Spider-Man (2000) - February 2, 2014

Edit history:

SDAVerification: 2014-02-02 01:48:47 pm

2014-01-17 12:59:15 pm

Game Page: Doesn't exist yet

Spider-Man (2000) (Any %) (Single Segment)

Decision: Accept

Congratulations to 'Piston'!

Thread title:

SDAVerification

2014-01-17 12:59:16 pm

Run Information

Spider-Man (2000) (Any %) (Single Segment)

Verification Files

http://v.speeddemosarchive.com/spiderman2000/

Please refer to the Verification Guidelines before posting. Verifications are due by Jan. 31, 2014.

Please post your opinions about the run and be certain to conclude your post with a verdict (Accept/Reject). This is not a contest where the majority wins - I will judge each verification on its content. Please keep your verification brief unless you have a good reason otherwise.

After 2 weeks I will read all of the verifications and move this thread to the main verification board and post my verdict.

Eternalspirit

Edit history:

Eternalspirit: 2014-01-17 06:37:29 pm

2014-01-17 06:05:58 pm

Hmm.. so DxWnd appears to be a program that overrides the version of DirectX that the game sends API calls to, as well as overriding certain DirectX behaviour. Does this count as a game mod? I don't think it should be, as it isn't directly modifying the game itself, only DirectX.

So, aside from that, I'd accept this run, despite the death. The execution was otherwise quite flawless.

Warepire

2014-01-18 03:36:08 am

Heavy Metal Powered

Quote from Eternalspirit:

Hmm.. so DxWnd appears to be a program that overrides the version of DirectX that the game sends API calls to, as well as overriding certain DirectX behaviour. Does this count as a game mod? I don't think it should be, as it isn't directly modifying the game itself, only DirectX.

So, aside from that, I'd accept this run, despite the death. The execution was otherwise quite flawless.

DxWnd modifies more system calls than Direct X, but it does not alter the games code. The question is if such actions are passable by the rules. The program does enable games that aren't meant to be windowed, to be played in a windowed mode and it does so by injecting 3rd party wrapper for system calls.
System calls include:
DirectX
Window management and messaging

DxWnd also does coordinate correction and provides an FPS limiter. As far as I know the FPS cannot be changed after the game is started, so cheating by limiting the FPS too much should be quite detectable.

I cannot comment on the game itself, but the above should be evaluated by the moderators to see if it's acceptable. I think it should be, but I am no moderator.

[quote="Eternalspirit"]Hmm.. so DxWnd appears to be a program that overrides the version of DirectX that the game sends API calls to, as well as overriding certain DirectX behaviour. Does this count as a game mod? I don't think it should be, as it isn't directly modifying the game itself, only DirectX.

So, aside from that, I'd accept this run, despite the death. The execution was otherwise quite flawless.[/quote]
DxWnd modifies more system calls than Direct X, but it does not alter the games code. The question is if such actions are passable by the rules. The program does enable games that aren't meant to be windowed, to be played in a windowed mode and it does so by injecting 3rd party wrapper for system calls.
System calls include:
DirectX
Window management and messaging

DxWnd also does coordinate correction and provides an FPS limiter. As far as I know the FPS cannot be changed after the game is started, so cheating by limiting the FPS too much should be quite detectable.

I cannot comment on the game itself, but the above should be evaluated by the moderators to see if it's acceptable. I think it should be, but I am no moderator.

Eternalspirit

2014-01-18 06:23:34 am

Quote from Warepire:

Quote from Eternalspirit:

Hmm.. so DxWnd appears to be a program that overrides the version of DirectX that the game sends API calls to, as well as overriding certain DirectX behaviour. Does this count as a game mod? I don't think it should be, as it isn't directly modifying the game itself, only DirectX.

So, aside from that, I'd accept this run, despite the death. The execution was otherwise quite flawless.

