Timer Rule / JTB Submission
6 years ago
United States

To the other mods of this leaderboard, I think JTB is willing to have his time put up here, which is something I assume we all want for the sake of showing what the real wr is. He was just having reservations because of the rule that says there has to be a timer on the vod. To me that rule doesn't serve any purpose, as we can check the RTA time ourselves. I don't see that rule as a way to deter splicing, if that's what you were worried about. So how about we remove that rule please?

North Brabant, Netherlands

If there has to be a timer, why doesn't he add a timer post-stream? That's like a few minutes of work (rendering is another story though). It doesn't specify in the rules that you cannot add a timer after the run.

United States

He says his video editor can't do that. As the person who would likely be approving the run, I have no problem just watching the run with a timer on locally (or, y'know, looking at the YT video timestamps which takes even less than a few minutes of work).

United States

If people really care about the timer thing, then I'll just add it in OBS myself. I kinda want to see what his splits are anyway to see where I'm losing the most time.

North Brabant, Netherlands

Imho there shouldn't make exceptions to the rules for anyone, regardless of your time (so keep the timer rule and re-time it, OR get rid of it entirely).

United States

Right, right, that's what I'm saying, except I'm saying I'm strongly in favor of not having the timer rule. Reasons being: no other speedrunning community I know of requires this, and if the intent was to detect splicing then there are better ways to do that. I also don't get the 'show the main menu' rule either.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
ShuriBear likes this
North Brabant, Netherlands

I agree, there's no need for a required timer. A splicer who would take his/her time could easily fake a timer as well. Plus just like you said, there are better ways to check for splices.

Ontario, Canada

I thought the purpose of the timer was to stay consistent with modern speedrun conventions. Not as a way to deter splicing. http://www.speedrun.com/Ninja_Gaiden_Black/thread/uf576/1#enpir

With the ingame timer as the timing method would if I be allowed to afk between chapters or in the save game menu. You'd have to make an arbitrary rule to disallow that.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
United States

Ah yeah I see what you mean. So seems like we're actually on the same page really. I just didn't see it as a hard 'you must have a timer in your vod or it doesn't count' and instead see it as 'real time will be used to determine your pace, on screen or off'. There are definitely raw video submission out there for other games. I think it's up to mods to check the vod for the actual start and end time of the run to verify the run length even if a timer is present. The runner is still responsible for submitting what he/she claims their time to be on the submission form. Anyway, cheers dude, I'm learning a lot from your pb. I especially like your smaugon and spirit doku strats.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Nottinghamshire, England

Hey everyone, I added the run but the comments section on my youtube videos is going haywire recently. Whenever I hit reply all the comments disappear and it's a blank white space. I submitted my run either way.

If anyone can recommend a good video editing program I'm all ears by the way.

Kanis999 likes this
North Brabant, Netherlands

Hello JTB! I know that Sony Vegas Pro has an option to add a timer.

Ontario, Canada

y u no put timer? :'(

I use VSDC Video Editor to make my ngb videos and timed your previous run with it.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
United States

I am probably going to still approve this tonight and I'll make a 2nd video with timer on it and put the link in the comments (as I want the main video to still link to Joe's YT). What I would do is just play the video in obs (open broadcaster software) with the timer added, local record, and put as unlisted on YT. If Joe decides to edit the video himself then he can upload it and we can swap out the primary video. Looking forward to that sub 1:40 igt you're going for! That'd be nuts.

United States

Uploaded an unlisted video with a timer and added the run. It appears under the raw video when you click on his lb link. Viewers will see the video from Joe's youtube first. Thanks for submitting. P.S. Joe if you read this, let me know if you want to timer splits I made and the software I used so you can see how your pace compares on future runs.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Nottinghamshire, England

Wait I have OBS so there's a way to add a time using that? If so I could do that on my original capture and submit?

Thanks Kanis but keeping track of the splits would just distact me, I find it hard enough to keep a track of my items and stuff in game lol

Edited by the author 6 years ago
United States

Yeah, well you can add layers upon layers in obs using the 'sources' list. Your game feed is a source, but you can then add another source for the timer, which gets put into the scene with your game feed. You can then move them around, crop them, resize them, etc.

To add a timer to a pre-existing video like your raw PB, I played the video in a media player and had that media players as the source. The timer itself is a free program you can download. 'Wsplit' and 'Livesplit' are 2 popular ones.

I totally get you on the splits being distracting. A lot of speedrunners I know swear they perform better when not under the psychological pressure a timer adds.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Nottinghamshire, England

Thanks Kanis, I'll look into that this week. I got a new run this weekend just gone, faster by almost a minute. Been meaning to test some new strategies out for a while now but the biggest improvement was chapter 15. The rest are quite bad.

Also a thought regarding the rules and ensuring the videos aren't cut in any way why don't you make displaying the karma window a rule?

I've mentioned in videos that the karma window is a huge benefit in the game but the score adds an almost foolproof way of verifying a run. You cannot manipulate the score and there isn't any reason or benfit to turning it off and if someones score changes and/or after a fade the karma window isn't displayed it would be easy to work out. Once the end of chapter screen comes up it would expose any split together videos.

Curious what you all think.

United States

Sick, can't wait to see a new pb. Have you considered dropping scarabs? I think I need to see dabi lvl 3 in ch 15 to really get a feel for if its worth all the extra gathering, because when I use that sword it definitely isn't worth it (probably because I'm bad). I've already made my opinion known that I don't think a timer should be required on video at all, and I stand by that still. But perhaps the karma idea would convince others. I like to have that UI space clean personally so I can see enemies in the top left better.

Nottinghamshire, England

Once you get used to it you won't even notice the karma window. I've played so much with it that every time I see someone not have it on it looks weird to me. It's also an amazing tool once you realise just how much information it is giving you. I also think it's super useful on a speed run as you have a timer built into the game whenever you're fighting enemies.

I have half a mind to go back to zero scarabs for a test run but then I think about the bugs in chapter 13, the core in chapter 15 and mainly Marbus. The level 3 Dabi with celerity will destroy Marbus quicker than anything else you have by that point in the game besides the inazuma exploit and even then you need him to do that early to be quicker than a even a half decent Dabi kill on him.

If you skip the Dabi and Marbus never dive bombs you can be lucky to even make the time limit for him. It's annoying that such a run killing boss is right at the end of the game.

United States

Cool, I could try getting used to the karma window. Marbus' stun lock exploit strat is indeed ridiculously risky, bc to encourage him to use the dive bomb I think you have to be far away from him (i.e. not in his face attacking him). So what I usually end up doing is forward Y, X, Y with DS underneath him which is extremely slow.