This topic has been moved to the C&C GENERALS BOARD.
First generation C&C games (C&C and C&C:RA) do not feature a seconds counter in the end mission screen and should use RTA from when the play gains control until the "Mission Accomplished" text appear on screen.
Tiberian Sun onwards features a timer with a seconds so I think it is acceptable to measure any of these runs using in-game timing.
Speedrunner JoesphS1k used in-game times for the runs that he posted on youtube which can be found here:
Please use this thread to discuss how the timing of the games in this series should be measured. It is also worth mentioning that some of the games feature a game speed option in the menu and I have not tested as to whether or not this effects the in-game time.
Congratulations to LeCaradryan for submitting the first C&C for the Generals series.
After watching and verifying his run he appears to start his timing (not shown in VoD) about 10 seconds before he gains control in the first mission and ends the timing when the final mission starts to fade to black.
I'm open to any timing method so long as it is consistent, with this in mind when are most appropriate points to start timing when using RTA? From the campaign selection in the main menu? When the player gains control? From a specific in game cutscene?
If you submit a run in the future please be clear about the timing method you are using especially if there is no 3rd party timer runing in the VoD.
Hmm I have trouble seeing the video. Is it down or something ? or just some kind of youtube hiccup ? I'm pretty interested in a Generals speedrun so I'm looking around ...
It may be a hiccup or it might have removed or had the privacy settings changed?
I watched the whole thing to verify it and I can't see it either at the moment :(
Edit: It appears as though the video is now back PogChamp http://www.speedrun.com/Command_and_Conquer_Generals/run/15468
Hello, I sorry for is rely late but I have just seen is topic^^.
For is chrono for my runs I can't use Llanfair because the game take full screen, and I not have two screen.
I use a Chrono apart, I begin when I can play and ends the timing when the final mission starts to fade to black.
It seemed to me to be the most equitable solution on a PC older take longer to load and is will waste time unnecessarily.
PS : sorry for my horrible english :/
My timing is from the moment I press the button to start the campaign to the final "You Are Victorious" screen. Seemed to make the most sense. That being said, loading times may indeed be a problem so we'll have to see if they're vastly different depending on everyone's computer or if they're the same (which is very possible). In which case we'll probably have to go with a "w/o loadings" in the same manner games such as portal do. Because I don't see a good way to time full campaign runs otherwise.
My feeling is that the timing should start when you click the campaign and end when the last mission fades to black.
My reasons are that it is a more consistent starting time rather than when the play gains control and when the mission fades to black the player has no more control so it seems weird (to me at least) to stop the timing after a cutscene and not after the player has finished playing.
Two other points I'd like to add is that I know this will be annoying for both of you as you will need to re-time runs and splits (Which I can take care of) and additionally LeCaradryan has submitted a perfectly good GLA run in which the VOD stops before the "You Are Victorious!/Vous Avez Gagne!" but after the fade to black. This time could also be adjusted for the correct cutscene length.
Since I imagine the pair of you will look at each other's VODs I can compare the loading time for mission when you have both completed all 3 campaigns.
The "You Are Victorious" screen officially (and consistently) marks the end of the mission/campaign. It's where I split after each mission so I just went with it. Since we include the other cutscenes in the campaign in the overall time, it only makes sense to include this one as well. What can be done however is to time the total duration of the cutscenes+loads and remove this time from the total time, to get only the actual in-game time. It of course doesn't change anything, it would just give the precise time we actually spend playing.
Meh. It doesn't matter either way, I'm just going with what's consistent and logical.
I see, it can be intéréssant, what I propose is that Tyri make it run and if the gap still our load times is negligible I can change my time.And starts the time after choosing the difficulty for our future run. I also put the message in French to be sure to be understood at least tyriounet because I am not di everything about my english^^.
Je vois ça peut être intéréssant, ce que je propose est que tyri fasse sa run et si l'écart encore nos temps de chargement et négligable je peut modifier mon temps. Et on lancera le time après avoir choisi la difficulté pour nos future run. Je met aussi le message en français pour être sur d'être compris au moins par tyriounet car je suis pas du tout sur de mon anglais^^.
What might be more critical is the difficulty at which we're playing. I didn't get a good look at LeCaradryan's runs, but at the beginning of his USA run he clearly choses the easiest difficulty, while I'm playing on the middle one. I'm fairly certain there are differences so it might be a good idea to add the difficulty we're playing at in the comments or something.
I'm definitely going to look into the difficulty differences but my immediate research didn't show any differences. (Generals is the game I know the least about)
I'm definitely going to look into the difficulty differences but my immediate research didn't show any differences. (Generals is the game I know the least about)
I lose between 10 and 20 sec by loading screen over compared Tyri.
I set easy because everything was in speedrun easy, we can create sub-category for dificult as for the run of the game "age of".
I have updated the leaderboard to include difficulty and I have added the respective difficulty to each of your runs.
If you both agree I'm am happy to finalise the timing to start from the difficulty selection menu until the final "You Are Victorious!" dialogue.
I would still like to see the discussion between the pair of you with regards to load times. As LeCaradryan has mentioned there may be a 10-20 second difference depending on the user's machine.
I'm really happy to see people speedrunning C&C games and I'm working the best I can to make sure you both agree with the timing and rules :)
I speak with several friends and they told me that on pc waste time loading one pc to another was part of the game. I therefore no problem with the proposed time, I will have to re chrono my time.
We might have to remove the loading time from the submitted time. I don't really see another option. It kinda sucks because it won't be RTA anymore. Or do like portal. http://www.speedrun.com/Portal
I just try to run the campaign of China and saw that the higher the difficulty is high over the xp gain is large.
It was hard to pass the three levels of the campaign because my lvl stayed 2
By cons Tyri if you to skype or mumble I'll be happy to talk about how to improve the run
Revisiting this topic since I can re-time the campaigns for individual levels.
There is no provided in-game timer, so in-game time won't be used. Real time for full-game runs is good how it currently is: starting on the beginning the campaign and ending on the last "You Are Victorious" splash.
How 'time without loads' can be recorded varies. It can start from: • The start of the cutscene (which can vary greatly) • The first frame the cursor appears (aka battle control online) -- I currently do this for Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge. • The first frame the bottom HUD is visible -- most consistent, but there's a brief period of time before it you can control units.
It ends when "You Are Victorious" appears, since that's very consistent and formally marks the end of the missions. Individual levels should use just 'time without loads', since using real time doesn't make as much sense for them.
Edit: For the time being I'm adding 'time without loads' starting with the cursor and ending with "You Are Victorious". I'm keeping track of all the times so I can change them to something else fairly easily. If you see times that should be tied but aren't, I'm including milliseconds but still hiding them (so the boards look better).