DxWnd modifies more system calls than Direct X, but it does not alter the games code. The question is if such actions are passable by the rules. The program does enable games that aren't meant to be windowed, to be played in a windowed mode and it does so by injecting 3rd party wrapper for system calls.
System calls include:
DirectX
Window management and messaging

DxWnd also does coordinate correction and provides an FPS limiter. As far as I know the FPS cannot be changed after the game is started, so cheating by limiting the FPS too much should be quite detectable.

I cannot comment on the game itself, but the above should be evaluated by the moderators to see if it's acceptable. I think it should be, but I am no moderator.

Seems fair enough.

I would love to hear more details about why this is necessary. I'm assuming the game cannot be played or something on modern PCs without it?

[quote="Warepire"][quote="Eternalspirit"]Hmm.. so DxWnd appears to be a program that overrides the version of DirectX that the game sends API calls to, as well as overriding certain DirectX behaviour. Does this count as a game mod? I don't think it should be, as it isn't directly modifying the game itself, only DirectX.

So, aside from that, I'd accept this run, despite the death. The execution was otherwise quite flawless.[/quote]
DxWnd modifies more system calls than Direct X, but it does not alter the games code. The question is if such actions are passable by the rules. The program does enable games that aren't meant to be windowed, to be played in a windowed mode and it does so by injecting 3rd party wrapper for system calls.
System calls include:
DirectX
Window management and messaging

DxWnd also does coordinate correction and provides an FPS limiter. As far as I know the FPS cannot be changed after the game is started, so cheating by limiting the FPS too much should be quite detectable.

I cannot comment on the game itself, but the above should be evaluated by the moderators to see if it's acceptable. I think it should be, but I am no moderator.[/quote]

Seems fair enough.

I would love to hear more details about why this is necessary. I'm assuming the game cannot be played or something on modern PCs without it?

CBenni

2014-01-18 06:29:27 am

The problem with Spiderman 2000 (PC) is that it runs the game at a different speed depending on framerate. We recently had a submission that got rejected on technical issues (and the run not being perfect). I have not yet had time to watch this run, but I will once I do.

Eternalspirit

Edit history:

Eternalspirit: 2014-01-18 07:07:14 am

2014-01-18 07:06:50 am

Quote from CBenni:

The problem with Spiderman 2000 (PC) is that it runs the game at a different speed depending on framerate. We recently had a submission that got rejected on technical issues (and the run not being perfect). I have not yet had time to watch this run, but I will once I do.

So, essentially, using DxWnd forces an even playing field for all the runners? Is that accurate?

CBenni

2014-01-18 10:06:01 am

That is what has to be discussed. This is a difficile thing, since the correct settings will make PC and console versions run equally fast, and the community has not yet set standards for this for all I know. I will ask people about it that know more about this than me.

ktwo

Edit history:

ktwo: 2014-02-01 12:46:17 am

ktwo: 2014-01-26 08:24:43 am

2014-01-26 02:32:43 am

Never played this game.

A/V: The discussion above on the capturing method is beyond my knowledge, so I can't comment on if it's been correctly done or not. All I can say is that the audio and video look fine from a viewer perspective.

One ugly death (15 sec lost) and what looked like a couple of minor mistakes. Other than that it seemed like it was well played. I found a video on easy (this submission is on kids mode (=very easy?)) that I believe is faster, . That video managed to skip all the cut scenes somehow. Why was that not possible in this run? If that's a different version, you should try to get hold of that one instead. I just compared the two videos for the first level and the gameplay in the other video appeared to be slightly tighter. I'm kind of on the fence here. The submitted run looks good (outside the death) and seems acceptable imo (despite the possibility of a faster run out there). However, I'd need to know more about the cut scenes before being able to say more. And if the runner sees this, it'd be interesting to hear some comments about the youtube run as well and how it compares to this submission.

~~neutral (until I see an explanation for the lack of cut scene skips)~~
accept

Never played this game.

A/V: The discussion above on the capturing method is beyond my knowledge, so I can't comment on if it's been correctly done or not. All I can say is that the audio and video look fine from a viewer perspective.

