Posted: 8/23/2008 12:07 PM
(Edited: 8/27/2008 5:49 PM)
Post subject: Prince of Persia
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Aqfaq
Editor, Expert player (2478)
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
Sega TASer of 2008 Lucky TAS of 2008
Well, I happened to play Prince of Persia and found some improvements to SprintGod's movie. I tested recording something and the result was 94 frames faster after two minutes of gameplay. This seems like a project that requires very little planning, so I might be able to continue recording it every now and then. Edit: 124 frames faster after level 3. Edit: 370 frames faster after level 6. Edit: 628 frames faster after level 7.
Posted: 8/23/2008 6:08 PM
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mmbossman
Experienced player (828)
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
GBx TAS of 2008
Glad to see you're working on this. It is a 2004 movie, after all ;)
Living Well Is The Best Revenge My Personal Page
Posted: 8/29/2008 1:41 AM
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Aqfaq
Editor, Expert player (2478)
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
Sega TASer of 2008 Lucky TAS of 2008
Uh-oh, this game is slightly more complicated to optimize than I thought. The game accepts input (and progresses the animation) in 5-frame intervals, which should make everything very simple. However, the real character position changes even between the animation frames, so it is sometimes possible to exit screens at the "4th frame" instead of the assumed 5th frame. This phenomenon can be used to skip 1 frame in screen transitions. However, in most cases there are enemies and other hazards that rule out the positioning for faster transition. Hah, take a look at this wicked collision detection! Next frame, the player is dead by the sword: Aaargh! Luckily, luring the guards down from the ledges works most of the time. It is usually faster than killing them: I also found two promising tricks, which both turned out to be useless: 1. Only one guard can be on screen, so if a guard is lured to a room with another guard, it disappears from the game. 2. It is possible to walk through gates by retreating backwards when wielding the sword. Too bad the sword can only be used in the vicinity of guards, so the opportunities for using the trick are very limited. The new movie is now 2047 frames faster after level 10. Here's a WIP backup, but I don't recommend watching it, unless you're a really big fan of the game. It looks pretty much identical with the old movie. Edit: Updated the WIP backup above. It's almost done, yeah!