THX dcruze :)

Hey there,

so I think, it was clear the load remover and a frame perfect load removing would differ in their outcoming. It was good we had that analysis done. Thank you very much again infomastr.

We've been talking about this a little. I think, since the load removal tool should be standard, we should rely on its method of measurement, since it will be equal for every runner, even if it is not totally accurate in terms of load circle start or ending etc.

¤edit¤ I want to mention again, that this load removal tool by fatalis is not accurate in terms attuning to the code, because the code is just too complex. The target for the coding of the load removal tool was the "fade in" of a level, not the loadcircle, as I understand it. So if there are differences in certain loads in A:I, the timer will still work in the most equal way there is for every runner. This was the main goal of this tool, even if it is not totally accurate. ¤edit¤

Since metzix and bobbe are still running and even getting better times still it seems, they will probably beat their own times some time soon. Since this experiment was meant to find out about accuracy of the timer and the possible Game Times for our top 2 runs, we should leave it at that. The two manually timed runs should get Game Times for the board like infomastr timed them manually.

In my opinion, neither should there be removed the 0.2 seconds usually added to the pausing after fade in by the load removal tool, nor should there be any other additions or subtractions of the frame perfect Game Times done by infomastr. On one hand, these two Game Times for Bobbe and Metzix will be worse than they would have been with the load removal tool. On the other hand, since this was a very special effort we undertook to have the best 2 runs translated to Game Times, they wont have any advantage out of our different method of load removal. They are already very good. And I'm sure, Bobbe and Metzix can do even better, and then with the official tool to prove it.

If we agree on this, this means" quote infomastr "Thus, I would propose that the manual re-timing of Bobbe's run be 2:38:24.5 and the manual re-timing of Metzix' run be 2:39:01.5."

I hope, everybody is fine with that. :) So everybody have fun with the game and good luck with your runs.

Greetings qd

So, if I understand this correctly, you aligned your timing on the loadcircle, which seems to be accurate first. The LS load remover is aligned to the fade in, which seems to be a different command from the load circle disappearing. But I didn't look into it as far as checking if game fade in and load circle fade out are like "the same".

So I suggest the last thing to be checked now is a mission load timed with livesplit and load remover to check where LS exactly pauses and starts the timer again from a VOD and compare it to your VOD work. If this is equal to your method of measurement, I guess then these numbers can be thought of as accurate and representing.

I hope i didn't get anything wrong here.

Thank you very much for your work! :)

Greetings qd

I think the problem I had was just that I didn't run the game while using the game time splitter. I tried to run it again with former splits and it seemed like it was working. I will have to look at that again. It seems like because the timer is reading from the steam AI.exe, it won't work without it.

@Fatalis: For this kind of endeavour we need the files and from youtube and have them timed like the load removal would do. This would take some time.

Of course waiting for somebody to beat top 3 runs by RTA limits the possible contenders to those already being top 3 right :) which is as unfair as it was before.

While, if top 3 are as good as they seem to be by RTA, they will easily be top 3 in Times without loads again, right?

Everybody wanted an autosplitter for so long. It's there!

In my personal opinion, and from what I've seen on other speedrun games, runs done without an autosplitter for load removal have to stay solely evaluated with loads. I think, if people want to get on the board for runs without loads, they have to do these runs with the new tool so that the results are equal, precisely comparable and fair.

I insist on that because otherwise developing this tool would be totally futile too. This took a lot of work and it has to be used, it has to be tested, and it deserves to be the nr.1 tool for defining best runs. Just leaning back and having your old runs translated is the wrong spirit.

If we wanted to have our runs without loads, we always could have thought about manually timing out loads. This of course is, and imo again has to stay imprecise and for that matter without meaning.

Of course nobody can be forced to do new runs of this game.

@Metzix: If you want to be precise, this is a "load removal" program. Since it times out loads "automatically", I think to call it an autosplitter isn't too far from what it does. Topic name doesn't matter to me.

Hey,

I tried to work with the Game Time splits I've done in my run yesterday. But the splits don't seem to be saved properly. There are best segments shown in the "Edit Splits" Menu, but no normal splits. If you chose for "Comparison" the method "Best segments" in the splits in "Edit layout", they will show up in the timer. The same goes for "Average segments". But for some reason, when I have set up my timer like I described above in this topic, the split doesnt capture the Game Time, but deletes it. This means: The Best or Average Times are shown as Game Time splits, but when I split, they are replaced by a line without splitting the time on the timer. The same goes for "Delta" for "Game Time". The Real Timer for the splits is working normally. This is especially awkward since I got splits now from my run yesterday. Of course, if I choose PB, it will take my Real Time of 2:44:56 which I didn't meet in my run yesterday where Real time was 2:45... where Game Time was on. Still it should split Game Time like it did yesterday.

