Final Fantasy VIII

Poxnor

2011-06-13 12:25:30 pm

Moo! Flap! Hug!

Quote from DarkKobold:

#4: I'm good at creating a lua gui, so I could, if nothing else, give you good sample code to work from.

Okay, awesome, I'd like that Smiley

It'll be a few days before I have a chance to play with this (lots of work to do Sad

), but yeah, I would really like to test this. Much like knowing the card probabilities, this knowledge could really change the face of an SS run Smiley

FF8Junkie

2011-06-15 08:56:43 am

Just a question, when will the run be available for download? Like i said, i don't care much about official verification, i just wanna see it ... finally Grin

DarkKobold

2011-06-15 01:43:03 pm

RPG TASer

Quote from FF8Junkie:

Just a question, when will the run be available for download? Like i said, i don't care much about official verification, i just wanna see it ... finally Grin

You could watch this in the meantime...

Shameless TAS advertisement:
http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11273

Poxnor

2011-06-15 09:10:17 pm

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Hey DarkKobold,

Could you toss up the address for the battle PRNG?

Thanks Smiley

DarkKobold

2011-06-17 07:10:51 am

RPG TASer

There are 8 possible, but only one is active at a time.
Here you go -

RNGBase = 0x000EEBA8;
RNGOffset = 0x000EEBB0;
RNG_Address = RNGBase + memory.readbyte(RNGOffset);

Sush

Edit history:

Sush: 2011-06-17 05:43:35 pm

2011-06-17 05:43:19 pm

Random question: is it a faux pas to upload your run elsewhere before it's officially verified/accepted/uploaded on SDA? I obviously want to show it off and put it somewhere to be watched but I wouldn't want to break any such rule, if there is one.

ZenicReverie

2011-06-17 05:58:50 pm

Waiting hurts my soul...

No rule against it. It's your run, you have the right to do whatever you want with it.

Tiberius

2011-06-18 07:44:46 am

Quote from ZenicReverie:

No rule against it. It's your run, you have the right to do whatever you want with it.

In other words, gogogogo! There are so many of us waiting to see this!

Sush

2011-06-18 01:29:49 pm

Well, It's all up on youtube. Obviously the final SDA videos will be in better quality and I'll have a chance to properly explain what I'm doing in each segment but for your easy fix:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PLB89D4DCEBB11D724&feature=mh_lolz

Scorpio

2011-06-18 01:30:13 pm

Watcher

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaany ^^

Poxnor

2011-06-18 11:56:47 pm

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@DarkKobold: Thanks for those addresses. What affects the value stored in RNGOffset? (If it's not something trivial, I'll experiment with it to find out). Because, if something affected that value in between choosing to blow away a spell and when the target spell is chosen, the degrees of freedom jump significantly.

DarkKobold

2011-06-19 10:22:11 am

RPG TASer

Quote from Poxnor:

@DarkKobold: Thanks for those addresses. What affects the value stored in RNGOffset? (If it's not something trivial, I'll experiment with it to find out). Because, if something affected that value in between choosing to blow away a spell and when the target spell is chosen, the degrees of freedom jump significantly.

Poxnor - It is deceptively trivial. The RNG uses a table of 256 values. The value of RNGOffset doesn't matter, beyond figuring out which of the eight 8-bit values to use. For example, if Selphie is CL4 and less than level 10, RNG = 179 will bring up "The End", regardless of RNGOffset.

If you want, I'll post the table of values.

FF8Junkie

2011-06-19 10:32:09 am

Quote from Sush:

Well, It's all up on youtube. Obviously the final SDA videos will be in better quality and I'll have a chance to properly explain what I'm doing in each segment but for your easy fix:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PLB89D4DCEBB11D724&feature=mh_lolz

audiovisual drug delivery! thanks so much, i owe you, sire!

Poxnor

2011-06-19 12:09:34 pm

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Quote from DarkKobold:

Poxnor - It is deceptively trivial. The RNG uses a table of 256 values. The value of RNGOffset doesn't matter, beyond figuring out which of the eight 8-bit values to use. For example, if Selphie is CL4 and less than level 10, RNG = 179 will bring up "The End", regardless of RNGOffset.

If you want, I'll post the table of values.

I guess I wasn't quite clear. RNGOffset does matter, if it changes between when "Blow away magic" is rolled and when "Target for magic to be blown away" is rolled.

If RNGOffset doesn't change between those two rolls, then the two rolls will be linked (i.e., there will be a small finite number of magics that can be targeted, less than or equal to the number of rolls out of 256 that produce "Blow away magic"). However, if RNGOffset changes between those two rolls, then all 256 RNG values for magic targets are open.

So, the value itself of RNGOffset doesn't matter at all. It's whether or not the value of RNGOffset can change between those two rolls that matters. Hence, I was wondering what causes the value of RNGOffset to change Smiley

[quote="DarkKobold"]Poxnor - It is deceptively trivial. The RNG uses a table of 256 values.  The value of RNGOffset doesn't matter, beyond figuring out which of the eight 8-bit values to use. For example, if Selphie is CL4 and less than level 10, RNG = 179 will bring up "The End", regardless of RNGOffset.

If you want, I'll post the table of values.[/quote]
I guess I wasn't quite clear.  RNGOffset does matter, if it changes between when "Blow away magic" is rolled and when "Target for magic to be blown away" is rolled.

