Ok I'll do that next time.
I was also unsure about the encode you wanted to make. Since you encoded the last WIP I've changed the BW2 fight but everything else looks the same.
So this might sounds like a stupid question, but in this case, where would you like the savestate to be ?
1) Before Dali reencoding the whole part ?
2) Before BW2 where the things change ?
3) At Lindblum Inn but with description that BW2 was changed so a Phoenix Down and 10 seconds are saved ?
4) Obiwan Kennoby ?
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Whatever you think I should encode. It doesn't matter much to me whether I encode one or two hours of content.
I'd personally go with 2, so the new WIP contains the whole, up-to-date run. If people don't want to see the trip to Lindblum again they can just skip over that part. Right now I'm capturing it from that part.
I'd also say 2 is the best option.
Ok next time I'll provide the savestate at the end of the previous part or before something was changed if it happens.
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Hmm, I can't seem to record an AVI of this update. It keeps desyncing at the Vivi's Shopping event. Tried doing it twice. I'll try just playing it back without recording, maybe that'll work.
Mmh, that's strange.
I don't know if that could help :
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C0ZKTZMU
Savestate 1 : Before BW2
Savestate 2 : Before Vivi's Shopping
Savestate 3 : After Vivi's Shopping
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Lil_Gecko wrote:
Mmh, that's strange.
I don't know if that could help :
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C0ZKTZMU
Savestate 1 : Before BW2
Savestate 2 : Before Vivi's Shopping
Savestate 3 : After Vivi's Shopping
I'm able to continue normally after using save state 2. Thanks, I'll try capturing the run this way. It's very strange. The timing is just slightly off, maybe by as little as one frame, but that one frame difference means the "active time event" window isn't closed on time.
If the desync continues, I'll simply record until the desync and then use your save state to record a separate movie, and splice them together.
edit: encode from the Vivi's Shopping active time event.
Link to video
Still processing right now...
Thanks for the encode one more time :D
Watching it makes me realise more mistakes than I do by simply fastforwarding my movie.
In South Gate I should have talk to the guy in the bottom before talking to the concerned mom to be closer to the exit and avoid back and forth trip which is obvious and saves a bunch of seconds...
EDIT : Yep... Saves about 3 seconds...
Fixed.
No need to reencode though, it doesn't change anything else.
Time from Power On to Disc Swap : 2h07m34s and 38 frames.
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
antd wrote:
desyncs for me too, btw
perhaps near the same place
For me, it desyncs exactly at the moment Vivi's Shopping time event begins. The first sign is that the window doesn't close on time. When does it occur for you?
Yep I found the problem...
It's my iso...
I tried another one just to see and it desyncs at that exact spot.
In mine there's two frames less of blank screen before that screen which causes the desync.
I can try to see how much can be hex-edit but I'm not very hopefull about it.
I really don't know what to do now...
Well, is your iso simply a different version or is it a bad dump?
If it's just a different version it's acceptable to keep it. If it's a bad dump, you should try to switch if possible.
Since both antd and Dada versions seems to have these 2 extra frames and I found one with them too.
Since we're all using SLUS-01251.
I gotta assume mine's got the problem. But how can we verify that it's a bad dump or just a different version ?
It's really annoying since it syncs until there and syncs after this place if you use a savestate so it seems to be the only place where it's 2 frames faster for no reason and messed up everything... grrrr...
EDIT :If you add two blank frames it syncs till the telescope part where there's been 1 frame of lag (don't remember if it was more or less one). By taking care of that frame it will resync to the elevator. Well it seems less hopeless that I thought at first look but I'm still doubtful.
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
I wouldn't worry too much about it. You should just use whatever works with your ISO, and we should worry about getting the same version as you.
I sent you a PM about that, by the way.
Tub wrote:
If it's just a different version it's acceptable to keep it. If it's a bad dump, you should try to switch if possible.