Does somebody know something about this? Otherwise might have to go to Livesplit directly.

Greetings qd

¤edit: took me about 7 times to get this post right... :()¤ ¤edit2: had to reedit the edit: I mean edits when I say times¤

¤edit: example:¤

Hey there boys and girls,

Fatalis has finally finished for good the final version of our A:I Autosplitter. I say final because as Fatalis told me under great pain the code is just too complex to get the autosplitter perfect. I think, if he got through all of A:I's consciousness he would in the end probably be able to code it himself.

That's why the now (as of a few hours) published version brings the following news:

Issues solved:

• the timer doesn't keep running at the end of m1, m9 and m10 anymore for a little over 3 seconds

New Issues:

• if you have the beginnings of mission 2 or mission 10 already loaded one time after starting the game and have them as current safes, and you load them via "current safe" or with loading this mission via "mission load", they will be unpausing the game timer at the third loadphase (loads usually consist of three loadphases: black, pictures, black; all with a loadcircle)
• (it seems like and has to be tested:) if you load a "current safe" the timer wont have it's usual 0.2 seconds delay after level load, but will load right at the fade in

These two issues I don't really consider a problem, since no runner for any category will usually choose to load to the beginning of m2 or m10. If you make a mistake at m2, you restart the game. At the beginning of m10 there is nothing to fear. The alien first appears at lorenz systech tower, and there is a new "current safe" in the tram you came there with.

As for the current-safe-loads not having a 0.2 seconds (really not too sure on that one: please test!), since it will be equal for all runners, this literally makes no difference.

Of course, since there hasn't been any full run with this timer yet again, please do some testing. But I think the autosplitter is good to go.

Greetings qd

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

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

Hey dcruze,

you're right. I was mistaking there. I thought the autosplitter was still working as in the former version I tested and didn't pay attention to the first cutscene. Cutscenes in general are not paused by the autosplitter. I already mentioned this in my third post here and edited the according passage in the first post.

@Metzix Thank you very much. I didn't even notice that when I was running myself. But it's the same in my run. I thought this error might occur due to the cutscene before the level transition load. But this error doesn't happen after the last cutscene in the level transition from m18-m19. So will see what's gonna be the problem there.

Greetings

Hey there,

because I've been asked how I configured my Livesplit for its setup in my last run, I will explain how to do this here.

Configuring Livesplit for comparison "Real time" vs "Game time". This setup is based on psychohypnotics Layout available in the resources:

• Two main timers (Real vs Game Time): LS > Right click LS > Edit Layout > "+"-button > add a "timer" > (now you have two timers) Set the two timers right above each other > set one of the timer's "Timing method" to "Real time", the other one's "Timing method" to "Game Time"
• Two Mission splits (Real vs Game Time Splits): LS > Right click LS > Edit Layout > double click splits > scroll down > in the category "columns" press "add column" (now you have at least two columns) > make sure both columns have their "Column Type" set to "Split Time" > Set the "Timing method" for the one column to "Game Time", the other one's timing method to "Real time"

I've also got a third column which is currently having "Column Type" set to "Delta" to show differences in the times to other runs.

If there are any problems, feel free to ask here.

Greetings qd

Hey dcruze,

thank you!

You've made yourself an aweful lot of work there. Is this required for a 100% run to submit timestamps? I really hope not... :)

Greetings qd

I'm actually against timing out the loads for existing runs simply because it will be imprecise. I don't know how you want to get this exact. Of course I understand why you want to do that and I support it.

If you want to time out loads from existing runs you would have to take into consideration the 0.2 seconds delay till timer starts again after fade in. That you could only time by eyeside somehow because you got to know where the fade in starts exactly. For that you would need all the VOD-Files and an exact editing tool to slow down recording. This is pretty difficult.

But very nice you agree on prioritizing Times without loads, which of course was the goal for all this. :)

Btw: We were looking at the times for tha transition from m18 first to second part when youre hanging there and free yourself: it seems to be 23.3 seconds for every runner we've looked at so far. So it's not a load and will not be affected by different setups.

Greetings

Hey there,

I've just done a first test run with this autosplitter. Works fine most of the time.

