Hello.
I'm MUGG from TASvideos. This is the first time I'm posting here and I want to say, like many other people, that you are doing a great job with Dolphin and I'm looking forward to future development.
This is the first time the implementation of TASing features was suggested. For those unaware, TASing is short for "creating tool-assisted videos" which is basicly the process of slowing the game down and undo the gameplay mistakes you do while recording an input file (in this case, .dtm).
I was always very excited about Gamecube TASing, especially since people like Jpleal10, sockdude1, SW-1988 and Zampa began releasing tool-assisted videos of SSBM on a regular basis, as if Gamecube TASing was just around the corner.
Due to the recent breakthrough where rerecording support apparently became much more reliable since r6154, I wanted to take a closer look at Dolphin now.
I'm playing Super Smash Bros. Melee (PAL) on r6201 on my Windows7,32bit. The game runs at full FPS on my AMD Phenom™ II X4 925 Processor, 2.80 GHz. I wanted to make my first movie files (.dtm), however, I haven't been able to make use of the rerecording feature yet due to this problem which is preventing me from loading savestates and is currently being investigated by skid_au. The reason I'm posting here is because I wanted to review the TASing capability of Dolphin in general in comparison to existing emulators with rerecording support in the hope that various features are going to be improved in a good way for us TASers and possibly others.
Frame Stepping
If Frame Stepping is unchecked in the menu, "pause" will pause/unpause the game. If Frame Stepping is checked, "pause" will advance a frame each time it is pressed. This is known as "frame advance" in the existing TAS emulators.
Possible improvements:
Remove Frame Stepping from the menu and create a seperate "frame advance" hotkey. "Pause" will pause/unpause the game whereas "frame advance" will always only go to the next frame.
Movie file (low priority)
Currently, you can start recording a .dtm if no game is currently loaded. When you stop recording, you are being asked where to save the .dtm.
Other emulators show a window when you select "Start recording" in the menu where you can check or uncheck various options that the movie will be recorded with, that affect movie sync. In that window, you can also select whether the movie starts from
- Now (from a savestate that is integrated in the movie file)
- Reset (clear SRAM)
- Reset (+SRAM. The savegame/SRAM should be included in the movie file so that you only need the movie file and the game in order to play back the recording). ((low priority))
Possible improvements:
Basicly, one should be asked where to save the .dtm _before_ starting recording.
Implementing the ability to start recording from "now" (while game is loaded), from power-on (no SRAM) ((and from power-on (with SRAM))).
Read-Only toggle (low priority)
During movie recording, when loading a savestate there are 2 possibilities:
- Load it and resume recording from there (this mode is called Read+Write)
- Load it, but play back the movie from there (this mode is called Read-Only. This is only possible if the loaded state is from the current movie, else the emulator throws an error message and reverts the action.)
Possible improvements:
Implement Read-only toggle in Dolphin.
Savestates
This is from what I've seen when testing with Dolphin: You can only save 1 state during each frame and the corresponding message only shows after you go to the next frame. In other emulators, you can save states as you please while the emulation is paused and the emulator shows immediately the corresponding message about each saved state.
The messages about what directory the state got saved in and the fact it's being compressed isn't important.
Hotkeys
Basicly, it would be nice if the user was given the freedom to change savestate-related hotkeys (saving states, loading states). For example:
Right now you can save states with Shift+F1 ~ F8 and load them by pressing F1 ~ F8. I prefer to save my states with 1 ~ 8 however, without the need to use a button combination.
I think this should be easy to implement.
Also, I experienced an error where the emulator is completely locked if you press "down", "left" or "right". I'm not sure if anyone else had this problem...
Frame Count
On the screen or in the section below it, it would be cool to see a number of all the frames that have passed by so far (beginning at 0 when a game is loaded).
Maybe most of what I've just mentioned has already been discussed somewhere, maybe not.
This is just a personal wishlist, a bug list, and a comparison with existing TAS emulators. In any case, I would be very pleased if Team Dolphin would improve the mentioned features in the way described.
Maybe I missed something... so I may add more in the future.
I'm going to visit this forum regularly to check this topic.
