Dear Geohounds,

Recently, the Topic of allowing Turbo functions in Grandia 2 was brought up and I consider this to be a reasonable discussion to have.

7-8 years ago, Turbo wasn't really considered too much, since there was a general mindset of "nothing that original hardware doesn't allow". As far as I am aware, neither Dreamcast nor PS2 had a default turbo function, so that kind of thinking was very valid. However, the "basic stance" on something should be questioned regularly, to make sure that it is still correct.

As far as I am aware, a Turbo function would mostly benefit from skipping dialogue during that run. Personally, I don't consider mashing through textboxes during a long run a "speedrun skill", that needs to be compared with other runners.

The only section that I could imagine where Turbo might make a difference is the Armwrestling minigame, and even that is something you will win by default during any% runs. There are currently no 100% runs, so I don't see a point in taking into account an empty category for the current rules. Should there ever be any interest in 100% runs, then I am sure that we can adjust the rules further in a fair way for that category.

Long story short, I am in favor of allowing Turbo functions for Grandia 2 speedruns.

List of open bounties for all FVIII speedrun categories

Please note that all bounties require you to provide a method that can be reproduced on a legit copy of the game, without any tools/software that manipulate your game and/or savefile.

Task: Find a way to enter the Esthar continent near the Great Salt Lake at the beginning of Disc 3, before the Ruby Dragon Laguna Dream. Reward: 100€ (Ahramanyu)

Task: Find a way to enter the President's Room in Esthar right after the final Laguna Dream. Reward: 100€ (Ahramanyu)

Greetings,

With the release of the "Remaster" version of FFVIII we once more have voices within the community that would like to discuss the known FPS issue where both the 2013 Release and the 2019 Remaster for PC run slightly faster on Win7, compared to other operating systems. We also need to figure out where to place the "HD" versions in general, and if they should be separated by console or not.

The short topic first: Right now, all "HD" console versions are under one new category, all put together. We do not see a reason YET to separate them, but that is simply due to us not having enough information on any differences yet. If you for any evidence for us that the PS4 version and, for example, the Xbox version have noticeable differences, please point them out to us in this topic. HD PC will be its own category and not be put together with the 2013 release.

Secondly, the Windows issue. While I personally love Windows 7, it already is a very old OS and will no longer be supported by Microsoft within the next year. It is understandable that a lot of runners would prefer to use a modern OS and to not be forced to run Win7 (for security reasons alone).

No decision on that has been made and we would like to discuss with the community the following options, while also asking for other solutions that we haven't considered yet.

1) Allow all operating systems and do not differentiate. 2) Allow all operating systems, but note the one used per run. 3) Separate PC runs done on Win7 as its own category. 4) Ban Win7 as OS for PC runs entirely.

This is not a call that we can make on our own. We do require your input. Please share this thread to any FFVIII runner you know and ask them to contribute.

Regards

We discuss it as soon as the game is out. Looking at the other Final Fantasy Remasters, this is very likely.

Guys,

its Disc, not Disk.

Thank you for your attention.

Don't get me wrong, but i think you are making a way too big deal out of the whole "shinys for moneys" thing. In several threads.

I tested more scenes, by comparing my own VOD with other VODs, with and without RaW. So far, i am confident.

@Eintopf

This is not how the thread works. Please read the opening posting first.

If you were to do a full run on Emulator, then i would add it to the board, yes.

You should know though that Emulators have usually a low loading speed, so you will notice a time-difference.

The first option you have would be to write into the forum of the game. Moderators get notifications about new threads.

I don't see the GPU, but the processor seems decent. Should work. I have to say tho: Win10 and FFVIII are not the best friends.

Could you give us the specs of your laptop, so we can give you an esitmate?

It is very rare for somebody to use emulators, if isn't for practice. Especially with the pc version being so easily available.

Are you interested in running the game?

Not sure if i will be in it, but brothers_88 is hyped.

To be honest, i would be happy if we could find a way to replace the soundfiles with a package that doesn't give you any time for free. But it would have to be 'THE one sound package', and not an anything further modified.

Difficullt. Currently, it seems easier to just demand original game files. I'd be willing to listen to more feedback on that topic.

I honestly can't make up my mind about that category. Mostly because it seems like something that is slightly difficult to verify. The timings for when HSM has to be dis- and enabled seem easy to get wrong.

That is not a 'No, we won't add it'. It's a 'The rules are should be more simple'.

I read over the rules, and they do sound like regular 'New Game' rules to me. What about them would be questionable?

I just checked my own VOD, where i replaced the soundfiles directly, and it doesn't seem like i am gaining free time there.

We discussed several ways of dealing with that issue. Example solutions were:

• banning mods entirely
• adding extra-time to runs on modded versions
• only banning mods for the top times, which is currently active

The first option i disagreed on, because of similar arguments which you are currently bringing up: The midi-music is not popular at all, so it makes sense that people would want to mod it. Because of that, we left it to anyone who wants to run casually and for fun to decide what to do.

For the second option, while we currently only know of 1 spot where you can observe a noticeable time-difference, we can't be sure for the rest of the game. There are several loading screens/trigger that happen after a soundfile is played, and it is not out of the question that a modded version would save even more time. Also, the "free time" that you usually get from having to wait till the soundfile is done playing is used for menuing, which would effectively change the route slightly, depending on wether you changed your gamefiles or not. Additionally, Roses&Wines is not the only way to change your music-files. In result, timing the exact amount of second you save with those mods proves as difficult.

The compromise we came down to is the rule that is currently in charge: Keeping the top times on equal ground, while giving more causal runners a bit more freedom. Unless a majority of the currently active runners were to complain about the rule with solid arguments, i won't see a reason for now to take it back.

Separating the leaderboards in modded and unmodded is an option that wasn't discussed, so i can only bring in my personal opinion here: There are several reasons why the game COULD (not should or will) be divided: SS and nonSS have slightly different routes, the english version has slightly different game-mechanics than all the other languages (Hero/Holy War can't miss), Windows 7 users get to play with higher FPS than Window 8 users. Those are actually more or less legit reasons to consider rule changes. But to divide in "original gamefiles" and "switched out gamefiles"? I don't see it, but that is just me personally.

I hope you won't take this wall of text as something that was only directed in you. We obviously got feedback from several people, so i took your reply as an excuse to write a more detailed explanation on why we did what we did. I feel bad if that new rules is something that scares off new runners who are interested in the game, noone wants this community to grow more than i do. But rules exist to make sure that competitions like this are fair, and not to please single individuals.

I do hope that you reconsider your decision, if you really are interested in the game. The community is great, very helpful and supports each other wherever possible. It would be a shame if you decided to drop the topic because of such a detail.

I would like to do some testing regarding that, but i am not sure if i would be able to emulate the japanese version.

Edit: I actually got it working, so if there is something to test on the japanese version, then i am up for it.