• Mario 64 RNG Solved
    49 replies, posted
[QUOTE=ROFLBURGER;50334794]Wonder what the game would look like if the function always returned 1 or something.[/QUOTE] Someone did that with Doom. Random variables were actually [url=http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Pseudorandom_number_generator]pulled from a table of random values from 1-255[/url] because it was faster than generating a random number whenever one was needed, meaning it was possible to [url=https://jmtd.net/log/deterministic_doom/]make any random number call always return 1 or 0.[/url] It fucks with the game in weird ways.
[QUOTE=bitches;50334759]I was hoping he was going to pull some zany trick to control the RNG and thereby mind control the goombas or something crazy like that. This was still nice but I'm itching for another crazy video like the half A press.[/QUOTE] He's actually done that in several ABC runs, although I can't recall which ones they were offhand.
[QUOTE=kill3r;50333533]'Having a hobby makes you autistic HEHEEHEHEHEEHEH'[/QUOTE] No, but cooking hotpockets on your car's dash definitely is.
[QUOTE=gman003-main;50334903]He's actually done that in several ABC runs, although I can't recall which ones they were offhand.[/QUOTE] Pretty much any star on that Tiny Huge Island involves him using rng to land a coin in a precise place
If you think this is going too far, check out Game Theorists video channel.
[QUOTE=Chaitin;50335239]If you think this is going too far, check out Game Theorists video channel.[/QUOTE] Game Theory goes pretty far on a theoretical and philosophical level, but this is more in-depth in the technical mathematical and programming aspects. Just comes down to approach and topics chosen.
It's interesting to see how despite how hacky older games used to be in some aspects, many of those solutions and even problems are still present in modern engines in some form
[QUOTE=Whitefox08;50334957]No, but cooking hotpockets on your car's dash definitely is.[/QUOTE] Never forget that pic of himself surrounded by digimon, or was that someone else? Anyway I need to replay mario 64 again, so fun.
[QUOTE=SpaceGhost;50335922]Never forget that pic of himself surrounded by digimon, or was that someone else? Anyway I need to replay mario 64 again, so fun.[/QUOTE] [img]http://i.imgur.com/eh25b.jpg[/img]
you mean this one [img]http://i.imgur.com/eh25b.jpg[/img] [editline]17th May 2016[/editline] :ninja:
[QUOTE=BLOB Fish Dude;50332142]I feel like someone could do their thesis on Mario 64[/QUOTE] You could and personally I think it would be a good topic. It has a lot to do with game design and programming techniques. Really interesting.
[QUOTE=ashxu;50336062]You could and personally I think it would be a good topic. It has a lot to do with game design and programming techniques. Really interesting.[/QUOTE] Honestly any game that had to be programmed back in the days before visual studio and shit are very interesting under the hood. Even though I barely understand it, I love to hear about machine code and little programming functions like this that seem so easy to me nowadays.
[QUOTE=MightyLOLZOR;50333542]I'd call this more of an obsession than a hobby.[/QUOTE] This just goes to show how ignorant you are to computer science and reverse engineering. Did you think video games are made by programmers waving their magic wand and making code appear out of no where? I don't even do games programming (just regular programming) but I would imagine this would be very interesting to someone who is in the field.
[QUOTE=residntevl;50332044][media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiuLeTE2MeQ[/media][/QUOTE] Wow, uh... It's pretty cool seeing this much in-depth analysis of how a game works. I didn't understand the video most of the time, but it was still very interesting to watch.
[QUOTE=ChronoBlade;50336239]Wow, uh... It's pretty cool seeing this much in-depth analysis of how a game works. I didn't understand the video most of the time, but it was still very interesting to watch.[/QUOTE] Basically, computers can't make up actual random values (as they do everything explicitly as they are told and to the letter), and since back then there was no easy access to preconfigured randomization functions (these days most engines provide simple functions that do that for you) nintendo had to create their own block of code that took a variable and jumbled the value by applying several mathematical expressions to it which the game can reference to whenever an event requires randomization. And by reverse engineering (finding out the specific mathematical expressions used to modify that value) you can predict the future results of randomization.
[QUOTE=Gamaz;50336398]Basically, computers can't make up actual random values (as they do everything explicitly as they are told and to the letter), and since back then there was no easy access to preconfigured randomization functions (these days most engines provide simple functions that do that for you) nintendo had to create their own block of code that took a variable and jumbled the value by applying several mathematical expressions to it which the game can reference to whenever an event requires randomization. And by reverse engineering (finding out the specific mathematical expressions used to modify that value) you can predict the future results of randomization.[/QUOTE] Huh. Didn't really know that there was that much complexity behind it. Very cool.
I want to see what happens when the RNG variable is exploited to the fullest extent on a frame-by-frame basis. Imagine an RNG-perfect SM64 run that takes 3 months to complete.
[QUOTE=Qaus;50337100]I want to see what happens when the RNG variable is exploited to the fullest extent on a frame-by-frame basis. Imagine an RNG-perfect SM64 run that takes 3 months to complete.[/QUOTE] That's basically what those minimal A press runs are, although not just relying as much on RNG manipulation. Still, the reason they try to minimize A presses instead of doing something like a normal speed run is probably because it has more potential for exploiting the engine in unique and interesting ways.
That was pretty interesting. It's too bad that nobody's solved this mystery, however. [video=youtube;aNzTUdOHm9A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNzTUdOHm9A[/video]
All this Super Mario 64 reminds me of that Jason Scott talk Now I kinda wanna go watch it But it's too late. Anyone else who wants to though: [MEDIA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wz7_-WXwFg[/MEDIA]
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