[TAS] World of Goo - Hang Low OCD (3.68 seconds)

I don't plan to upload new videos every time I finish TASing another level, but this level is the first one where the "OCD" criterion actually places significant demands on the player, and there's also some more news about the TAS in general since my last upload, so I figured I'd share another update. The first bit of news mainly being that I'm working on this again! There should hopefully be a lot more progress from this point forward than there has been in the past month.
This TAS is .38 seconds slower than the non-OCD TAS from 2012, but here structure building has to be kept to an absolute minimum in order to meet the 22 balls collected requirement for OCD. That said, the initial 8 balls to clear the level are collected quickly enough here to still beat the old TAS by a wide margin, even improving on the in-game timer by finishing in under 3 seconds. The strategy here is the same as that used in RTA records for least time OCD: building down to quickly wake up the sleeping goos, and then whacking the structure upwards to catch part of the structure on the right platform in order to be able to reach the pipe with just 3 more moves. I'm certain further optimization is possible, but I'm satisfied simply having this level done at this point.
There's one other new thing with this TAS, and that is that I've gone and converted the entire TAS to run the game at 50fps rather than 60 (note that 1080p50 in the resolution options!). This is because 50fps runs just as fast as 60fps in this game, and 50fps matches the game's internal physics update rate while 60fps does not (resulting in frames where input is polled but nothing happens). I did have to make some adjustments on Going Up and completely redo half of Small Divide to get things to sync properly, but now that everything syncs up on 50fps now, TASing should be much simpler going forward.

[@MinusNC]

i did not understand a single second in this video wtf

[@toimine8930]

*inhales* World of Goo is an old game that was released on a bunch of platforms, idk which exactly but at least mobile phones and some consoles. You've got a set of levels, each of which have some obstacles, a bunch of goo balls, a tiny pre-built frame (this will become important later) and a pipe. Your goal is to get enough balls into the pipe to clear the level, sometimes you need specific types of the former, but the gist is the same. When you grab a ball and put it on top of the frame, it will inhabit it and move around along the links. When you put it *close* to the frame, it will attach itself to it with some extra links and extend the frame. This is in fact how you clear levels -- you gotta make the frame reach the pipe, then make goo balls follow the frame into the pipe (they won't enter the pipe without a frame leading to it). Each level also has a quota of balls needed to clear. However, there's also a second quota above the first one, when you get that many balls into the pipe, you get an OCD clear (a bit of an unfortunate name, but it was ok at the time). Think of it as a higher tier clear of the level. One thing the game is famous for is implementing some physics -- when you fling balls, they'll keep flying for a while, and if you fling them into the frame or other balls, they'll get pushed. In fact, if you fling them hard enough, they'll clip through things, letting you make frames pass through obstacles, something you normally aren't allowed to do. I've seen a full-game TAS run years ago that abuses game physics a lot, it's crazy. Now let's talk about the run. On this level you've got sleeping goo balls, they can't be controlled and won't move unless you fling another ball into them and maybe make them hop onto the frame (? I don't remember this part). Now here's what this TAS does: 1. First it builds the frame downwards to make the sleeping balls easier to reach. 2. Then it flings awake balls at the sleeping ones, so most of them wake up and hop on the frame. 3. When all sleeping balls wake up, the TAS flings them towards the frame to push it upwards towards the pipe (normally this effect is negligible, but it can matter if you're super fast and fling lots of balls at once like this). 4. The frame is completed and it reaches the pipe, which has magnetic powers and keeps the frame in place from now on. 5. Finally, all balls are grabbed and flung closer to the pipe (it's off-screen), this is much faster than letting them reach the pipe by themselves.

[@jongyon7192p]

There were only 3 seconds to understand, so let's take it 1 at a time.

[@simotoring]

On the contrary, I understood everything, because an ordinary person can do almost the same thing

[@jongyon7192p]

@@simotoring As an Ordinary Person, i can confirm I did almost the same thing.

[@hcz439]

can you do some tas videos of wog2? this is so entertaining🤣👏

[@ds27315]

I plan to at some point, right now I'm just not ready yet

[@seareez]

@@ds27315 Is it even possible to TAS wog 2?

[@ds27315]

@@seareez dunno yet! gonna have to give it a try at some point, though.

[@danylvolchenko6318]

💀

[@ds27315]

🦴