One ugly death (15 sec lost) and what looked like a couple of minor mistakes. Other than that it seemed like it was well played. I found a video on easy (this submission is on kids mode (=very easy?)) that I believe is faster, [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70TPHfnSshI[/url]. That video managed to skip all the cut scenes somehow. Why was that not possible in this run? If that's a different version, you should try to get hold of that one instead. I just compared the two videos for the first level and the gameplay in the other video appeared to be slightly tighter. I'm kind of on the fence here. The submitted run looks good (outside the death) and seems acceptable imo (despite the possibility of a faster run out there). However, I'd need to know more about the cut scenes before being able to say more. And if the runner sees this, it'd be interesting to hear some comments about the youtube run as well and how it compares to this submission.

[s]neutral (until I see an explanation for the lack of cut scene skips)[/s]
accept

CBenni

2014-01-26 05:13:24 am

Oh, sorry for forgetting about this. I talked to the runner about the dxwnd usage and got the following info about what exactly DxWnd is used for:

"DirectX1~6"

This option helps deter crashing and game speed. The PC version of this game is prone to random game crashes and is quite likely to crash in the final chapter. Because of the outlandish game speed, I've had complete game crashes in every single level without DxWnd's assistance. For my run specifically, "Spidey vs. Scorpion!" has a notorious PC glitch of Spider-Man swinging underneath the floor during the in-game cutscene before the fight, resulting in an instant death upon control. As in the previous run submitted, the difference with DxWnd and non-DxWnd is apparent in the movement of Spider-Man. Jumping is actually faster than swinging in the original PC version, contrary to the console versions where swinging and swing cutting is faster. The game does not intend you to go as fast as older PC's couldn't handle, which is why playing the game too fast has consequences. Despite the difference in speed, with DxWnd, I've still managed to outpace the game and trigger failures, crashes, and unexpected deaths in the game. As for the in-game settings go, only the brightness and screen resolution can be changed. Despite the program, both PC versions have the exact same glitches and tricks, only difference is movement.

"Do not notify on task switch"

As the game manual insists, any form of task switching, most notably alt+tabbing, is not supported by the game. Any notifications, specifically stream crashes or other windows errors will crash the game. This has nothing to do with performance, just a layover setting I used when livestreaming the game.

"Prevent Windows Maximize"
Just as the name entails.

Now the question is: Are these settings reproducable for everyone in speed? It is always an issue for Spidey PC.

Aside from that, A/V is fine.
The run is definitely very good, minor mistakes here and there, but the run itself is an accept from me.

@ktwo, The cutscenes cannot be skipped in Kid Mode difficulty.

So, as a conclusion, I think this run is acceptable. All my knowledge about the run is from the person who submitted the run, therefore I dont really have any objections, since this is the best run of the game I have seen so far; The only issue is that we recently rejected a run of spidey 200 PC, partially because of technical reasons - These are "fixed" by using dxwnd, but I dont know if that isnt too arbitrary to require dxwnd with these settings to be used for a submission.
Anyways, thats an accept from me.

Oh, sorry for forgetting about this. I talked to the runner about the dxwnd usage and got the following info about what exactly DxWnd is used for:

"DirectX1~6"

This option helps deter crashing and game speed. The PC version of this game is prone to random game crashes and is quite likely to crash in the final chapter. Because of the outlandish game speed, I've had complete game crashes in every single level without DxWnd's assistance. For my run specifically, "Spidey vs. Scorpion!" has a notorious PC glitch of Spider-Man swinging underneath the floor during the in-game cutscene before the fight, resulting in an instant death upon control. As in the previous run submitted, the difference with DxWnd and non-DxWnd is apparent in the movement of Spider-Man. Jumping is actually faster than swinging in the original PC version, contrary to the console versions where swinging and swing cutting is faster. The game does not intend you to go as fast as older PC's couldn't handle, which is why playing the game too fast has consequences. Despite the difference in speed, with DxWnd, I've still managed to outpace the game and trigger failures, crashes, and unexpected deaths in the game. As for the in-game settings go, only the brightness and screen resolution can be changed. Despite the program, both PC versions have the exact same glitches and tricks, only difference is movement.

