Hey there~

I'm looking at submitting a run in the near future. I'm using an emulator for the run at the moment which the rules state are allowed; however I'm wondering if there will be a subcategory for emulated runs?

This is more in fairness to the other two runs that are run on a physical console as I noticed in one of my recorded runs that even with a huge mistake and a backup strat that I had a time of 1:04:07, almost eight minutes faster than the WR.

I compared the video with the current WR run and noticed that the emulator is loading rooms insanely faster, to the tune of three or more seconds each, allowing me to have such a good time despite what should be a third place run. I'd love to submit a run tonight or tomorrow (after I have a much better run), but I'd hate to take over the WR time just because of loading times.

So yeah, long story short, I'm just curious how you'd like to approach an emulated run whether it be it's own subcategory to preserve the fairness of the hard work put in for the physical console runs, or if it'll be hidden due to the emulated status.

Thanks for letting me share my concerns!

~ ResiDrache

We could make an emulator category, but before then I want to ask which emulator are you using and if you own a Dreamcast at all the option to burn the ISO onto a disc is allowed as well since Dreamcast discs are pretty simple to use

(Big wall of text warning)

I don’t have access to a physical Dreamcast at the moment, no. Mine sadly bit the dust a few months ago and it’ll be a little while before I can replace it, not to mention get the cables and devices so I can capture from it so I’m stuck with emulating it for the meantime (which is also easier for me to capture). I still have my physical copy of the game though, so no need to copy the iso (thanks for making me dig it back out after years of being untouched!).

As for emulator, I've been using Demul (180816) for the game as I have issues with the text, textures, transparency effects, and characters, signs, etc. popping in or out while running it on NullDC (1.0.4). It also felt a bit slugish for some reason why playing on NullDC which is why I switched over to Demul. (https://imgur.com/a/ezt40F7 for a few pics of them, mostly seems to be an issue with transparency)

I sat down for an a bit to compare some load times up to after the second virtual world visit, comparing it to times in your WR run on the physical console and came up with the below.

1st VW Load:

NullDC – 12 seconds Demul – 7 seconds Physical – 12 seconds

Inventory

All loaded at 3 seconds

1st VW Return:

NullDC – 14 seconds Demul – 9 seconds Physical – 13 seconds

Post 1st Chief Office Scene:

NullDC – 9 seconds Demul – 4 seconds Physical – 7 seconds

2nd Chief Cutscene Door Load:

NullDc – 8 seconds Demul – 5 seconds Physical – 7 seconds

Post Reference Room Scene:

NullDC – 9 seconds Demul – 5 seconds Physical – 7 seconds

2nd VW Load:

NullDC – 11 seconds Demul – 7 seconds Physical – 11 seconds

2nd VW Return:

NullDC – 14 seconds Demul – 7 seconds Physical – 13 seconds

Total Load Test Times:

NullDC – 83 seconds Demul – 50 seconds Physical – 76 seconds

Overall, with how the game looks, plays, and loads on NullDC, it’s the worst of the three, though it’s load times are closer to the physical version. Demul is the best of the three, and the best to play emulation wise when it comes to presentation as I haven’t come across any graphical issues, though the load times blow the other two versions out of the water. With the loads, it’d pretty much necessitate a separate emulator category if Demul is allowed as you can get close to a time of 1:03 by just tripping over it.

So, yeah, TL;DR:

NullDC – Closest to physical load times, but worse than physical as it loads slower and seems to play marginally slower and has bad graphical presentation.

Demul – Best in terms of emulation presentation and gameplay, but has insanely good load times that physical can’t compete with.

In this case I know NullDC works well it may be wiser to just have that and not separate the boards. We have two runners so far and previously I've used NullDC for my initial run of this. Demul seems absurdly fast and ideally we'd want to stay closer to the original source

Sounds good, I'll switch over to NullDC then for my runs. Thanks for your input, it's really appreciated :)