Post subject: Making and Resyncing TASes for Console Playback
TiKevin83
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A hub thread for help with making TASes that can be played back on original consoles, or help with resyncing an existing TAS to newer or different emulators that can meet those accuracy needs. An example of this process is the resync that was made for EZGames69 and GoddessMaria's SMA4:SMB3 Warps TAS. The console resync used a different starting state for save data and adjusted some input frames to account for emulation inaccuracy. We'll often also switch emulators and use different firmware.
Alyosha
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Making and re-syncing TASes can take a lot of time and effort, are there any thoughts on which specific games or TASes should be looked at that can most help console verification? GB and GBC have progressed a lot recently, and PC of course too, but not so much for other consoles, where should effort be focused?
EZGames69
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Alyosha wrote:
and PC of course too
What do you mean by this?
[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
Alyosha
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EZGames69 wrote:
What do you mean by this?
I mean LibTAS and the examples of games with built in TAS tools. Maybe not console verification in the usual sense but still a lot of progress compared to say genesis.
Post subject: A simple question
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Is it possible to sync a replay device with the actual internal CPU clock so that it never de-syncs?
Post subject: Re: A simple question
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redatchyon2098 wrote:
Is it possible to sync a replay device with the actual internal CPU clock so that it never de-syncs?
That is essentially how playing back TASes on GBI works actually. But that doesn't really guarantee a desync doesn't happen. Emulators aren't perfect, emulation inaccuracies could cause desyncs, and syncing the inputs to the console's CPU clock can't prevent that kind of desync. For other consoles than the GB/C/A, it might be possible, although it would require some modification to the console and I'm not sure how much better that is just over the current approach.
Alyosha
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Link to video I got GB Rockman World 3 resynced and console verified. However it turns out that I can also change the palette without breaking sync. So for cases where palette changes don't otherwise effect the run, does anyone have an opinion on which palette they think looks best? Personally I like the contrast in the default palette, but admittedly sometimes the green backgrounds don't look very good. Grey scale looks ok but its not as easy to follow everything that's happening sometimes. Maybe some other palette can work? I plan on working on Rockman World 4 and 5 as well, so I'm open to suggestions.
Alyosha
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Link to video I used the blue palette for Rockman 5 (Rockman 4 is giving me some issues) and I think it looks pretty good, there are a lot of sky scenes in this one so blue one makes sense even though mega man is red.
Alyosha
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Link to video Finally got Rockman World 4 resynced. I think every Mega Man run on GB/C has a console verified version now (not counting the bootleg one) so that's kind of neat.
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That blue palette (<) looks good; bright and easy to look at. I can't think of a better palette for those games at the moment. Dark blue (A+<) as tested in BizHawk just looked dreary.
Alyosha wrote:
I got GB Rockman World 3 resynced and console verified.
Are these ready to add to movie descriptions? By the way, how much "resyncing" is acceptable for it to still be considered a verification of the original run? For example, GBC SpongeBob had ~3 seconds added to allow for the BIOS and LCD on/off, though there might have been one where more was changed. Possibly Sonic Advance? Or if every verification is valid in regards to timing, etc., could I go ahead and add ViGadeomes' Asterix verification to its movie description?
Alyosha
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CoolKirby wrote:
That blue palette (<) looks good; bright and easy to look at. I can't think of a better palette for those games at the moment. Dark blue (A+<) as tested in BizHawk just looked dreary.
Alyosha wrote:
I got GB Rockman World 3 resynced and console verified.
Are these ready to add to movie descriptions? By the way, how much "resyncing" is acceptable for it to still be considered a verification of the original run? For example, GBC SpongeBob had ~3 seconds added to allow for the BIOS and LCD on/off, though there might have been one where more was changed. Possibly Sonic Advance? Or if every verification is valid in regards to timing, etc., could I go ahead and add ViGadeomes' Asterix verification to its movie description?
Personally, I don't add the verified flag if I have to change the movie file in any non-trivial way (and the only things I consider trivial are adjusting for a small number of lag frames or start up time.) I'm not sure there is any standardization to it though. I had to do significant RNG manipulation in the Rockman World games, so I didn't add the flag to them. I'm not sure about Asterix, I think it would be better to have a video without that pulsating white light, but that's just me.