Good finds! Regarding the smooth launch star landings, I haven't seen any in SMG2, but I have seen it in SMG1 (albeit, at a useless location). In Good Egg 2 on the rolling boulder planet, entering the launch star with a long jump results in a smooth landing on the Yoshi egg planet. In this case, I don't think the direction of the long jump matters.
SDA Forum
Got an any% PB today, 3:15:50 real time. I've left some details here: http://pastebin.com/AEd25nzL
Highlights:
- Possibly no deaths until Melty Monster S (star 58)?
- 47.xx Sweet Mystery 1
- 51.51 Upside Dizzy 1
- Gravity Gauntlet shortcut both times
Bad:
- World 6 in general isn't as polished as it could be
- Large time losses on Cloudy Court 1, Hightail Falls C, Fiery Flotilla C, and Boom Bunker 1
- Most pathetic death possible (but not losing much time) on Melty Monster S
- Death on final flutter in Galaxy Generator 1, and missed one cycle of meteors on final Bowser
I'm going to keep grinding World 6 and anything else needed, until my AGDQ run on January 11 (or 10 depending on your timezone).
I'm not sure if I'll have the time and motivation to keep in-practice after AGDQ, but I'll see what happens. Overall, I think if I manage to get 3:15 or lower at AGDQ, I'll already be really happy with what I've done in any%.
Either way, I'll make a lot more level videos after AGDQ, while I'm still familiar with the strategies.
Highlights:
- Possibly no deaths until Melty Monster S (star 58)?
- 47.xx Sweet Mystery 1
- 51.51 Upside Dizzy 1
- Gravity Gauntlet shortcut both times
Bad:
- World 6 in general isn't as polished as it could be
- Large time losses on Cloudy Court 1, Hightail Falls C, Fiery Flotilla C, and Boom Bunker 1
- Most pathetic death possible (but not losing much time) on Melty Monster S
- Death on final flutter in Galaxy Generator 1, and missed one cycle of meteors on final Bowser
I'm going to keep grinding World 6 and anything else needed, until my AGDQ run on January 11 (or 10 depending on your timezone).
I'm not sure if I'll have the time and motivation to keep in-practice after AGDQ, but I'll see what happens. Overall, I think if I manage to get 3:15 or lower at AGDQ, I'll already be really happy with what I've done in any%.
Either way, I'll make a lot more level videos after AGDQ, while I'm still familiar with the strategies.
Just an FYI: Following Yoshifan's suggestion, I wrote up a KB page listing strategies for individual Stars. For the video references, I tried to link to whoever found a trick whenever possible. I think there are enough video links for the most part, but it might be helpful to add screenshots at a few places. Also, I wasn't sure if the page should include more general strategy descriptions, such as coin collection routes for Hungry Luma Stars, so I omitted those and focused on shortcuts/exploits.
I also added Yoshifan's emulator testing notes to the General Mechanics page and added a section for Mario/Luigi differences.
I also added Yoshifan's emulator testing notes to the General Mechanics page and added a section for Mario/Luigi differences.
Just got around to checking the KB additions. I think they look great! Thanks for putting all of that together. 
Since we already have an IL videos page, I think it's best for the IL strategies page to focus on shortcuts/exploits, and non-obvious things (things that would benefit from text, not just video). So I think you have the right idea.
Since we already have an IL videos page, I think it's best for the IL strategies page to focus on shortcuts/exploits, and non-obvious things (things that would benefit from text, not just video). So I think you have the right idea.
Various updates that I think are worth leaving here.
1. nemi finished his segmented-by-world test run of SMG2 Any%: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT9oAoIZQ5qREhIvqhitLJRKpgrdVDKuW
Putting the segments together gives a final SRL time of around 3:01:38, which is nearly 10 minutes faster than his single-segment record of 3:11:30. This segmented test run is easily the best overall resource for Any% strategies now. It has a ton of new tricks and optimizations, and maintains an extremely impressive level of play throughout, so I highly recommend watching the entire thing.
