Sorry for not posting yesterday, therefore you get a big update now :)
First of all I hexed the Forest of Illusions levels into the full movie, you can download it
here (almost 1 hour long now)
The next level was Castle #5, the fastest of all castles (unless you count Bowser's backdoor). When flying over the flames I had to do one kamikaze dive, otherwise I would either have hit a flame or not got over the wall.
When fighting against Roy I discovered that it's possible to jump through him, it looks like Mario just walks through him (little demonstration video can be downloaded
here)
The next level was Chocolate Island 1, here I just flew over everything and hit some rhinos, eventually collecting two 1UPs
In the Choco-Ghost House I had two alternatives: Either fly above the screen, or fly below the screen (flying in the middle will mean that I will hit a ghost or the ghost Lakitu's flame sooner or later). I now chose the lower route, as it was more exciting and also a few frames faster.
In the second room I almost thought it was impossible to pass that row of ghosts without getting hit; both normal flight and spinjump flight didn't work. But then I tried a duck flight, and that did work, Mario just barely fits through the little hole :)
You can download the video of these 3 levels
here
Now I had to test out several routes. The overworld time for the movements from castle#6 back to choco2 or from the underworld pipe to choco2 is exactly the same, in other words, it doesn't matter whether I first do the overworld and then the underworld route or the other way round. What does matter is that I need to have a Yoshi when I arrive at castle#6, because I really need him in Valley of Bowser 2, and there's no Yoshi egg in the Ghost Ship or VoB1.
So, I now had 3 alternatives:
Route A:
- Chocolate Island 2 b
- Chocolate Secret
- Chocolate Island 2 a
- Chocolate Island 3 a & b
- Chocolate Fortress
- Chocolate Island 4
- Chocolate Island 5 (get Yoshi here)
Route B:
- Chocolate Island 2 b
- Chocolate Secret
- Chocolate Island 2 a (get Yoshi here)
- Chocolate Island 3 a & b
- Chocolate Fortress
- Chocolate Island 4
- Chocolate Island 5
Route C:
- Chocolate Island 2 a
- Chocolate Island 3 a & b
- Chocolate Fortress
- Chocolate Island 4
- Chocolate Island 5
- Chocolate Island 2 b (get Yoshi here)
- Chocolate Secret
Route A has the advantage that I get Yoshi as late as possible, and therefore can use fast flying in all other levels
Route B has the advantage that I get Yoshi in a level where I have to waste 50 timeunits anyway, so I don't lose any time to jump on Yoshi (except for the 63 frames that it takes for the egg->Yoshi transformation, but these are in all 3 routes)
Route C is similar to A, I also get Yoshi quite late.
So, first I tested how much longer it takes to get Yoshi in Chocolate Island 5. The result was that I entered the yellow pipe ~ 160 frames (including the 63 frames for transformation) later than if I entered the level with Yoshi. As all other levels in Route A are done without Yoshi (=> as fast as possible), the other routes would be slower as soon as it cost more than 160 frames to get Yoshi
And that was the case.
Getting Yoshi in Chocolate Island 2 b already cost 225 frames (also because this slowed down in the other parts of the level). I didn't even test Chocolate Secret, because it was quite obvious already that Route C was slower than A
Then I tested Route B. In Chocolate Island 2 a I was already 211 frames slower, even though the first 2 parts had to be finished in the same timeunits. And after Chocolate Island 3 a & b the difference was already more than 400 frames.
So, the winner is route A
You can download my testvideo up to Chocolate Island 3 b
here, but keep in mind, this is not the definite version yet. The third room in Chocolate Secret might still be done a bit faster, and you can be sure that I'll try to make the waiting for 50 timeunits in Choclate Island 2b as entertaining as possible ;). Same goes for Chocolate Island 3, although maybe for the first exit I'll have to fly above the screen to reach the goal without slowdown.
I'm away for a few days now and will continue with the movie next Sunday or Monday!
