Animorphs might not have made it into AGDQ's Awful Block this year but I bring you an improvement to Animorphs: Shattered Reality just in time for Christmas!

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.2.1
  • BIOS (U) SCPH-7001 Version 4.1 (SHA1: 14DF4F6C1E367CE097C11DEAE21566B4FE5647A9)
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Taking damage to save time
  • Abuses death
  • Abuses programming errors
  • Genre: Platformer

A note about playing back this movie

  • This game crashes on Bizhawk 2.3 so I advise playing it with either 2.2.1 or 2.2.2
  • The movie also contains subtitles throughout.

Comparison with the currently published TAS

This TASPublished TAS
SectionFramesFramesDeltaC. Delta
PSLogo310632059999
Intro206206099
New Game183183099
Memory Card171171099
The Entrance136136099
Pick Rachel551551099
1-151795176-396
Loading548548096
1-25073509623119
Loading567565-2117
1-34946504094211
Loading5685680211
1-47571763564275
The Sea4544562277
Pick Rachel390389-1276
2-06377643861337
The Forest45446511348
Pick Rachel5595590348
3-13660375797445
Loading4864860445
3-236313920289734
Loading41744629763
3-360296003-26737
The Swamp4514543740
Pick Rachel46547611751
48142822684835
The Gardens456453-3832
Pick Rachel5815821833
5-141374239102935
Loading554553-1934
5-23796383236970
Loading503501-2968
5-3178019161361104
Loading57257201104
5-414481462141118
The Dark45245971125
Pick Rachel380374-61119
677607773131132
The City457475181150
Pick Rachel56256311151
7-138513849-21149
Loading55455511150
7-2464949873381488
Loading574572-21486
7-3582961903611847
Loading60560501847
7-4570158081071954
The Finale455485301984
Pick Rachel45845801984
831073103-41980

The bios change

The old TAS used SCPH-5501 but switching to SCPH-7001 saves almost 3 seconds in loading with the only drawback that I noticed being in stage 3-3 where it delays an elevator by 24 frames.

The New Technology

  • Animation Substitution
Instead of waiting for the recovery animation of enemies, I discovered that you could purposefully hit them during their recovery to force them into a block animation. This has the benefit of shortening the wait time between every hit. The only exception to this are the enemies without recovery animation (the Skirt and Na) and the Iskoort because their recovery animation is shorter than their block. Here's a breakdown of the time it saves per hit for every enemy in the game.
EnemyTime saved per hit
Fast Hork-Bajir (in 1-3 and 5-2)14 frames
Slow Hork-Bajir (everywhere else)24 frames
Howlers22 frames
Kaa24 frames
Gedd22 frames
  • Snapping
This was a known trick that I discovered when I made the old TAS but I decided not to use it due to its wildly volatile results. If you let go of the R2 button while getting recoiled from taking a hit, the game will just instantly snap your position to the point where the enemy originally hit you. This trick is only used in 7-2 and 7-4.

