Marble Blast Gold - June 16, 2020

Edit history:

SDAVerification: 2020-06-16 01:16:24 pm

2020-06-05 02:39:03 am

Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/MarbleBlastGold.html

Marble Blast Gold (pc) (pc) [Any %] [Individual Level]

Decision: Accept

Congratulations to Matan 'IsraeliRD' Weissman!

Thread title:

SDAVerification

2020-06-05 02:39:03 am

Run Information

Marble Blast Gold (pc) (pc) [Any %] [Individual Level]

Verification Files

http://v.speeddemosarchive.com/MarbleBlastGold-20200522/

Please refer to the Verification Guidelines before posting.

Please post your opinions about the run and be certain to conclude your post with a verdict (Accept/Reject). If you wish to remain anonymous, you can also send a pm with your reply to 'sdaverification' (please state clearly in that case which run you have verified). This is not a contest where the majority wins - Each verification will be judged on its content.

IsraeliRD

Edit history:

IsraeliRD: 2020-06-06 04:41:53 am

2020-06-06 04:41:42 am

Dragon Power Supreme

For those who don't want to download the runs but instead watch on YouTube (note, we replaced ingame audio with our own music), check them out here: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Bloopers

Few notes:
- This has been in progress for the last 5 years, with most effort taking place in the last two. Some records are 5 years old.
- 16 runners are featured
- All levels are WR as of time of YouTube posting. After that people were free to start beating levels. SDA submission is identical to YouTube videos, no improvements will be recorded exclusively for SDA.

- To explain Battlements, let me copy the YouTube notes:
Due to the way the recording system works, you cannot pause the game and then press restart as the recording system does not recognize these steps. This means that the in-game recording continues as if you never restarted, thus a desync occurs.
In order to do the edge-hit as shown in this run, some trapdoors must be touched (like in Trap Door Madness) so that when the restart occurs, they are still down by the time the marble does the edge-hit. Since the In Bounds Trigger extends too far down, by the time you reach the last trapdoor near the gate that trapdoor is long-since closed and you cannot do an edge-hit. However, if you restarted the level using the pause menu, you can reach that gate with the trapdoor down.
The solution to this was to allow a modified Batttlements mission file that automatically opens the trapdoors needed to be touched in an otherwise regular run. This modified mission is made available to download from SDA here: (link to SDA will be made once run is published there).
Please note that future runs of Battlements using a new theorized traplaunch route will no longer be able to use any modified mission file as the trapdoors would be closed by the time the traplaunch occurs.

This is an acceptable workaround as .rec (filetype produced by the in-game recording system) is currently a priority over other methods of recording.
To explain: an ex-community member (#2 in world ranking with 162 records plus many more in non-leaderboards) was found to have been cheating for at least 1.5 years, and was outed due to the .rec files which kept glitching and desyncing if you replayed his recordings. This enforced the already-required rule of using .rec only and nothing else to claim any world records. Again, this route of Battlements doesn't allow in-game recording to be done, so we modified the mission specifically to enable the in-game recording to occur.

For those who don't want to download the runs but instead watch on YouTube (note, we replaced ingame audio with our own music), check them out here: [url=https://youtu.be/8UlnSYjD-eI]Beginner[/url], [url=https://youtu.be/wVUB0o3X2F0]Intermediate[/url], [url=https://youtu.be/5JPqs8pGgbM]Advanced[/url], [url=https://youtu.be/6yqryGsaXU8]Bloopers[/url]

Few notes:
- This has been in progress for the last 5 years, with most effort taking place in the last two. Some records are 5 years old.
- 16 runners are featured
- All levels are WR as of time of [u]YouTube[/u] posting. After that people were free to start beating levels. SDA submission is identical to YouTube videos, no improvements will be recorded exclusively for SDA.

- To explain Battlements, let me copy the YouTube notes:
Due to the way the recording system works, you cannot pause the game and then press restart as the recording system does not recognize these steps. This means that the in-game recording continues as if you never restarted, thus a desync occurs.
In order to do the edge-hit as shown in this run, some trapdoors must be touched (like in Trap Door Madness) so that when the restart occurs, they are still down by the time the marble does the edge-hit. Since the In Bounds Trigger extends too far down, by the time you reach the last trapdoor near the gate that trapdoor is long-since closed and you cannot do an edge-hit. However, if you restarted the level using the pause menu, you can reach that gate with the trapdoor down.
The solution to this was to allow a modified Batttlements mission file that automatically opens the trapdoors needed to be touched in an otherwise regular run. This modified mission is made available to download from SDA here: (link to SDA will be made once run is published there).
Please note that future runs of Battlements using a new theorized traplaunch route will no longer be able to use any modified mission file as the trapdoors would be closed by the time the traplaunch occurs.

This is an acceptable workaround as .rec (filetype produced by the in-game recording system) is currently a priority over other methods of recording.
To explain: an ex-community member (#2 in world ranking with 162 records plus many more in non-leaderboards) was found to have been cheating for at least 1.5 years, and was outed due to the .rec files which kept glitching and desyncing if you replayed his recordings. This enforced the already-required rule of using .rec only and nothing else to claim any world records. Again, this route of Battlements doesn't allow in-game recording to be done, so we modified the mission specifically to enable the in-game recording to occur.

LotBlind

2020-06-08 02:51:12 pm

Well here's something interesting!

The blooper reel / any other extra footage isn't subject to the same A/V limitations anyway, as I understand.

So Battlements couldn't be recorded at all into .rec files without the edited level file, or you just couldn't do that edge trick?

IsraeliRD

2020-06-09 02:00:19 am

Dragon Power Supreme

Blooper reel has no limitations, correct, but runners do try and adhere to the same rules.

Battlements can be recorded into .rec regardless, but this specific route (the edge hit) cannot have a .rec made unless we made a modified mission.

ktwo

2020-06-15 02:23:32 am

Congrats to the all the runners. Another superb set of improvements, played at the highest level. I was surprised that even levels that pretty much looked like they're solved by rolling in a straight line have been improved. But maybe that will be explained in the comments. I look forward to checking out the runs again when they come with documentation.

Random questions.
- Are there players running the game without the use of clock stops? Or is that not recognized as a good category?
- In the comments for the submission currently on the site, there is a comment about that surely has to be the last big update. And now here we are with every single level improved. What's the sense of optimization this time? Are people still feeling there are "wide turns" here and there and continue to break records on a regular basis?

LotBlind

2020-06-15 07:11:12 am

Right, these look good with A/V and cheating. Apparently the .rec files are not trivial to decipher or edit.

accept

IsraeliRD

2020-06-15 11:03:13 pm

Dragon Power Supreme

ktwo:
- None play this, but it was brought up a few times with interest but never gathered actual serious response
- We feel optimization is greatly improved, but we know that some levels will be improved over time, though we don't believe we will have a massive update again (probably 20-30 levels down the line). About 3-4 levels are believed to have at 0.5-2 seconds improvements (we know what they are and all have been demonstrated, but no one successfully managed it yet).

SDAVerification

2020-06-16 01:16:25 pm

Decision posted.