Valid Emulators
6 years ago
United States

Snes9x core is allowed; use the most recent one. Run-ahead is not.

Edited by the author 2 years ago
Germany

Thanks for the reply! The last thing I wanna know is if consoles like the OG Snes or the Super NT make a huge difference when it comes to input delay. I've been wanting to get further into SMW and SMW hack runs but without run ahead the delay feels very unpleasant to me :/ But getting a Super NT here is almost impossible and also super expensive, same goes for a 60Hz SNES and any cartridge that can run hacks.

plaabo likes this
Missouri, USA

There are several speedruns with run-ahead enabled that are approved on this site, these same speedruns also used the SNES-2010 core. My speedrun for Kroeti Kaizo has run-ahead approved just yesterday. Kamikaizo speedrun for Orcus has run-ahead. BennyKapow for GPW2 has run-ahead.

Run-ahead is no different than Zero latency mode in the SuperNT. BOTH change the timing at which things are drawn on-screen inorder to give the player a PERCEIVED better input latency. Neither change the speed at which the game runs outside of expected variations from original hardware.

Edited by the author 2 years ago
United States

It doesn't really matter what other games have run-ahead allowed. SMW is not those games.

Edited by the author 2 years ago
NextGenGaming likes this
Missouri, USA

I apologize. I thought this was for the all Super Mario World SNES games, including all "Super Mario World" Kaizo hacks. You're saying that run-ahead is not allowed for the original "Super Mario World" itself. Thank you for clarification.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

So, there was never a decision regarding the use of runahead, and yeah, I agree that it should be banned, is totally a different thing than the zero lag mode of the NT, since the runahead, basically runs another instances of the emulator and try to predict what input you are gonna do in the controller, what can do things with the RNG, gives you a bigger window for doors, can change your jumps and make Mario jump further, and sometimes even jump from the air, there is really nothing with the zero lag mode of the NT, that basically disables the framebuffer and makes the console run at native speed, what also reduces the input lag at the cost of some stuttering.

Aberdeen, Scotland

Ok which is it? Some people here are saying that runahead is banned while others are saying it was never decided.

Which is it?

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Read the rules regarding emulators and see if there is anything explicitly banning runahead, or even implying that's banned. There isn't anything about that in the rules

Raleigh, NC, USA

There sort of is on the actual speedrun.com rules. It bans emulator tools and tool assisted emulator features - you could make a strong argument that run-ahead is a tool assisted emulator feature since it utilizes save-states to predict what inputs you’re going to press.

Tool-assisted emulator features such as save-states, re-recording, or frame advance are not allowed.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

And that's why it should be explicitly written that runahead is banned. Not everyone knows how runahead works, people just assume that is a function that reduces input lag and that's it. As I said, too many times right now, implied rules aren't rules, rules should be explicit and written on the board.

Aberdeen, Scotland

"And that's why it should be explicitly written that runahead is banned"

But is it actually banned? Has anyone discussed it on the discord server or anything?

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

As far as how the rules are written, is allowed, and I can go on the leaderboard and point at least 50 runs using it, so for now go for it, just use until is banned, what I doubt is gonna be in a foreseeable future

Pomorskie, Poland

Hello, I am interested in this game and I have a question if it is allowed to use Mesen-S? from what I checked this emulator is very accurate in emulation, the emulator is also downloadable on Linux which can be a very cool option for new eager speedrunners using Linux, but I need permission from the mods for this emulator because I will be planning to speedrun 11 Exit Cloud and other categories in Category Extensions, besides Mesen-S is completely legal https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Super_Nintendo_emulators

North Carolina, USA

Hey all, can I use RetroArch running one of the allowed cores? I apologize, I'm sure this has been answered, but I want to make absolutely sure. The reason I would want to use it is because it has provided me the least amount of lag thus far.