"Do not notify on task switch"

As the game manual insists, any form of task switching, most notably alt+tabbing, is not supported by the game. Any notifications, specifically stream crashes or other windows errors will crash the game. This has nothing to do with performance, just a layover setting I used when livestreaming the game.

"Prevent Windows Maximize"
Just as the name entails.

Now the question is: Are these settings reproducable for everyone in speed? It is always an issue for Spidey PC.

Aside from that, A/V is fine.
The run is definitely very good, minor mistakes here and there, but the run itself is an accept from me.

@ktwo, The cutscenes cannot be skipped in Kid Mode difficulty.

So, as a conclusion, I think this run is acceptable. All my knowledge about the run is from the person who submitted the run, therefore I dont really have any objections, since this is the best run of the game I have seen so far; The only issue is that we recently rejected a run of spidey 200 PC, partially because of technical reasons - These are "fixed" by using dxwnd, but I dont know if that isnt too arbitrary to require dxwnd with these settings to be used for a submission.
Anyways, thats an accept from me.

Axel Ryman

Edit history:

Axel Ryman: 2014-01-30 04:21:52 am

Axel Ryman: 2014-01-30 04:21:35 am

Axel Ryman: 2014-01-30 04:04:21 am

2014-01-30 03:59:43 am

We all scream for Eyes Cream

One thing I want to point out, this run is not Single Segment. Stage 5, Race to the Bugle, is in What If? Mode. You can see this 4 minutes 50 seconds video time, where Ghost Rider is driving down the building, and again at 5 minutes 2 seconds driving up a building. This however is odd since Stage 4, Stop The Bomb!, has no signs of What If? Mode being active, since there is no message inside the safe, and the rest of the run does not seem to have other What If? Mode bits, such as the sub in stage 30, and Black Cat dancing in stage 31. Going through the run, I believe it is only Stage 5 that has What If? Mode enable, but I haven't looked for everything just yet. The cheat can only be turned on and off through the cheat menu, and not once did the runner show himself/herself doing it.

This alone makes me say reject on the grounds of a single segment run. Taking the above into account, I also reject it on being a segmented run due to the 1 death, as it makes it unoptimized.

Outside that, it is a good run, both in visual and play quality with some nice tricks, however that one issue negates the run. Reject.

Edit: Another thing to note, the runner doesn't mention anything about it either.

Okay so the PC version throws Ghost Rider in even without What If? Mode on, so ignore the above.

A/V is good and the gameplay is very nice, even with the 1 death, so I say accept.

[s]One thing I want to point out, this run is not Single Segment. Stage 5, Race to the Bugle, is in What If? Mode. You can see this 4 minutes 50 seconds video time, where Ghost Rider is driving down the building, and again at 5 minutes 2 seconds driving up a building. This however is odd since Stage 4, Stop The Bomb!, has no signs of What If? Mode being active, since there is no message inside the safe, and the rest of the run does not seem to have other What If? Mode bits, such as the sub in stage 30, and Black Cat dancing in stage 31. Going through the run, I believe it is only Stage 5 that has What If? Mode enable, but I haven't looked for everything just yet. The cheat can only be turned on and off through the cheat menu, and not once did the runner show himself/herself doing it.

This alone makes me say reject on the grounds of a single segment run. Taking the above into account, I also reject it on being a segmented run due to the 1 death, as it makes it unoptimized.

Outside that, it is a good run, both in visual and play quality with some nice tricks, however that one issue negates the run. Reject.

Edit: Another thing to note, the runner doesn't mention anything about it either.[/s]

Okay so the PC version throws Ghost Rider in even without What If? Mode on, so ignore the above.

A/V is good and the gameplay is very nice, even with the 1 death, so I say accept.

AlecK47

Edit history:

AlecK47: 2014-01-31 02:09:31 pm

2014-01-31 11:28:20 am

A/V good, no cheating that I could see, and if the DxWnd stuff is to the community's standards (as it seems to be) that's good

The run looks solid to me as well, with only a couple places, including the death, obviously suboptimal.

Accept

SDAVerification

2014-02-02 01:48:57 pm

Decision posted.