QUERY: Glide Wrappers

2009-06-05 05:12:13 am

I have been going over the rules and have some queries for the SDA mod/admins.

(http://speeddemosarchive.com/lang/rules_en.html)

I understand we are not allow virtualization or emulation because of the possibility of slowing down gameplay and hence one getting an unfair advantage of head-shots, etc. But what about sound-emulation (eg. VDMSound)? All that does it emulate sound hardware and doesn't affect the actual game-running speed (it probably makes the game slower).

Another question is, can we use Glide Wrappers? Again, API wrappers are not emulation or virtualization nor hacks. The Glide Wrappers just translates DOS API calls to Windows API calls. It's similar analogy to the Doom source ports where people have ported DOS Doom to run and display under Windows XP whilst keeping true and authentic to the original running game logic (hence why the recording keystroke demos are compatible between DOS doom & 'vanilla' source ports). So Glide Wrappers are similar analogy in that they only enable us to visually see game graphics under Windows, that were originally written for DOS.

So, is Glide Wrappers acceptable for SDA rules?

Thread title:

I have been going over the rules and have some queries for the SDA mod/admins.

(http://speeddemosarchive.com/lang/rules_en.html)

I understand we are not allow virtualization or emulation because of the possibility of slowing down gameplay and hence one getting an unfair advantage of head-shots, etc. But what about sound-emulation (eg. VDMSound)? All that does it emulate sound hardware and doesn't affect the actual game-running speed (it probably makes the game slower).

Another question is, can we use Glide Wrappers? Again, API wrappers are not emulation or virtualization nor hacks. The Glide Wrappers just translates DOS API calls to Windows API calls. It's similar analogy to the Doom source ports where people have ported DOS Doom to run and display under Windows XP whilst keeping true and authentic to the original running game logic (hence why the recording keystroke demos are compatible between DOS doom & 'vanilla' source ports). So Glide Wrappers are similar analogy in that they only enable us to visually see game graphics under Windows, that were originally written for DOS.

So, is Glide Wrappers acceptable for SDA rules?

tycho102

2009-06-05 03:58:20 pm

Some people think they can outsmart me.

Quote from andwan0:

So, is Glide Wrappers acceptable for SDA rules?

Plural subject, singular verb.

If those Glide Wrappers are part of a Next-Generation-Secure-Computing-Base emulator or translator, then the answer to your question is "yes". If the Glide Wrappers are not part of a NGSCB emulator, or translator, then the answer to your question is "no". Right now, there are 0.0000000000 NGSCB glide emulators, and as many translators.

Unfortunately, the answer to your question is "no".

MMAN

2009-06-06 05:16:58 am

The Tomb Raider Unfinished Business run used a glide wrapper (and is pretty much the only way to record the game), so there's already a precedent for it.

dex

2009-06-06 09:48:14 am

Invisible avatar

I was told it was acceptable to use a glide wrapper for my Outlaws run (the easiest technique to record that provides highest video quality is just that), the reply was along the lines of a "it's just a graphics workaround? that seems ok".

andwan0

2009-06-06 01:40:21 pm

Cool, this is good to back up when putting a case for Blood for SDA submission.

Cheers guys.

tycho102

2009-06-07 08:27:35 pm

Some people think they can outsmart me.

This is obviously news to me. The main issue is reproducability. If it can be reproduced, then it's likely to be accepted. That's the like the Half-Life 2 speedrun. That didn't clear for 6 months or more after it was released.

Ewil

2009-06-16 09:05:37 am

Like tycho102 said, the main issue is reproducability. At least one verifier would have to try to reproduce particular trick in both versions, because some may only work under Glide wrapper and on contrary.