The Existing Technology

Lag Management
The game will occasionally lag when scrolling most likely due to the loading of a new section or assets. Usually, those lag frames can be mitigated or sometimes completely avoided by simply changing the position of the character in any axis. Some actions are also more likely than others to cause lag when executed like jumping on the edge of a platform, jumping on a tilted platform, taking damage and moving near a static object.
Jumping vs. Walking
When jumping, your speed is locked to the value it had in the previous frame for the whole duration of the jump. When walking, his speed will oscillate slightly resulting in an overall slower movement option by about 12% versus jumping on the first possible frame after landing.
Momentum Boost
When riding a moving platform, jumping from it will carry their speed in every axis for the duration of the jump.
Ledge Clipping
When jumping with an apex near the edge of a platform, the game will sometime clip you on top of it if your hit box is close enough to the edge.
Boost Meter Management
When you power on the console, the boost meter will be full the first time entering an auto-scroller. It will otherwise remember how much boost you had when you finished your last auto-scroller even if you replay one of those levels. Furthermore, once depleted or under 25%, the boost meter will start filling back up to 25% where you'll be able to use your boost again. This 25% threshold is also very important because at the start of each subsequent "auto-scroller", you are unable to start moving until you can boost. So ideally, you want to finish the first two "auto-scrollers" with 25% boost to be able to move immediately on the next "auto-scroller". Resetting the console will put the meter back at 100% for the next auto-scroller.
Damage Recoil & Target Locking
During combat, it's possible to lock the orientation of the character with R1 so that you're always facing a specific enemy. There is also no distance limit that would break that lock as long as you hold down R1. Since you will always move backward when taking damage, it's possible to boost yourself on each enemy that you collide with or that hit you if you lock yourself onto an enemy and start moving away from it while locked. This is used in the bridge section of 1-4 and to reach a checkpoint outside a fight in 7-2 and 7-4.
Invulnerability Frames
Some enemies will be invulnerable for a set number of frames after getting hit. The number of frames varies with the type of enemy but is also implemented inconsistently as there are two Hork-Bajir with a fast animation while the rest of them have a slower animation. Additionally, if you're standing too close to them while their invulnerability timer runs out, they'll instantly do a counter-attack move that makes them invulnerable for its duration. Doing Animation Substitution (see above) pretty much negates those invulnerability frames.
Free Double Damage Hits
When delivering the last hit on an enemy, you can sometime hold or press [] a few frame later that will make you do an attack that deals double two damage instead of one. Doing so seems to have a very long recovery before you're able to attack again. This is used only once in the second combat of 1-1 since it one-hit kills the second enemy.
Glitchy Jumps
When jumping on the very edge of a ledge or seemingly at random, you can sometime gain extra height on that jumps.
Checkpoint Abuse
There are 3 checkpoints in the game that can be abused to skip part of a combat as they will respawn you outside of the combat zone. It saves quite a few seconds in 7-3. It also saves a few seconds in the first fight of 7-4.

Stage by stage breakdown of improvements

1-1 (The Entrance)

This stage was not changed from the previous version.

1-2

I improved the setup for the fight skip and the jumps on the last three cogs.

1-3

Skateman222 found the clip after the fight with the Hork-Bajir during one of his practice run. It saves 24 frames over going through the pipe.

1-4

Unchanged except for the Animation Substitution on the Hork-Bajir.

2 (The Sea)

I saved a bit of time by not getting slowed down at all by the fan in the middle of the stage as pointed out to me by Skateman222. I also optimized movement.

3-1 (The Forest)

This stage remained mostly unchanged except for the Animation Substitution on the Hork-Bajir. I saved a bit of time by staying on the top of the rocks in the waterfall section. Going in front of the rocks instead of having to go on the second tier at the end of the stages saved a little bit of time.

3-2

Beside using Animation Substitution on the Kaa and both the Howlers, going in diagonal instead of up and right on the dam saves about 3 seconds.

3-3

This stage was not changed from the previous version.

4 (The Swamp)

The movement was improved in this stage but otherwise remains unchanged.

5-1 (The Gardens)

I got a very lucky Glitch Jump that saved 3 jumps to skip the slide. I also improving the setup to skip the second and third fight.

5-2

The movement in the first section of the stage was improved as well as saving a few frames on the eleveator at the end by going in diagonal instead of straight down.

5-3

I skipped going on two boxes by jumping on the edge of the tanks and did the Animation Substitution on the Howler.

5-4

This stage was not changed from the previous version.

6 (The Dark)

I improved the movement in this stage.

7-1 (The City)

This stage was not changed from the previous version.

7-2

I improved the setup for the death warp in the third fight using Snapping. Aside from that, Animation Substitution was used in the first two fights.

7-3

Doing a very precise jump on the arm of the excavator avoids having to wait 6 seconds for it to come back around.

7-4

I use hit recoil in the fight with the Hork-Bajir to hit the lever early and go directly to the bridge instead of hitting the lever after the battle. This combined with Snapping saves about a second. I also improved hitting the first lever by not having to go on the platform.

8 (The Finale)

This stage was not changed from the previous version.

Special Thanks

  • Skateman222: For discovering a few new tricks and the Chinese TAS.
  • 張致浩: For making a TAS which contained faster strats then the current movie. It can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3I7gbYTEJM
  • Keizaron and CavemanDCJ: For finding most of the early skips in this game. Also showing it at AGDQ 2017.
Suggested Screenshot: 93749

Memory: Judging
Memory: Optimization feels like it can be taken further but it is still acceptable as it is.
The PSX bios used while not preferred is still acceptable.
The movie was fairly dull with only some slightly entertaining moments here and there. Audience reception was fairly mixed as well.
Spikestuff: That's a pub.


