Pokémon Channel needs the BIOS screen in order to change date during a speedrun/TAS. I think I need more information so here are some questions.
1) The BIOS file needs to be obtained, or is there a custom one that comes with Dolphin?
2) Where do I place the BIOS file, or how do I set it up?
3) When it is placed or set up, does it automatically show the gamecube intro screen on start-up and hard resets?
4) Can I change date and time before the start of a TAS, and how?
5) I noticed that the BIOS screen will not play when using hard reset. How is one supposed to make a TAS that resets to boot into the bios screen? Multiple DTMs?
Edit:
Audiodump doesn't seem to work in 4.0-9215-x64.
Also, why is dolphin making savestates automatically? How to disable?
As far as I know, the only way to hard reset in Dolphin is to exit the game and start it again, so yes, you will have to make multiple DTMs.
When you're starting a TAS, the date and time will be set to the date and time of your computer. If you want to change the starting date and time without having to manipulate your computer's clock, you should be able to start an input recording (of just the boot, so you don't record anything that can desync) and then hex edit the time in the DTM at 0x081 (a 64-bit integer). This can be done each time you start a new DTM, so it should be possible to make a run that doesn't use the BIOS at all. Is using the BIOS to change the clock during the run required to not get an unfair advantage compared to consoles when timing the run?
I'm not aware of any way that Dolphin can make savestates automatically. In the hotkey settings, check that you haven't mapped savestates to a key you commonly use.
It's not so much about it being an unfair advantage. I just prefer the BIOS menuing to be in the run.
I noticed dolphin crashes when frame dumping when the bios screen ends and the game starts, even though both the bios and the game use 60 fps.
So let's say I make 2 DTMs.
DTM #1 starts from a clock time n and has 120 frames.
DTM #2 should then start at clock time n+2 seconds?
Edit:
I think that's going to be hell to manage, plus the memory card files...
Maybe it's better to request that resets with booting to the bios (that means, turning the console off and on) be supported in a single dtm.
Hard resetting on a gameboy means turning it off and on, but on a gamecube it means hitting the reset key. There is no way to do a hard reset by turning it off and on without ending the emulation, as far as I know. Would be good to implement that?
I haven't heard about that problem before, so thanks for reporting it. I'll take a look at it later.
If you don't want the time to suddenly change between the two DTMs, then yes, that's what you should do.
Hitting the reset button on a GameCube is what I call a soft reset.
Having a way to turn the console off and on without having to make a new DTM or end the emulation is a good idea, but I don't know when it can be implemented. It will at least not be before the 5.0 release, since we're in feature freeze right now.
Not really. It only affects loading savestates that were made on different platforms (say, Windows and Android – though I don't think that combination actually had this problem), and if there had been a problem with it, it would've shown up as completely failing to load the savestate, not desyncing.
Is it difficult to fix Wiimote issues? I've already tested for about 20 Wii games that may be interesting to TAS. I'm interested in TASing Rayman Raving Rabbids and Far Cry: Vengeance, but they aren't playable because the hardware tells me to get closer to the TV! Playing with settings also doesn't help. How busy are the programmers now and what is the priority of fixing problems like that?
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.
Is it difficult to fix Wiimote issues? I've already tested for about 20 Wii games that may be interesting to TAS. I'm interested in TASing Rayman Raving Rabbids and Far Cry: Vengeance, but they aren't playable because the hardware tells me to get closer to the TV! Playing with settings also doesn't help. How busy are the programmers now and what is the priority of fixing problems like that?
Usually when TASing wiimote games, Emulated Wiimote is required.
Yeah, that's what I use!
Oh, that's interesting. Let me take a look into this.
Is it difficult to fix Wiimote issues? I've already tested for about 20 Wii games that may be interesting to TAS. I'm interested in TASing Rayman Raving Rabbids and Far Cry: Vengeance, but they aren't playable because the hardware tells me to get closer to the TV! Playing with settings also doesn't help. How busy are the programmers now and what is the priority of fixing problems like that?
Usually when TASing wiimote games, Emulated Wiimote is required.
Yeah, that's what I use!
Oh, that's interesting. Let me take a look into this.
Turns out that both games are broken (and have been known to be broken for a while). Not sure when these will eventually be fixed.
BTW, a similar problem is hidden in The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return.
When playing HOD 2: after you choose the game (HOD 2 or HOD 3) and wait out the loading screen, Dolphin says that Wiimote 1 is connected after you enter an input in main menu. That causes a desync if you start movie recording from the beginning, but if you skip this reconnection and start the movie recording from the main menu, the game is pretty TASable.
When playing HOD 3: main menu works fine. After finishing the 1st stage, a Wiimote reconnection causes a desync.
Sorry if I irritate you with that :-)
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.
BTW, a similar problem is hidden in The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return.
When playing HOD 2: after you choose the game (HOD 2 or HOD 3) and wait out the loading screen, Dolphin says that Wiimote 1 is connected after you enter an input in main menu. That causes a desync if you start movie recording from the beginning, but if you skip this reconnection and start the movie recording from the main menu, the game is pretty TASable.
When playing HOD 3: main menu works fine. After finishing the 1st stage, a Wiimote reconnection causes a desync.
Sorry if I irritate you with that :-)
Nothing changed to HOD 2, Wiimote still reconnects when entering the main menu, and maybe somewhere though the game.
HOD 3, however, works just fine! In arcade mode I managed to reach the boss of chapter 3 in the real time on easy difficulty, but it killed me. Cutscenes can be skipped now.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.
In Mario Party 5, when I tried to reach the story mode ending in 2010 or something, the game would softlock/crash. I was wondering if that's fixed by now..
In Mario Party 5, when I tried to reach the story mode ending in 2010 or something, the game would softlock/crash. I was wondering if that's fixed by now..
The wiki page suggests no breaking issues, so it's probably worth a shot. Granted, it makes no mention of that issue, but 2010 was a long time ago...
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.