Beyond: Two Souls

2014-05-22 03:03:09 am

Deal with it!

I knew about the 2nd video but as you said its useless thanks to the distance limit. But the first video is very interesting. Very nice find, I hope we can exploit that in other chapters as well

Hamers

2014-05-22 06:04:35 am

Yeah, it seems barely possible in My Imaginary Friend too. Once you enter the backyard you are not distance limited anymore, but locked in with barriers again. A break would be pretty useless there, but still interesting to get. Placing Jodie with her back against the fence will make Aiden spawn behind her and you are pretty much right inside the barrier. You are deep enough into it that you can't move at all and have to switch back. So I guess with the perfect position you should be able to get through. Same in The Condenser. Once entered the building there is a barrier preventing Aiden from leaving the building through the front door. You can delay Jodie's OoB trigger here as well and if you walk inside the trigger with an angle Aiden spawns again deep into the barrier and you have to switch back.

What I don't get is that Aiden sometimes spawns in 2 different positions. Most of the time right behind her, but sometimes on the side or even in front of her (the latter would make breaking barriers pretty easy I think). Not sure what causes it, it doesn't seem related to the camera, Aiden's previous position, Jodie's head rotation or her idle animation. Maybe it's RNG or based on some collision check with walls.

Yeah, it seems barely possible in My Imaginary Friend too. Once you enter the backyard you are not distance limited anymore, but locked in with barriers again. A break would be pretty useless there, but still interesting to get. Placing Jodie with her back against the fence will make Aiden spawn behind her and you are pretty much right inside the barrier. You are deep enough into it that you can't move at all and have to switch back. So I guess with the perfect position you should be able to get through. Same in The Condenser. Once entered the building there is a barrier preventing Aiden from leaving the building through the front door. You can delay Jodie's OoB trigger here as well and if you walk inside the trigger with an angle Aiden spawns again deep into the barrier and you have to switch back.

What I don't get is that Aiden sometimes spawns in 2 different positions. Most of the time right behind her, but sometimes on the side or even in front of her (the latter would make breaking barriers pretty easy I think). Not sure what causes it, it doesn't seem related to the camera, Aiden's previous position, Jodie's head rotation or her idle animation. Maybe it's RNG or based on some collision check with walls.

Wypy

2014-05-23 05:18:04 am

Deal with it!

Just to make sure I flew into the darkness for about 15 minutes in "The Party" and it seems you just get out of the other side of the map again. So no chapter skips or something like that (at least from that chapter)

Hamers

2014-05-23 06:11:38 am

Wait really? That's interesting that the game would do that. I expected the darkness to last forever so to speak. I also tried flying into the darkness for about 5 minutes and then switching back to Jodie to see how the game would handle teleporting about 5 km in 0.5 seconds. I hoped the engine would start unloading collisions, triggers or objects at that distance and maybe open a small window to get OoB before the game can catch up after teleporting. Unfortunately the game doesn't seem to do that at all or is able to handle it without a hitch. Nothing strange even when looking at it frame by frame.

Wypy

2014-05-23 06:30:14 am

Deal with it!

I only tried flying on the side of the map, I'm gonna try to go below the map and just fly down. So I should get out on top of the map again but chances are it only applies flying sideways.

Wypy

2014-05-23 11:13:55 am

Deal with it!

So I think I figured out Aidens spawn patterns. Well they arent really patterns though. By default Aiden always spawns somewhat behind Jodie. The position changes depending on what is behind her. Usually Aidens spawn point gets pushed to side if behind Jodie is a Wall. Doors are different. It seems it depends on whether Jodie can go through the door at some point or not. Example:
Before knocking on the Farm door in Navajo you can not enter the House with Aiden, but if you position yourself correctly you can make him spawn in the house facing the door.
Same in the Chapter Dragons Hideout. Once you are in the Hall where you first see the submarines, you can make Aiden spawn outside of the Hall even though you cannot phase through the door anymore.

Hamers

2014-05-23 11:16:29 am

Very interesting, that might be somewhat useful. I figured out as well that his position apparently depends on a basic collision check.

Wypy

2014-05-23 01:09:28 pm

Deal with it!

Didn't know you could just wait out the fire. Didn't need to save the Woman with the baby(forgot her name). You probably need to wake up Stan though.

Hamers

Edit history:

Hamers: 2014-05-23 01:10:19 pm

2014-05-23 01:09:52 pm

Yeah. Much slower though unfortunately. Timed it at like 4 minutes.

Hamers

2014-05-24 03:08:04 pm

Yesterday was a pretty big day for Beyond glitching. Found several breaks. None of them useful, but they tell us a lot how the chapters are scripted and perhaps what can be broken. Will upload some videos soon and then try again.

Wypy

2014-05-24 04:22:09 pm

Deal with it!

Yeah nothing I found is useful for a speedrun. Triggers seem to be scripted quite well. I'm curious about what you found.

your_name_here

2014-05-24 09:36:09 pm

A couple things were found today for the mission. If you're playing on easy mode, you can press the x button to change cover and simultaneously the triangle button to switch to aiden. Jodie will run to the next cover while you're in aiden mode, skipping any triggers between the two cover points.

Hamers knows more about the currently usable skips, but I just found that you can skip an area load trigger. After the hotel, in the area with the guy who you have to distract, the next alleyway has a skippable trigger to load the area with the cathedral.

Also, Hamers, I checked and you can use the glitch during black sun to skip a couple short scenes.

