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MArio 64 Parallel Universes and Timecubes - A masterclass in how to TAS/Glitch
- Thread starter Keikaku
- Start date
So what *is* going on there exactly?
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Kent
Member
It's actually shown quite clearly in the video.
Basically, while Mario's "real position" is stored as a specific data type that allows it to have an absurdly-huge value (for the purposes of the engine), the level itself has a specific boundary set to it on each axis. The engine handles things being outside of these boundaries by using the modulo operation, which basically returns the remainder after dividing evenly however many times as possible. The end result, is that the "useful" position for Mario, the position actually used for detecting collision with terrain, is some number within the level boundaries.
Even though Mario's "real position" is far outside of the map's boundaries, the engine's math for determining the value to use for collision detection always remains within the boundaries. This makes it so that Mario can collide with the terrain inside of the level boundaries, despite that he is himself not inside the level boundaries.
To put it simply, it says "Mario is at (X, Y)," after doing math, and deals with collision as if he is there, regardless of whether or not he actually is.
KittenMaster
Member
He makes Mario go so fast that it keeps looping his position back onto the map, because X'Y coordinates aren't infinite, they have to loop back around eventually.
ivanthebearable
Member
That made my head hurt, but it's really fascinating. Amazing what people can find with this game.
pinkurocket
Member
Now this is some game theory. This stuff is so interesting. I'm watching the parallel universe part of the video and it's just amazing.
Red Liquorice
Member
lol, I did this but a little later just before the parallel universe stuff. I think the number of times he said skuttlebug might've been some kind of manchurian candidate trigger code too.My reaction to the "half press" explanation:
Not to diss the video, I've bookmarked for later viewing, I had no idea this level of complexity ever went in to speedrunning. Very interesting stuff really.
"But that didn't stop meeee!" HOLY SHIT DUDE, NO IT DID NOT! That was an amazing video. I also like the one where he does some wild shit to create goombas or freeze them or store them in memory or something to cross a huge gap by jumping on them. I can't remember but it was crazy!
"But that didn't stop meee!" he should get that shit tattooed on his neck. It didn't stop you dude. Nothing could...
"But that didn't stop meee!" he should get that shit tattooed on his neck. It didn't stop you dude. Nothing could...
This video also confirms that Mario sandbags when fighting Sonic. If he wanted, he could run seven parallel universes away from the guy with prep time.
IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
Incredible video and fascinating.If you start watching the first seconds you can't stop until finish.
The pacing of this video was really superb, never mind the actual content being fascinating for computer science nuts:
- Start with "half A [button] presses"
- Go off on Scuttlebug Placing (dafuq)
- "...Parallel Universes anyone?"
- ???
- Profit.
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Is there a cohesive point to this video? The A Button - Scuttlebug shift lost me.
The parallel universes took the video from really good to god tier.
KittenMaster
Member
It's to explain how he managed to get a Star (one of the goals of the game) with as few A button presses as possible, I think this was a level he already done in a previous video but this video goes into great detail explaining it.
Similar positional overflow tricks (using that same method of gaining speed in the level and carrying over to the Peach Castle part of the game) were used to access a part of Peach's castle with few button presses as well in another video.
Weltall Zero
Member
The functional effect is exactly the same as if the level was replicated, though. Mario's actual position is still stored as a float, so he really "is" that far to the right. The fact that terrain colision is calculated by first casting his position to short is functionally equivalent as if there were a myriad replicas of the terrain of the level, only these replicas don't have enemies (because their positions, too, are stored as floats and I assume enemy colision doesn't transform to short, probably because, being only a few enemies as compared to terrain elements, there's not such a need for optimization). For all relevant intents and purposes the system behaves as if it had those replicas. The explanation in the video is crystal clear to anyone who has the inclination and knowledge to understand what exactly is going on behind the scenes about these paralel universes, and anyone who doesn't isn't going to care about the distinction in the first place, so I frankly don't see what your issue is.
Also SMFH at "out-of-bounds displaced terrain collision geometry". You realize he had to shorten even "paralel universes" to PU after a while, don't you? At some point you have to stop being pedantic for pedantry's sake. >_>
Cuban Legend
Member
mario 64 really is the best video game ever made
Kent
Member
Mostly the fact that saying there are parallel universes can be a bit misleading because of the implications it has - it sounds a lot fancier than it actually is, and doesn't necessarily represent what's going on.
that'sthejoke.jpg
Still, one could reasonably come up with an easy-to-say term that describes what's going on, or rather, simply file it under myriad other glitch types that are commonly used in breaking down games of many types (wrong warps, screen-wraps, or in this case, an out-of-bounds glitch). Calling it a parallel universe is a bit needlessly-fanciful, considering all of the things it doesn't have in common with the concept.
RunWhiteBoyRun
Member
I having been playing games the incorrect way my whole life after seeing this video. I am shook.
It's funny how I kept thinking "but what's the point of all this?", when the answer clearly is "because it's challenging and fascinating".
It doesn't have any less point to it than any regular gaming we do. It's a test to see how far we can push things. It's like a very weird puzzle game.
I knew that the TAS scene had some intricate stuff going on, but halfway through the video I got this weirdly uncanny feeling, seeing how deep he went into the game.
Reminds me of that guy who manipulated Super Mario World with a string of seemingly nonsensical button presses and then suddenly the credits started rolling after just five minutes into the game. Does anybody remember that link?
It doesn't have any less point to it than any regular gaming we do. It's a test to see how far we can push things. It's like a very weird puzzle game.
I knew that the TAS scene had some intricate stuff going on, but halfway through the video I got this weirdly uncanny feeling, seeing how deep he went into the game.
Reminds me of that guy who manipulated Super Mario World with a string of seemingly nonsensical button presses and then suddenly the credits started rolling after just five minutes into the game. Does anybody remember that link?
davepoobond
you can't put a price on sparks
I don't get why it matters, I suppose it was interesting.
BruceLeeRoy
Banned
My reaction to the "half press" explanation:
Hahaha exactly. Lord I love the Simpsons
It doesn't matter like well, any feat in video gaming doesn't matter. But this is a video game forum where "it was interesting" can most definitely suffice.
The Power Of Snap
Member
You're right, he should do one on the physics in the old sonic genesis games.
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
God forbid people use intelligence in their free time for fun.
BruceLeeRoy
Banned
Oh relax Ivy you know you were entertained
you should look up the latest AGDQ TAS showcase. they used the "nonsense" button presses in Super Mario World to create a level editor within the game like Mario Maker.
people like that probably led us to inventions like phones. i bet back then talking over a distance was "trivial shit" since people could just go and say things to people face to face or send a telegram...
the guy still has a lifetime to land on some research in the future.
That was the amazement part. Seriously, I hope this is actually for fun in his spare time.
I enjoyed the hell out of that, thanks for sharing. And bless The Simpsons gifs, just magnificent.
TAS have always been enjoyable, as all the various types of speed running are, but that was especially great.
I never cared much for Mario 64 at release, but has time has gone on it has certainly been a gift that keeps on giving.
TAS have always been enjoyable, as all the various types of speed running are, but that was especially great.
I never cared much for Mario 64 at release, but has time has gone on it has certainly been a gift that keeps on giving.
chrisPjelly
Member
This is too much
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