Created save files can now be used as long as they are identical to blank ones at the start.

This means a file that is not completed, is in Angel Island, has no Emeralds, has 3 lives and no continues.

Most rules would apply to Sonic 1 as well. Please discuss here: https://www.speedrun.com/s3k/thread/w89y7/1#3n613

Most rules would apply to Sonic 2 as well. Please discuss here: https://www.speedrun.com/s3k/thread/w89y7/1#3n613

There has been talk recently of the rules being outdated. This thread will be used to discuss potential changes that have been suggested.

When replying, try to separate your arguments and preface it with the category so it’s easier to follow.

-- Emulators -- The current list of allowed emulators is outdated. Many runners nowadays use varying front-ends with differing cores that blurs the definition of what is actually allowed, originally the list was made for standalone emulators.

General requirements:

• Accurate enough emulation to not gain a real-time advantage over console.
• No input-replay functionality (TAS)
• RAM watch and edit not available
• Hard coded settings that make it harder to do video splices (e.g. no setting to turn off notifications on creating savestates)
• Not open source (?)
• Complete list should cover Windows, Mac and Linux OS.

-- Input viewers -- Runs on emulators are usually easier to use for cheating, so it stands to reason they should have more requirements when submitting. At the same time the rules must require reasonable low effort and be unintrusive on the runner. Requiring the use of external input viewers for emulator-runs seems to fit this definition well. I would like to hear any concerns with requiring https://gamepadviewer.com/ for emulator runs.

-- Livesplit -- Livesplit has autosplit functionality for a number of emulators nowadays and in the future it might be possible to run it on any console using image recognition. Moving forward it might make sense to require the .lss file generated. This could be implemented in a number of ways such as always being required for emulator runs, or it could be just required on your first few submissions until you reach a trusted status in the community. Please let me know if you think this is an awesome or terrible rule and how you would like to see it implemented if so.

-- Framecounter -- Depending on the emulators allowed, it could make sense to require a framecounter visible in the game window. However it might be controversial because while it would add some extra tools for moderators to verify by it looks bad and could be distracting. Again give me feedback on this suggestion.

Note: this is not the FPS value, it is the number of frames since boot.

-- Hard reset -- While it does have use as a tool for verifying runs, many new runners are using retroarch which currently doesn’t support this meaning you need to exit and reenter the program altogether. There are also a couple emulator runs that are currently verified but doesn’t follow this rule which would mean they would have to be discarded. Finally this rule doesn’t apply to console runners and to require it has been said to increase the risk of hardware damage for serious runners.

With other suggested changes, this might be an unnecessary requirement moving forward.

-- Save files -- Starting a run from a created file that has not completed Angel Island should have little impact on the run, however it has been recently shown that softresetting a save file does have some effects in a few cases. If it can be shown that there’s no speedrun benefit to starting from a created file, this rule can be relaxed a little bit.

-- Grandfathering -- All verified runs currently submitted would be grandfathered into the leaderboards and will be judged on those terms in case suspicion is raised about them in the future.

I will allow a couple weeks for responses so everyone gets to give their input. Please consider that discussion on e.g. discord might be missed so if you do please reply here afterwards. If there is a topic that seems controversial I might create a vote for that item.

Thank you for helping out the community!

As the title says, can a sub/category for a game be ported into its own game such that all runs are preserved?

If not, can I submit it as a request for a new feature or is there something in the backend that prevents it from being possible?

Thanks

I added a new variable for you Sonic runners when submitting runs. You now have to specify whether you're using Tails or not!

This also applies to the All Emeralds category.

You can sort by "any" and get the full list like usual, or sort it for the one you're interested in by using the filter tab.

Feel free to discuss what you think of this new change here.

Regards, TimpZ

I have added "Sonic or Tails" as a new category on trial. If after a few months it appears to be inactive it will be deleted again.

The Sonic or Tails/run changes a couple stages from the normal run as well as potentially being more beginner friendly (not counting CP1 haha). When I have time I'll post a video with a route to help people out with getting familiar with it.

I highly recommend using Tails for this category, if nothing else because he's really cute!

Feel free to discuss what you think of this new change.

Regards, TimpZ

Sonic 3 & Knuckles is a very deep and complex game with lots of neat tricks. It is also a very buggy game. For the past few years it's been a personal desire of mine and several others to have a glitchless category for speedrunning, but no matter how much we try we can not come up with a concise and meaningful definition which in turn means it can not be added as a category.