Link:

Following issues / changes:

• cutscenes are not timed out at all (which is fine for me)
• (1:38:56 VOD-Time): the cutscene is not timed out by the autosplitter (as mentioned) / then the first phase of the load (when it's dark) is not timed out also - that's a real problem i guess
• (3:38:00 VOD-Time): the dark screen is not timed out - question is: do the times differ from runner to runner for getting into the second part of m18, means: is this a real loadtime?

Didn't find anything elso so far. Might have to go through it again.

Greetings qd

Hey there,

now finally... I have to apologize a bit. Packsciences mentioned two programers in our loadtimes-thread about three months ago. And somehow we didn't make it to just message them. Now I approached Fatalis and in just two days he got the impossible done:

a fully working Alien: Isolation autosplitter.

We've been going through this back and forth and solved different issues to get it aligned to the game as best as possible.

How to use the timer:

• the timer has to be started manually similar to the standard Realtimer
• the timer has to be ended manually similar to the standard Realtimer
• the timer times out loadtimes from the very start of a load till about 0.2 seconds after the start of the fade in (this is due to a very complicated mixing of loading processes which were too hard to dissect perfectly. I very much think 0.2 seconds delay of timer start after a load is negligible. It's equal for every runner at least.)
• the timer does not only time out usual loads of leveltransitions, but also manual loads via menu (this is important if you die. It's especially important for the 100% category. Safeskips and the time gain will be equal for every setup now considering loadtimes.)
• the timer does not stop when being in the menu (this is fair because in the menu you have full control over whatever advantage you could gain there) ¤edit: timer does not time out skippable cutscenes anymore¤
• the timer times out skippable cutscenes (in the beginning I was not sure if this was ok or not. I believe it's alright because I think the skip by pressing enter during skippable cutscenes also varies in speed depending on different setups. It really doesn't matter to me how fast you skip a cutscene or not. It's not a "skill" I think. WHAT DO YOU THINK?)

Activate autosplitter in Livesplit: The autosplitter already is uploaded and implemented in Livesplit. Since LS is permanently connected to the inet (if you're online), you can go into LS > right click on LS Window > Edit Splits... > Game Name: "Alien: Isolation" > in the fourth line from the top it says "Load Removal is available (By Fatalis)" > Activate For the autosplitter to go into effect in running the game, make sure to: LS > right click on LS window > Compare against > Game Time

The Autosplitter is aligned to the steam AI.exe. It reads code of the game for cues to work. This means it only works for the steam version.

!!! I think it makes sense to have both times (Real Time and Game Time) running as a comparison for all of us in the LS window. But as the autosplitter is finished now, I request that measurement for speedrun times have to prioritise Game Time instead of Real Time. This way, speedrunning this game will finally be fair. !!!

So I believe this was quite some work going through all the code. I really appreciate all the work Fatalis has put into this. I think we all do. Thank you very much again!!! Great work!

Here is Fatalis' page for you to check out and pay a visit: https://fatalis.pw/

I'm really happy this is done now. Now it's important to do extensive testing on the new autosplitter to make sure it's flawlessly working. This especially means doing full game runs. If you find anything, please post it here. Fatalis kindly agreed on taking care of any upcoming problems of this timer since it's his project. :)

Enjoy.

Greetings qd

So finally I tried this keycard clip and it's really very difficult. I don't know if there is a way to get it constant and quick. Otherwise the usual way might just be faster.

As I have just found out, you can do this trick with flares too. This means that it's not dependent on being shaken or damaged, but on not totally having finished a throwing movement.

I just tried it again with a noisemaker, et voila: it works. This means it works with every item you can throw. I managed to draw the pistol at the same time with using the lever, but nothing happened there. So it seems to be limited to items.

Hello!

I've been on a wildlife recently again and captured a rare specimen of the loadtime. I've made some pictures:

¤Caution: Viewer discretion advised¤

FYI

Greetings qd

Hey,

I found another glitch which might be interesting. Maybe it's already known.

Link:

This Glitch is probably consisting of doing an input while being shaken by an outside force. Since I didn't try this glitch with a health bar on, I don't know if I'm taking damage from the Molotov impact.

Trying to get shaken/damaged by the Molotov while trying to access the safepoint will just kill you though. So in addition to doing an input while being shaken/damaged, you have to be "outside" the gameplay. This also applys for the Alien stopping to chase you, even if it's close, when you access the spacesuit in Mission 18.

The same sort of glitch is possible accessing a spacesuit while burning by standing in flames for a sufficient amount of time (also M18). While in that glitch by getting burned you can enter the radial menu, in the Molotov-spacesuit glitch you can just use up the remaining Molotovs without being able to access the radial menu.

Greetings qd