BrazilObviously, you can use window / monitor capture and capture that. Likewise, you can add a browser source and crop it there.
However, is there a way to capture the video directly? Instead of getting the entire page, just get the video stream?
This is for the marathon sections. When going through submited runs, it would be useful to be able to sort runs according to the various criterea (game, estimate, runner, country, time of submission, etc) rather than just being stuck the order the runs were submited in.
Sounds like a pretty obvious feature to have and implement, and I'm quite surprised it isn't here in the first place.
*UPDATE (Jul/21/2018): -Rewrote the script and added more comparison videos. -TLDR: "Recent" releases of Dolphin are slower than console, but the original 5.0 is faster. As such, the current proposed version for running DW4 on EMU is Dolphin 5.0-8307 (link below) https://dl.dolphin-emu.org/builds/dolphin-master-5.0-8307-x64.7z
For starters, PS2 is slow. Like, 25s loads. It's insane, don't touch it with a 10 foot pole. I haven't tested running PS2 on EMU, I so I couldn't say if even then it's unbearable, but it's probably still not worth it anyway. For the Xbox version, I don't have access to a console and there's no Xbox emulator, so I wasn't able to mess with that either.
This leaves us to the Gamecube version, which I've tested it on an actual Wii as well as Dolphin EMU. As per the TLDR bullet point at the beginning, the original 5.0 release of the emulator loads considerably faster than console, potentially saving various minutes by the end of the run. However, at an unknown point between versions 5.0 and 5.0-6803, the game started loading slower than an actual console. This also held (albeit at a different load time) for versions 5.0-7953 and 5.0-8307, and I'd expect it to be the same for everything in between and even for 5.0-8486, which is the current latest release at the time of writing, but I have no tests to back up that claim.
As such, and due to how recent the emulator is updated, it is recommended to run the game on 5.0-8307. EMU loads the game rather consistently, so choosing a single version and sticking to it keeps an even playing field for everyone. There's also the fact that Dolphin is updated very frequently, so keeping tabs on every single version would be a moderation nightmare. I don't expect to change versions, unless we discover something (I have a theory of numenume river being impossible on 5.0 and doable on 4.0) OR the devs release a new version fixing the text bug on EMU. On that note, I've submitted a bug report (link below) which was acknowledged, but so far no fix has been implemented; if a future version fixes that, it might be worth retesting for loads and switching. https://bugs.dolphin-emu.org/issues/11087
Lastly, let's talk about testing methodology. I've devised a quick test that can be executed rather easily by anyone, just pick up the game and fire the emulator (no need for saves). The route consists of the following loads: 1-Start game; 2-Loading Commander room; 3-Loading Gate area; 4- Loading Shop area; 5- Loading Main are; 6- Loading Shop area (again); 7- Loading Main area (again); 8-Loading the Tutorial; 9- Loading Death Valley; 10- Loading Gob Gob Room (get there through means of OoB).
To have Dolphin show frames, go to Movie -> Show frame count. I start the time at the following frames: 1- The frame the "Press start" text disappears; 9- The frame the cursor dot completely disappears from the screen; 2~8 and 10- The frame the selection box enlarges. For every load, I end the time the frame the screen turns black for the fade in effect.
IMPORTANT: All numbers bellow were taken in a 30FPS format, even though Dolphin and the videos themselves are at 60. As such, if you do your own count that shows "480" frames, you'd have to divide it by 2 to compare your loads to mine. The reason for that is because the capture card I used to record my console tests was limited to 30 fps, so I decided to halve Dolphin's frame counts when comparing the 2.
(Thinking back, that was a bad decision, and I should just have doubled the capture card's count rather than halving Dolphin's one, but now is too late to change that...)
Lastly, if anyone would like to add their own test videos to these, especially if they are about the Xbox or PS2 EMU, just make a forum post below or ping / PM me on discord and I'll add them to the main body.
Dolphin:
Wii:
PS2:
Thing is, I'll have to get 2 frame perfect tricks in a row (you can check it out here: https://www.speedrun.com/diwo4/thread/bschv/1#vsymq).
