User:Agulp/Tool Assisted Speedrun - Revision history

Ais523: /* Resources */ t2000timings.txt is not currently outdated

2025-07-22T02:43:52Z

Resources: t2000timings.txt is not currently outdated

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:43, 22 July 2025
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	* [https://tasvideos.org/Forum/Topics/9771 TASVideos Forum Discussion]		* [https://tasvideos.org/Forum/Topics/9771 TASVideos Forum Discussion]
	* [http://nethack4.org/latest/nethack-tas-tools/turnbyturn.txt Current Turn-by-Turn Explanation]		* [http://nethack4.org/latest/nethack-tas-tools/turnbyturn.txt Current Turn-by-Turn Explanation]
	* [http://nethack4.org/latest/nethack-tas-tools/t2000timings.txt Turn 2000 Setup (outdated?)]		* [http://nethack4.org/latest/nethack-tas-tools/t2000timings.txt Turn 2000 Setup (current plans, occasionally outdated)]

	== See also ==		== See also ==
	* [[Speedrun]]		* [[Speedrun]]

Umbire the Phantom: /* Turn-by-Turn Play */ formatting

2022-06-07T06:40:25Z

Turn-by-Turn Play: formatting

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:40, 7 June 2022
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	\|17		\|17
	\|Luck Manipulation		\|Luck Manipulation
	\|This is the first really major luck manipulation of the game. The largest source of useful items in the game is upon level generation, especially on levels high in the dungeon which often contain shops. Most pressing for us is to generate a particular set of rings, to enable the polymorph-self strategy used in all the fastest gametime speedruns (whether tool-assisted or not), so we manipulate a huge ring shop that contains all the rings we need (together with a large number that we don't, as it happens) as we go downstairs. Luck manipulation is typically done by walking into a wall, incidentally, which we can do up to 750 times a second, and advances the RNG with, generally, no other effects (the random number is generated for the purpose of eroding engravings on the current square, but typically there aren't any); we explicitly try to stay next to walls throughout the TAS for this reason.		\|This is the first really major luck manipulation of the game. The largest source of useful items in the game is upon level generation, especially on levels high in the dungeon which often contain shops. Most pressing for us is to generate a particular set of rings, to enable the polymorph-self strategy used in all the fastest gametime speedruns (whether tool-assisted or not), so we manipulate a huge ring shop that contains all the rings we need (together with a large number that we don't, as it happens) as we go downstairs. Luck manipulation is typically done by walking into a wall, incidentally, which we can do up to 750 times a second, and advances the RNG with, generally, no other effects (the random number is generated for the purpose of eroding engravings on the current square, but typically there aren't any); we explicitly try to stay next to walls throughout the TAS for this reason.
	\|-		\|-
	\|18		\|18
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	\|71-73		\|71-73
	\|		\|
	\|The Castle looks pretty uninspiring at first glance; we're actually in a small maze of corridors behind it. (The stairs up from the Valley are one-way; they can be used upwards, but not downwards, so we're currently trapped in this maze.) Out of the three rings we stole, the ring of teleport control's been used already to sequence-break all the way down here, but we stole another two as well; it's time to put them to use. We spend one turn removing the original ring to free up ring fingers, then put on the rings of polymorph control and polymorph (in that order). The ring of polymorph is the #1 most important item for a TAS of NetHack, for several reasons. What it does is to every now and then (at a 1% chance per turn) polymorph the player into a monster; polymorph control makes it possible to choose which monster		\|The Castle looks pretty uninspiring at first glance; we're actually in a small maze of corridors behind it. (The stairs up from the Valley are one-way; they can be used upwards, but not downwards, so we're currently trapped in this maze.) Out of the three rings we stole, the ring of teleport control's been used already to sequence-break all the way down here, but we stole another two as well; it's time to put them to use. We spend one turn removing the original ring to free up ring fingers, then put on the rings of polymorph control and polymorph (in that order). The ring of polymorph is the #1 most important item for a TAS of NetHack, for several reasons. What it does is to every now and then (at a 1% chance per turn) polymorph the player into a monster; polymorph control makes it possible to choose which monster to polymorph into (rather than spend several minutes or even hours of realtime luck-manipulating getting the right one by chance, especially on top of the 1% chance that a polymorph happens at all). Obviously, quite a bit of manipulation was needed to make the ring trigger immediately.
	to polymorph into (rather than spend several minutes or even hours of
	realtime luck-manipulating getting the right one by chance, especially on top of the 1% chance that a polymorph happens at all). Obviously, quite a bit of manipulation was needed to make the ring trigger immediately.