I think the only significant missing trick is this Chompworks one, which was found after the World 4 segment was completed.
2. Pottoww has been making a lot of progress on SMG2 individual levels for several months now. He's been making a lot of them and pretty much all of them have been highly optimized. Check them out here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Pottoww/videos
3. Some updates on the SMG1 and SMG2 leaderboards on speedrun.com. SMG1 Any% Luigi got a recent update by Kayareya, and there are now 5 sub-3:20 entries in SMG2 Any%. Meanwhile, SMG2 242 star is well under 10 hours, at 9h44m by Vallu!
4. I've created a separate YouTube channel where I'll focus on "research" videos rather than runs: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBVDpRSSQHSiKpqCy73ZYVg
As I said in my post here from 2013/09, I've done a decent amount of research on the game already and put it in Google docs. Making videos of the research is obviously more work, but it's much better documentation. Showing is better than writing, both for getting a better understanding and for remembering what you learned. Plus, it's a guard against incorrect information; if I've made any mistakes in my math or logic, people will be able to catch that in the videos because I've shown exactly how I'm testing.
1. nemi finished his segmented-by-world test run of SMG2 Any%: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT9oAoIZQ5qREhIvqhitLJRKpgrdVDKuW
Putting the segments together gives a final SRL time of around 3:01:38, which is nearly 10 minutes faster than his single-segment record of 3:11:30. This segmented test run is easily the best overall resource for Any% strategies now. It has a ton of new tricks and optimizations, and maintains an extremely impressive level of play throughout, so I highly recommend watching the entire thing.
I think the only significant missing trick is this Chompworks one, which was found after the World 4 segment was completed.
2. Pottoww has been making a lot of progress on SMG2 individual levels for several months now. He's been making a lot of them and pretty much all of them have been highly optimized. Check them out here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Pottoww/videos
3. Some updates on the SMG1 and SMG2 leaderboards on speedrun.com. SMG1 Any% Luigi got a recent update by Kayareya, and there are now 5 sub-3:20 entries in SMG2 Any%. Meanwhile, SMG2 242 star is well under 10 hours, at 9h44m by Vallu!
4. I've created a separate YouTube channel where I'll focus on "research" videos rather than runs: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBVDpRSSQHSiKpqCy73ZYVg
As I said in my post here from 2013/09, I've done a decent amount of research on the game already and put it in Google docs. Making videos of the research is obviously more work, but it's much better documentation. Showing is better than writing, both for getting a better understanding and for remembering what you learned. Plus, it's a guard against incorrect information; if I've made any mistakes in my math or logic, people will be able to catch that in the videos because I've shown exactly how I'm testing.
I wanted to suggest a slight change to the 71-Star Banktoad route: delay Boulder Bowl C and do it just before Boulder Bowl's Hidden Star.
I was also looking into another possible change--the current route returns to World 2 twice: once after Flip-Swap and again after Gravity Gauntlet. I looked into combining these two return trips into one trip after Chompworks (Chompworks 1 is required for Boulder Bowl H).
What I found was that while the modified route has less map traversal, it seems to be a couple seconds slower because of the way notifications on the World Map work.
If anyone is curious:
I was also looking into another possible change--the current route returns to World 2 twice: once after Flip-Swap and again after Gravity Gauntlet. I looked into combining these two return trips into one trip after Chompworks (Chompworks 1 is required for Boulder Bowl H).
What I found was that while the modified route has less map traversal, it seems to be a couple seconds slower because of the way notifications on the World Map work.
