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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 prov

by 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.

by danso 8y ago

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.