If we define glitches as errors in the execution of the code then glitchless still leaves all the zips and wraps which is not what most people would think of with this category.

If we make a list of glitches and tricks that are not allowed, we would first need to agree on what to include and not to include (and there is no such consensus at the moment). Then if we could agree we would most likely end up with a large and confusing list full of very specific cases.

Additionally, glitches and similar issues just sort of happen in this game on a regular basis and there's currently no protocol for handling rare or edge-cases. Also it would royally suck to void a good run because of a random occurence that ruin it.

With all this said, please don't feel discouraged from doing runs of glitchless as you see fit. Glitchless run submissions are perfectly valid for the existing categories and the main issue here is agreeing on how to define the category to make as many as possible happy. If eventually a true category starts to form, we might reconsider.

Regards, TimpZ.

I sat down with an emulator to test some things out.

TL;DR for speed you want to: hold right always jump for 1 frame release as quickly as possible on the frame you land you need to hold jump but just holding it while you land is fine. (for a 1 frame jump the frame you land will be the 21st frame) 5 frames after you land you're allowed to jump again and you can repeat 1 frame jumps like this

Another tidbit is that you can cancel your bark animation on the 2nd (or 3rd?) frame after landing with a crouch and then do a new jump on the 5th frame after landing and continue to jump without loosing any speed.

Here's a graph of your current speed in subpixels (sp) against the time (f) in frames: http://imgur.com/xs0ihkB

From what I can gather the halfword in $C80 in the WRAM is your pixel speed on that frame and the halfword in $C27 is your subpixel speed. In the graph these two are added together assuming a pixel has 256 subdivisions and then plotted against the frame count during jumps.

To gather the distance traveled you need to calculate the area that the trapezoid covers but I have not bothered to do that since I feel it's obvious that the red covers a larger area than the blue although the difference isn't huge. The difference is much larger when you compare them from standstill: http://imgur.com/fgKvoSS . In this graph you can also see that whenever you're falling you're accelerating towards your aerial horizontal max speed (~$400-$410 or $200 or 500 sp/f). If you exceed it you'll decelerate at the same pace. Jumping usually gives a large speed boost unless you're close to certain objects which will reset your speed to 0 if you jump. Also if you fail to hold jump when landing your speed will lower significantly.

Some other interesting addresses found: $177E - X position? $17D8 - Y position $17DE - first enemy slot Y position? $1F5C - Seem to work as a timer for a gravity switch when jumping $1628 - HP $15C6 - Lives $1F92 - Bark Charge (starts at 0, +1 for every frame held, infinite?) $162A - Timer for water powerup until evaporation (720 f) $1654 - Timer count $1656 - Frames until next decrease of Timer (180 f) $15B6 - Current level in order, $7 triggers credits, higher values crashes game after some nice glitchyness. If you can find a way to alter this value you could wrong warp between levels and to the credits ;).

Here's a quick TAS of the first level:

That's all for now.

EDIT: The rules have changed since this was posted and therefore it's not up to date anymore.

I clarified the rule regarding captured emulator footage to be "For runs using emulators the entire screen of the emulator used, including the window border, must be captured and the game must be visibly hard resetted before a run."

The reason for the existence of this rule is to weed out fake runs with less effort. You can still crop your video and put on YT or anywhere else if you'd like as long as you have an original containing what is asked of by this rule.

If anyone wants to know more or have a better suggestion then feel free to tell.

I clarified the rule regarding captured emulator footage to be "For runs using emulators the entire screen of the emulator used, including the window border, must be captured and the game must be visibly hard resetted before a run."

The reason for the existence of this rule is to weed out fake runs with less effort. You can still crop your video and put on YT or anywhere else if you'd like as long as you have an original containing what is asked of by this rule.

If anyone wants to know more or have a better suggestion then feel free to tell.

EDIT: The rules have since been changed and this post is not up to date anymore.

I clarified the rule regarding captured emulator footage to be "For runs using emulators the entire screen of the emulator used, including the window border, must be captured and the game must be visibly hard resetted before a run."

The reason for the existence of this rule is to weed out fake runs with less effort. You can still crop your video and put on YT or anywhere else if you'd like as long as you have an original containing what is asked of by this rule.

If anyone wants to know more or have a better suggestion then feel free to tell.

you can add the ones listed here that aren't added yet http://www.reddit.com/r/freedomplanet/comments/2kep9b/speedruns_and_individual_level_times/