I'm MUGG from TASvideos. This is the first time I'm posting here and I want to say, like many other people, that you are doing a great job with Dolphin and I'm looking forward to future development.
This is the first time the implementation of TASing features was suggested. For those unaware, TASing is short for "creating tool-assisted videos" which is basicly the process of slowing the game down and undo the gameplay mistakes you do while recording an input file (in this case, .dtm).
I was always very excited about Gamecube TASing, especially since people like Jpleal10, sockdude1, SW-1988 and Zampa began releasing tool-assisted videos of SSBM on a regular basis, as if Gamecube TASing was just around the corner.
Due to the recent breakthrough where rerecording support apparently became much more reliable since r6154, I wanted to take a closer look at Dolphin now.
I'm playing Super Smash Bros. Melee (PAL) on r6201 on my Windows7,32bit. The game runs at full FPS on my AMD Phenom™ II X4 925 Processor, 2.80 GHz. I wanted to make my first movie files (.dtm), however, I haven't been able to make use of the rerecording feature yet due to this problem which is preventing me from loading savestates and is currently being investigated by skid_au. The reason I'm posting here is because I wanted to review the TASing capability of Dolphin in general in comparison to existing emulators with rerecording support in the hope that various features are going to be improved in a good way for us TASers and possibly others.
Frame Stepping
If Frame Stepping is unchecked in the menu, "pause" will pause/unpause the game. If Frame Stepping is checked, "pause" will advance a frame each time it is pressed. This is known as "frame advance" in the existing TAS emulators.
Possible improvements:
Remove Frame Stepping from the menu and create a seperate "frame advance" hotkey. "Pause" will pause/unpause the game whereas "frame advance" will always only go to the next frame.
Movie file (low priority)
Currently, you can start recording a .dtm if no game is currently loaded. When you stop recording, you are being asked where to save the .dtm.
Other emulators show a window when you select "Start recording" in the menu where you can check or uncheck various options that the movie will be recorded with, that affect movie sync. In that window, you can also select whether the movie starts from
- Now (from a savestate that is integrated in the movie file)
- Reset (clear SRAM)
- Reset (+SRAM. The savegame/SRAM should be included in the movie file so that you only need the movie file and the game in order to play back the recording). ((low priority))
Possible improvements:
Basicly, one should be asked where to save the .dtm _before_ starting recording.
Implementing the ability to start recording from "now" (while game is loaded), from power-on (no SRAM) ((and from power-on (with SRAM))).
Read-Only toggle (low priority)
During movie recording, when loading a savestate there are 2 possibilities:
- Load it and resume recording from there (this mode is called Read+Write)
- Load it, but play back the movie from there (this mode is called Read-Only. This is only possible if the loaded state is from the current movie, else the emulator throws an error message and reverts the action.)
Possible improvements:
Implement Read-only toggle in Dolphin.
Savestates
This is from what I've seen when testing with Dolphin: You can only save 1 state during each frame and the corresponding message only shows after you go to the next frame. In other emulators, you can save states as you please while the emulation is paused and the emulator shows immediately the corresponding message about each saved state.
The messages about what directory the state got saved in and the fact it's being compressed isn't important.
Hotkeys
Basicly, it would be nice if the user was given the freedom to change savestate-related hotkeys (saving states, loading states). For example:
Right now you can save states with Shift+F1 ~ F8 and load them by pressing F1 ~ F8. I prefer to save my states with 1 ~ 8 however, without the need to use a button combination.
I think this should be easy to implement.
Also, I experienced an error where the emulator is completely locked if you press "down", "left" or "right". I'm not sure if anyone else had this problem...
Frame Count
On the screen or in the section below it, it would be cool to see a number of all the frames that have passed by so far (beginning at 0 when a game is loaded).
Maybe most of what I've just mentioned has already been discussed somewhere, maybe not.
This is just a personal wishlist, a bug list, and a comparison with existing TAS emulators. In any case, I would be very pleased if Team Dolphin would improve the mentioned features in the way described.
Maybe I missed something... so I may add more in the future.
I'm going to visit this forum regularly to check this topic.