It's the same version, but different rips can have these minor differences. As I recall, psxjin doesn't actually use a checksum, just the version number. Maybe that ought to be changed in the future. We should also really officially discourage ripping a CD yourself.
We should also really officially discourage ripping a CD yourself.
officially encouraging getting pirated versions is obviously a no-go.
Lacking psxjin support, you could manually compare checksums using md5sum (linux) or this tool (windows). That should hopefully allow you to spot any differences in CD3/4 before it's too late.
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Tub wrote:
Dada wrote:
We should also really officially discourage ripping a CD yourself.
officially encouraging getting pirated versions is obviously a no-go.
Given that the server is hosted in the US, you're right. But it's frustrating, particularly since downloading a game you own isn't illegal everywhere. It's legal where I live, probably in other European countries too.
But it should be made clear that you can only minimize the chance of discrepancies by using the exact same ISO as everybody else, and that people should keep that in mind when obtaining their copy. The same should apply for people making new versions of existing runs.
While trying to hex-edit the WIP with the new Iso, I got a nice surprise.
By adding these 2 frames of delay, I figured that the conversation around the table happens 100ish frames earlier than previously.
So it gave me enough motivation to restart from here with the new iso.
Despite losing half of those frame to learn Limit Glove, I got really faster Black Mages battles.
So I ended up finishing Disc 1 even 4 seconds faster.
So New Time from Power On to Disc Swap : 2h07m30s
Here is the complete new WIP from Disc 1 that should hopefully sync with your iso.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=N43DGTY0
Along with Savestates :
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=N6ES2FRI
Savestate 1 : Alexandria
Savestate 2 : Evil Forest
Savestate 3 : Ice Cavern
Savestate 4 : Dali
Savestate 5 : Lindblum
Savestate 6 : Qu's Marsh/Limit Glove
Savestate 7 : Gizamaluke's Grotto
Savestate 8 : South Gate
Savestate 9 : Burmecia
If you could confirm that it syncs it'd be appreciated.
Also, questions, comments, feedbacks, are welcome ;)
Last question, from now on, before starting Disc 2 how can I check that it will not have the same problem ? I'm not sure what checksum is, but how can I know it's a good one ?
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Lil_Gecko wrote:
Last question, from now on, before starting Disc 2 how can I check that it will not have the same problem ? I'm not sure what checksum is, but how can I know it's a good one ?
If you get the other discs from the same source as disc 1, it should be fine. Maybe you can tell me in PM so I can check as well.
edit: All of disc 1 encode (still processing right now)
Link to video
edit again: something's wrong with the sound. Youtube probably won't process it correctly, so I'm redumping the video. (Sound file broke when my hard disk ran out of space during capturing.)
edit again: now uploading new one. Video tag has been replaced with the corrected version.
Joined: 3/18/2006
Posts: 971
Location: Great Britain
Lil_Gecko wrote:
Last question, from now on, before starting Disc 2 how can I check that it will not have the same problem ? I'm not sure what checksum is, but how can I know it's a good one ?
Use a program such as FastSum (google) to generate a checksum for the file. If our checksums match then we probably have exactly the same file.
Here are checksums for my FFIX Disc 2:
File: Final Fantasy IX (USA) (Disc 2) (v1.0).bin
CRC-32: dfef08c8
MD4: dc4fd951aaea561f26fcd9d464e60ba9
MD5: b70f3c3ac4d3b050d6964966dbdbe802
SHA-1: afdfe5f846909d7dfbee03cd09175ba76d31b070
Thanks.
So the checksums are a match which concerns me even more.
As I mentionned to Dada in PM, I got a little (big ?) problem now.
I've reach Cleyra's Trunk and instead of the FMV, I got a black screen and nothing happens.
Current WIP + Savestate at Cleyra's Trunk entrance if you want to see what happens :
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J80NUMCX
The only way I've found to trigger the FMV is to save on the World Map. Reset PSXjin. Load the Save from Memory Card and then everything works as it should.
