8 ms·

If you're at all interested in speedruns, this is a great video that takes it to the extreme for Super Mario 64: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A htt

If you're at all interested in speedruns, this is a great video that takes it to the extreme for Super Mario 64: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A

JoshTriplett 10y ago
That's a fairly deep technical analysis of a tool-assisted run with an unusual constraint. I'd suggest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swNX-GQt67M#t=7m30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swNX-GQt67M#t=7m30s instead, for a live speedrun race between two of the best players in the world.
- qwtel 10y ago
  is there any explanation as to what happens in the code that makes those weird wall exploits possible?
  - JoshTriplett 10y ago
    Mario's speed was limited via "speed < MAX_SPEED", but it didn't have any boundary on negative speed. So you can build up effectively infinite negative speed by chaining long-jumps backward, without turning Mario around. Get enough (negative) speed, and the boundary checks for walls get bypassed, because you move all the way through them in one frame. You can combine that with another trick: chaining long jumps works as long as you're close enough to the ground to kick off the ground, so if you hit the jump button rapidly enough, you'll jump repeatedly without leaving the ground. Notice in the linked video that you'll hear many jumping sounds rapidly, but occasionally the player will miss the timing and do a full-height jump. That same trick also works to bypass the "infinite" staircase without having 70 stars (because you move past the looping portion in one frame). Human players can successfully use this to warp through walls and bypass star/key requirements, to complete the game with 50, 16, 1, or 0 stars. Tool-assisted speedruns also use this to move rapidly through levels, but that requires a series of frame-perfect inputs.
    - pfedak 10y ago
      To add to this, the "walking in place" animation happens when Mario's position + velocity would end up out of bounds, which the game doesn't generally permit. When the player turns and allows the speed to drop, the motion will take Mario to a valid position, and he will zoom until he gets stuck again.
  - BinaryIdiot 10y ago
    My assumption was some sort of flaw or limitation in hit detection but it would be awesome if someone who actually worked on it or similar could comment further :)
Karunamon 10y ago
Ph0A.. must be the parallel universe video. ..yup! I have no idea how anyone has the degree of patience and passion to put that much effort into totally breaking down a game's limitations, but it's really something else to see in practice.
TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
pannenkoek2012's videos are a fascinating insight into the implementation details of an N64 game from the perspective of a speedrunner. Every exploitable glitch reflects some aspect of how the game engine works. (There's also a secret sister channel, pannenkeok2012, for lower-effort videos. Among other things, there's a comprehensive search of the game's PRNG in there!)

JoshTriplett 10y ago

That's a fairly deep technical analysis of a tool-assisted run with an unusual constraint. I'd suggest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swNX-GQt67M#t=7m30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swNX-GQt67M#t=7m30s instead, for a live speedrun race between two of the best players in the world.

qwtel 10y ago
is there any explanation as to what happens in the code that makes those weird wall exploits possible?
- JoshTriplett 10y ago
  Mario's speed was limited via "speed < MAX_SPEED", but it didn't have any boundary on negative speed. So you can build up effectively infinite negative speed by chaining long-jumps backward, without turning Mario around. Get enough (negative) speed, and the boundary checks for walls get bypassed, because you move all the way through them in one frame. You can combine that with another trick: chaining long jumps works as long as you're close enough to the ground to kick off the ground, so if you hit the jump button rapidly enough, you'll jump repeatedly without leaving the ground. Notice in the linked video that you'll hear many jumping sounds rapidly, but occasionally the player will miss the timing and do a full-height jump. That same trick also works to bypass the "infinite" staircase without having 70 stars (because you move past the looping portion in one frame). Human players can successfully use this to warp through walls and bypass star/key requirements, to complete the game with 50, 16, 1, or 0 stars. Tool-assisted speedruns also use this to move rapidly through levels, but that requires a series of frame-perfect inputs.
  - pfedak 10y ago
    To add to this, the "walking in place" animation happens when Mario's position + velocity would end up out of bounds, which the game doesn't generally permit. When the player turns and allows the speed to drop, the motion will take Mario to a valid position, and he will zoom until he gets stuck again.
- BinaryIdiot 10y ago
  My assumption was some sort of flaw or limitation in hit detection but it would be awesome if someone who actually worked on it or similar could comment further :)

Karunamon 10y ago

Ph0A.. must be the parallel universe video. ..yup! I have no idea how anyone has the degree of patience and passion to put that much effort into totally breaking down a game's limitations, but it's really something else to see in practice.

TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago

pannenkoek2012's videos are a fascinating insight into the implementation details of an N64 game from the perspective of a speedrunner. Every exploitable glitch reflects some aspect of how the game engine works. (There's also a secret sister channel, pannenkeok2012, for lower-effort videos. Among other things, there's a comprehensive search of the game's PRNG in there!)