Should we allow multiple instances to save time?
2 years ago
Massachusetts, USA

Hello, I'm @jared05 and currently hold the PC WR on Kid A Mnesia Exhibition, a walking simulator featuring music and art from the band Radiohead. Recently we've run into a point of contention concerning a skip involving reloading your save.

The skip in question is quite simple:

  • Enter the loading zone for the Like Spinning Plates room
  • Reload the game's save
  • The door to the room is open

This skip bypasses a 14 minute long cutscene composed of 3 songs which is how the room is normally unlocked. This skip has been accepted by the community and used in many runs.

The point of contention concerns how the game save is reloaded. The game has no option to soft reset, so current runs exit the application and open it again, adding about 12 seconds but this time is dependent on the PC itself. A video of the skip with this method can be seen here

Another runner suggested an alternative involving a second instance of the application. The runner would have this second instance already open before starting the run, beyond some initial logo screens but not yet having loaded the save or being in game. On the main instance, the runner would proceed to the point where they close the game but instead of launching a new instance of the application, they just switch to the already open instance and click to load the save. They then continue the run on this second instance.

This skips the need to click and open another instance and the initial splash screens, saving about 2 seconds. However, we aren't sure if this should be allowed since the second instance is opened before the run starts and you're finishing the run on a different instance than the one you started.

We're looking for examples of other games that have encountered the possibility of having multiple game instances in one run to save time. Other examples should help our community come to a decision and potentially achieve sub 6.

Edited by the author 2 years ago
YUMmy_Bacon5 and Caarda like this
Victoria, Australia

I know this is allowed to some extent in Undertale. Specifically, they have the ruling that

"Multi-client is forbidden. You can have additional clients open on the main menu for optimal load times, but you cannot interact with an older client after loading a save file (pressing "Continue") with a newer one. An autosave counts as an interaction even if no player input was involved. Closing a client does not count as interaction."

I think this is similar enough to what you're suggesting, so if you're just looking for similar examples, I hope this is helpful.

YUMmy_Bacon5 and jared05 like this
Massachusetts, USA

Yes thank you for that info swinging towards allowing it

YUMmy_Bacon5 likes this