Any tips as to how I should practice getting that, or should I rather just pray till it eventually happens?
As anyone playing this game knows, you can't double jump...
... or at least that's what the developers thought!
After seeing video proof of it happening, which you can check here (jump to 1:55): I decided to investigate. And after fiddling with the TAS for a while, I finnaly figured this out.
The basic idea is simple: jump, trigger the auto-block while mid air (which relies on your speed stat and RNG) and then you can jump again.
With that trick in your arsenal, you can enter Machine Pit via the Barbarian Cave / Undead Yard sidequest (available as early as NumeNume River) and use the double jump to access the levers needed to unlock the dungeons, as well being able to reach the compiler ship area. This allows you to skip Venon Jungle and Dry Land entirely! It's a 1:30h time save, maybe even as far as being 2h!
Sounds cool, right?
However, actually pulling it of ain't easy! I've given you the basic idea for noobs, but there's more to it than that. Turns out you have to:
1- Jump exactly 1 frame before getting hit. If you jump earlier, it won't work. If you jump late, you get hit. So right off the bat, we're already trying to perform a frame perfect trick 2- Have the RNG be in your favor to trigger the auto-block. The higher your Speed stat, the better. In the context of a speedrun, it'll happen rather frequently, I'd say once every 3~5 hits. 3- And we're not done yet! After getting both of the above, you have to jump again on the 18th frame after the auto-block goes off. Another way of saying is jumping 8 frames after the red guard dissapears (10 frames after the auto-block). Jumping early isn't a problem, as your controls are locked. However, jump too late and the trick won't work.
Here's the trick in action:
That's the explanation behind the history and mechanics of the trick... but if you want to actually pull it off, there's a couple of things to do to help you out: 0- Jump on 1 enemy at a time. Multiple enemies on screen just mess with you, it's better to kill everyone on sight and leave a single foe alive. 1- Calibrate your timing for the initial jump. You're supposed to spend only a single frame in the air before getting hit, so take a close look to when you get hit to calibrate your attempts: if most of the time you are getting hit while already in the air, it's because you're jumping too early; if most of the time you are getting hit while still on the ground, it's because you are jumping too late. So constantly delay / antecipate your jumps to try and strike a balance between both. Personally, I tend to favor the ground (late) side, it's easier to jump too early than it is to jump late. But that's just my taste. 2- As soon as you jump, move the analog in the direction you want to go. It's amazing how often you 2x Jump just to miss the platforms because of a lack of range, if you don't change directions quick enough. So to avoid that, move the analog as soon as possible so your character does the same. And as a bonus, that movement can sometimes prevent you from getting hit altogether, in cases you jump too early, so it also speeds up attempts by a bit. 3- For that half second after your first jump, try to mash as fast as you can. Personally, I do a 3 press burst, but you can do it however you want; at any rate, the faster you can press, the higher your chance to hit the right frame. However, don't overdo it, or you'll get tired rather quickly, so try to find a "setup" you feel confortable with. 4- If you're doing it for a while and failing, STOP. Just stop, take a deep breath, release the controller, maybe even shake your hands violently to "erase the muscle memmory", reposition yourself on the chair and just try fresh. I know it sounds like a lot, but it only really takes 2~3 seconds to do all of that, so do it. And don't think of that time as being idling or wasteful, think of it as a time investment / setup to help you nail the trick: this will help relieve hand stress and make it easier to succeed, as well as having the placebo effect of "I'm doing something to improve, now it WILL work" to keep morale high, so shia la beuf it and keep going. 5- Practice. It'll suck in the beginning, we all had our 30min DoubleJump split. But as you do more and more attempts, you'll eventually get the hang of it, and for as awful as a double frame perfect trick with an unfavourable RNG roll might sound, it's really not as bad to perform.
And those are the things I do to help me perform the Double Jump.
^Title.
It would help ease the pain on mashing the X button over and over and over again. I'm ready to do runs now, and I really don't want them to go invalid because of the controller.
