I know this is a silly point but imagine if this guy put the same amount of effort, inventiveness and attention to detail to some engineering or scientific endeavor. The video is great but arbitrary benchmarks in old games aren't pushing society forward as much as technological advancement can.
Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
61–70 of 92 posts
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Starting the level while holding the A button and not pressing the A button again" could be easier to understand
It's a term of art from the community, that also draws in the intellectually curious with a "wtf is half an A press?" - it's an excellent title.
"the intellectually curious"
God I wish, but our discord keeps getting kids, who can't possibly help or contribute to TASing, keep asking us questions answered in the video they just watched before joining...
We sometimes get smart af people joining and even making accomplishments though. College students or otherwise.
Pannen's a really patient guy for tolerating his fans all the time
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#63(2016)
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#64I know this is a silly point but imagine if this guy put the same amount of effort, inventiveness and attention to detail to some engineering or scientific endeavor. The video is great but arbitrary benchmarks in old games aren't pushing society forward as much as technological advancement can.
He is, he's a programmer. This is just his hobby.
Besides, the sheer magnitude of difference between advancing a highly contested real life science subject versus breaking ground in an obscure challenge in a 25 year old video game is massive. I know it's not that obscure but it sure feels that way sometimes...
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#65If you enjoy talking about parallel universes, I highly, highly recommend watching the SM64 1-Key speedrun [1] and then Bismuth's explainer [2]. It's a truly amazing technical achievement based in large part in pannenkoek2012's research. [1]: https://youtube.com/watch?v=iUt840BUOYA [2]: https://youtube.com/watch?v=wjge1bVobN0
I do find it funny the terms gamers have came up with to describe what boils down to bugs in a game. Parallel universes and all the lore around them are all caused by just a 16-bit integer wrapping inside the floor check code. Mario64 usually stores positions as floats but for collision checks it gets converted to a 16 bit int.
Since you sound dismissive, do you have a better term?
Lots of bugs have specific names. It would be crazy not to name any.
Changing your position so that you're in the same spot but you're also in a completely different location, all at once. I think the term fits pretty well.
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#66This video also explains what a 0.5 A press ("Half A-press") is and why they care. Because Mario64 doesn't care about releases, the runners don't distinguish releases, you can always choose not to release A and so if you're doing this run (fewest A presses) you would only ever release in order to press A again. In a live setting commentators might briefly explain what a 0.5 A "means" but without this explanation to h…
> Because Mario64 doesn't care about releases Is that really true though? If it cares about holding, such as in gliding in the air, then it necessarily cares about not holding, such as being in the air but not gliding, and the way to transition from being in the air gliding to being in the air not gliding is to release. Is that wrong? I've only ever played M64 for like 5 minutes, but it's been on my list and I keep u…
I could see how this could be confusing. SM64 does distinguish between before a release and after a release, so technically the game itself doesn't care. I think what they were trying to say is that there really isn't any benefit in speedrunning the game to keep track of releasing (and this can be confirmed in the video too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=105).
I think it's possible that if the next level requires .5 a presses but, for example, you are falling with a wing cap in the current level, you have to decide between bumping that half a press into a full a press or losing time when falling with the wing cap. I just don't think it's a common case though because you could use a different route where the held A won't affect you. It looks like in the A Button Challenge (ABC), there are only 5 half a presses: https://ukikipedia.net/wiki/A_Button_Challenge
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#67Is this the perfect youtube video? Amazing Mario soundtrack in the background and gameplay visuals. Home made charts that VISUALLY show what's going on. AUDIO voice commentary explaining what you see. References to other youtube videos and commenters. Detailed, insanely knowledgeable, not selling me anything, created for love not for viewers. IDK this is peak youtube for me.
>eferences to other youtube videos and commenters. Detailed, insanely knowledgeable, not selling me anything, created for love not for viewers
I feel the same about HealthyGamerGG's videos: detailed, insanely knowledgeable, references across neurochemistry/biochemistry, psychology, gaming, human behavior, culture and religion (and how they've changed over time), etc.
That's peak YT for me
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a term of art from the community, that also draws in the intellectually curious with a "wtf is half an A press?" - it's an excellent title.
"the intellectually curious" God I wish, but our discord keeps getting kids, who can't possibly help or contribute to TASing, keep asking us questions answered in the video they just watched before joining... We sometimes get smart af people joining and even making accomplishments though. College students or otherwise. Pannen's a really patient guy for tolerating his fans all the time
Sucking at something is the first step to being amazing at something, and it's a step everyone goes through, no exceptions. Being kind and tolerant of others sucking (missing what seem like obvious bits of core knowledge, not knowing what details are important, taking way too long on tasks) is absolutely essential to the health and growth of any size or kind of creative community.
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#69I kind of lost it at the point where he "builds up speed for 12 hours". AHAHA https://youtu.be/kpk2tdsPh0A?t=640 His mind is so clear. I love how there's so many super super smart people on the internet! :)
On the other hand... I mean, doesn't it feel like a bit of a waste? I mean his mind is free to use however he likes but it seems absolutely crazy to dedicate yourself to this extreme level of obscure bugs in a 30ish-year-old game in order to prove some crazy feat is technically possible although not actually possible to execute in a tool-unassisted fashion. The explaining video is great, but the underlying goal just…
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Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#70This video also explains what a 0.5 A press ("Half A-press") is and why they care. Because Mario64 doesn't care about releases, the runners don't distinguish releases, you can always choose not to release A and so if you're doing this run (fewest A presses) you would only ever release in order to press A again. In a live setting commentators might briefly explain what a 0.5 A "means" but without this explanation to h…
It does care about releases. In order to jump for a second time you need to release it first. 0.5 is really about the idea of having an A press span multiple levels.
> In order to jump for a second time you need to release it first.
Is that true? Mechanically it's true, but I don't know whether the game code actually knows this is true. It depends whether the N64, and the SM64 code specifically, tracks the button state and the events separately.
Compare the situation with Left + Right in TAS Mario 1. The TAS has no problem telling a console that both left and right are pressed, but obviously a real human player cannot press both directions, they're opposites. Nevertheless this does "work" in the game and so although no-right-plus-left is an interesting benchmark to compare against RTA where live human players couldn't do the trick, the TAS records allow both pressed at once.