If RNGOffset doesn't change between those two rolls, then the two rolls will be linked (i.e., there will be a small finite number of magics that can be targeted, less than or equal to the number of rolls out of 256 that produce "Blow away magic").  However, if RNGOffset changes between those two rolls, then all 256 RNG values for magic targets are open.

So, the [i]value itself[/i] of RNGOffset doesn't matter at all.  It's whether or not the value of RNGOffset can [i]change[/i] between those two rolls that matters.  Hence, I was wondering what causes the value of RNGOffset to change :)

DarkKobold

Edit history:

DarkKobold: 2011-06-19 01:24:16 pm

2011-06-19 12:16:48 pm

RPG TASer

Oh, I getcha.
Yeah, RNGOffset is chosen at the beginning of the battle, and stays set for the entire one.

gyth

2011-06-20 09:43:47 am

Quote from Sush:

Obviously the final SDA videos will be in better quality

The youtube videos show some vertical barring. Is that in the original?

Sush

2011-06-20 02:10:30 pm

Sadly that's just part of the PC port. By the end of the run I'd tried every graphic/software combonation under the sun and that specific problem has always been present.

From what I've read on the internet it's a wide spread issue of the port in general.

Carcinogen

2011-06-20 05:34:16 pm

The music in the PC port is so awful =[

Either way, I'll watch the videos little by little and give my two cents since I didn't sign on to verify.

Scorpio

2011-06-22 01:40:28 am

Watcher

Watched - damn, didn't know that this many can be skipped o_O

And I will play FF8 one more time, this time with early card-mod Smiley

It is just SO sweet ^^

Terribleno

2011-06-22 10:46:53 pm

Having finally watched all of it, I have a suggestion for the final segment or so: axe Zell in favor of someone else. When the chandelier falls in Ultimecia's Castle, Zell takes his sweet time getting up cause he hurt his neck. You should be able to instantly proceed down the trapdoor if Zell is not in the party. (Yes, I'm talking about a 3-second improvement.) Also, in terms of time saved, Irvine may be better against Ultimecia's final phase for a quicker attack.

(End of nit picking)

Great run though, I'm impressed this even beat 10 hours. Cheesy

Poxnor

2011-06-24 03:31:50 pm

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Dumb question: does anyone know what the Camera Movement option in the game configuration menu does? Is there a particular Camera Movement setting that will save time? (I have no idea what that setting does.)

Same question for the Analog Input option. (I think that this option just turns up the sensitivity of when you start running as opposed to walking, but I'm not sure -- I'd assume a high setting helps you get moving faster from a stand-still?)

Thanks Smiley

Sush

2011-06-24 04:17:23 pm

Camera Movement is how much the camera angle changes during battle. I take it that if you set it to max you'd get a new view point of the battle after every attack or so.

Your guess is as good as mine with the Analog Input though. I'm guessing it's just sensitivity of how far you move the analog to move up/down in menus etc.

Poxnor

2011-06-26 11:50:37 pm

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New time-saver. At the beginning of Disc 3, the first time you enter the orphanage with Cid and Edea there, Cid is supposed to come out into the first room of the orphanage (before you talk to Edea) and beg you to forgive Edea, even if you can't forgive him.

During my marathon run of FF8 for the Returners, Cid did not come out into that first room, and I walked directly to Edea (skipping the entire dialogue with Cid). Given that I was almost seven hours into the run, I simply thought that I was losing it. But, big thanks to DarkKobold who went back and checked for me if that skip is possible -- it turns out that I wasn't going insane.

Quote from DarkKobold:

Just managed to pull it off. Its pretty difficult to get, (maybe 1 out of 10). The key seems to be entering the area while holding up and triangle, and spaming right as fast as you can.

Of course, playing live, I wasn't holding triangle, nor was I spamming anything. I was just running using the analogue stick. Perhaps we can find a better technique to pull off the skip more reliably.

New time-saver.  At the beginning of Disc 3, the first time you enter the orphanage with Cid and Edea there, Cid is supposed to come out into the first room of the orphanage (before you talk to Edea) and beg you to forgive Edea, even if you can't forgive him.

During my marathon run of FF8 for the Returners, Cid did not come out into that first room, and I walked directly to Edea (skipping the entire dialogue with Cid).  Given that I was almost seven hours into the run, I simply thought that I was losing it.  But, big thanks to DarkKobold who went back and checked for me if that skip is possible -- it turns out that I wasn't going insane.

[quote="DarkKobold"]Just managed to pull it off. Its pretty difficult to get, (maybe 1 out of 10). The key seems to be entering the area while holding up and triangle, and spaming right as fast as you can.[/quote]
Of course, playing live, I wasn't holding triangle, nor was I spamming anything.  I was just running using the analogue stick.  Perhaps we can find a better technique to pull off the skip more reliably.

Poxnor

2011-06-28 11:46:34 pm

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Another bizarro time-saver of about one second: when talking to the three moombas in prison to open shortcuts, I somehow (accidentally) positioned myself just right and managed to talk to the right moomba and the centre moomba at the same time (i.e., I had dialogue boxes for both moombas open at once, side-by-side).

scorn

2011-07-05 05:18:44 pm

Nice job Sush! Do you plan to record an audio commentary for this run? If so, I'll wait for the official SDA release before watching it.