Console / Emulator RTA data thread (please help submit!)
6 years ago
Denmark

Currently, emulator RTA is not allowed on the leaderboards (EDIT: It's allowed now, check the other sticky post for details). This is because emulators historically have had inaccurate RTA compared to console, often being faster. Since Zero Mission primarily goes by RTA now for a bunch of reasons, this means the leaderboard currently is a bit of a mess, unfortunately.

Using bizhawk and particular settings have shown very promising results, however, and so we hope that it is accurate enough that we can allow it for the leaderboards sometime in the future. In this thread, I hope to collect data that will help us determine whether or not the data for this particular emulator with the correct settings is accurate enough to allow on the leaderboards. I also want console data though, so even if you play on console, feel free to contribute.

HOW TO HELP If you want to help, make a single post in this thread that you edit with runs. ALL OFF-TOPIC POSTS WILL BE DELETED.

Specify at the top of the post whether you're playing on console or bizhawk.

Make a separate subheader for every category. If you're running a different route than the top runs, please don't submit. 100% is a little complicated, but either of the current best RTA routes will do (early/late brinstar, early ice).

Then simply post times under the right category. It doesn't have to be PB runs, it can be any old run, but we're mostly interested in somewhat competitive times - keep this in mind. Post in the following order (simply list them off):

RTA - IGT - version (EU/NA/JP) - bizhawk version Notes: Notes should be whether or not there might be any discrepancy between your RTA and IGT. IGT doesn't run during text, door transitions, etc, so that's why we're mainly interested in runs using the "correct" routes. If you do things very differently from the top run(s), don't post. If you simply have a few extra doors, forgot to skip a cutscene, etc, make a note here.

Well known RTA/IGT discrepancies you should note: Early farm or not in Tourian any% brinstar super or no in any% Late/Early Brinstar in 100% Sam strat Extra doors of any kind Any pauses (If you fail glass tube in 100%, consider not submitting it, since that's a hot mess. Same goes with anything else that involves shorter transitions.) Try to be as descriptive as you can, in any case.

I'll make a sample post to show how it's done.

The project might lead to nothing, but ideally it will serve as a good base for allowing emulator RTA.

If you do not know how to setup bizhawk, please refer to this video by Dragonfangs - ALWAYS TRY TO GET THE LATEST RELEASE.

If you have any questions regarding this, please make a separate topic. Feel free to claim a post now that you edit in the future. If you don't contribute any data, post will be deleted.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Greeneeguy likes this
Denmark

Sample post

Console

any% 38:28 - 26:19 - JP (use EU/NA/JP) - bizhawk version Notes: no early farm in Tourian, sam strat

2nd run

3rd run

etc

100% 1:10:42 - 50:15 - JP - bizhawk version Notes: late Brinstar, has 2 extra door transitions in Ridley, sam strat

(Feel free to add other categories, but chances are the data set will be incredibly small and not useful. Also feel free to add videos to whatever runs you post, it helps)

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Denmark

Reserving another post just in case

New York City, NY, USA

Emulator - BizHawk

¤¤any%¤¤ • 39:23 - 27:05 - JP - v1.11.9.1 Notes: No early farm, did not get Sam strat

¤¤100%¤¤ • 1:12:01 - 51:29 - JP - v1.12.1 Notes: Early brinstar, refilled at screw attack • 1:12:22 - 51:37 - NA - v1.12.1 Notes: Late brinstar, refilled at Hi-Jump, no Sam strat • 1:12:12 - 51:29 - NA - v1.12.1 Notes: Late brinstar, refilled at Hi-Jump, got Sam strat • 1:12:17 - 51:43 - JP - v1.12.1 Notes: Late brinstar, refilled at Hi-Jump AND Screw Attack, got Sam strat • 1:12:18 - 51:44 - JP - v1.12.2 Notes: Late brinstar, refilled at Hi-Jump, got Sam strat • 1:12:31 - 51:15 - JP - v1.11.9.1 Notes: HBJ, late kraid cleanup, no refill at Space Jump, late ice, early brinstar, skipped both refills in norfair • 1:11:43 - 51:08 - JP - v2.0.1 Notes: Early Brinstar, refilled at Screw Attack, got Sam strat, failed speedjump once

