4 ms·

On the video I see pausing of the timer on 0:36 (video time, not timer time). What's going on there?

by dzek69 8y ago

wnkrshm 8y ago
Looks like the game is losing focus but it's pausing inbetween the clicks - at first I thought it didn't pause but you can look at the score being counted up in the game, it pauses with the pauses in the timer, so I think there is no mistake.
daxterspeed 8y ago
In the top left of the video feed there's supposed to be an active input display (showing what buttons are being pressed on the controller). At this point in the video he fixes the input display, causing the capture of the timer to stagger a little bit. As you'll notice by the end of the video the timer doesn't actually display 4:55.913, even though that's his record time - this is because the entire run has been re-timed (more accurately) after the record was set.
- oneeyedpigeon 8y ago
  How did he know, live, that he'd beaten the time?
  - wingerlang 8y ago
    Probably the rough timer he uses combined with knowing that he nailed most tricks.
  - danso 8y ago
    I had wondered about this too and asked about it in r/speedruns [0] I originally assumed that speedrunners used some kind of special software/hardware that provide the watch counters displayed during their streams, but apparently, the displayed timer is controlled manually, via something like a foot pedal, and is not meant to be the official time (which is verified later through analysis) But for a game like SMB, in which there is a hardcoded "window" (the 21-frame rule), it seems like it's fairly easy for a speedrunner to know if they've performed optimally when they finish each level. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/9iturn/super_mario_bros_speedrunner_hits_nearly_inhuman/e6mn2bk/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/9iturn/super_mario_b... Helpful comment: > Additionally for Super Mario Bros. there is a thing called the frame rule that basically means that you can only beat a level (except the last level) on certain frames. If you beat the level before the frame rule then the game waits until the next frame rule before starting the next level. It's something like every 20 frames, I'm not exactly sure. So for most of the levels you only really need to know which frame rule you hit, which is fairly easy even with manual timing. The end of the last level needs to be measured precisely though.
    - breakingcups 8y ago
      Actually, the special software you describe does exist and is often used in speedrunning. It is called an autosplitter. It works by reading out known memory addresses of the game. At bare minimum this would be "start of level 1" and "game completion" but you'll often find more elaborate "splits" as the more popular the game is. See this for an example: https://imgur.com/a/KDp7YFx https://imgur.com/a/KDp7YFx It shows the last three missions, the timestamp when it was completed and a comparison agains this speedrunners personal best. It also shows the current mission and the one after that, along with a timestamp of when it was finished in the speedrunners personal best run. Beneath that it also shows a whole bunch of stats, what the best possible time is the speedrunner could achieve at current pace based on all the best times in the earlier runs, how it compares to the world record, etc. This works really well for PC games and emulators but is a lot harder on real hardware.
  - UncleMeat 8y ago
    SMB has a weird property that all levels are finished in exact multiples of 21 frames (except the last level). This makes it very easy to know precisely where you are in relation to the WR at any given moment. Kosmic knows that he is precisely 21 frames ahead of the WR going into the final level. He has also done 8-4 so many times that he has a very good idea of how many frames it took (maybe off by 1-5 frames at the end). Also, the bowser hammer pattern at the end depends on the frame so if you have the patterns memorized you can tell exactly how many frames it took. All this together, Kosmic can be very sure that the run is below 4:56 without timing it down to the frame.

On the video I see pausing of the timer on 0:36 (video time, not timer time). What's going on there?

by dzek69 8y ago

On the video I see pausing of the timer on 0:36 (video time, not timer time). What's going on there?

Looks like the game is losing focus but it's pausing inbetween the clicks - at first I thought it didn't pause but you can look at the score being counted up in the game, it pauses with the pauses in the timer, so I think there is no mistake.

daxterspeed 8y ago

In the top left of the video feed there's supposed to be an active input display (showing what buttons are being pressed on the controller). At this point in the video he fixes the input display, causing the capture of the timer to stagger a little bit. As you'll notice by the end of the video the timer doesn't actually display 4:55.913, even though that's his record time - this is because the entire run has been re-timed (more accurately) after the record was set.

oneeyedpigeon 8y ago
How did he know, live, that he'd beaten the time?
- wingerlang 8y ago
  Probably the rough timer he uses combined with knowing that he nailed most tricks.
- danso 8y ago
  I had wondered about this too and asked about it in r/speedruns [0] I originally assumed that speedrunners used some kind of special software/hardware that provide the watch counters displayed during their streams, but apparently, the displayed timer is controlled manually, via something like a foot pedal, and is not meant to be the official time (which is verified later through analysis) But for a game like SMB, in which there is a hardcoded "window" (the 21-frame rule), it seems like it's fairly easy for a speedrunner to know if they've performed optimally when they finish each level. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/9iturn/super_mario_bros_speedrunner_hits_nearly_inhuman/e6mn2bk/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/9iturn/super_mario_b... Helpful comment: > Additionally for Super Mario Bros. there is a thing called the frame rule that basically means that you can only beat a level (except the last level) on certain frames. If you beat the level before the frame rule then the game waits until the next frame rule before starting the next level. It's something like every 20 frames, I'm not exactly sure. So for most of the levels you only really need to know which frame rule you hit, which is fairly easy even with manual timing. The end of the last level needs to be measured precisely though.
  - breakingcups 8y ago
    Actually, the special software you describe does exist and is often used in speedrunning. It is called an autosplitter. It works by reading out known memory addresses of the game. At bare minimum this would be "start of level 1" and "game completion" but you'll often find more elaborate "splits" as the more popular the game is. See this for an example: https://imgur.com/a/KDp7YFx https://imgur.com/a/KDp7YFx It shows the last three missions, the timestamp when it was completed and a comparison agains this speedrunners personal best. It also shows the current mission and the one after that, along with a timestamp of when it was finished in the speedrunners personal best run. Beneath that it also shows a whole bunch of stats, what the best possible time is the speedrunner could achieve at current pace based on all the best times in the earlier runs, how it compares to the world record, etc. This works really well for PC games and emulators but is a lot harder on real hardware.
- UncleMeat 8y ago
  SMB has a weird property that all levels are finished in exact multiples of 21 frames (except the last level). This makes it very easy to know precisely where you are in relation to the WR at any given moment. Kosmic knows that he is precisely 21 frames ahead of the WR going into the final level. He has also done 8-4 so many times that he has a very good idea of how many frames it took (maybe off by 1-5 frames at the end). Also, the bowser hammer pattern at the end depends on the frame so if you have the patterns memorized you can tell exactly how many frames it took. All this together, Kosmic can be very sure that the run is below 4:56 without timing it down to the frame.