Severance: Blade of Darkness, no physics glitches

iWO

Edit history:

iWO: 2014-11-20 06:01:17 pm

2014-09-01 10:16:58 am

laria fresca, vino puro ...

hey,

I know the game is already done and have its page on SDA ( http://speeddemosarchive.com/BladeOfDarkness.html ) but I wanted to do it without using and abusing any physics glitches

I done it in roughly ~1:49:07 without any fancy super duper tricks and ~1:40:12 with some cool tricks (still glitchless)
more info about times is put in casual speedrunning section: https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/severance_blade_of_darkness.html

but what I wanted to do is real run and so, just wanted to ask what requirements should I fulfil to be able to publish recording in SDA - even if it wouldn't be able to publish I still want to meet requirements - it's question of honour L)
and I still want it to be fun and entertainment for viewer (why else would we all watch these videos?)

I've done some parts , I'm still not absolutely happy with them though and will be improving them, and I use following settings, which I have to know whether they will be accepted:

Video renderer: Diect3D (1024x768x32) (hopefully it will work, at least it does till now, I chose it over OpenGL because with latter I experience problems with textures and occasional crashes when D3D works in these respects, is brighter and look better after recording - subjective, I know)
Audio: DirectSound3D Software Emulation

with the following modifications:

0). Base game (US version I guess, english nevertheless). // no real modification
1). Official european 1.001 patch
2). Unofficial fogfix patch (same like Tesseract's; although it's d3d it's still much better than without, especially in dark maps like Abyss, filled with dense black fog where even with high brightness you would see nothing without fix)

these are purely visual (and unofficial) - to be approved
3). improved life-hud font (+12%) (can be checked here: http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w538/cieply/gry/blade_of_darkness/hud-Mapa_de_letras-112-1_zps1a14af0c.jpg , in real life difference can be compared here: http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w538/cieply/gry/blade_of_darkness/Mapa_de_letras_1001_zpsde0e74b4.jpg -> http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w538/cieply/gry/blade_of_darkness/Mapa_de_letras-h112-2b_dol_1001_zpse4ef9557.jpg)
4). "press F1" part of hud (in right bottom corner) - for me it's ugly, annoying and does not bring anything to the game - purely subjective
(http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w538/cieply/gry/blade_of_darkness/pressF1_with_and_without_zps8eabfaac.jpg)
5). Amazon skin texture in 512x512 instead of 256x256 (I know the difference can be spotted in high resolution only, but I would do anything for entertainment of spectator)

Thread title:

hey,

I know the game is already done and have its page on SDA ( http://speeddemosarchive.com/BladeOfDarkness.html ) but I wanted to do it without using and abusing any physics glitches

I done it in roughly ~1:49:07 without any fancy super duper tricks and ~1:40:12 with some cool tricks (still glitchless)
more info about times is put in casual speedrunning section: https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/severance_blade_of_darkness.html

but what I wanted to do is real run and so, just wanted to ask what requirements should I fulfil to be able to publish recording in SDA - even if it wouldn't be able to publish I still want to meet requirements - it's question of honour L)
and I still want it to be fun and entertainment for viewer (why else would we all watch these videos?)

I've done some parts , I'm still not absolutely happy with them though and will be improving them, and I use following settings, which I have to know whether they will be accepted:

Video renderer: Diect3D (1024x768x32) (hopefully it will work, at least it does till now, I chose it over OpenGL because with latter I experience problems with textures and occasional crashes when D3D works in these respects, is brighter and look better after recording - subjective, I know)
Audio: DirectSound3D Software Emulation

with the following modifications:

0). Base game (US version I guess, english nevertheless). // no real modification
1). Official european 1.001 patch
2). Unofficial fogfix patch (same like Tesseract's; although it's d3d it's still much better than without, especially in dark maps like Abyss, filled with dense black fog where even with high brightness you would see nothing without fix)

these are purely visual (and unofficial) - to be approved
3). improved life-hud font (+12%)  (can be checked here: http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w538/cieply/gry/blade_of_darkness/hud-Mapa_de_letras-112-1_zps1a14af0c.jpg , in real life difference can be compared here: http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w538/cieply/gry/blade_of_darkness/Mapa_de_letras_1001_zpsde0e74b4.jpg -> http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w538/cieply/gry/blade_of_darkness/Mapa_de_letras-h112-2b_dol_1001_zpse4ef9557.jpg)
4). "press F1" part of hud (in right bottom corner) - for me it's ugly, annoying and does not bring anything to the game - purely subjective
(http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w538/cieply/gry/blade_of_darkness/pressF1_with_and_without_zps8eabfaac.jpg)
5). Amazon skin texture in 512x512 instead of 256x256 (I know the difference can be spotted in high resolution only, but I would do anything for entertainment of spectator)

iWO

2014-11-20 06:16:51 pm

laria fresca, vino puro ...

formal question to professionals and possibly verifiers

I started to record runs, although now it's a bit messy I've made some I'm happy with
I tried to keep whole levels in one piece but sometimes it's just impossible and had to save/load
in attachment there is piece where I saved and loaded the game - it can be seen that it's not "continuous" - question is is this acceptable?
By acceptable I mean is this piece of material looks good enough to be verified positively? Because when I watch this after cutting (and yes, I cut this exactly before save - very next frame was menu already - and after load - analogically to save) it looks a bit like it was skipped something when it wasn't. That's my concern and I would like to hear others' opinions.

