M17 Alien Push Clip/PS4 Exclusive?
8 years ago
Nevada, USA

Looks like Info was on to something. Me and Twitchy were testing some stuff and ¤Flopped¤ through door...this was my first time doing it so I just reacted and kept going...just like info tested the game just moved along, even without Verlaine's announcement.

After some testing all it takes is to run straight to door and strife with the left stick to the right...and worked every time. You have to meet the Alien in the vent, but no big issue...if you molly the Alien at the section before the jump you can avoid the encounter all together...but that seems like overkill.

I was really excited to finally give something pretty useful to the overall community but Metzix and Twitchy tested it and the Alien is actually to fast on PC. So this might actually be a PS4 exclusive??

Anyone else want to try? It "seems" possible but nothing else to do to make it work for PC....

Metzix and Infomastr like this
United States

The alien beats me to the door as well but I'll play around with it. Super neat.

Nevada, USA

So I was curious to see how my 17 was doing now after this and a few more modifications. These are rough times but: OLD 17: 9:06 NEW 17: 7:06

TWO MINUTE IMPROVEMENT! Score! But....

METZIX WR: 7:03

What....?! Even after passing through a WALL I still can't match up to the PC gods?? I then watched both streams side by side. I still have plenty of clean up apparently...its also very funny since after the door pass through we are literally side by side and my quick run in with Steve in the vent cost me to much time.

In other words, I'll need a lot more than one of these exclusive glitches to catch up to you guys....Back to the lab...

United States

This isn't PS4 exclusive, but it is framerate dependent (thanks to Bandaren for suggesting the idea of locking FPS at 30).

Nevada, USA

BOOYAH!! It was fun being exclusive for a few days but much better in the long run. A new WR should be up for grabs easily now. Let's call this glitch the 'PS4 Exclusive' , nice inside joke especially when a viewer for a PC speed runner calls it this and still performs it.

Nevada, USA

I actually watched the video now, couldn't do it on the phone. I didn't realize this glitch actually complicates things since its a frame rate issue. I thought you could just lower the frame rate with any PC...but info used outside tools which is a no no for speedruns? So in this case a worse off graphics card can actually be beneficial? In my case since all PS4s are equal specs its even playing field but PCs are more complicated in this regard?

More questions than answers, stoopid glitch....

Germany

Let's think about if there is a way to make this legal in a run. You need a program, which has to be the same for every runner, that changes fps for the game, you would need to safe near that point. If you're able to safe > shut down A:I > change fps > start A:I > go through the door and get to a safepoint > shut down A:I > change fps > restart A:I and go on, it would be possible. I wasn't able to change fps after I had started the game. But I got an implemented tool to my GPU and it worked perfectly. Maybe you can force A:I to reload external FPS settings (alt+tab) by changing another graphics command that forces A:I to readjust completely. I will test this later.

Greets

United States

It isn't clear whether locked FPS is necessary, or whether "low enough" FPS would also work. PackSciences demonstrated a number of clipping glitches last year that seemed to be based on low (but not necessarily locked) FPS, so it's worth testing. Note that locked/low FPS might break other aspects of the PC run, such as ability to quickly activate generators with mousewheel inputs.

It might be possible to artificially limit FPS by having a ton of particle effects in the room before you run in (smoke bombs/flares?), because while the game is optimized, there are certainly aspects that chew up frame rate very quickly. For example, if you repeatedly hit an android near a wall, the "android blood" significantly reduces FPS, at least for me (GTX 760). This is really going to be hardware dependent.

From additional testing, it appears possible to do the door clip at 40 FPS (and potentially up to 45 FPS), so 30 FPS is not a firm requirement, although the difficulty scales with FPS. The higher the FPS, the faster the alien gets to the door and the harder it is to get ahead of it in time.

Bouvet Island

Isn't this moving into tool-assisted territory? In my opinion, it'd be fine for a tool-assisted category, but not for the main category on PC.

-d

Metzix likes this
Germany

Hey dcruze,

tested your save games for trying some particle-strat as info suggested - pretty awesome... /o/ \o\ \o/

One way to handle this bug and get it into the run could be what I discovered during my last test. I set the game options in my GPU program to 30 fps, which affected the game when it was newly started. But it affected it only in fullscreen (!). When I went to windowed fullscreen, fps were high and unaffected by this setting. So that's what you could do: Play the game on windowed fullscreen, set it to fullscreen for the bug, set it back to windowed fullscreen again.

