18 replies to this topic

[ROMaster2]

For players who play through the missions as fast as possible, I've added a leaderboard on speedrun.com for it: http://www.speedrun.com/mo -- It's the same site where the other C&C games' leaderboards are hosted. Until someone does a full campaign run, individual levels will be the default page.
 
If you submit a run it should be approved within 24 hours, though likely in less time than that.
 
Edit: If someone could tell me the different versions available, that'd be great so they can be noted.
 
Edit 2: To avoid flooding the thread I'll just mention updates by editing this post.
  
Rules have been defined fairly well. For full campaign runs:

• Real time beings on clicking "Play" for the first mission (offset -0.60 seconds)
• Real time ends when "Mission Accomplished" appears on screen in the final mission
• Game time is the sum of the times displayed at the end of each mission

And for individual missions:

• Real time begins on the first frame you gain control of the battlefield
• Real time ends on the frame "Mission Accomplished" appears on screen in the final mission
• Game time is the time displayed at the end of the mission
• Pausing is allowed (but discouraged)

Game time takes precident over real time. In the event of a tie, however, real time determines the winner.

Video recording is required for now so people can't claim fake records.

The timer offset is how long it takes to get to the first 'cutscene' like it is in vanilla RA2 and YR.

Load times are effectively a non-issue as game time is used.

For campaigns, there is an option to select which difficulty was ran when submitting. Once there's enough runs I'll make the difficulties act as separate categories again. It's not enabled now to prevent runs from being unnoticed because of the website's layout. It's a flip of a switch.

Currently there is only one version you can select from for submiting. I'll add 4.0 (or what they decide to call it) once it's released.

Individual mission submissions aren't required to record real time, it just for completion.

 

Now for something to consider: VMware snapshots

The snapshot function in VMware effectively allows you to make a save state of the operating system at any time. I've used it while practicing some missions, and while it is much slower than regular saves, it's incredibly handy. It's not better than vanilla's saving in anyway. With that said, should they be allowed for campaign runs? It's not giving much of an advantage, reloading a save is never faster even in vanilla, so optimal runs would never use it. It'd only be used by runners still trying to nail down the missions and would prefer not to lose loads of time from a mission restart. And as far as game time goes, that can be fixed by adding the time between the reloads. Oh, and this would only apply to campaigns, not ILs.

Edited by Speeder, 24 February 2016 - 12:13 PM.

[Speeder]

Different versions of the mod? The only one that matters is 3.0 and there's only one - Beta Revision 1 from 30/11/2013 right now.

[Plokite_Wolf]

Now now. Great times were had with 2.0 versions as well

[ROMaster2]

Different versions of the mod? The only one that matters is 3.0 and there's only one - Beta Revision 1 from 30/11/2013 right now.

 

I asked since I believe the developer playthrough uses a different revision, and if it was available it'd be fair to allow it.

[Speeder]

The playthrough was indeed recorded using a post-3.0-version-in-development, but it's not ready for a release yet.

[ROMaster2]

I restructured the whole Command & Conquer series to properly include separate difficulties. Not a big change for MO as there aren't any full campaign runs yet.

 

I did add a variable for which version is played. For now it locks you to only 3.0 until the next release.

[lovalmidas]

Please note that the 'game time' you see at the end of the mission as based on real time (more specifically, the computer's time). This time includes

• Any changes you have made to the game speed (faster speeds like GS6 will result in less game time).
• Pausing (either by the in-game options, or by focusing out of the game window)
• Lag encountered.

I do not know if changing the CPU's system time will alter the displayed mission time, but it may be good to have rules to control any attempt to 'cheese the timer'.

 

For other rules (like saves), I guess they can load/save all they want with what they have, since doing so will add time to the speedrun (so record-holders will want zero mistakes). I'd like players to have fun with the missions (I know... 45 min Singularity... fun... haha ).

 

In any case, best of luck and charge forth, commanders!

[CLAlstar]

Well, campaign in RA2/YR/MO is stuck at Game Speed 4, so i dont think might be a big problem - unless someone decides to "cheat" and change the speed in campaign to higher. Afaik it is possible to do that.

[ROMaster2]

Please note that the 'game time' you see at the end of the mission as based on real time (more specifically, the computer's time). This time includes

• Any changes you have made to the game speed (faster speeds like GS6 will result in less game time).
• Pausing (either by the in-game options, or by focusing out of the game window)
• Lag encountered.