Edited by the author 6 years ago
United States

Emulator - Bizhawk

100% 1:12:42 - 51:57 - NA - v1.12.1 Notes: Late Brinstar, no refill glitches, Early Kraid, 2 extra door transitions in Kraid, sam strat, RTA and IGT both paused

1:13:31 - 52:40 - NA - v1.12.1 Notes: 2 extra doors, no refill glitches, sam strat

1:12:55 - 52:13 - NA - v1.12.1 Notes: No extra doors, sam strat

1:12:42 - 52:01 - NA - v1.12.1 Notes: No extra doors, sam strat

1:12:38 - 51:53 - NA -v1.12.1 Notes: Map, sam strat

1:12:18 - 51:38 - NA - V1.12.1 Notes: 2 extra short transitions in Ridley, sam strat, Late Brinstar

any% 40:25 - 28:03 - NA - some version Notes: No early farm, sam strat, did not go for Brinstar super

Edited by the author 6 years ago
United States

Emulator - BizHawk

100% 1:15:25 - 54:22 - NA - v1.11.9.1 Notes: Late Brinstar, Early Kraid, two extra transitions in chozodia, two extra in Ridley, sam strat, refilled at screw attack. Lots of emu lag before exiting Kraid.

1:13:06 - 53:10 - NA - v1.12.1 Notes: Late Brinstar, Early Kraid, sam strat ¤no firmware¤

1:13:09 - 52:15 - NA -v1.12.1 Notes: Late Brinstar, Early Kraid, sam strat, two extra transitions in chozodia, four extra in Ridley ¤now with more firmware¤

1:12:38 - 51:56 - NA - v1.12.1 Notes: Early Brinstar, Early Kraid, sam strat, two extra transitions in chozodia

1:11:08 - 50:33 - NA - v1.12.2 Notes: Early Brinstar, Early Kraid, sam strat, extra fast transition and slow transition in chozodia. Refill glitch

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Sweden

Emulator - Bizhawk

100% 1:12:28 - 51:47 - NA - v1.12.1 Notes: Early Brinstar, Sam strat, no extra transitions.Norfair heal skips (shouldn't be relevant but might as well).

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Basse-Normandie, France

Emulator - Bizhawk

100% 1:14:24 - 53:25 - EU - v1.12.0 Notes: Late Brinstar, early Ice, Sam strat, no extra transitions

Finland

I just wanted to point out that the TAS profile that you recommend setting does nothing for GBA emulation. Rather it just tweaks some settings like allowing Up+Down/Left+Right among other stuff. Peep the code.

https://github.com/TASVideos/BizHawk/blob/master/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk/config/ProfileConfig.cs

I can confirm having or not having the bios enabled does have a pretty drastic effect. On recent 2.X versions of BizHawk, mGBA will now allow booting roms with HLE bios which caught me off guard. The HLE bios is not as good as the real bios in accuracy so make sure you double check that the real bios is checkmarked in the Firmware menu if you're on 2.X BizHawk.

Besides that, real bios mGBA has proven to be really accurate to console, especially with EEPROM save speeds which can have a huge time gain on emulators such as Wii U VC which do not care about them.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Denmark

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm no emulator buff, so looking at technical documentation probably wouldn't tell me much.

I seem to recall that one of the profiles produced bad results (it's entirely possible that I'm misremembering or confusing it with the other settings), so I think having it be the standard is fine for this. As long as we have a standard that produces satisfactory results.

We definitely noticed that no bios produced bad results, but once again, thanks for the heads-up.

We figured mGBA probably produced the same results as bizhawk with mGBA core would, but I'd still like to see some test results before we allow it.

Thanks for the post; it's nice with input from people who are knowledgeable about the subject.

Masmurp likes this
Virginia, USA

Emulator mGBA Wii Homebrew version. Any% Normal 42:12.06 - 30:14 - NA - mGBA 0.6.3-Wii Notes: No Sam strat, intentionally lagged crumbling block room in suitless to prove game lags where it should.