	The ability to become a monster is hugely useful for several different purposes; pretty much anything you might want to do, some monster will be good at it. Thus, the ring of polymorph effectively substitutes for hundreds of different other items. Better still, there are some monster forms that have abilities that can't be replicated any other way. The other massive reason to use a polymorph-based strategy is that the stats of a monster form are effectively fixed; this makes them weaker than a typically overpowered player late-game (although still strong enough to win even unassisted), but much stronger earlier on, and the fact that we're still only experience level 1 is thus strongly mitigated; this is pretty much the only reason we can survive this deep in the game. This first form we use, the xorn, is one that we will return to several times during the TAS (although TASing in xorn form is really annoying, to the		The ability to become a monster is hugely useful for several different purposes; pretty much anything you might want to do, some monster will be good at it. Thus, the ring of polymorph effectively substitutes for hundreds of different other items. Better still, there are some monster forms that have abilities that can't be replicated any other way. The other massive reason to use a polymorph-based strategy is that the stats of a monster form are effectively fixed; this makes them weaker than a typically overpowered player late-game (although still strong enough to win even unassisted), but much stronger earlier on, and the fact that we're still only experience level 1 is thus strongly mitigated; this is pretty much the only reason we can survive this deep in the game. This first form we use, the xorn, is one that we will return to several times during the TAS (although TASing in xorn form is really annoying, to the

Ais523: /* To-Do List */ turn 879

2022-05-25T04:10:54Z

To-Do List: turn 879

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:10, 25 May 2022
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	== To-Do List ==		== To-Do List ==
	* Rewrite turns 824-836. Turn 826 is an error, and effectively a dead turn, as noted below.		* Rewrite turns 824-836. Turn 826 is an error, and effectively a dead turn, as noted below.
			* Turn 879 uses an obsolete luck manipulation method. {{kbd\|m}}-bumping monsters also uses up random numbers and is faster / less spammy.

	== Documentation ==		== Documentation ==

Ais523: /* Rerecording Environment */ formatting fixes

2022-05-25T02:28:36Z

Rerecording Environment: formatting fixes

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:28, 25 May 2022
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	'''In VM Setup:''' These are the commands to start from scratch:		'''In VM Setup:''' These are the commands to start from scratch:

	~~<code>~~export HOME=/dev/shm		export HOME=/dev/shm
			cd ~
	cd ~		cp -R /home/user/build/ .
			cp /home/user/.tmux.conf .
	cp -R /home/user/build/ .		cp /home/user/vtdefaults.nh .
			export 'TZ=UTC+0'
	cp /home/user/.tmux.conf .		export NETHACKOPTIONS='@/dev/shm/vtdefaults.nh'
			export RANDOMSEED=1447373582
	cp /home/user/vtdefaults.nh .		rm build/playfield/record && touch build/playfield/record
			export LD_PRELOAD=`readlink -f nobuffer.so`
	export 'TZ=UTC+0'		tmux
			stty raw -echo icrnl onlcr opost; tee ~/nethack.nttrec \| build/nethack -u wizard; reset
	export NETHACKOPTIONS='@/dev/shm/vtdefaults.nh'

	export RANDOMSEED=1447373582

	rm build/playfield/record && touch build/playfield/record

	export LD_PRELOAD=`readlink -f nobuffer.so`

	tmux

	stty raw -echo icrnl onlcr opost; tee ~/nethack.nttrec \| build/nethack -u wizard; reset~~</code>~~

	If you're making filesystem changes and you're running from expectKvm.py inside Nethack, perform these steps as well (the example below is for updating the nethack executable, replace the example IP):		If you're making filesystem changes and you're running from expectKvm.py inside Nethack, perform these steps as well (the example below is for updating the nethack executable, replace the example IP):

