Recently, many longer runs submitted as Twitch highlights have had parts of their audio muted due to Twitch's automatic copyright detection, the most frequent case being long sections of Lost Woods music. Some vods will even give a network error at these parts which can cause several minutes of footage to be unwatchable. Both of these problems are an issue for leaderboard verification as we require all runs to have full video proof with game audio present throughout the entire run.

Because of this, we highly recommend local recording, which can be done simultaneously while streaming, and uploading the local video file to YouTube instead of using Twitch's highlights, which will avoid the aforementioned issues and be generally more reliable than a livestream vod. Using Twitch's "export to YouTube" function does not prevent these issues from occurring since it will use the highlighted video.

If you have submitted a run with either of these issues and do not have a local recording to upload instead, you can try to dispute any copyright claims that appeared on the video, or try double-checking the original broadcast to see if it shares the issues. If it does not, you may be able to download the full stream vod then trim and upload the run from there.

Lastly a little reminder that it's possible to only record specific audio tracks while streaming, such that stream alerts/music/things of that nature will be omitted from the local recording, but still heard on stream. Having clean unobstructed game audio is always preferred for submissions, so this solution is a nice compromise.

Hi OoT speedrunners! After several weeks of elaborate discussions and a large community vote, it has been decided that from now on the intro cutscene can be skipped. The revised game rules are as follows:

New intro skip rules

"Skipping the intro cutscene is allowed (but not mandatory). To do this, watch the intro once, then save the game in Link's house. You may wish to put this prepared file into slot 2 or 3. Then any time you wish to do a speedrun, you can copy the prepared file into slot 1, and do the run there. Note that skipping the intro will make you lose about 4 frames due to starting further from the door in Link's house. Also note that getting the rupee from the pot in Link's house is BANNED when first loading an intro skip file."

Regarding video proof, there are no changes, but we'd like to clarify that all submissions must include a video that includes file select at the beginning regardless of whether the intro is watched or skipped.

New timing rules

"Time begins on the first frame of player movement in Link's house. Before movement, you are allowed to change the camera with C-Up if you wish, however no other inputs may be made during this period. The player is also required to begin movement within 10s of gaining control. Time ends on the first frame of any cutscene that normally takes place after dealing the final blow to Ganon, as long as the game can reach The End Screen from that state (e.g. no void loops)."

Retiming of existing runs

The mod team (with the help of a few recruited community members) is currently in the process of retiming all PBs (not obsolete runs) on the main leaderboard. The extensions board will follow. During this time, new runs will move slower through the verification queue so please be patient. You can submit new runs using the new timing method, but please do not edit your existing runs; wait for the mods to get to them instead.

More info

If you have any further questions or would like to see the vote results, join the OoT speedrunning discord (https://discord.gg/7FYGh3d). The vote results are summarized in the #announcements channel.

Hello OoT speedrunners! We'd like to bring a few changes that have been made to the Ocarina of Time game rules to your attention. Make sure to check them out in detail by going to a category, selecting 'View rules' and navigating to the 'Game Rules'.

In short, the following changes were made:

• Dolphin was added as a legal emulator for submissions (for times slower than 10% of the existing record). Below you can find which settings are allowed and banned.
• Tricks and glitches exclusive to OoT versions 1.0/1.1 may now be used on emulator.
• The 10% cutoff rule for emulator was added to the Category Extensions board. Old runs within the 10% will not be removed, but new emulator times within the range will be rejected.

The Ocarina of TIme speedrunning Discord is the main hub for communicating with the community. Please join it if you would like to keep up with anything related to OoT speedrunning, and/or have any questions related to this announcement: https://discord.com/invite/7FYGh3d

Updated emulator rules

• Emulator is banned for all times that are within 10% of the existing record. If you are unsure of what this time is, contact a moderator.

N64 Emulation

• You must use Project64 1.6 or 1.7. All other emulators and versions (such as Mupen64/Bizhawk/Project64 2.0+) are banned.
• You must use the default settings for emulation (e.g. Changing the graphics plugin to do GIM is not allowed).

Wii Emulation

• You must use a Dolphin version at or newer than 5.0-15999 (ideally you just set dolphin to auto-update, should this version range change, we will make an announcement).
• "Emulated CPU Clock Override" may be set up to 115% to fix Dolphin-specific slowdowns to feel more on-par with hardware (recommended).
• "Store EFB Copies to Texture Only" may be unchecked to fix the pause screen (recommended).
• "Enable Dual Core" may be checked (recommended).
• "Enable Cheats" must be unchecked.
• Any graphics backend is allowed.
• Internal Resolution must be "Native", Anti-Aliasing: "None", Anisotropic Filtering: "1x" .
• All other GFX- and CPU-modifying settings must be set to their defaults.