Posted: 8/13/2011 5:01 AM
Post subject: Introduction + SNES9x Lag Counter Question!
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Ianthraxx
Joined: 11/3/2010
Posts: 16
Location: Canaduh
Hey everyone! I'm a long-timer lurker here, I absolutely love TASes and I feel it's time to get into the art and learn how it's done! I understand this is a very lofty goal and maybe not the best way to begin, but I'm learning SNES9x TASing using Mega Man X, comparing my times with FractalFusion's currently published run. One thing that's really confounding me is lag and the Lag Counter feature, though. Near as I can tell, lag is definitely happening -- there are certain frames where absolutely everything freezes and no values change. That's lag, isn't it? I have the Lag Counter on and reset it at the beginning of making my movie, but it never does anything. It's always at zero and never changes, leaving me to go frame-by-frame checking for lag and then testing to see if it can be avoided. I uploaded the movie in case it would be helpful: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1582445038/Mega%20Man%20X%20%28V1.1%29%20%28U%29%20Ianthraxx.smv If someone can point out where I'm going wrong here, I'd greatly appreciate it! Criticism of any kind is also welcome (apologies if this isn't the forum for that, maybe I should ask in the SNES forums?) but learning to understand lag is my primary concern. Thanks again!
Posted: 8/13/2011 10:52 AM
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FractalFusion
Editor, Expert player (2073)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3282
Glitchy TAS of 2013 Gameboy TAS of 2013 PSX TASer of 2010
Welcome to the forum, Ianthraxx. Wow, your run is great! The built-in Snes9x lag indicator does not work well, unfortunately, but I have a Lua script that is better for indicating this, somewhat. Rolanmen1 and I are currently working on improving the Mega Man X 100%, and our run is a bit faster so far. But it's great that you started learning how to TAS with this game. I look forward to more in the future.
Posted: 8/13/2011 1:51 PM
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Brandon
He/Him
Editor, Player (191)
Joined: 11/21/2010
Posts: 914
Location: Tennessee
FractalFusion wrote:
The built-in Snes9x lag indicator does not work well, unfortunately, but I have a Lua script that is better for indicating this, somewhat.
Why not link us? :)
All the best, Brandon Evans
Posted: 8/13/2011 7:46 PM
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Ianthraxx
Joined: 11/3/2010
Posts: 16
Location: Canaduh
FractalFusion wrote:
Welcome to the forum, Ianthraxx. Wow, your run is great! The built-in Snes9x lag indicator does not work well, unfortunately, but I have a Lua script that is better for indicating this, somewhat. Rolanmen1 and I are currently working on improving the Mega Man X 100%, and our run is a bit faster so far. But it's great that you started learning how to TAS with this game. I look forward to more in the future.
Hey, wow, I definitely wasn't expecting to get a response from you yourself haha. Thanks a lot for the info and encouragement, that's really too bad it doesn't work though. I'm looking forward to seeing how you and Rolanmen1 improve the current run!
Posted: 8/13/2011 10:15 PM
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FractalFusion
Editor, Expert player (2073)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3282
Glitchy TAS of 2013 Gameboy TAS of 2013 PSX TASer of 2010
Thanks. Here's the latest script. The lag indicator is still not perfect, though, but it is better. http://tasvideos-moviefiles.googlecode.com/files/megamanx%2Bextralife.zip
Posted: 9/3/2011 9:37 PM
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Brandon
He/Him
Editor, Player (191)
Joined: 11/21/2010
Posts: 914
Location: Tennessee
FractalFusion wrote:
Thanks. Here's the latest script. The lag indicator is still not perfect, though, but it is better. http://tasvideos-moviefiles.googlecode.com/files/megamanx%2Bextralife.zip
Oh, is this only for MMX? Could you perhaps generalize this to any SNES game? There's a lot of hidden lag in Arcade's Revenge, and I'd like to minimize it as much as possible.
All the best, Brandon Evans
Posted: 9/28/2011 2:54 AM
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FractalFusion
Editor, Expert player (2073)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3282
Glitchy TAS of 2013 Gameboy TAS of 2013 PSX TASer of 2010
Brandon wrote:
Could you perhaps generalize this to any SNES game? There's a lot of hidden lag in Arcade's Revenge, and I'd like to minimize it as much as possible.
Sorry for the late response. Unfortunately, I don't know how the lag indicator in Snes9x works. What I have heard so far is that it is unreliable. I only made the lag indicator for MMX as an approximation based on certain addresses. I have discovered that it still doesn't address all the lag in this game, and it doesn't distinguish between fake lag (display lag only - everything else operates as normal) and real lag.