Thanks. Now if i only had the money lol.
Well, I think you should start a test run without a recorder. It's necessary to practise segments and to check of your strategies work.
SDA Forum
King of hearts
Enter the shop as you're about to leave Dollet when X-ATM is chasing you. It will pass you and you'll avoid the cutscene. Other than that use the walking trick + menu trick to avoid some encounters. I believe I avoided 2 in my plan and delayed some others.
If you need any tips on things like the walking trick or anything else at all, feel free to ask me. This applies to anyone attempting this run.
If you need any tips on things like the walking trick or anything else at all, feel free to ask me. This applies to anyone attempting this run.
King of hearts
This trick will save you a few minutes throughout the game. It's worth doing since the REs are set in stone, all you need to do is know where to walk and where to use the menu trick. Overall a pretty easy trick. The only hard parts would be using the 'skipping' trick where you walk for only the part where the game registers it as a walk or run movement.
I'm going to try to explain this again.
Every step you take from when you start your game is counted(it's a hidden counter). First step you take is step #1 second is step #2 etc. Every time you run a step, your 'danger value' goes up by 5 and every walking step it goes up by 2.
step #0, you start at 0
you run as you normally would and at step #1 your danger value goes up to 5
you run as you normally would and at step #2 your danger value goes up to 10(because you ran)
you run as you normally would and at step #3 your danger value goes up to 15
etc...
so as you can see, when you run your 'danger value' goes up by 5 every time your character moves a certain distance(about a whole stride Squall makes) and your step # goes up.
Now this 'danger value' is compared to that step #'s 'danger value limit'. Each step # has it's own limit and it seems random, but it's not since we have the whole list of what each step's 'danger value limit' is. The whole list is on page 86 in this thread, just look for the giant block of text, the 'danger value limits' are listed under 'limit'.
So if your 'danger value' is greater than the 'danger value limit', you get into a random encounter. Since walking only increases your 'danger value' by 2, you can use this to avoid a random encounter. Here's an example.
step #1 'DVL' is 40
step #2 'DVL' is 34
step #3 'DVL' is 87
step #4 'DVL' is 192
step #5 'DVL' is 17
step #6 'DVL' is 86
step #7 'DVL' is 253
step #8 'DVL' is 19
what you're looking for is a low number like step #5 which has a limit of 17. Here's what happens when you run.
step #1 'danger value' is 5
step #2 'danger value' is 10
step #3 'danger value' is 15
step #4 'danger value' is 20
step #5 'danger value' is 25 you get into a battle here since 25 > 17 (your 'danger value goes back down to 0 since you got in a battle)
step #6 'danger value' is 5
step #7 'danger value' is 10
step #8 'danger value' is 15
now here's what happens when you walk.
step #1 'danger value' is 2
step #2 'danger value' is 4
step #3 'danger value' is 6
step #4 'danger value' is 8
step #5 'danger value' is 10 no battle here since your 'danger value' is less than the limit of 17. you continue walking...
step #6 'danger value' is 12
step #7 'danger value' is 14
step #8 'danger value' is 16
As you can see you avoided a random encounter by walking.
I'm going to try to explain this again.
Every step you take from when you start your game is counted(it's a hidden counter). First step you take is step #1 second is step #2 etc. Every time you run a step, your 'danger value' goes up by 5 and every walking step it goes up by 2.
step #0, you start at 0
you run as you normally would and at step #1 your danger value goes up to 5
you run as you normally would and at step #2 your danger value goes up to 10(because you ran)
you run as you normally would and at step #3 your danger value goes up to 15
etc...
so as you can see, when you run your 'danger value' goes up by 5 every time your character moves a certain distance(about a whole stride Squall makes) and your step # goes up.
Now this 'danger value' is compared to that step #'s 'danger value limit'. Each step # has it's own limit and it seems random, but it's not since we have the whole list of what each step's 'danger value limit' is. The whole list is on page 86 in this thread, just look for the giant block of text, the 'danger value limits' are listed under 'limit'.
