courtesy of Purplesunderyl + Anirocks99
Q: Why is the camera messed up/Why are the graphics so glitchy? A: If that's the case, they play HP2 through a software renderer, so there are some glitches caused by that, and if they ran it through just hardware, it would be MUCH worse for them. For reference, software render runs at a varying fps depending on the power of your PC, and the size of the game window, as far as our testing has shown.
Q: So Should I be running the game on Software Render? A: No, runs on software renderer are not allowed on the leaderboards. The most accurate and consistent way to run this game is to use a frame limiter to cap the fps at 120 and render the graphics via Hardware Render, or Direct 3D Render, or Open GL 3D, or whatever GPU your computer is reading off.
Q: What's with the hourglasses? A: They are just loading screens for when you skip cutscenes. SSDs and other hard drives do in fact decrease load times, wasting less time in loading screens.
Q: You can skip Rictusempra?!@ How? A: In the options menu, you can bind multiple buttons to the same key. If you bind two keys to a direction and press them simultaneously, Harry's acceleration from 0 will be much faster than Harry's acceleration from just pressing one button. The rest of the skip is just based on angle and timing the jump
Q: Why did you reset after getting to class? Also, why are you missing all those arrow keys in Rictusempra? A: The first lesson, Rictusempra, is the only lesson in which you HAVE to go to the Bonus Bean Room. The time limit is set in 5-second sections. Every 5 House Points Gryffindor is ahead of Slytherin, 5 seconds are added (there are a couple of odd exceptions). Gryffindor, in a speedrun, usually has 77 or 78, and Slytherin can get (as far as we know) between 40 - 80 House Points. The best RNG (<5 HP between Gryffindor & Slytherin) has only a time limit of 10 seconds. Using this to answer the questions, resets may occur when we think Slytherin has too little points for us to want to continue, and missing the arrows (and also missing Challenge Stars) means Gryffindor gets less points, so the gap is smaller. (see also House Point Explanation 101.)
Q: Why are you missing those arrow keys (in everywhere except Rictusempra)? A: There are chances that a fake input or double input will be made during the arrow-key challenges, causing the game to think you messed up, and so start the cycle over after it ends, which wastes time. Completing the Diffindo challenge only saves 1 second, whereas in the Skurge and Spongify challenges, you lose more time by a fake input. However, in Skurge and Spongify, it also wastes a good deal of time not attempting to complete it, as they have long patterns.
Q: Why do you wait before the cauldron in Potions class? A: If you go to the cauldron before Snape starts talking, the game will softlock, so you need to wait until Snape starts delivering his next line of dialogue. This is because the game will always prioritise trying to load Snape's dialogue about walking up to the cauldron after collecting the ingredients from the chest. If the game manages to get into a state where two or more cut-scenes or dialogue actions are stacked on top of each other, the game will not know what it needs to load next, and so will just sit back and take a breather while you sit there wondering what on earth is going on.
Q: Isn't there usually a cutscene/things you have to do there? (Also, are there any glitches in this game?) A: A main part of HP speedrunning (in general, not just HP2 PC) is skips. There is one useful glitch (there's an OoB but it's of no use, and a hyperslide, but is very difficult to save time with in runs, it may only save a few frames if you get the right speed), which is a ledgeboost in Diffindo that can lead you Out of Bounds so you can get close to the end, saving about 45 seconds, but even this is very inconsistent and so is hardly ever attempted. There are a lot of skips including...
- Pit Skip(Rictusempera Challenge, saves ~ 15 sec)
- Basement Skip(Skurge Challenge, saves ~ 30 sec)
- Scale Skip(Skurge Challenge, saves ~ 20 sec)
- Wheel Skip(Bicorn Quest, saves ~ 15-20 sec)
- Boomslang Skip(Boomslang Quest, saves ~ 40 sec)
- Dumbledore Skip(Dumbledore Cutscene, saves ~2 min 20 sec)
- Slytherin Bridge Skip (saves 10 sec)
- Pixie Proxy (Gap Skip in Chamber, saves 20 sec)
- Chamber Bridge Skip (saves ~ 30 sec)
Q: FUKIN' HELL! WHY WAS THAT SO LOUD?! A: We don't know the real reason why Peeves and Aragog are so loud compared to the rest of the game's audio, but we think either a realistic theory; the sound engineers were lazy, or a silly theory; the devs hired a deaf sound engineer on the last day when Aragog and Peeves were voiced.
Q: You killed the final boss, why hasn't the run ended? A: The whole general rule behind the last hit of the final boss in a game being the time of a run ending is due to that moment usually being the last input of the game (e.g. in OoT, when you run up to Ganon to trigger the 'final blow' cutscene). In HP2, however, you still have to walk to the Great Hall after the Basilisk for the House Cup Ceremony, so the last input is in fact the last movement to get to the Great Hall's door, and that's the time the run ends.
Q:What is the current world record? A: The current world record for this category is 33:45 loadless by Turothking.
Q: Would you be interested in trading? A: No, this is my Blue Eyes White Dragon! SwiftRage