I agree - as dcruze rightfully already mentioned - that this is a controversial question. I myself am undecided on that one. But of course it's awesome and probably the biggest glitch since the peek clip.

Greets qd

Nevada, USA

Info- I was thinking the same thing about the particle effects slowing the system down. I had twitchy test putting all sorts of things down which included 3 pipe bombs emps, flares, smoke bombs...everything...if anything it almost slowed the player down.

Hungary

If a few ppl really like to use some TAS, we can add this as a new category, would be the best option not to force every runner to play like this or to force them to install some third party software.

Nevada, USA

Yah sounds complicated. When just a week ago having stronger hardware meant quicker load times we all accepted it. In that case, getting you pc to 30fps is essentially the same concept. Now this new auto split is leveling the playing field the idea is tougher to see. I believe that as long as it's not tool assisted then it's fair game. Just like M7 has multiple ways complete each with its pros and cons, M17 now has the same. Like any strat, you aren't forced to do it...but someone who could do it without any tools assistance shouldn't have the option taken from them either. Obviously I'm from the outside looking in, but just my 2 cents.

Bouvet Island

@revas01 Doing it on console is unproblematic, but using a tool to get it done on PC is.

qckdth, revas01, and Metzix like this
United States

Agree with these points. Third party programs shouldn't be allowed for runs because it's a slippery slope. There might be a rare exception for a game that requires an external program to run properly, but this doesn't seem like one of those cases.

If there was an already existing, in-game setting that could be changed (such that the game could be saved, closed and restarted at 30 or 40 fps while the timer stayed running), it might be a closer call.

That said, we shouldn't give up all hope. There might be a way to do it within the confines of the game, even on PC.

qckdth, revas01, and Metzix like this
United States

From further testing, it is clear that this trick is not dependent on having frame rate locked at <45 fps. It is possible to do this trick simply if your frame rate (upon triggering the alien by running through the doorway) is below that threshold.

I was able to artificially lower my fps within the confines of the game (i.e. without using any third party program) by setting up a custom game resolution of 3840x2400, or double the horizontal and vertical resolution of my monitor, in ENGINE_SETTINGS.XML, which is located in \steamapps\common\Alien Isolation\DATA. Custom resolutions are set under the setting named "Windowed Resolution" and follow the format of the automatically configured resolutions that appear when you install the game.

E.g., for mine it is: <Quality name="3840x2400" resolutionX="3840" resolutionY="2400" precedence="18"/>

(Custom resolutions that exceed the resolution of the monitor are only available if the game video is set to "Windowed" - they will not work if the game is set to "Windowed Fullscreen.")

We can discuss whether this should be permissible. It doesn't require a third party program, but does require editing a configuration file (which we've already allowed vis-a-vis double binding the mousewheel for "use" inputs). Not passing judgment one way or another here - just FYI for everyone.

revas01 likes this
Nevada, USA

Awesome info! (Didn't know that's how you get the mouse wheel input) I know it doesn't apply to me so much but I say go for it!

Hungary

@Infomastr, I tried it with my pc and my frames are simply tooo high even on 4k which is the max I can test via nvidias downsampling, I cant use the AI config resolution at all bc I play in real fullscreen mode and obs source is game capture which is needed for fullscreen mode and that will sadly not change for me bc of other issues/problems in windowed modes on my win 7.

Here is a little video: my frames are still around 80fps with the showed ingame settings.

If you have other ideas about this, I would test it of course.

United States

Running the game in "fullscreen" mode will simply run the game at the maximum resolution supported by your monitor (in this case presumably 1920x1080).

Even if you modify the "windowed resolution" setting to 3840x2160, the game is not actually running at that resolution without being set to run in "windowed" mode. So even though it appears in the video that the game is set to 3840x2160, it is only running at 1920x1080.

Hungary

yea I know, and thats why I used nvidias downsampling which is the same like the config file, it drops my fps to 80fps, normally I have over 210fps there when it is 1920x1080.