Hamers

Edit history:

Hamers: 2014-05-24 10:52:31 pm

Hamers: 2014-05-24 10:52:07 pm

Hamers: 2014-05-24 10:44:29 pm

Hamers: 2014-05-24 10:40:52 pm

2014-05-24 10:39:56 pm

Yup. Video containing the 3 skips I found is coming in a couple of minutes.

@your_name_here
Good idea with the save and reload. From our Heavy Rain testing I can tell you that the save system is almost 100% accurate which is surprising for this kind of game. It will save any bypassed trigger, used/unused prompts and glitches. The only inconsistency happens if you save during a cutscene. Loading the save will start the cutscene from the beginning even if you saved during it. Apart from that it is saving the exact level state including player position. It's also worth noting that once the save symbol appears the game already finished saving internally a couple of seconds ago and is just writing the content to the harddrive.

Nice that Black Sun somewhat works.

your_name_here

2014-05-24 10:50:09 pm

Yeah, I had just kinda hoped that maybe the load system would load whatever area you're standing in as a matter of course, as happens with some games.

Hamers

2014-05-24 11:04:37 pm

Yeah, since it is saving the exact state that probably includes the unloaded area. The save points are not script supported either, the game is able to save literally any given second without problems. They don't need to be individually configured like in some games. Unfortunate considering going OoB and reaching the cathedral early might have been possible. I guess every single cover should still be tested if there are more invisible area triggers around. Considering the entire base map seems to be loaded at once and triggers still work despite the individual part of the map not fully loaded it is perhaps possible to go OoB earlier, skip some stuff and then hit another area trigger to continue on.

Good that you found this, as it confirms my suspicion about Navajo. The tree area probably doesn't get loaded when you get on the horse after the fort investigation. Instead I assume there are triggers on the ground that only Jodie or the horse can activate that dynamically load/unload parts of the desert. So it might be possible after all to break the trigger while together with Jay and run directly back to the farm. Grandma is already inside, so her prompt might be activated.

Yeah, since it is saving the exact state that probably includes the unloaded area. The save points are not script supported either, the game is able to save literally any given second without problems. They don't need to be individually configured like in some games. Unfortunate considering going OoB and reaching the cathedral early might have been possible. I guess every single cover should still be tested if there are more invisible area triggers around. Considering the entire base map seems to be loaded at once and triggers still work despite the individual part of the map not fully loaded it is perhaps possible to go OoB earlier, skip some stuff and then hit another area trigger to continue on.

Good that you found this, as it confirms my suspicion about Navajo. The tree area probably doesn't get loaded when you get on the horse after the fort investigation. Instead I assume there are triggers on the ground that only Jodie or the horse can activate that dynamically load/unload parts of the desert. So it might be possible after all to break the trigger while together with Jay and run directly back to the farm. Grandma is already inside, so her prompt might be activated.

your_name_here

Edit history:

your_name_here: 2014-05-24 11:11:57 pm

your_name_here: 2014-05-24 11:11:55 pm

2014-05-24 11:11:04 pm

Another important thing is that, unlike other games, this game only has one trigger that causes the next area to stream in (assuming that this case is typical), instead of one for the behind the scenes stream in, and a secondary one that immediately freezes the game and loads the area if it hasn't loaded yet. This means that if you can cause the loading to be slowed for some reason (or get there before it has time to load), then you can potentially get to any area while it is still not yet loaded.

Hamers

Edit history:

Hamers: 2014-05-24 11:40:12 pm

Hamers: 2014-05-24 11:22:23 pm

2014-05-24 11:19:22 pm

Yeah, The Last of Us for example most of the time stops you if the area is not loaded yet. I'm pretty sure this case is typical, at least Navajo seems to operate the same. Also this:

So there is at least one other area trigger after the hotel before the one you skipped. It might still be possible to drop down with square and maybe reach the one you skipped and trigger the cathedral which would skip the guard and perhaps some walking. Provided you don't fall under the map which likely happens. I guess you might be able to manipulate the loading, depends on how fast it actually loads. Looking at Navajo probably pretty fast. I actually saw it loading the tree area once while riding as far right as possible. So this can be used for testing.

Hamers

2014-05-25 12:11:30 am

Useful trigger skips in The Mission:

your_name_here

2014-05-25 12:15:58 am

Not a glitch, but in the the dock area in Dragon's Hideout, it's faster to walk over to the other side, kill the man working on the sub, then when the other man comes over, fail the prompt. Just something I overlooked in previous runs.
Also, Easy mode is generally faster for most things, and doing the entire SS run in easy mode should save time by itself.

Hamers

2014-05-25 12:18:30 am

If you fail the prompt you need to possess the other guy again though. I think that's slower. But yes, easy mode is faster, but not in every chapter. It certainly is in Dragon's Hideout. After deactivating the field flying to Jodie takes like 3 seconds on easy and much much longer on hard. That's a really big timesaver.

yournamehere

2014-05-25 12:26:53 am

If you fail the prompt, then they kill each other.

Hamers

2014-05-25 12:27:37 am

And the gate? I'm pretty sure you have to revive the one dead dude to open it.

yournamehere

2014-05-25 12:28:51 am

You just fly over to it and open it.

Hamers

Edit history:

Hamers: 2014-05-25 12:29:40 am

2014-05-25 12:29:17 am

Nice, I revived the dead dude which also works. Didn't know about the other choice. That's faster then.

Hamers

Edit history:

Hamers: 2014-05-25 12:42:32 am

Hamers: 2014-05-25 12:35:19 am

2014-05-25 12:33:13 am

Works, but not on Easy. Hard exclusive then.

EDIT: Seems like it may glitch out if you don't press L1 immediately. Now the yellow dot is there when it previous wasn't. Weird.