System Shock 2 Co-op Speedrun (Nov. 2 : Videos Up)

Edit history:

dirtyminuth: 2005-11-03 06:08:51 am

2005-06-15 03:12:04 am

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(Starting a new thread following the forum changes)

Here's an update on the speedrun:

Preliminary run almost complete. We're at the Body of the Many in 26:58. Since this is only the prelim run, we're going to have a lot of extra stuff at the end. The final routes will be trimmed and improved (Not having to go down to MedSci to grab a Psi Amp, less fumbling around Deck 1, etc).

Here are some of our completion times:

Deck 3: 4:10
Deck 4: 2:22
Deck 5: 2:06
Deck 6: 7:20
Rickenbacker: 3:58

Update: Videos uploaded - Check page 2 for details!

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mminuth/avi/sda_ss2_coop/

-dirtyminuth

Thread title:

dirtyminuth

2005-07-06 05:46:41 pm

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Just sending an update your way:

We are well into our final run, and I can confirm that we will have a time under 30 minutes. Our mostly-minimal stance on item gathering has really shaved off some time. Hopefully you'll enjoy watching how we distributed the workload; some events match up nicely.

-dirtyminuth

flechette

2005-07-06 08:47:17 pm

lalala

Oh man! I loved SS2! I'm REALLY wanting to see this run. Cheesy

-flech

dirtyminuth

2005-07-25 06:22:27 am

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Alright, we're nearing the end. Only two more segments left: 'Body of the Many' and 'Where Am I?'. Total time savings over prelim run: 6+ minutes. So, we're at BotM in 20:40. We may be able to get under 25 minutes for the whole run, but it's unlikely.

-dirtyminuth

dirtyminuth

2005-07-29 01:02:14 am

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This is turning into my own LiveJournal (minus teen angst). Cheesy

We're done with the run. Took about five weeks for the recording, and we're quite pleased with the results. By game timer and our approximations, the time will come in around 24:37.

Time to talk to Radix.

-dirtyminuth

seppukuh

2005-09-18 03:13:32 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

What happened to the run? Was it rejected or forgotten?
As a fan of the game I'm still hoping to see it. Smiley

Corhellion

2005-09-19 11:15:51 am

Oooooold school

I wanna see it too! SS2 was/is still one of the best games ever made. and watching it being beaten in under 25 minutes would be awesome.

Fallen

2005-09-29 09:20:26 pm

It's been a month since anything was posted about this. Was dirtyminuth pulling our chains or does he have the goods ;).

Decenco

2005-10-05 12:49:34 pm

Deadman

Update on this please? I'm pretty keen on seeing it (plus it was completed a couple of months back).

dirtyminuth

Edit history:

dirtyminuth: 2005-10-05 06:29:59 pm

2005-10-05 06:29:34 pm

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Hey guys,

Let me say that I am currently editing the video and busy with my last year of college (which involves job hunting, research, and term projects).

Because of the nature of capture (loading screens aren't shown, instead the last in-game frame rendered is "held" on the screen during loading; co-op synchronization of sound and gameplay), it is tough to make a video to send to Radix that he can effectively time. I am thinking of simplifying the whole thing and taking a 0.25 or 0.5 second penalty per segment (which should still make it under 25 minutes)

I will definately step up to the plate and provide the goods. This was not some play for popularity or hype (because hey, I would have faked a more popular game Wink

).

So, I guarantee I will have a video to send to Radix by the end of October. Please be patient.

-dirtyminuth

Edit: Two stars? Promotion!

Fallen

2005-10-05 07:29:09 pm

It'll be great to see it when it's done. BTW, what tools are you using for the editing/syncing? Setting up a dual screen movie has got to make things more difficult, but it will definately be worth it.

dirtyminuth

2005-10-05 10:04:23 pm

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Fallen,

I will be using two tools for editing: Sony Vegas (University facilities == excellent software on hand) and VirtualDub.

At this point, I have 72 uncompressed, 320x240 videos (36 for me, 36 for my friend, D). For each segment, I place them side by side (forming 640x240) and adjust things like sound levels (D's speakers were a bit loud) and brightness / contrast. Moreover, I also edit out one loading screen and keep a "buffer" of pre-loading and post-saving of each segment (which I will set up so Radix can easily cut out the start and end pieces for the final video, or I will do it myself).

After that, I'll have 36 segments that I can slap together with VDub. I may break the run into two videos, though (should be ~300MB each).

-dirtyminuth

dessgeega

2005-10-06 04:52:20 am

i like to watch.

i find this fairly exciting.

Decenco

2005-10-06 02:10:33 pm

Deadman

Is this a first of its kind for SDA?

Allantois

2005-10-06 06:49:02 pm

The Unreal Authority.

I think they have some coop quake or doom stuff around. But other then that, yeah, I think.

acebeef

2005-10-08 01:08:40 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Im really interested to see how you did this.

Me and my friend played through coop and the fastest we could get was 45 minutes. I used EMP, and he used assult rifle. I really dont know where you could trim off 20 MINUTES. We thought we were flying through it, and did everything perfectly. e.g pulling through zones the moment the task was done for that area.

I never use psi, i hate psi. It's way to fiddly...