	~~<code>~~#quit nnnnnnn		#quit nnnnnnn
			sudo mount -o remount,rw /
	sudo mount -o remount,rw /		scp tas@192.168.254.210:build/playfield/nethack /home/user/build/playfield
			sudo reboot
	scp tas@192.168.254.210:build/playfield/nethack /home/user/build/playfield

	sudo reboot~~</code>~~

	=== Usage and controls ===		=== Usage and controls ===

DwangoAC: /* Usage and controls */ Add Ctrl+L usage information

2022-05-25T02:19:31Z

Usage and controls: Add Ctrl+L usage information

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:19, 25 May 2022
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	=== Usage and controls ===		=== Usage and controls ===
	After the environment has been setup with a working guest OS and a snapshot has been taken of a given state the next step is to run ./expectKvm.py in the /scripts folder. Once expectKvm has restored the snapshot and connected to the VM it's possible to save or restore the snapshot state on the fly. The control keys are defined in conf.yaml and by default are set to Ctrl+U to save a snapshot and Ctrl+O to restore the most recent snapshot along with Ctrl+E which brings up a small menu to navigate between savestates. The guest OS can be exited by hitting Ctrl+C twice to exit the script. When expectKvm is called from a script the script can be paused at the end of an attempt by touching a file named block in the /scripts directory. This pauses execution to allow verification that the script is executing properly; the script can be resumed by pressing Ctrl+] at which point the block file will be removed. Alternately, pressing Ctrl+C by default will behave the same way as manually creating a block file. A permablock file can also be created which will not be removed.		After the environment has been setup with a working guest OS and a snapshot has been taken of a given state the next step is to run ./expectKvm.py in the /scripts folder. Once expectKvm has restored the snapshot and connected to the VM it's possible to save or restore the snapshot state on the fly. The control keys are defined in conf.yaml and by default are set to Ctrl+U to save a snapshot and Ctrl+O to restore the most recent snapshot along with Ctrl+E which brings up a small menu to navigate between savestates. The guest OS can be exited by hitting Ctrl+C twice to exit the script. When expectKvm is called from a script the script can be paused at the end of an attempt by touching a file named block in the /scripts directory. This pauses execution to allow verification that the script is executing properly; the script can be resumed by pressing Ctrl+] at which point the block file will be removed. Alternately, pressing Ctrl+C by default will behave the same way as manually creating a block file. A permablock file can also be created which will not be removed.

			When in manual mode, input is saved every time a new state is loaded; pressing the restoreLastStateKey gets back to that state by sending the previously sent input, and pressing it again automatically duplicates the first character which is useful in some contexts and completely useless in others. As a special case, if the current unsaved input starts with #n, split the string and send the second whitespace-deliniated text * the third whitespace-deliniated text, such as <code>#n 7 3</code> to send <code>777</code> or <code>#n Zc 5</code> to send <code>ZcZcZcZcZc</code>.

	== Resources ==		== Resources ==

DwangoAC: /* Rerecording Environment */ Fix broken lines

2022-05-25T02:15:12Z

Rerecording Environment: Fix broken lines

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:15, 25 May 2022
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	The entire communication chain from inside to outside the VM and finally on to the target DOS platform is very complicated but functional; the overall picture looks something like this (with our actual implementation listed in parentheses):		The entire communication chain from inside to outside the VM and finally on to the target DOS platform is very complicated but functional; the overall picture looks something like this (with our actual implementation listed in parentheses):

	Guest VM (KVM JeOS Ubuntu 10.04 based guest) running target application (NetHack)		<code>Guest VM (KVM JeOS Ubuntu 10.04 based guest) running target application (NetHack)

	Recording method (tee copying input to a file inside the VM)		Recording method (tee copying input to a file inside the VM)

	Host-to-guest interface (screen to /dev/pts VM serial interface)		Host-to-guest interface (screen to /dev/pts VM serial interface)

	Host virtual machine CLI interface (qemu control channel)		Host virtual machine CLI interface (qemu control channel)

	VM control script environment (Python pexpect)		VM control script environment (Python pexpect)
	Detachable environment (tmux)
			Detachable environment (tmux)</code>

