Posts for icy

icy
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 9/29/2017
Posts: 3
Therefore, it seems more likely that you timed not from console power-on as we do, but from the moment you selected Sonic, which would more likely explain the 11:02.45 you're getting.
This is correct, as I explained in the comments of the submission. I failed to realize, that tasvideo.org uses the same timing method for all games. I tried to remove the unnecessary frames in the title and character select, but I it corrupts the rest of the TAS in the same way editing any level corrupts it :(
And since BizHawk has lag counter, probably lag reduction could be possible.
I am aware that BizHawk shows me lagging frames, but how can I go about reducing them? Do you have any pointers for me? Is this game specific? Sonic Chaos (NTSC) just happens to lag a lot...
I noted that some of the stages is 1 second in-game timer slower than the published run
I watched both videos (the relevant levels) side-by-side and have to admit, that calling it "_far_ less optimized" probably was a little bit exagerated. He has partially worse strategies, but does other things better. All in all he does some levels faster than me and I do some levels faster than him. Don't get distracted by the ingame time though, as a single frame (16ms) can make a whole second difference and 59 frames can be in the same 1-second-window. Ultimately I would say my run is still the faster one, since I execute the first three bosses better (on those bosses, I think I gain 3-5 seconds on mike89's run).
nd the glitch that enables you to ignore the running off the screen at the end of each act
I noted just now and didn't know about that glitch. I will research...
Rewind skip/frame? Never heard of this.
BizHawk -> Config -> Hotkeys... -> Frame Advance/Rewind (the first two options) Also in the TAStudio tool of BizHawk you can select every single frame and jump to different frames. The way my workflow was: I have rewind and frame advance on my shoulder buttons. If I want to record, I would hold frame advance (would make the game run at around 30 fps or so) and record stuff. If I needed frame perfect inputs or wanted to rerecord inputs, I would use the rewind shoulder button until I am on the right frame, push buttons and tap frame advance to advance single frames. While doing so, I had TAStudio open, which showed me which frame I was at, if there were frame lags, etc.... I had zero need for loading states and actually can't remember loading any states/branches at all (maybe I was trying stuff out in the beginning when I didn't establish a workflow yet).
I noted that you have a RAM Watch. I'd like to see if there are any more addresses I haven't found yet
Well, the whole RAM is filled with stuff... but the RAM watch in my videos is all I have + 12C2 contains a frame counter for the ingame timer, which is also relevant for the special stage glitch (I explained it on the speedrun.com forum as well)
icy
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 9/29/2017
Posts: 3
Hi, thanks for your feedback. If my submission ends up not beeing accepted, it's okay, but please let me address your points:
Very weak rerecord count: I think 64 RR
I don't see how the rerecord count is a metric of how good the quality of the TAS is. Maybe it is because my process was different from other TASers? I basically didn't rerecord anything, because I did all critical inputs on a frame-to-frame basis and used rewind/skip frame instead of loading states. As I wrote in the comments... this took me between 3 to 5 hours.
optimize the TAS as much you can
This is what I also addressed in my comments: I tried to do the best TAS possible, without checking any timings in between. After I finished the TAS, I realized that I couldn't redo any segments (even though I tried at least for 2 to 3 additional hours) because of the lag issues. If someone can explain to me how to get around these issues, I would be very glad! Otherwise, I wouldn't redo the complete run though (and more, because I would have to always additionally check that I didn't lost any frames in comparision to this TAS) to only save a single second, when this TAS _is_ the fastest known run by a far stretch.
Also, I noted mistakes
I said it myself, that my run isn't perfect, but I also don't think that anyone could optimize it by more than 5 seconds. When you say you noted mistakes, were there any crucial ones? Also note, that in order to trigger the special stage glitch, one has to loose frames/play imperfect in order to set it up (so maybe it is that)?
I strongly recommend to see the published run (and for comparision): [1504] SMS Sonic Chaos (Europe) "best ending" in 14:28.54 by mike89
I saw it before my submission and this run (no offense to mike89) is _far_ less optimized than mine. Just some examples from that run: TQZ2: not going for the rocket boots is the worse strategy, because the rocket boots (even though you have to accelerate a couple of frames) gives you permanent max speed (7), while his route gives him an estimated avg. speed of 5 (so even with a conservative estimate he is 16,6% slower that route) TQZ3: the execution on the boss is quiet bad (compare that to mine). The frames that could be saved on this boss alone in mike89's run is I believe 50% of the frame savings you could get in my entire run. GZ1: After jumping over the big gap with the spikes, he misses the horizontal spring, which is a slowdown. GZ3: The route to the boss is absolutely unoptimized. Here probably the other 50% of frame to be saved of my run are lost. (Compare that to mine)
(and no good ending)
You are aware, that good ending=100% run? I have problems understanding the feedback in that case. You are saying any% runs are uninteresting? If my TAS doesn't end up being accepted I am fine with it, but if you are assuming it is not optimized and tell me to look at mike89's TAS for comparision, I ask you to take a closer look, as I believe the optimization of my run far surpasses that of mike89's even if the rerecord count would be zero. PS: A quote from the 3rd best speed runner on this game in regards to my TAS (and I don't necessary agree... just take this into consideration if you critize the quality of the run):
From my understanding of the game, there isn't a single way to make this faster. 11:02 appears to be the absolute endgame.
(source: https://www.speedrun.com/Sonic_Chaos/thread/xt4hq)
icy
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 9/29/2017
Posts: 3
Hi, I am new to the site and this is my first submission. I hope everything is ok with it, please let me know otherwise.