FinlandNice, already got plenty on the list! The more people we have, the easier it becomes to get stuff done. Thanks for the interest so far!
Gaël: I can understand, however It's not 100% strict "sit in this chair". The more people we have the more we can shuffle around for breaks and whatnot. I don't expect anyone to sit 8hrs straight :)
Although, I look it at this way, main event is 7 days, that's 3 days that have "work", 8hrs each. In the end, out of those days, you will still have 6 days worth of free time. As a "senior", I will be spending at least 48hrs, still that would be a maximum of 3 days out of the 10 days I will be staying.
Also something I forgot to mention: 8hrs is the target, we might end up juggling the amounts a bit to align them with games. There might be some moments between a long game and a shift ending earlier or starting later is a possibility case-by-case. Although we will try to keep it fair for everyone.
eTholon, thanks! I'm sure that will come in handy as it's more powerful than what we have.
exe: HDMI is an option as well. Our scaling chain however doesn't handle HDMI natively and thus we prefer alternatives. We have a matrix that handles I/O switching between stream/display which doesn't work with digital signals. We do not prefer this as it would change the chain we have set up. I guess it could be split before reaching our video chain and handled in a similar manner to PC.
It's not an impossiblity, just that proper (realiable) digital hardware with the same feature set is really expensive. We will however do our best to cater to every runner when needed !
Time for the "Tech volunteer thread", but really all we need now is extra hands willing to produce the stream (operate xsplit, change overlays, mix audio etc) alongside the senior tech team. There might be some small additional things that we will sort out later on but think of it like being "handling VOD uploads", which will be all taught and explained, mainly just lending a hand. Huge knowledge about streaming isn't a requirement but we will however require some basic level knowledge on how xsplit and/or OBS work.
In short: you will be part of a small team running the stream at any given time, the basic structure being: Senior Tech (Always present at station) + Volunteers
Change to previous year is that you won't be doing this alone and that there will be a rotation of multiple smaller teams. When your shift is over you get to walk away from your station knowing the next team is already there.
Last year we had big issues with scheduling and manpower, let's just say that it didn't go as well as planned. Some people ended up being overworked but what we really appreciated is that the few that worked way more than needed still carried things to the end (You know who you are, Thanks guys <3).
With this year to get rid of scheduling problems, instead of letting people cherry pick few shifts here and there, leaving others with loads of hours on bad shifts we will use a rotation instead. Gone is the last year's system, in with rotations.
"Just shut up you stupid tekhead and tell me how many hours I'll need to do?" A maximum of 3 shifts, each 8 hours long. Yeah, no matter what will happen, you will never do more than 24h overall and we will make sure your shift never overlaps with any run that you're doing.
How this works is that there will be EIGHT teams, split between FOUR "tech leads" "Tech leads" ~ Seniors will be taking double the shifts in this case.
What the rotation could look like, let's say that you belong in team 3
DAY1> 07-15 TEAM 1 15-23 TEAM 2 23-07 TEAM 3 DAY2> 07-15 TEAM 4 15-23 TEAM 5 23-07 TEAM 6 DAY3> 07-15 TEAM 7 15-23 TEAM 8 23-07 TEAM 1 DAY4> 07-15 TEAM 2 15-23 TEAM 3 23-07 TEAM 4
You would be doing 23-07 shift on the first day and 15-23 on the 4th day. This leaves one more 8hr shift during the whole event, max.
You can ALWAYS agree between guys on the list if you want to swap shifts Also we will happily listen to any restrictions that you might have for certain days, but beware that everyone will do a single night shift. Final selection will be done by a lottery to make it fair for everyone.
Strict list like this is to avoid cases in the past where people just pick a few shifts during good hours that most would pick anyway. Unlike last year, the tech seniors will always stay present at visible range (God no, not during toilet breaks) and the burden will be much smaller due to simpler second stream and less travel distance in between. Rest assured, you won't be left alone.
... The tech lead however might kick your ass at some megadrive games that we will be plugging in at the tech station. That's right! We will have a computer and a megadrive with a flashcart for some hot 2p bootleg game action & internet surfing. This will be open to all the volunteers and hopefully we can drag in some other systems to have fun during late hours. We want to make sure you dont miss out on having a great marathon experience, even while volunteering your time. A few extra perks in return for your efforts.
"I want to humiliate you with some stupid MD games !" That's great ! Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/141KL2IoB8_9jPMwD2DgMXP8tARPfyl2a7YlbmBEiW8Y/viewform
Yes, sorry if it wasn't clear.
WE will handle all the video stuff and whatnot !
Just bring you game & system and we will really like it if you could bring a RGB cable or better depending on the system.
