Really amazing run. I also appreciate the commentary, great work!
Really cool speedruns, it will be great if you runs some mods like CMP or Katana
SDA Forum
we have lift off
Time for an update! You'll notice the title has changed to RTA (OK officially this is SS w/ resets, but it's RTA as far as this game is concerned), I guess this means I'm now doing an RTA run!
To be honest I thought the SS was the last run I'd do, but I do have one last glitch to make a run out of and RTA seems to be where Speedruns are going. I considered starting a new game, but while there are loads of games I like, I couldn't find one I wanted to run. I'm on another level with Max Payne and personally think it's great to run, so this is back where I find myself.
During the segmented run I discovered a new application of the save glitch, but at the time I didn't understand it fully and that lead me to apply logic wrongly and write it off as not useful. Soon after completing that run I went back and tested it, only to discover it was in fact... pretty significant. It basically involves being able to move in the cutscenes at the start of levels (and every level has an opening cutscene). At the time I thought it was due to save glitching at the end of the previous level, but actually, you save glitch in the loading screen. It's as simple as pressing save while the next level loads, this results in a save being placed before the comic strip and then you can save glitch the opening cutscene by saving at the correct time as normal. Coupled with the regular in-game save glitch, I can now be over 4 minutes faster than the SS record. Two particularly major skips are p1c6 (segmented route) and p1c7 (start of level save glitch - I knew I could break this level properly!).
For this run I reckon another 2-3 weeks of practise / planning and then I'll start attempts. I planned the run a while back, so it's just going through it again and practising the save glitch. For timing, the only thing that is excluded is loading screens, so I have to minimise save lag and basically all the downtime associated with the save glitch. In terms of difficulty, I get to use the DMW glitch for 4 levels, which will help me get to the p1c8 SJ more frequently; though overall there's more glitching and many of the same difficulties of a SS run. I think it will be more fun though!
To be honest I thought the SS was the last run I'd do, but I do have one last glitch to make a run out of and RTA seems to be where Speedruns are going. I considered starting a new game, but while there are loads of games I like, I couldn't find one I wanted to run. I'm on another level with Max Payne and personally think it's great to run, so this is back where I find myself.
During the segmented run I discovered a new application of the save glitch, but at the time I didn't understand it fully and that lead me to apply logic wrongly and write it off as not useful. Soon after completing that run I went back and tested it, only to discover it was in fact... pretty significant. It basically involves being able to move in the cutscenes at the start of levels (and every level has an opening cutscene). At the time I thought it was due to save glitching at the end of the previous level, but actually, you save glitch in the loading screen. It's as simple as pressing save while the next level loads, this results in a save being placed before the comic strip and then you can save glitch the opening cutscene by saving at the correct time as normal. Coupled with the regular in-game save glitch, I can now be over 4 minutes faster than the SS record. Two particularly major skips are p1c6 (segmented route) and p1c7 (start of level save glitch - I knew I could break this level properly!).
For this run I reckon another 2-3 weeks of practise / planning and then I'll start attempts. I planned the run a while back, so it's just going through it again and practising the save glitch. For timing, the only thing that is excluded is loading screens, so I have to minimise save lag and basically all the downtime associated with the save glitch. In terms of difficulty, I get to use the DMW glitch for 4 levels, which will help me get to the p1c8 SJ more frequently; though overall there's more glitching and many of the same difficulties of a SS run. I think it will be more fun though!
we have lift off
Route for p3c4-p3c8. Practise starts now!
we have lift off
Part 2 RTA practise: http://www.twitch.tv/ridd3r
Part 1 RTA practise (p1c6-p1c9)
Part 3 RTA practise
Attempts starting tomorrow!
Part 1 RTA practise (p1c6-p1c9)
Part 3 RTA practise
Attempts starting tomorrow!
we have lift off
The latest recording on twitch has a complete run through with plenty of deaths and mistakes. There are a couple of kinks I came across that I'll need to plan around, but it was a useful run. Pretty much every single trick is in it, but I just missed the p2c5 final cutscene save glitch; apart from that it was there or there abouts. Unfortunately I get a bit of lag when streaming and I need a really constant frame rate for super jumping, so I'll be streaming a bit in these early stages when I know I'm not at the right level to get the run, but later on I'll be recording offline.
we have lift off
Quote from honorableJay:
It's too bad you can't output the audio/video to a secondary computer to handle the streaming so we can see the actual attempts.