I reaaaally want to see this now damnit Tongue

dirtyminuth

Edit history:

dirtyminuth: 2005-10-09 05:47:11 am

2005-10-08 11:18:04 pm

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I don't know how you went through each deck, but D and I spent a lot of time planning (not even playing). We made sure to parallelize as much as possible. For example, I opened a door via keycode so D could get supplies from it later, or I sent elevators back down so D could quickly use them.

But you'll see it all in time.

-dirtyminuth

Edit: What Ekarderif said below - Psi is invaluable, especially invisibility.

Ekarderif

2005-10-09 03:28:52 am

Your almighty lordship

You don't use psi and you don't see how it's 20 minutes faster. Brilliant...

acebeef

2005-10-09 11:33:28 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Mmm doing my coop run through, we were never really slowed down by monsters or turrets. You can just hit hybrids in the face with the rapier, or use the EMP for everything electrical.

I will have to try with psi i guess and see how that goes, if it shaves off 20 minutes, thats good Smiley

Ekarderif

Edit history:

Ekarderif: 2005-10-09 06:59:43 pm

2005-10-09 06:56:00 pm

Your almighty lordship

Psi brings some extremely awesome powers: invisibility is a lifesaver, teleportation is nothing short of amazing, and soma transferance obliterates the body of the many (I think this is a bug actually, but bugs are beautiful :D). There's no point in getting any weaponry, except the grenade launcher (awesome damage for virtually no cost) and maybe pistol (bullets are aplenty). Everything else costs too much, and there's nothing you need them on.

adam_b16

2005-10-26 11:41:15 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

hey, this is adam, acebeef's mate.

We tried another run on the weekend and REALLY trimmed down our times/loot/points spending.

Still using our same approach, both going marines - starting with laser pistol too Grin

I went with assault rifle when i could afford it, but started by maxxing agility. My mate decided he needed EMP before agility, so he went that path.

Finally we managed to beat the game in just over 30 mins, and are amazed at how much we managed to shave off! And we dont really know how either Tongue

I've also uploaded a photo of our load game screen showing each save we made for each new level. Enjoy the eye candy.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2118489558

We also calculated each level's times, to compare with dirtyminuth's...

Ours/Theirs
Training - 0:58/?
Med - 0:52/?
Eng - 4:31/?
Hyd - 4:17/4:10
Ops - 2:31/2:22
Rec - 1:36/2:06 8)
Com - 7:18/7:20 Wink

Rick - 4:20/3:58
Many - 3:11/?
Shodan - approx 1 min/?

Cheers!
-Adam

dirtyminuth

Edit history:

dirtyminuth: 2005-11-03 05:58:48 pm

2005-11-03 06:06:22 am

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Let's keep the System Shock 2 speedrunning interest going with a release of our co-op speedrun. Since Radix has more important things to take care of, I've gone ahead and uploaded the SS2 videos to my university's personal webspace. Don't worry, you should get good connection speeds.

The video is in two parts in both splitscreen (2) and seperate (4) versions, for a total of six videos. The splitscreen versions are very busy, so you may want to grab the seperate videos for more "relaxed" viewing.

Without further delay, the URL (it's a directory listing):

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mminuth/avi/sda_ss2_coop/

Note: XVID codec required.

We're working on comments, too, but unless some people express real interest in reading about our endeavours, we're holding up until we get an SDA acceptance.

However, some important things to note:

My side of the screen goes black in part1 split screen because I finish training before D, so I am technically given a loading screen until he finishes.
While doing the research-reclaim trick on HydroBC, D gets a graphical glitch and you can't see the upgrade text. He mouse-overs each category, though, so you can see what is what.

Just noticed that adam_b16 has a co-op run in the works - that is great - I wonder how low of a co-op time can be achieved!

-dirtyminuth

Let's keep the System Shock 2 speedrunning interest going with a release of our co-op speedrun. Since Radix has more important things to take care of, I've gone ahead and uploaded the SS2 videos to my university's personal webspace. Don't worry, you should get good connection speeds.

The video is in two parts in both splitscreen (2) and seperate (4) versions, for a total of six videos. The splitscreen versions are very busy, so you may want to grab the seperate videos for more "relaxed" viewing.

Without further delay, the URL (it's a directory listing):

[url]http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mminuth/avi/sda_ss2_coop/[/url]

Note: XVID codec required.

We're working on comments, too, but unless some people express real interest in reading about our endeavours, we're holding up until we get an SDA acceptance.

However, some important things to note:
[list][*]My side of the screen goes black in part1 split screen because I finish training before D, so I am technically given a loading screen until he finishes.

[*]While doing the research-reclaim trick on HydroBC, D gets a graphical glitch and you can't see the upgrade text. He mouse-overs each category, though, so you can see what is what.
[/list]
Just noticed that adam_b16 has a co-op run in the works - that is great - I wonder how low of a co-op time can be achieved!

-dirtyminuth

acebeef

2005-11-03 07:16:11 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Yay, downloading.

Will give opinion when ive watched them all Tongue

adam_b16

2005-11-03 07:25:04 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

wohoo! downloading now!! very keen to see this Grin

Robyrt

2005-11-03 07:35:13 am

aw crikey!

Download of the dual-screen files stopped for me at 80-85%. I'll try again tomorrow.

Initial comments: There's definitely some optimization left to do, but this is quite impressive. There are some weird bits where somebody is just standing around waiting for the other person, although usually this is alleviated by the nonessential player running around grabbing random cyber modules.