I do not know if changing the CPU's system time will alter the displayed mission time, but it may be good to have rules to control any attempt to 'cheese the timer'.

 

For other rules (like saves), I guess they can load/save all they want with what they have, since doing so will add time to the speedrun (so record-holders will want zero mistakes). I'd like players to have fun with the missions (I know... 45 min Singularity... fun... haha ).

 

In any case, best of luck and charge forth, commanders!

 

I did some testing with this. Modifying the clock while the game is active or paused does not change the ending game time. I'm not at my desktop and won't be for a long time, but from my tests with Cheat Engine they measure it based on frames loaded. I also compared my and CLAlstar's time for Allied 06: Beautiful Mind - Easy and I had less of a difference between real time and game time since my PC went faster during the nuke, so it lag doesn't seem to affect it.

 

Changing game speed for campaign would require hacking the game; doing something like that would get you banned from nearly every speedrunning community (what's to stop you from doing it for other games?). LiveSplit is useful for timing real time; I believe they have counter-measures to modifed clocks. Otherwise I use the recorded video file and use the difference of the timestamps on the start and end of missions. If someone has a questionable recording I'll probably require them to start using LiveSplit on screen or something. Shouldn't be an issue though.

[CLAlstar]

That would actually require small guide of "how to set this up" since im a freshman here with all those things. If there will be problem, sure, i can use it - question just would be how.

[ROMaster2]

That would actually require small guide of "how to set this up" since im a freshman here with all those things. If there will be problem, sure, i can use it - question just would be how.

You've been fine so far so I wouldn't worry about it too much. It depends on how determined you are.

 

If the framerate is consistant the frames can be counted when the recording is done; which is what I did for your video, I went back and timed it in real time that way. If it's a variable framerateI use frame timestamps instead, but that can make a margin of error.

 

Assuming you're using OBS to record, if you want LiveSplit to be visible there's a few ways you can do it. If you're playing windowed you can just add LiveSplit as a scene and add a transparent background. If it's borderless windowed fullscreen, LiveSplit is default to be Always On Top, so you'd try to move it to a spot you never click (so it doesn't interupt the game); or if you have a second monitor you can capture LiveSplt from that. If you're playing in fullscreen it becomes a bit more difficult. You might be able to capture LiveSplit on a second monitor, but if you only have one I don't believe there's anything available for that at the time. I've contacted the developers to double-check that.

 

Personally I'm using VMware to play the game, mostly because I didn't want to deal with the 16-bit BS that came with windowed mode, and to lock my cursor into the game.

[CLAlstar]

Im using OBS/Fullscreen. Guess then there should be no problems at all.

[Graion Dilach]

Changing game speed for campaign would require hacking the game

No, not really, the -gamespeed parameter is there since RA2 IIRC. I wouldn't consider such as a hack.

Edited by Graion Dilach, 29 January 2016 - 05:34 PM.

[ROMaster2]

Really? I just tried it out and it didn't change the campaign speed for me. The manual even states "Single Player is locked to the default speed setting." Maybe I'm doing it wrong?

[iForceP]

Upon seeing the title, I thought that you created a multiplayer leaderboard ;_;

Edited by iForceP, 24 February 2016 - 12:09 PM.

[Speeder]

Good point, I've altered the title.

[ROMaster2]

I noticed a few more Epsilon 6: Landlocked runs on YouTube, so they've been added. Coincidentally, I found a run by Kax5 that was uploaded earlier today. He does a real nice job on Soviet 4: Side Effect. He is using 3.0 BR2, which isn't released (yet?), but I don't think it'll be a problem.

 

I haven't been dead, just haven't had anything to say. I did recently complete the timing overhaul for the series across the site, so more runs per game have been added and made consistent throughout. The exception being Red Alert 3 since its mods didn't want the change.

 

Edit: Fortranm did a run of Soviet 8: Death From Above

Edited by ROMaster2, 06 August 2016 - 09:08 PM.

[CLAlstar]

I didnt had much time to attempt any speedruns lately but ill try to fill some gaps soon.

[ROMaster2]

I've made an auto-splitter/load remover on LiveSplit for Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge, as well as Mental Omega. Should work just fine since the exe should be the same for everyone.

 

There's also now a Discord server for Real-Time Strategy Speedrunning: https://discord.gg/dy3GRjw