	'''Guest VM:''' Various virtual machine environments provide different levels of support for live snapshots of a guest operating system and most environments provide a command line tool for taking new snapshots and restoring to saved snapshots. This project uses KVM due to faster load times. KVM can restore environments even faster and has some convienent capabilities and thus is the preferred platform; VirtualBox support is deprecated at this point.		'''Guest VM:''' Various virtual machine environments provide different levels of support for live snapshots of a guest operating system and most environments provide a command line tool for taking new snapshots and restoring to saved snapshots. This project uses KVM due to faster load times. KVM can restore environments even faster and has some convienent capabilities and thus is the preferred platform; VirtualBox support is deprecated at this point.

DwangoAC: /* Rerecording Environment */ Added in-VM restart commands (feel free to correct formatting)

2022-05-25T02:13:44Z

Rerecording Environment: Added in-VM restart commands (feel free to correct formatting)

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:13, 25 May 2022
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	Outside of VM manipulation scripts there are a number of utility scripts including runWipFaster.py which plays back a file of input back into the VM which is occasionally required when changes are made inside of the guest environment (such as changes to the NetHack code or hex edits to parts earlier in the run).		Outside of VM manipulation scripts there are a number of utility scripts including runWipFaster.py which plays back a file of input back into the VM which is occasionally required when changes are made inside of the guest environment (such as changes to the NetHack code or hex edits to parts earlier in the run).


			'''In VM Setup:''' These are the commands to start from scratch:

			<code>export HOME=/dev/shm

			cd ~

			cp -R /home/user/build/ .

			cp /home/user/.tmux.conf .

			cp /home/user/vtdefaults.nh .

			export 'TZ=UTC+0'

			export NETHACKOPTIONS='@/dev/shm/vtdefaults.nh'

			export RANDOMSEED=1447373582

			rm build/playfield/record && touch build/playfield/record

			export LD_PRELOAD=`readlink -f nobuffer.so`

			tmux

			stty raw -echo icrnl onlcr opost; tee ~/nethack.nttrec \| build/nethack -u wizard; reset</code>

			If you're making filesystem changes and you're running from expectKvm.py inside Nethack, perform these steps as well (the example below is for updating the nethack executable, replace the example IP):

			<code>#quit nnnnnnn

			sudo mount -o remount,rw /

			scp tas@192.168.254.210:build/playfield/nethack /home/user/build/playfield

			sudo reboot</code>

	=== Usage and controls ===		=== Usage and controls ===

Agulp: Fix broken links.

2022-05-22T01:51:31Z

Fix broken links.

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:51, 22 May 2022
Line 1,566:		Line 1,566:
	== Resources ==		== Resources ==

	* [https://tasvideos.org/GameResources/DOS/Nethack\| TASVideos Resources for DOS NetHack]		* [https://tasvideos.org/GameResources/DOS/Nethack TASVideos Resources for DOS NetHack]
	* [https://tasvideos.org/Forum/Topics/9771\| TASVideos Forum Discussion]		* [https://tasvideos.org/Forum/Topics/9771 TASVideos Forum Discussion]
	* [http://nethack4.org/latest/nethack-tas-tools/turnbyturn.txt\| Current Turn-by-Turn Explanation]		* [http://nethack4.org/latest/nethack-tas-tools/turnbyturn.txt Current Turn-by-Turn Explanation]
	* [http://nethack4.org/latest/nethack-tas-tools/t2000timings.txt\| Turn 2000 Setup (outdated?)]		* [http://nethack4.org/latest/nethack-tas-tools/t2000timings.txt Turn 2000 Setup (outdated?)]

	== See also ==		== See also ==
	* [[Speedrun]]		* [[Speedrun]]

Agulp at 01:24, 22 May 2022

2022-05-22T01:24:00Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:24, 22 May 2022
Line 7:		Line 7:

	== To-Do List ==		== To-Do List ==
			* Rewrite turns 824-836. Turn 826 is an error, and effectively a dead turn, as noted below.

	== Documentation ==		== Documentation ==

Ais523: Undo revision 146047 by Ais523 (talk)

2022-05-22T01:11:05Z

Undo revision 146047 by Ais523 (talk)

Show changes