Time Lapse Experiment

[GuyPerfect]

The Tubular Upgrade brings us a new background music track that plays randomly in the set of available tunes, and I've made it no secret that I'm a fan of it. Just something about its serene yet driving motif is a piece that I feel fits perfectly with the game and it's given me a lot to think about.

One of the strongest vibes I get from it is that it makes a good tune for a time lapse video, or one of those "satisfying video" montages. I figured what better subject for a time lapse than the game itself? So I loaded up OBS and captured the first 15 cycles of a game, then played it back at high speed with the aforementioned new music playing. It turned out just as well as I'd hoped.

So I present to you in glorious 1080p60 HD: that thing I said!

I'm often narcissistic when it comes to watching footage of myself playing video games, but I'd find this fascinating even if someone else made it. With the accelerated pace, you get to experience the thing coming together without all the waiting around staring at progress bars. There's something deeply satisfying about watching each piece fall into place.

What you see here is my personal play style. It will not match your own. You will be infuriated at my failure to do things that you would do. But isn't that part of the fun of a sandbox game? Stick around, you might learn something.

Consider this an invitation. If you feel confident in your base-building techniques, why not record yourself playing and do a time lapse of your own? I've... never actually watched someone else play the game, so I'm sure there's a lot of fun to be had all around.

[bzgzd]

2 hours ago, GuyPerfect said:

Stick around, you might learn something.

I learned 2 things.
1. What OBS is
2. That it is OK to dig oxylite.

First I wanted to complain that you dug out oxylite on cycle 1 which was big sin long time ago.

But I tested it now and when digging out oxylite you get 50% material but that thing generates 1/2 amount of oxygen normally, but full amount after digging so it makes no difference... probably deliberately made more "noob friendly".

 

[GuyPerfect]

What can I say, it was in the way. Thou shalt not interfere with The Grid™.

[Parusoid]

I never dig upwards, only in rare cases. You need to dig downwards to get to oil so why not start at the cycle 1

[LeadfootSlim]

Your hatch corralling method is... intriguing.

[GuyPerfect]

5 hours ago, Parusoid said:

You need to dig downwards to get to oil so why not start at the cycle 1

I don't have much of a use for oil, so I'm in no rush to get any. About the only thing I've ever used it for is High Pressure Gas Vent, and that was just for experimental purposes.

[m0ver]

This was smooth and awesome. Much better than watching hours upon hours of play. Make some more!

[GuyPerfect]

I captured three segments up through the end of cycle 50, but the third one (containing 21 cycles) did not produce an output file. It resulted in the classic "Stopping recording..." bug in OBS, the one that less-than-helpful users swear up and down is an encoder issue (which it isn't). I can't recreate the footage since the autosave was flushed out, so I'll have to try again another time.

On the other hand, the fancy video filter I wrote to transition between frame rates is looking amazesauce. <3

[GrindThisGame]

@GuyPerfect Great video. I really like the ladder free design. It makes their running patterns so fun to watch. Few questions:

- where did you get a extracted music track or did you just turn all sounds off in the game and record it?

- why no ladders?

- what time speedup is that? 5x?

Thanks for making it.

 

[GuyPerfect]

 

8 hours ago, GrindThisGame said:

- where did you get a extracted music track or did you just turn all sounds off in the game and record it?

Sounds off + Audacity. I have a feeling that the music is actually dynamic, where it will play different parts depending on what time of day it is, and that there's more to it than what got recorded.

8 hours ago, GrindThisGame said:

- why no ladders?

Part of it was from back when Wash Basins/Sinks were bugged and Duplicants wouldn't always wash their hands, resulting in a disinfecting spree on all the ladders. With just tiles, Duplicants won't spread germs around the base unless they happen to pick something up before I can tell them to go back and wash their hands.

But most of it comes from the obnoxious behavior that the millisecond a Duplicant becomes hungry or short of breath or has a potty emergency, he'll drop anything he was carrying on the spot and run away. With tall bases, this resulted in some resources falling a long way down. By using solid tiles between each floor, the maximum distance something can fall is, like, three squares.

8 hours ago, GrindThisGame said:

- what time speedup is that? 5x?

Close! It's 6⅔x. I may have measured incorrectly, but it looked like one cycle on the fast setting takes 200 seconds. The original idea was to have a cycle a minute, but that was still too slow, so I sped it up to two cycles a minute, or 400 seconds' worth in 60 seconds (400 / 60 = 6⅔). It looks like a good speed, so I figure I'll keep it around.

8 hours ago, GrindThisGame said:

Great video. I really like the ladder free design. It makes their running patterns so fun to watch. [...]Thanks for making it.

Thanks for the feedback! This was a lot of fun to put together. Stay tuned, since I'm working on a new one. I'm capturing a fresh segment for every cycle in case OBS craps out again. The new base took on a rather unexpected shape, so you can look forward to an odd encounter.

[OneNonlyNova]

really really enjoyed this one! looking forward for the new batch! hope you can put the up soon good work!