TAS for Wii games

[LPA]

Hi all,

I've got a fair amount of experience creating .dtm files for GameCube games and I've been interested in doing the same for Wii games. The first game I tried out was Angry Birds trilogy and when I wanted to play the file back, nothing happened. From what I read online, not all games can be TAS'd currently.

Whilst there's probably a lot I can figure out on my own, I thought I'd also ask the forum about what I should look out for when trying to TAS Wii games.. such as: are there any settings that need to be toggled off/on, are all games supposed to be supported or only those that allow joystick inputs and how should I emulate the motion controls?

Whatever information you might have, please share. I'm surprised how little there is to be found about Wii TAS compared to GameCube TAS.

[JosJuice]

It should be the same between the two consoles for the most part, other than it being extra important to make sure that the connected controllers are the same when recording as when playing back, and being aware that Wii savestates do not include Wii save files. I'm not sure why you would be getting the result of nothing happening when playing back a recording...

If the game you're trying to TAS supports GameCube controllers, then using a GameCube controller and turning off all Wii Remotes usually results in less trouble. But it is very much possible to TAS games using Wii Remotes. The vast majority of games should work.

[LPA]

(01-08-2022, 08:49 PM)JosJuice Wrote: It should be the same between the two consoles for the most part, other than it being extra important to make sure that the connected controllers are the same when recording as when playing back, and being aware that Wii savestates do not include Wii save files. I'm not sure why you would be getting the result of nothing happening when playing back a recording...

If the game you're trying to TAS supports GameCube controllers, then using a GameCube controller and turning off all Wii Remotes usually results in less trouble. But it is very much possible to TAS games using Wii Remotes. The vast majority of games should work.

Amazing reply Jos, thanks so much. I'm currently very busy but I'll plan a day out somewhere next month to sit down and see why my Angry Birds Trilogy dtm file didn't work as well as test a handful of other games. One thing that definitely went wrong is that I couldn't get the memory card disabled whilst recording the TAS. Which setting is this?

Very excited to hear that TAS is supposed to work just fine and the fault was on my end.

[JosJuice]

(01-08-2022, 09:18 PM)LPA Wrote: One thing that definitely went wrong is that I couldn't get the memory card disabled whilst recording the TAS. Which setting is this?

If you want to disable memory cards, set Config > GameCube > Slot A and Slot B to None. But do note that Wii games don't use memory cards, they use the NAND. You can't fully disable the NAND, though if the game has no save file when you start, recording then the temporary NAND that Dolphin sets up for your recording will not contain any save file for the game (even if when playing the movie back later the "main" NAND does have a save file for the game).

[LPA]

(01-08-2022, 09:23 PM)JosJuice Wrote: If you want to disable memory cards, set Config > GameCube > Slot A and Slot B to None. But do note that Wii games don't use memory cards, they use the NAND. You can't fully disable the NAND, though if the game has no save file when you start, recording then the temporary NAND that Dolphin sets up for your recording will not contain any save file for the game (even if when playing the movie back later the "main" NAND does have a save file for the game).

That makes sense! I get it now. Should be able to work it out from here on. Thanks so much.

[Wobmiar]

(I want to delete the message but I'm unable to...)

[Gil070617]

hi, im mexican, so my english is no good

do you know how to fix the bug of dolphin emulator that doesn't open wii games?, a have Dirt 2, NBA JAM, MotoGP 08, NBA 2k13 and doesn't open any of them, but gamecube games opens it

[JosJuice]

(01-12-2022, 10:35 AM)Gil070617 Wrote: hi, im mexican, so my english is no good

do you know how to fix the bug of dolphin emulator that doesn't open wii games?, a have Dirt 2, NBA JAM, MotoGP 08, NBA 2k13 and doesn't open any of them, but gamecube games opens it

Please create a new thread instead of posting in an unrelated thread.

[LPA]

I'm still experimenting here, but discovered two things:

I tried to TAS Sonic and the Black Knight. It worked fine. Each time I used playback, it'd create the save file again and everything would be in sync.

I tried to TAS $1,000,000 Pyramid and it didn't work fine. Each time I used playback, it'd load the existing save file and the thing would desync from the start. I tried deleting the save file but unfortunately that caused the footage to desync after the first match as the RNG changed and my previous inputs were no longer correct.

The difference I noticed is that Sonic and the Black Knight uses .sav files whereas $1,000,000 Pyramid uses one savegame.bin file.

My direct assumption is that any game that saves using the .bin file, will have trouble with TAS playback. I'll have to check on some other games that use this function and see if their RNG gets messed up too when I try to wipe the .bin file and start over.. but it's worth pointing out nonetheless I think.

I'm not sure if Dolphin could make any changes to the TAS where it doesn't load save file from the .bin during playback in the same way it doesn't load the .savs

EDIT:

That's not it, unfortunately. Action Gurlz Racing uses .sav files and has the exact same problem as $1,000,000 Pyramid. What can I do about this?
I tried removing the save files and start over, but then all the inputs desync.

[JosJuice]

If you want Dolphin to automatically start with a fresh save each time you play back the movie, make sure you have no save file for the game when you first start recording the movie. This sets a special flag inside the DTM file.

It is possible to edit this flag after the fact using a hex editor, but if you're getting desyncs when you manually delete your save before playing the movie, you'll get desyncs with this as well. You'll most likely need to redo your TAS.