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #6201: Fizztastic's PSX Animorphs: Shattered Reality in 30:28.83
Memory
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Mind explaining the bits where you lost time?
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
EZGames69
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Solid improvement, I really liked the speed boosts you got from jumping off of moving platforms. Unfortunately that’s kinda the only interesting thing to watch here. The game is just boring to watch. Great job none the less, but ultimately a meh vote.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
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This game has just the right amount of jank for my tastes. Nice improvement, yes vote.
Player (22)
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Memory wrote:
Mind explaining the bits where you lost time?
The sections that lost from 1 to 5 frames were all due to Lag Frames being very random in this game (Even in loading) despite my best effort to avoid them. The only real time loss was in stage 3-3 around frame 47900. The elevator took more time to come down compared to the published TAS. The only explanation I have for it is due to the Firmware change but I'm not 100% sure of it.
Memory
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User movie #52224456577746856 ~2 frame improvement on you in 1-1, you could easily have saved time on the elevator section by moving to the right sooner. I haven't made it through the end of the level with this improvement so there might be something later on in the level that prevents you from maintaining this improvement. However, this sort of sloppiness is not what I want to be seeing in submissions.
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
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Nice run. Surprisingly smooth for this game.
Memory wrote:
User movie #52224456577746856 ~2 frame improvement on you in 1-1, you could easily have saved time on the elevator section by moving to the right sooner. I haven't made it through the end of the level with this improvement so there might be something later on in the level that prevents you from maintaining this improvement. However, this sort of sloppiness is not what I want to be seeing in submissions.
Well, that's a 2-frame "improvement" on a 5724-frame section and it's not even confirmed. Fizztastic registered only this year and we could say they are kinda new to TASing, yet terms like sloppiness and lazy are thrown around based on a negligible improvement that might be lost later on in the stage. Aren't we being a bit too elitist here? I don't think that's positive for the site.
AzumaK wrote: I swear my 1 year old daughter's favorite TASVideo is your R4MI run :3 xxNKxx wrote: ok thanks handsome feos :D Help improving TASVideos!
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That was a quote from http://tasvideos.org/MovieRules.html#MovieSTechnicalQualityMustBeAcceptable The fact that we will try and improve is mentioned to be clear about the competitive nature of TASing. No one is rejecting movies with 2-frame improvements, even bigger known improvements are allowed if they would take too much to incorporate. And the only actual flaw in TASing is not improving upon previous imperfection. Anything else can be fixed. Now, this is not done to criticize the author. This is done as a usual process to check and verify the work. How can you improve your work if you don't know what flaws it has? Improvements are always encouraged, but never demanded. When it comes to optimization, we only reject movies that are sloppy all over the place.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
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I agree that a 2 frames "improvement" is trivial even if it's in the first level, especially since this TAS improves the current one everywhere apart from specific cases (lag and 3-3 elevator). The only thing I don't really like about this submission is the shift of BIOS (from 5501 to 7001) to save loading times, despite the fact that the recommended ones for BizHawk are the 550X ones. Though as far as I know it isn't stated on the TASVideos website, only on the mednafen documentation.
Spikestuff
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BizHawk actually specifies and selects by bias the 550x bios. We have a few Publications/Submissions that use the 100x series of Bios on some Hawk TASes.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.
Memory
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Of course I'm not going to reject over a 2 frame improvement, it was just merely the first improvement I've found so far. I plan to go over the submission in its entirety and a relatively easy improvement is not a good start, even if it is small. EDIT: However, ensuring any improvements I find last the whole level requires too much effort for me at this point. Here is a quick RAM Watch I made which includes position values: User movie #52243083085142408
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
Spikestuff
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And just to pin on the disagreement of bios selection on the basis of "cause it's faster at loading". Animorphs surprisingly has 2 values that you can find in a RAM Search. Game Time: 0x181CCC - 4bytes: Unsigned: MainRAM -- This will also register the menus and keep the time spent on them. Stage Time: 0x181D98 - 4bytes: Unsigned: MainRAM I'm going to say to use these values when doing the comparison next time if you decided to do another switch on your bioses.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [3924] PSX Animorphs: Shattered Reality by Fizztastic in 30:28.83