Capture / etc.. is something we will worry about :)
I'll be adding this to the main post.
SPARKLE SPARKLE!
I'll be sure to participate, although just like last year, I might get dragged away to do tek.
zzzlol94: That sounds good, thanks for the offer! Let us know in case we can use it, sounds like something we could definitely use.
eTholon: Cool! What specs did it have again? I think it should still cover most of the stuff. Thanks for bringing it during previous years :) Another option is for me to bring a spare HDD and do a clean install, I think I can just buy an 120gig SSD or something and we can use that as a system drive. This way it would at least be a clean install and you wouldn't have to clean up after the event itself.
Also guys! I posted a google doc at the top. This will be updated with more info once we are done with pestering runners about their gear. Has some general guidelines and a run down on who has what. If you are listed there and not filled in, let us know so that we can stay up to date!
Hey!
Thanks a lot for the contributions so far guys, I'll note these down.
And yes, we will have a scary box that should take anything in aside from RF. Although, there will always be a few corner cases and we want to iron out any potential issues.
Edenal, those should be a big help!
Finnspire: The only thing your computer will do is mirroring the display, this places zero load on your system. Think of it like capturing console footage, the system won't even know it's being streamed!
OK!
ESA is closing in and it is time for the mandatory EQUIPMENT THREAD.
With all the money we had left from past ESA events, we put it in the lottery but didn't win anything, so unfortunately for ESA2015 we still can't provide house consoles all the way, sorry !
Because of this limitation, we REALLY want to push the runners to be responsible for having a system present for playing. In the past we've had cases similar to "Uh.. I don't have a system and this dude like can't give me his Jupiter gaming system anymore because he is practicing, I didn't mention that I had my run now". Let's get rid of that ! If you have a system you already play on at home, you might just as well bring it with you for the same trouble.
Assume that you must bring:
-
Your system (PC or Console)
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Your game you're going to play
**We will love you if you can provide: **
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RGB or Component cable (depending on system) As not everyone has invested on funky RGB setups, we will provide some cables for some of the more popular systems. If you are doing a race then we kindly suggest on bringing your own with you as we might not be able to cover everyone.
Capture HW and other stuff is something we will worry about. No need to bring those!
If your system doesn't support RGB (like commodore64, older atari etc..) then s-video is always an option.
**PC runners: ** There will be some lower end PCs that can be used for gaming and practice, If nothing bad happens, we will have the dreamhack PCs again, which feature a rather solid system from 5+ years ago (first gen i7 and GTX200 series I think). These should be able to run pretty much most of the games at a playable rate and some more modern games with low settings. However, we STRONGLY recommend that you will arrange a gaming PC of your own for your run, if your PC doesn't output VGA at all then please let us know in advance.
As usual, if there are any special requirements for your exotic system then let us know !
System donations for the event are welcome (especially PC, thanks to those who have contributed in the past!) but please beware that these will be used 100% of the event and can't be taken away for practice (unless there are no more games in store for that system in the future). This is to prevent extra hunting for the system and cables when it's time for a run. You will of course get the system back once it's no longer needed.
However, we do encourage runners to share systems and organize who will be bringing what. This thread is to be a place where people can pool in on what they need / have when it comes to tech. While I "really" enjoyed dragging my PC and CRT to a LAN party with tears of joy back in the days, it's not really something we expect people from around the world to do. Please contact us if you run in to trouble with PC stuff, if the dreamhack PCs arrive again then those should cover most needs already.
We have been doing some inquiries on what tech runners will bring and what we should prepare for in terms as video output, don't get surprised in case these get suddently asked, knowing these in advance help us a LOT! :)
EDIT: A list of stuff gathered so far https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NT8rFFndccoNSep5JJqWCeTwRQBUX_Nsfpbe1ZNY-OA/edit?usp=sharing Will be updated now and then. Also from now on, when offering a system for ESA use during the event (<3) please make it clear in your post. Otherwise we will just consider it an open offer for other runners.
From what I understood, classic% was simply an umbrella term to include taxi and density. It never was intended (NOTE: from all I've seen) to simulate other game play restrictions from older games or anything to do with "being classic". Just a simple term instead of having to include "no taxi% nodensity%" Never anything that directly affected the route. And I think that is the biggest problem people have at the moment. Category can exist all I care, maybe the difference between 4/5 should be noted a bit better? Adding Ending C to the name would clarify this issue a lot.
Anyway, can we PLEASE keep the excessive capslock outside of this tread from now on? I understand that there is a point disguised in sarcasm most of the time but enough is enough. THANK YOU! :)
While I do not like the forced ending, I guess the best solution is to simply just get a kickass any% time so that people have some incentive to start running it and forget about classic%.