I do have a laptop, but how do you connect them like that? Or were you just saying it would be nice if you could?
Update: Well I haven't been playing this much, did some attempts yesterday though, then one more today and beat the first two parts. I was over 3 minutes faster than my SS as of the end of p2c5 and that included two fairly large errors ~10s each; sub 53 is definitely the goal!
The Dork Knight himself.
Well you'd need a capture card for the laptop, then you'd just have to setup dual monitors on your comp with the secondary one going to the capture card on the laptop. For the audio you'd just have to use a Y-adapter to send audio to your speakers and the laptop capture card.
we have lift off
RTA in 53:50 with 3 deaths - apart from the deaths, the run was pretty solid. However, total time lost due to the deaths & 1 other major error was almost exactly 2 minutes, which means I'm now aiming for sub 52, a full 5 mins faster than the SS run! If I manage to consistently keep at it I should have it soon...
we have lift off
53:20 0 deaths, but lots of mistakes. I messed up a few super jumps and save glitches, so still about 1.5mins left to cut!
Also I found out a while ago that if you enable parent lock, the comic strips are taken out of the game, leaving a generic background picture to skip in place of the comics. This results in ~30s saved over the course of the run, since you skip 1 screen instead of 2. Additionally blood is colored white and a lot of the decals are removed. Obviously it's legit and faster to run in this mode, but does anyone have any thoughts about this? So far I've just been running in normal mode, since with parental lock it looks a bit lame (kills some of the atmosphere), but it's faster so...
Edit: nvm, I'm running it normally (i.e. without the parental lock). With the parental lock would be a separate category and it's just... not as good; and easier. In other words it's for wimps.
Edit 2: I'm finally attempting regularly (everyday) and I've made good progress over the past week or so. If I can keep up the attempts I'll get this before long!
Edit 3: Still attempting everyday, but been failing the p1c6 SJ recently and just generally making too many mistakes
Edit4: After all this time I still don't get this game. Struggling with part I at the moment :/
27th April:
OK, so I'm going to get back to this and finish it off this time! I have ordered a new internal hard drive for recording to, which should sort out the minor lag issues I have and probably add up to 10-20s over the course of the run (distracting more than anything else). By this time next week I'll be back into it properly and if the new drive works like I hope, I'll be able to stream without any additional lag!
Also I found out a while ago that if you enable parent lock, the comic strips are taken out of the game, leaving a generic background picture to skip in place of the comics. This results in ~30s saved over the course of the run, since you skip 1 screen instead of 2. Additionally blood is colored white and a lot of the decals are removed. Obviously it's legit and faster to run in this mode, but does anyone have any thoughts about this? So far I've just been running in normal mode, since with parental lock it looks a bit lame (kills some of the atmosphere), but it's faster so...
Edit: nvm, I'm running it normally (i.e. without the parental lock). With the parental lock would be a separate category and it's just... not as good; and easier. In other words it's for wimps.
Edit 2: I'm finally attempting regularly (everyday) and I've made good progress over the past week or so. If I can keep up the attempts I'll get this before long!
Edit 3: Still attempting everyday, but been failing the p1c6 SJ recently and just generally making too many mistakes
Edit4: After all this time I still don't get this game. Struggling with part I at the moment :/
27th April:
OK, so I'm going to get back to this and finish it off this time! I have ordered a new internal hard drive for recording to, which should sort out the minor lag issues I have and probably add up to 10-20s over the course of the run (distracting more than anything else). By this time next week I'll be back into it properly and if the new drive works like I hope, I'll be able to stream without any additional lag!
we have lift off
HOLY SHIT. A stupid lag problem that has been plaguing me for ages has finally been fixed. DO NOT have -disable3dpreloads in launch options for Max Payne. I picked it up in some stupid Max Payne optimisation hints webpage ages ago. It basically means if you go into a new area, typically a big room, there will be a bit of lag while the area is loaded. I was convinced this was just my computer being a little bit slow (it's only about 10s lost over a SS run and doesn't figure into segmented really since you play a level over and over). To try and fix it I ordered a new internal hard drive as I finally realised I shouldn't really be recording to an external with only USB2.0, but after installing it today it made no difference, so I knew something else must be up other than my computer.
So, why do you care? Well because now I can stream finally! Before, streaming compounded this loading lag so unless I wanted to lose 20+s and generally distracting lag I couldn't really do it. So, basically I'm aiming to attempt every day, though some days it may just be a 20mins attempt, the important thing is to play a bit each day.