So if your 'danger value' is greater than the 'danger value limit', you get into a random encounter. Since walking only increases your 'danger value' by 2, you can use this to avoid a random encounter. Here's an example.
step #1 'DVL' is 40
step #2 'DVL' is 34
step #3 'DVL' is 87
step #4 'DVL' is 192
step #5 'DVL' is 17
step #6 'DVL' is 86
step #7 'DVL' is 253
step #8 'DVL' is 19
what you're looking for is a low number like step #5 which has a limit of 17. Here's what happens when you run.
step #1 'danger value' is 5
step #2 'danger value' is 10
step #3 'danger value' is 15
step #4 'danger value' is 20
step #5 'danger value' is 25 you get into a battle here since 25 > 17 (your 'danger value goes back down to 0 since you got in a battle)
step #6 'danger value' is 5
step #7 'danger value' is 10
step #8 'danger value' is 15
now here's what happens when you walk.
step #1 'danger value' is 2
step #2 'danger value' is 4
step #3 'danger value' is 6
step #4 'danger value' is 8
step #5 'danger value' is 10 no battle here since your 'danger value' is less than the limit of 17. you continue walking...
step #6 'danger value' is 12
step #7 'danger value' is 14
step #8 'danger value' is 16
As you can see you avoided a random encounter by walking.
nvm, I get it now, though it took me forever to wrap my brain around it.
Does the Danger Value reset to 0 anywhere, or is a battle inevitable no matter what until you save your game?
How does Enc-Half affect the values? Also, upon what interval does the Step ID change (i.e. does it change whenever the footstep sfx play?)?
Does the Danger Value reset to 0 anywhere, or is a battle inevitable no matter what until you save your game?
How does Enc-Half affect the values? Also, upon what interval does the Step ID change (i.e. does it change whenever the footstep sfx play?)?
King of hearts
The best way to see how this works is by getting a psx emulator and messing with it yourself. I'll explain the whole process right now for anyone interested. It's actually pretty simple if you just follow these directions.
Get an emulator such as ePSXe. Get the bios scph1001.bin and put that in ePSXe's bios folder(google it, first link worked for me). Now download and install Playstation Emulation Cheater. Just install it and when it tells you to find the plugins folder, select the plugins folder in your ePSXe directory. This will enable you to hit ctrl+h during your game and look at your game's RAM values at that frame you pressed it.
So now just run up your game of FFVIII using ePSXe. I find it much quicker to rip a copy of the FFVIII image to your hard drive, so if you can do it I recommend it. Start a new game and get to Fire Cavern. Hit ctrl+h to go to '[pec] Cheat Hacking Engine'. Here you will be able to view what step # you're on and what your danger value is. To get these two in your list first click search. It will say 'too many addresses found in the memory range'. Change your 'value' that you're searching for to any other number (other than 0 since that is what you just searched for) and click continue to search again. Now it should say no addresses found. What we just did was to simply clear out your found addresses.
Now you're going to add in the addresses you want. Click on Add/Remove R. to add in an address. The first one is gonna be your danger value. Type in 8005F0FE in both fields and click add. Now you have your danger value listed in your addresses. Do the same thing again for your step # using 8005F151. Now you should save this so you don't have to type in these addresses everytime you restart by clicking save state. This feature of PEC is kinda dumb since you have to do a search before you can load your addresses. You can't use 'load state' at the 'Enter the values to start your search' screen. So just click search before you load up your addresses.
You can continue playing by clicking resume emulation and move around and see how each value's change when you hit ctrl+h again. You can also modify what step # you're on and your danger value by clicking Modify and change it to whatever you want. These values only go from 0-255 though.
There is one more address that's kinda important, but I left it out since I didn't talk about it recently and it's not important for a speed run. This is your offsync at address 8005F150. What offsync does is it adds 13 to your danger value limits everytime you move 255 step #s and go back down to 0. This is just made in the game to break the pattern so you don't end up getting the same REs every 256 steps. It's not important because if you're using this for the speed run, you won't go far enough to make your step # counter reset to 0 to change your offsync, you should have Enc-None long before that.