If anyone is curious:
The modified route would look like this:
1. Flip-Swap 1
2. Fearsome Fleet 1
3. Sweet Mystery 1
4. Flipsville 1
5. Flipsville 2
6. Chompworks 1
7. Chompworks 2
8. Puzzle Plank C
9. Hightail Falls C
10. Boulder Bowl H
11. Boulder Bowl C
12. Fiery Flotilla C
13. Supermassive 1
14. Supermassive H
15. Flipsville C
16. Sweet Mystery C
17. Chompworks C
18. Starshine Beach 1
19. Starshine Beach 2
20. Gravity Gauntlet 1
21. Space Storm 1
From what I can tell, this route is slower because of notifications for Comet Stars appearing and notifications for the Starship being able to advance farther on the World Map. With the current route, these notifications occur together more often because Comet Stars unlock as we go through World 4 for the first time. With the modified route, they occur separately more often because Puzzle Plank C (which is a prerequisite for a couple of Comet Stars) is done after about half of World 4 is unlocked. I suspect when the notifications occur separately, there is more overhead caused by the game transitioning from the Starship to the notification on the World Map.
The attached spreadsheet shows how I timed the routes. Map traversal was timed from the first frame of movement to a Galaxy's text bubble disappearing. Starship events were timed from the last Coin or Star Bit dialog disappearing to Mario stepping on the switch.
1. Flip-Swap 1
2. Fearsome Fleet 1
3. Sweet Mystery 1
4. Flipsville 1
5. Flipsville 2
6. Chompworks 1
7. Chompworks 2
8. Puzzle Plank C
9. Hightail Falls C
10. Boulder Bowl H
11. Boulder Bowl C
12. Fiery Flotilla C
13. Supermassive 1
14. Supermassive H
15. Flipsville C
16. Sweet Mystery C
17. Chompworks C
18. Starshine Beach 1
19. Starshine Beach 2
20. Gravity Gauntlet 1
21. Space Storm 1
From what I can tell, this route is slower because of notifications for Comet Stars appearing and notifications for the Starship being able to advance farther on the World Map. With the current route, these notifications occur together more often because Comet Stars unlock as we go through World 4 for the first time. With the modified route, they occur separately more often because Puzzle Plank C (which is a prerequisite for a couple of Comet Stars) is done after about half of World 4 is unlocked. I suspect when the notifications occur separately, there is more overhead caused by the game transitioning from the Starship to the notification on the World Map.
The attached spreadsheet shows how I timed the routes. Map traversal was timed from the first frame of movement to a Galaxy's text bubble disappearing. Starship events were timed from the last Coin or Star Bit dialog disappearing to Mario stepping on the switch.
Attachment:
Lubba cutscene skip before Galaxy Generator, found by thegamecubenerd (@Odmewhirter on Twitter):
After unlocking the 70 star barrier, simply use the Wiimote pointer to click on Galaxy Generator. This prevents you from stopping on the space before Galaxy Generator, which is what triggers the cutscene.
I tested from a handy near-70-star savestate I had; if you click Galaxy Generator, and then move back to the left, you will still trigger the cutscene. Definitely one of the most revealing skips I've seen in either Galaxy game, programming-wise. I wonder if you have to avoid that space multiple times in 120/242 star?
After unlocking the 70 star barrier, simply use the Wiimote pointer to click on Galaxy Generator. This prevents you from stopping on the space before Galaxy Generator, which is what triggers the cutscene.
I tested from a handy near-70-star savestate I had; if you click Galaxy Generator, and then move back to the left, you will still trigger the cutscene. Definitely one of the most revealing skips I've seen in either Galaxy game, programming-wise. I wonder if you have to avoid that space multiple times in 120/242 star?
You can never run enough games
Quote from yoshifan:
I tested from a handy near-70-star savestate I had; if you click Galaxy Generator, and then move back to the left, you will still trigger the cutscene. Definitely one of the most revealing skips I've seen in either Galaxy game, programming-wise. I wonder if you have to avoid that space multiple times in 120/242 star?
The cutscene remains active until you visit that spot as Mario, although Luigi can pass onto it just fine and it won't trigger. People tested it yesterday when the video came out.