I'm very very new, I was inspired by SGDQ and I've got a couple questions.

2013-08-23 03:24:38 pm

1. For casual speed running do people practice with emulators? Is the idea that emulators will never count towards a speed run, but are a good resource when trying to get good at a game?

2. I probably should be able to find them, but where are the good FAQs for getting started, like what equipment do you use, how do you get it, etc?

3. What are the rules for PC speed running, can I map buttons to a gamepad? Or does it have to be keyboard only? I know it's generally said you can't use macros, but what other limitations are there? How do you know if loading times are hurting a run? Are there any tools that deal with that?

Anything else you want to share let me know. I'm really excited to join this awesome community. Smiley

Thread title:

Warepire

Edit history:

Warepire: 2013-08-23 03:45:52 pm

2013-08-23 03:43:33 pm

Heavy Metal Powered

I can answer "1." for you, though others may bring up points I missed, so don't listen only to me.

You can practice however you want, emulators are also good for testing things as they have save-states so you can test a trick over and over until you figure it out without having to perhaps restart the game for each test. Just remember that emulators may not have the timing perfectly replicated so there may be differences when it comes to timing your input between emulator and the actual console. Which means you might want to practice on both.

Some emulators have really advanced functions which can let you look at the games memory as you play or disassemble functions of the game etc, if you know your way around these more advanced things they can help a lot in a couple of situations, but it is not a must to learn how to use these things if you feel they are over your head. No one will think less of you if you don't know how to do this.

And you're never really alone when you work on your game if you post about your progress and discoveries on the forum.

I can answer "1." for you, though others may bring up points I missed, so don't listen only to me.

You can practice however you want, emulators are also good for testing things as they have save-states so you can test a trick over and over until you figure it out without having to perhaps restart the game for each test. Just remember that emulators may not have the timing perfectly replicated so there may be differences when it comes to timing your input between emulator and the actual console. Which means you might want to practice on both.

Some emulators have really advanced functions which can let you look at the games memory as you play or disassemble functions of the game etc, if you know your way around these more advanced things they can help a lot in a couple of situations, but it is not a must to learn how to use these things if you feel they are over your head. No one will think less of you if you don't know how to do this.

And you're never really alone when you work on your game if you post about your progress and discoveries on the forum.

doicm

2013-08-23 03:55:55 pm

For 2, the knowledge base might be a good place to start. Otherwise, the Tech Support forum has some useful Q&A for starting up depending on your setup.

For 3, it depends on the game and category. Check the PC games thread for the particular game you have questions about.

presjpolk

2013-08-23 05:31:58 pm

HELLO!

1. Save state practice can be very, very important actually. But input lag and unreliable framerates hinder that for some runners.

2. the Knowledge Base has a ton of info. http://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/

3. I may be wrong on this, but my understanding is you are allowed to map to a single button press anything that you could do with a single keyboard press using the standard in-game menus, basically.

Bismuth

2013-08-25 10:50:48 am

Worthless categories WR master

3. Usually in PC games where the loading times vary a lot, the preferred method of timing is real-time with all loading screens removed. It is tedious to time but in the end it's the best option. If someone could develop a tool that automatically pauses and unpauses the timer during loading screens, that person would receive a Nobel Prize. Wink

kirbymastah

2013-08-26 07:48:08 pm

<(^_^)>

1. Emulators are great for testing and such. For actual practice, it's not a bad idea, but be VERY careful with it; there can be input lag, or extra lag in emulator games, and so on, that can mess with your timing when you go to console.

2. SDA Knowledgebase is a good place to check if your game is there. If not, search the SDA threads and see if people have looked into running the game. For equipment, the knowledge base has lots of information about how to record and stuff; I personally found the thread at https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/complete_creating_sda_acceptable_videos_ezcap_guide_.html helpful