This movie is another weird case we don't have a solution for, and I have doubts a proper solution is possible.
If the game allowed changing framerate on the fly like HalfLife does via its console (which considered an intended tool for normal play), then it'd be perfectly acceptable. If unthrottled framerate was available with VSync off like in some other games, then it could be argued that the host can be configured in a way that makes this specific high framerate technically possible as it normally fluctuates.
But for techniques only available by introducing external applications into the mix, it becomes much less clear.
- libTAS has variable framerate functionality and it can enforce it upon a target program without asking questions: it kinda forces VSync to different rates that the user controls.
- Doing something specific with NVIDIA control panel while the game is running can't be recorded into a libTAS movie (though it could be recorded in a theoretical QEMU movie when we're emulating the entire guest machine for our game), and it definitely sounds like something that's impossible for the original game to account for, making it an unintentional environment tweak.
- Wiggling the game window around relies on event handling in a given window manager I guess, so again a dependency on a factor entirely external to the game.
Old movie rules allowed unintended environment settings only in entertainment-based categories, because for pure speed records those contain legitimacy concerns. Current rules don't have this distinction and ban unintended environment settings altogether, however that's not fully intentional in itself either: after the rules were completely rewritten, we tried to keep the wording compact and to not expand it without explicit need. So obviously there's room for rule changes or at least clarifications here.
The problem is that it's hard to come up with a good compromise for this kinda thing. We've been discussing this issue
for 6 years now, and it's always a battle between legitimacy and creative freedom.
Banning such techniques from the
Vault tier Standard class used to be a decent compromise not relying too much on technical differences but more on bookkeeping differences. Obviously it's still an option today.
Another option is preserving this technique until the game officially supports variable framerate and only using the movie with constant framerate this time around.
There can be other options, but this entire subject is so odd, technical, and obscure, that every time I brought it up with staff I got different opinions. And we have
two more high-framerate movies waiting to be judged, because this is not resolved yet.
