the end of the level will cost frames if you have more than 18 starbits (credits to yoshifan for this information)
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Xander
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itsPersonnal wrote:
Ouu this is exciting. Good luck making smooth progress throughout the rest of the game. I'm looking forward to seeing more!
Thank you, I'm super excited too! After reading through this thread there's a couple things I should say: I originally planned to do a 120 star TAS except I just didnt want to have to deal with estimating starbit collection. There are 2 points in an rta run where you have to stop and grind to 999 starbits except it is possible that in a TAS you might not have to. That's only a maybe and if I ran the risk of not grinding and i get to the end and it turns out I did need to grind, I would have to redo most of the TAS. As for the route I'm still uncertian and it's hard to judge whats the fastest, but most paths split off from eachother about 9 stars in so there's still some time to decide and I'll be discussing this with the SMG community. Just for reference to do a 2p mid air jump optimally, shake P1's controller for 3 frames, press Z on the 4th, then on the 5th frame press A with P2 while pointing at mario. You do not need to press A with both P1 and P2 at the same time to get the jump, only P2. How long you have to shake the controller seems slightly inconsistent but generally its for 3 frames sometimes its 4. I believe there's a 6 frame window to press Z to still get the mid air jump. For a grounded 2p jump P1 needs to press A then P2 needs to press A the frame after, not actually at the same time. And for IL timing I use the rta timing which starts on the A press to select the star and ends the frame you no longer see movement/have touched the star.
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Post subject: ENG Any% WIP
Xander
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Location: Canada
Hello hello everyone! I'm working on an Any% TAS which is faster than the Japanese one above. I'm a speedrunner of this game and with the help of the SMG community I'm making sure to have the absolute optimal strats. I've only finished 2 stars so far and here they are: Link to video Link to video
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer
Post subject: Super Mario GalaxyAny% WIP 2.0
Xander
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Location: Canada
Game: Super Mario Galaxy Console: Wii Author: Xander (Me) [Neural Pathway, Obnoxious1o1, TheMilkGirl47 & Cayleo have & will be helping out] Progress: 2 Stars out of 61 Rerecords so far: 5'236 Link to video Link to video
Super Mario Galaxy/64 TASer