I just did a test on twitch of p3c1 (which I made no mistakes on) and everything is running smoooooooth! I'll do some attempts soon. 51mins WILL HAPPEN.
Though I could probably say the same for every other run I've done, I really am not planning on any more after this. However, I would be swayed by a team run for DoA. With the save glitch sub 40 is definitely possible, but I'd want to run it with others to share some of the work.
So, why do you care? Well because now I can stream finally! Before, streaming compounded this loading lag so unless I wanted to lose 20+s and generally distracting lag I couldn't really do it. So, basically I'm aiming to attempt every day, though some days it may just be a 20mins attempt, the important thing is to play a bit each day.
I just did a test on twitch of p3c1 (which I made no mistakes on) and everything is running smoooooooth! I'll do some attempts soon. 51mins WILL HAPPEN.
Though I could probably say the same for every other run I've done, I really am not planning on any more after this. However, I would be swayed by a team run for DoA. With the save glitch sub 40 is definitely possible, but I'd want to run it with others to share some of the work.
we have lift off
Apparently it can prevent crashes... My fault for not looking into it I guess. Anyway, on my first stream I got to p3c5 before the run failed really stupidly. I was actually doing well until then, not without mistakes, but generally playing well. I lost 1:42 or so with a couple of deaths at p3c5 and a couple of stupid mistakes later. I estimate the run's a low 53, without the deaths that sounds about right for a solid 51! It would have been crazy to get 51 on my first stream, anyway a decent run so you can check it out on the highlights. I guarantee I won't get that far again for a while.
The game runs so smooth now! It's so much better.
The game runs so smooth now! It's so much better.
Strange days, incredible days
Just watched the 56:41 run after finishing my first playthrough of the game in about 3 years, great stuff. I found this game really hard, even on Fugitive, so this is one of those speedruns where the sheer skill involved is a nice bonus in addition to the routing and tricks. Good luck on sub-52, I'll stop in your stream at some point.
we have lift off
Just got 52:56 approx, over 40s better than my previous best (mainly due to not dying). Definitely more room for improvement; my target is still 51:xx. It's going to require a very consistent run, but I'm encouraged by how far my runs are now getting. It's also good to finally get a run that's not completely terrible (i.e. no massive mistakes).
we have lift off
For those interested I have been attempting this on and off, but have finally set aside a 6 week block to get this done properly. I'm attempting every day and I'm on the right pace, but I just need everything to come together in one run. I've got the save glitches and start of level save glitches nailed down, so it's an interesting run, breaking the game even more than the segmented run in some places. Aim is 51:xx; I'll update this thread when it's done, hopefully in the next month!
we have lift off
A few weeks in now and I lowered my PB by 20s to ~52:36 (0 deaths). Part III was sloppy, so I need to practise that a bit more. My super jumping also wasn't great, but that just seems to vary day to day. Sub 52 is definitely within my grasp!
I was streaming when I was attempting last year, but haven't done this time around. I think my subscription for xsplit has run out, may have a look into it.
Yeah a new segmented run would basically be the same except there are now a bunch of start of level save glitches which would be incorporated. It would be a balance though as save glitching the start of the level will mean less to use for save glitching cutscenes in the levels (7 saves max). Definitely a couple of minutes or maybe more to be saved. I really was planning on making this RTA my last run though. If other people showed interest in a segmented run though, I'd be up for a team effort.
Quote from Kotti:
Good luck, looking forward to it! Are you going to be streaming attempts?
I was streaming when I was attempting last year, but haven't done this time around. I think my subscription for xsplit has run out, may have a look into it.
Quote from honorableJay:
I wonder what a newer segmented run would look like with all of these extra tricks. Regardless, GL with the attempts. Hope you bought a gallon drum of lube cause Max's ass is gonna need it after the pounding you're gonna give him.
Yeah a new segmented run would basically be the same except there are now a bunch of start of level save glitches which would be incorporated. It would be a balance though as save glitching the start of the level will mean less to use for save glitching cutscenes in the levels (7 saves max). Definitely a couple of minutes or maybe more to be saved. I really was planning on making this RTA my last run though. If other people showed interest in a segmented run though, I'd be up for a team effort.
The Dork Knight himself.
Quote from ridd3r.:
I think my subscription for xsplit has run out, may have a look into it.
Ditch XSplit an use OBS. The interface still needs a little work, but it's years better than XSplit in terms of performance and certain advanced features (and it's free).