This is what max payne 2 runners did to prove that NYM is a stupid category. Beating every level in time so that they could request the category to be removed from SDA, unfortunately it still exists but I don't think anyone takes it seriously anymore, not after the crazy slowmo spam strategy was introduced to get better times. MP2 is a bit on the other extreme end though :)
But I will agree with Naegleria here with naming confusions, did GTA4 have any ending restriction on classic% ? I haven't been very actively following GTA5 scene but the ending restriction came as a complete surprise to me. I strongly believe that runs should have as little restrictions as possible since it could be that ending A gets broken at some point and is found to be much faster than B or C, shuffle these around. That is what keeps me going back to watching same games when they get obsoleted in time, watching a run and asking "why did the go there instead?" only to discover that there is some major skip or a very sick trick. Any% is about as relaxed as you can get with that but some games do have some features that can be considered very undesirable or potentially too game breaking. In this case, it's rather harmless but still potentially game changing graphical setting abuse (vehincle density) and including more driving in a game that has been built around driving, again all something that needs to be routed and planned carefully. Restrictions shouldn't apply on the route itself if possible, just a specific mechanic or a bug.
Essence of classic% was mostly just to disable taxi travel along with no density manipulation for traffic, correct? I really think that the "no skip, no taxi, no manipulation" is a category worth existing, along with another category that allows taxi. Just that the ending shouldn't be restricted like that because of what I mentioned above. Naegleria pointed out what I already thought as the clear solution, adding "Ending C" at the end.
GTA 5 running is still very new, now I know that the game has been out for some time now with PS3/360 but then again, GTA3 and VC/SA have evolved a lot troughout the years, probably 10 years from now someone will find a major "dupe glitch of 5" and runners can argue about the rulesets again ;) This is why I'd try to steer away from any route restrictions.
It's here again!
Join the cruise of mystery, romance and magic as the ESA Boat trip takes off again from Helsinki towards Stockholm.
While this is primarily for Finns that might be travelling towards ESA, If you find yourself suddenly in the "always sunny" country of Finland then feel free to join in !
This link contains encrypted text fields: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G6tzt0xDsXVHaF2q_UGziJufu3pF_-eTHcuuPDjfnno/edit?usp=sharing
This pad was started ages ago, use this instead: https://oasiz.titanpad.com/7
Has the proper bungo syntax so you only have to copypaste.
Done that already. I usually got my GTA3 times after I started drinking, I would just keep restarting if I didn't.
Melis, I think that is the wrong approach, looking blindly at WRs and shoving money in that direction isn't going to work. That would take the "running for fun" aspect out of the equation and people would grind records to get free paid vacations. I think this point of view has been covered elsewhere numerous times so I won't preach about it :p
Personally I still feel uncomfortable on getting any kind of money but like I said to eidgod, I will make an exception for this only as long as everyone agrees on it. I won't use my internet for other stuff for a few days in this case in order to dedicate 100% bandwidth and test that things work well in advance so I consider it a reasonable compensation, I have to pay for my connection anyway and if things go wrong, I will be responsible for it.
Also Pac, I really think that you should accept some. I have provided various "wildcard" things like the old MTA server, race hypes, hosting for small files / etc.. (and now RTMP) but those are chump change compared to this site which acts like a central hub. You worked your ass off on getting this site to this shape, not to mention that you are still very active on maintaining it and if that domain name price tag is true, You should definitely not have to pay for it out of your own pocket. We are all in this stupid speedrunning hobby together, you shouldn't be broke because this is a contribution that serves everyone. Doing stuff for free is fun for a while but there are always costs that are involved on running a site like this and there will be a point where you will have to source some income to cover for the extra costs as it will otherwise have to come out of your paycheck. There is nothing wrong for accepting money with a service that clearly has already set you on the negative side with the budget. You are not selling yourself out or making this commercial, It's a small income that maintains something that a huge part of #gta already actively uses. It's like having friends take a beer or two from the fridge now and then, I wouldn't really mind that but I wouldn't also mind if they threw something in return now and then, especially when I visit them. But so much for that, that is my take on this
Shanz also deserves his share, these things cost bandwidth. For the previous argument, even if you run your server 24/7 regardless, you have to pay for the electricity / bandwidth usage. Like in the case of MTA, I many times held back on streaming or torrenting linux images because the server had so many users in it and I didn't want to kill the performance, it always comes out of somewhere. Also if things break, he is the one who has to fix it or upgrade it, this is something that easily gets taken for granted.
These both are services that people (including me) use actively and and my vote goes that at least these two guys deserve their share.
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