Attachment:

BoD_M7_jump_of_window-save__load-sample_IQ.mp4

ymh

2014-11-21 08:44:39 am

My recommendation would be to not cut the saving and loading at all. If your run needs to be timed using the real-time, then cuts like in your sample would be obstructive to determine where actual saving and loading starts. At least to me it would feel imprecise.

However, I think your run can still be edited by the staff after verification but before it's uploaded.

My thoughts.

iWO

2014-11-21 07:09:56 pm

laria fresca, vino puro ...

I know this game had been done already (taking advantage of physics glitches) and I don't even try to compete with that run, but it's not what I wanted to achieve
in that run there were many save/load sequences but they don't look like there had been something missing, in my it looks even if it's not actually true - it come from the fact that I did save/load during falling sequence so it would look more natural and it doesn't, at least for trained eye (compare to Tessaract's run)
what is my concern here is whether it (this particular one) can be accepted

> (...) cuts like in your sample would be obstructive to determine where actual saving and loading starts. At least to me it would feel imprecise.

what do you propose then?

iWO

Edit history:

iWO: 2014-11-21 07:19:08 pm

2014-11-21 07:11:24 pm

laria fresca, vino puro ...

Another thing is whether to save or not. To be honest I really tried not to save (at least keep whole levels continuous) but it's purely unrealistic but I keep it to absolute minimum. I know exactly where things can go wrong and there is always something that screws things unless you accept lesser playing quality due to occasional trips.
I went through the game something like 200-300 times (I lost count already), some levels more than others - there is no more space for more improvement in routes I discovered and in training, it's time to get the job done and record it and that's what I've started to do.

ymh

2014-11-21 09:36:14 pm

I see.

I'm no official, but on a second glance it seems like a minimal problem to me.

iWO

2014-11-24 07:42:10 am

laria fresca, vino puro ...

pity that it's the only 2 side conversation but you've suggested me an answer - I will do it the best way I can trying to be 100% sda compatible and see what will happen, what will be necessary to i correct, improve and that's hopefully way to do it.

ymh

Edit history:

ymh: 2014-12-04 08:30:00 am

ymh: 2014-12-04 08:29:44 am

ymh: 2014-11-24 08:29:05 am

2014-11-24 08:28:46 am

I don't know what your recording settings or hard-disk capacity is, but I'd suggest that you just keep the raw recording files, or at least the ones of the sequences you think are problematic. That way you can provide the original footage if it should be needed at a later point.

iWO

Edit history:

iWO: 2014-12-04 04:01:19 pm

iWO: 2014-12-04 03:46:11 pm

iWO: 2014-12-04 09:06:50 am

iWO: 2014-12-04 09:05:49 am

2014-12-04 07:13:03 am

laria fresca, vino puro ...

I will keep them, no problem

there is another thing - I wanted to do it in 1024x768 but it's so slow in this resolution (video looks jerky, non-smooth) - computer barely pulls it and I was thinking about switching to 800x600 so it didn't look so bad - it's 1.63 times less pixel data to process after all
it entails other issues though - namely neither anri nor yua will keep this resolution intact - HQ is 640x480 which is downgraded a lot and next would be 1024x768 (IQ)
/ed:/
only solution I can see is: to force resize to 768p in avs script or something like that which is crude and I don't vouch the result
or to avoid automatic size checking in anri but it's
- first against rules and SDA would need to permit it and
- second anri on my system doesn't work at the moment - can't figure out why but all .bat and .lnk files have same problem which I can't solve for few weeks now

iWO

Edit history:

iWO: 2016-07-24 05:07:59 am

iWO: 2016-07-24 05:01:54 am

iWO: 2016-07-24 05:01:01 am

iWO: 2016-07-24 04:19:47 am

iWO: 2016-07-24 04:09:35 am

iWO: 2016-07-24 03:26:16 am

2016-07-24 03:16:45 am

laria fresca, vino puro ...

-------------------------
I finally finished the run. Took me some time...

As said it's glitchless and therefore the question: I have two 'candidate' runs of last map and the better one can be questionable at some point when I kill Meskalamdug (great demon) which is absolutely passive - he does nothing; the fight takes ~10s when normally it's ~15-16.

The question to you guys is: is it following glitchless category or not?
Please check linked (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5v15nH7iUTVSHJncnFjVHdCcG8/view?usp=sharing , ) video and assess yourself. I'll appreciate decision, it's important as it's time to release this run as it lays on my drive for too long already.

PS. attachment is just in case for some reason link didn't work.
PS.2. as this cloud is kind of slow I put it in youtube as nonpublic

ShadowWraith

2016-08-03 05:02:55 pm

.

I would not consider it a glitch that violates 'glitchless' if the boss's AI does not function properly for whatever reason, so this is ok.

moooh

2016-08-04 01:07:12 pm

Exoray

Quote from iWO:

As said it's glitchless and therefore the question: I have two 'candidate' runs of last map and the better one can be questionable at some point when I kill Meskalamdug (great demon) which is absolutely passive - he does nothing; the fight takes ~10s when normally it's ~15-16.

The question to you guys is: is it following glitchless category or not?

This is just another good example of why calling anything "glitchless" is a misnomer. Trying to define what constitutes a glitch and what is not a glitch is silly since it's subjective, tries to second guess at developer intention and is pretty much impossible to put as a concrete category that people can agree upon. Your run probably contains a lot of other things that could be considered glitches already, so you'd probably be looking at finding a more solid definition of what type of run you are attempting.