Get an emulator such as ePSXe. Get the bios scph1001.bin and put that in ePSXe's bios folder(google it, first link worked for me). Now download and install Playstation Emulation Cheater. Just install it and when it tells you to find the plugins folder, select the plugins folder in your ePSXe directory. This will enable you to hit ctrl+h during your game and look at your game's RAM values at that frame you pressed it.
So now just run up your game of FFVIII using ePSXe. I find it much quicker to rip a copy of the FFVIII image to your hard drive, so if you can do it I recommend it. Start a new game and get to Fire Cavern. Hit ctrl+h to go to '[pec] Cheat Hacking Engine'. Here you will be able to view what step # you're on and what your danger value is. To get these two in your list first click search. It will say 'too many addresses found in the memory range'. Change your 'value' that you're searching for to any other number (other than 0 since that is what you just searched for) and click continue to search again. Now it should say no addresses found. What we just did was to simply clear out your found addresses.
Now you're going to add in the addresses you want. Click on Add/Remove R. to add in an address. The first one is gonna be your danger value. Type in 8005F0FE in both fields and click add. Now you have your danger value listed in your addresses. Do the same thing again for your step # using 8005F151. Now you should save this so you don't have to type in these addresses everytime you restart by clicking save state. This feature of PEC is kinda dumb since you have to do a search before you can load your addresses. You can't use 'load state' at the 'Enter the values to start your search' screen. So just click search before you load up your addresses.
You can continue playing by clicking resume emulation and move around and see how each value's change when you hit ctrl+h again. You can also modify what step # you're on and your danger value by clicking Modify and change it to whatever you want. These values only go from 0-255 though.
There is one more address that's kinda important, but I left it out since I didn't talk about it recently and it's not important for a speed run. This is your offsync at address 8005F150. What offsync does is it adds 13 to your danger value limits everytime you move 255 step #s and go back down to 0. This is just made in the game to break the pattern so you don't end up getting the same REs every 256 steps. It's not important because if you're using this for the speed run, you won't go far enough to make your step # counter reset to 0 to change your offsync, you should have Enc-None long before that.
King of hearts
Don't know what picture you're talking about but most likely you'll be playing on your computer. I think it's better that way anyway since your computer monitor acts like a small(or large, depending on what you got) hdtv. You can also monitor your capture and see if anything messed up as you play instead of playing on a tv and finding out later that your computer had dropped 100 frames during that long segment.
Using pinnacle studio, there is a delay with commands registered on screen, about a second or so. How did you get rid of this?
Also, I tried using another program, DScaler, and here there was no command lag, but the audio seems choppy and distorted. Do you have any experience with DScaler and the Pinnacle 510?
Finally, if a speedrun is recorded with no audio, is it still legit?
Thanks for your help.
Also, I tried using another program, DScaler, and here there was no command lag, but the audio seems choppy and distorted. Do you have any experience with DScaler and the Pinnacle 510?
Finally, if a speedrun is recorded with no audio, is it still legit?
Thanks for your help.
everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music
No, but if all else fails, you can just record the video and audio separately (that's assuming the audio records better in another program like audacity) and then combine them later. I don't know why the audio would be choppy, but then again I don't have that exact card.
Quote from David Singleton:
Using pinnacle studio, there is a delay with commands registered on screen, about a second or so. How did you get rid of this?
Also, I tried using another program, DScaler, and here there was no command lag, but the audio seems choppy and distorted. Do you have any experience with DScaler and the Pinnacle 510?
Finally, if a speedrun is recorded with no audio, is it still legit?
Thanks for your help.
Also, I tried using another program, DScaler, and here there was no command lag, but the audio seems choppy and distorted. Do you have any experience with DScaler and the Pinnacle 510?
Finally, if a speedrun is recorded with no audio, is it still legit?
Thanks for your help.
Powered splitter, preferrably.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103065
SDA doesn't accept it if it doesn't have audio.
I hate to be unhelpful (considering mine worked right off the bat), but fiddle around with it, maybe plug it into different USB ports; and If all else fails, reformat. Enhasa's idea is pretty awesome too, because then you can buy the generic version of this, hook it into your sound card's Microphone jack, and record it separately with Audacity. <_<