It goes without saying that this is not an option for the TAS.
Also as you can trigger the FMV I'm not sure it's an iso problem. I don't know.
If somebody has an idea, I'm all ears because as of now, I'm on hold : /
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
I'll give it a try as soon as I get back from work, maybe we'll need to get the emulator programmers involved...
By the way, I'm surprised you need to use save states to switch discs. That wasn't needed for FF8. Might be a good idea to check that too.
Wonderful news guys !
After spending quite some time looking through the memory I found out the problem.
I don't know if it comes from the Disc Swap or what but the memory actually never register that we've reached Disc 2, so it plays the game like normal but is unable to load FMV.
When you're in Disc 1 those adresses have those values :
0x74344,2u = 31974;
0x74348,2u = 20559;
0x7434A,2u = 20037;
0x7434C,2u = 20041;
But when you reach Disc 2 it's supposed to change like this :
0x74344,2u = 62208;
0x74348,2u = 17747;
0x7434A,2u = 12369;
0x7434C,2u = 52;
which for some reason, didn't happen during Disc Swap : /
All you have to do to play normally is to change the value at those 4 adresses to set them with the value from Disc 2, at any moment during Disc 2 and you're good to go.
All of that just to say that I finally managed to load that damn FMV and can continue the TAS (also improved Gargan Roo by 3 seconds btw).
EDIT: It doesn't affect anything else in the game apart from being able to load the FMV, so I hope that manually edit those memory adresses isn't against the rules ?
Technically, editing memory is against the rules. In any and all form.
However, if it's a proven emulator bug (the console properly handles the FMV without needing a save after the swap, for example), you might have a decent case explaining what you're doing, and the memory edit serves to improve emulation accuracy.
But it's still a memory edit. One that a user must make themselves when running your movie.
In any case, we might want to point this oddity out to those currently working on the emulator. It would be preferable to have the emulator do what it's supposed to, rather than having it up to the user to manually affect the memory.
But if the actual console also fails in this case, then there isn't a problem -- Save and reload from memory card. If the console has no trouble, bug the emulator developers.
As for whether the memory edit workaround will be accepted due to poor emulation... I'm not a judge or an admin around here. I'll let them answer. But I felt you wanted thoughts from someone while we wait for the right person to come post.
Technically, editing memory is against the rules. In any and all form.
Yeah that's why I made the edit. That worried me a little bit.
However, if it's a proven emulator bug (the console properly handles the FMV without needing a save after the swap, for example), you might have a decent case explaining what you're doing, and the memory edit serves to improve emulation accuracy.
I don't remember having this problem when I played it on a console a while ago, but I'm 99% confident that I use Moogle everytime I crossed one so that doesn't help. If somebody is willing to give this a shot, playing on a console from Disc Swap to Cleyra without saving/reloading to see what happens.
But it's still a memory edit. One that a user must make themselves when running your movie.
That can be done with a simple lua script, so the user launch it with the movie and has nothing else to do than swaping Disc but still I understand : /
In any case, we might want to point this oddity out to those currently working on the emulator. It would be preferable to have the emulator do what it's supposed to, rather than having it up to the user to manually affect the memory.
But if the actual console also fails in this case, then there isn't a problem -- Save and reload from memory card. If the console has no trouble, bug the emulator developers.
Yep. That along with the annoying background sound. Any name I should talk to ?
Also, Save and Reload from Memory Card is also a problem, since you can't just save and reset with L1+L2+R1+R2+Start+Select as psxjin won't see your save on the memory card. You have to use the Reset CPU from the emulator, which ends the movie.
As for whether the memory edit workaround will be accepted due to poor emulation... I'm not a judge or an admin around here. I'll let them answer. But I felt you wanted thoughts from someone while we wait for the right person to come post.
Yeah. Thanks for taking the time to answer, I appreciate it.
EDIT : Anyway, still moving on a little bit, just in case.
Before fighting Soldier in Cleyra's Trunk :
