Also at 8:24 when you shoot the bird to get the flash grenade, you then move and shoot the two barrels after you picked up the grenade. Isn't it possible to shoot the two barrels before you move forward instead?
"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential.
Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."
The only defense I have is "you try manipulating 2 flame grenades at the same place." :p I am redoing several parts of the TAS, starting with this area, and maybe even as far back as the merchant.
I thought of something that may cause some problems in the future. If I get to disk 2, can Dolphin continue recording the dtm file? Technically Dolphin views Disk1 and Disk2 as separate games. There are a few things that can be done about this:
1. Dolphin might continue the dtm file and autoloads disk2 (doubtful).
2. I will have to create a save file at the end of Disk1. The end of Ch4-3 prompts a save screen before prompting the player to switch disks. I will start recording a 2nd dtm file with disk2 which load the save. The total time will be the combined frame numbers.
3. There is a way to switch disks while recording the dtm.
The problem with #2 is that TASvideos usually frowns upon game saves, especially since the save will then be used to continue the same TAS but in two separate dtms. I know some TASes use saves, but they don't use two separate input files. Also since I have already started TASing with no memory card inserted, the encoder would have to pause the game and go to the options to manually insert the memory card at some point during the gameplay. Considering that a console player could easily insert a MC during a speedrun, I don't see why I couldn't in a TAS. In fact I do it at the end of chapters to compare my times to the console versions (XBOX360/PS3). Opinions or solutions to this problem?
I personally would prefer option 2. This is still a while off, but I thought I'd put the idea out there.
I would say to use two different .dtms, and exit the game after saving, simply because the alternative would require anyone playing it back to change disks manually at the exact frame you did (if it even works at all). However i'm not really sure what the rules/precedent says to do here, so i'd get confirmation from someone else before doing anything.
TAS frowns on saves, but if the save can be generated using an example movie it's generally ok, it's even more ok in this situation, because it's required. (If it's required)
I'd say don't worry terribly much about the logistics at this point. Things will work out as they work out.
Build a man a fire, warm him for a day,
Set a man on fire, warm him for the rest of his life.
New WIP. My PC is unable to do proper encodes, so there is no audio. Just uploading to show ya'll, to tell me if I made any big mistakes.
Link to videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QJQJCQeew4
I left the widescreen hack in just because, well, I like it.
The encode is 1.1GB for 15 minutes, and I think the quality is pretty good, although the original dump is about 5x sharper. Since the black bars serve no real purpose other than to simulate a widescreen image, I may just crop them out of my next encode.
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
As far as I'm concerned, you didn't make any mistakes. You killed enemies pretty quick to get desired item drops, you performed the out of boundary trick at 12.20 instantly,killed the boss in the same manner. All in all, you had nice momentum.
New WIP. Sorry, no cabin fight yet. I will probably redo everything in Chapter 2-2, but the route will still be the same. I was told I need to equip a hand grenade for the cabin fight so I will do that when using the crest on the church.
Link to video
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 1466
Location: Not playing Puyo Tetris
I love the comments. It's nice to know what you are thinking/doing and why.
The boat on the lake boss was fun. I didn't know you could clip like that.
The town attack, when you first enter, was awesome. Three grenades and everyone left.
When TAS does Quake 1, SDA will declare war.
The Prince doth arrive he doth please.
I looked into this trick, but I believe DITMAN glitch is required, and I don't have the striker yet. (DITMAN is a glitch that gives double speed). Also, I would have to jump down after getting Ashley, catch Ashley at the bottom of the ladder, climb back up, do the glitch, and go out the church door. The only benefit I see to this is possibly getting that 5500ptas at the altar.
"dearest?" Um, okay... anyway it is far slower to stop moving, change direction, then continue running. I do a wide-arc so that when I get around the fence I have a better running angle, although it is still not very straight it is still better than the alternative. Surprisingly running into the wall doesn't slow my speed down that much. In fact I've found few instances where running into things slightly boosts Leon forward, but these instances save like 1 frame over a 50 frame area.
A good example of this is the start of Ch1-3. After passing the chainsaw guy, I try to stay as close to the side boundary as possible while still minimizing distance traveled. If I run into the sides too soon Leon will slow down, but as I start to round corners sometimes Leon is "pushed" slightly around the corner.
A few minor details, at 13:42 where you jump the second gap in the bridge, you wouldn't save a few frames if you go a bit further to the right before jumping? Also at 13:55 right before the church entrance, same thing there if it's possible to run closer to the brazier before turning?
And right at the end where you knife and kick the two people, there's no way you can bypass them without attacking them? Like circulating around them, forcing them to do a futile attack until Ashley catches up? Maybe even swap to your gun and shoot one of both? As the knife/kick combo takes roughly 4 seconds and a weapon switch takes ~2 seconds, you maybe can get a grenade or so too from this.
"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential.
Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."
I actually did try that but what happens as you go right, when Leon jumps the gap he faces a slightly different direction. It takes about 3-4 frames on those bridges to change his direction, which would be gained back from a better distance. Net gain is zero.
What happens is the angle to approach the stoop of the church isn't optimal with straight paths. Taking a straight path is theoretically the fastest, but taking large arcing paths is better since it gets Leon around corners.
If you don't attack the enemies, Ashley freaks out and goes in her fetal position, which in turn gets her kidnapped. I actually have to wait 4 frames for her to catch up to me, so although it is semi-unoptimal, I have to wait anyway.
And I will redo everything after the Gigante fight; mainly because I was told to equip a grenade before the church to start the cabin fight area. I however may go against this, and equip the handgun instead. I'm thinking of doing critical-headshots on all the enemies in the cabin. I may even equip handgun to get rid of those two enemies that you mentioned Tseralith. I'm still thinking about it.
Yeah, I just have a lot to deal with. There's the possibility of redoing ch1-3 entirely, and the fact the cabin fight is so near impossible to optimize. I am thinking of 1HKOing every enemy with critical headshots, but I'm also being told to use grenades by waiting for enemies to cluster. They both are fast, but the crit headshots are most optimal but leaves little room to collect enemy drops.
Then comes to Chief Mendez. I've been collecting flame grenades to kill his first phase, but apparently hand grenades also work well. I just need to do a lot of testing is all.
Just keep in mind with that though, i'm not sure if it'll actually sync disc changes. I'm thinking it'll end up switching discs a frame late, but i'm not sure. If it does, you can just hex it, but be aware of that.
edit: Just tested it using a panic alert to output the frame number it was changing discs on, and it matches, so i guess it should sync after all. I'd still check to be sure right after you get to the second disc, but i think it should be fine.
I'm thinking of continuing this TAS, but a big problem has surfaced. Newer revisions of Dolphin horribly desync my current WIP. Are there any huge advantages to TASing with newer revisions? If so I may redo everything thus far. Everything I have tried after R 3.0-376 gets a desync.
EDIT: The problem is when I gain control of Leon, where the VI of the first input frame (723) matches in both versions, but the frame number is different by 1 frame (1652 vs 1653). The newer version added 1 frame the frame after I press START to skip the beginning cutscene.
MORE EDIT: I was able to hex edit out 1 frame from the .dtm and it synced up until the village right before the first enemy drops an item. All the movements are frame-by-frame the exact same up until that enemy drop, but I'm guessing the RNG changed just enough that the item isn't the same. :/