So I've been hitting Weather Vane pretty hard for a while, trying to get a video of a 0:12 run...
No luck yet, but loads of 0:13s

I decided to take a look at the 13s runs to look for delays or something I was doing that was making it almost very quick...

And I think I've stumbled on something....
In EVERY single one of my 13s runs... the time from the start to when the balloons wake up is ~9.6s
(actually I get 9.64, 9.56 , 9.66 , 9.62 , 9.64) but the finish times vary from 13.2 to 13.9

So I've done another few runs, videoed them, played fast, a bit slower, even slower but pretty random
and figured out the "time" when the balloons wake up...  and it's VERY regular.

They wake at...  9.6, 12, 14.3 , 16.6   every 2.3seconds.

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed / thought this..?
If anyone with "deep technical knowledge" of the code can confirm..?
And... more importantly, can we use it to make things faster?!  ;)

I just did some runs on Fly Away Little Ones, the balloon wake up exactly when I arrive...

It's just a coincidence! (I'm not sure the word coincidence exists in english but wordereference.com says it exists so... :) )

It wont be random simply because computers dont do random unless you code them to and I doubt 2D Boy coded it that way. Three main reasons why this doesnt work all the time in weather vane are.

1 - The code which checks wether or not to wake up the goos is doing so on a timed basis.
2 - Weather vane has alot of goos, the code may just iterate through them all and because the structure is moving away from the goos the structure has moved too far away by the time it reaches that goo in question.
3 - Distance

@ Kopa Yup - the word Coincidence does exist... but this isn't one!
At least.. not in Weather Vane.

@LTumbleweed
Completely agreed about the not coding it to be random thing...


I've looked at Fly away little ones and the balloons and goos wake up "right away"...
(per LTumbleweed, but there arent very many)

But in Weather Vane both Balloons and Goo's are on a "fixed" timetable. (at least to start with)

More evidence....
All the times I got (9.6,12,14.3,16.6) were done on a retry

It is different times on a 1st try but always 2.3 seconds apart.

1) Found one time on a 1st try (18.00)
Predicted some others (8.7 and 11) then did 2 runs and got EXACTLY those times, within 0.04s
I'm not that lucky!

2) If the times are true, Balloons should also wake up at 7.3s on a retry.
  Did a "Absolute Maniac Build" and got to the ballons V quicky..
  check the video replay....  7.32s to the wake-up

3) In my old videos I've had a couple of structures fall and no balloons wake up..
  Checked the times when the structure was near the balloons... (within a few pixels)
fail #1   12.9 -> 13.7    between 12 and 14.3
fail #2   14.7 -> 16      between 14.3 and 16.6
Both runs 0 balloons woke  >:( ... now I know why.  :D

I'm certain this is happening in Weather Vane.
The Black Goo's are also on a timetable but about 1s before the balloons.

Check it out yourselves if you don't believe me!

Now... How best to use this knowledge to get that 0:12  (or 0:11?)  ;)

38mins 10s later..

That's How!  ;D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENU_lXOdlfg

It's a mere guess, but since you already put quite some research into this... What happens if you for example double/half the "refreshrate" in your config?
Still have a feeling this parameter might affect physics/iteration speed/collision detection.

I don't know if WoG actually tries to change the screen refresh rate (which might theoretically damage your monitor), but at least I had no problems with my LCD when set to 120. Unfortuanetly, WoG sometimes crashed right during startup with a doubled rate, so one has to try.

[quote author=thB link=topic=1927.msg13080#msg13080 date=1245281818]
It's a mere guess, but since you already put quite some research into this... What happens if you for example double/half the "refreshrate" in your config?
Still have a feeling this parameter might affect physics/iteration speed/collision detection.

I don't know if WoG actually tries to change the screen refresh rate (which might theoretically damage your monitor), but at least I had no problems with my LCD when set to 120. Unfortuanetly, WoG sometimes crashed right during startup with a doubled rate, so one has to try.

Hi, and Welcome to the forums!  :)

So far as I can see the refresh rate setting has zero effect, On Anything! Even the refresh rate.
I've set it to several different values... all supported by my monitor... and set Windows to the same value...
And whatever I do, my capture program shows the frame rate as near enough 60fps  (58-61) even when everything is set to 85 or 75 or whatever.
And even when it's running in a window on an 85Hz desktop, the frame rate is still 60fps.
If I reduce it... to 30 or 10...
It still reports 60fps and you can see that it's not showing 10fps... that would look bad!

So not sure why they put it in!?  ???