Play a bunch of different games before trying a 1cc Normal on one, or the other way around?

[Meneluma]

What do you think?
Just beat UFO on Normal with continues and had a few okayish 1cc runs that reached stage 5 boss-stage 6, I heard that it wouldn't be the most advisable game for a first 1cc by a long shot, but then I wasn't actually comparing them by difficulty when making my first pick.

Should I try to hack away at UFO for full closure or try out some other games before going for 1cc on anything?

[ChurchGorilla]

Originally posted by Wishmaker_Latias:

It seems like an interesting thing to play on the side, judging that it works differently than the standard 6+1 stage formula. At least I hope it is suitable as a side activity, if you are done with a certain scene, does that mean you are done and won't be forced to redo it again if you don't want?

The reason why I'm recomending it is that the patterns are very unique and combined with the photoshooting mechanic it gets really interesting.
Because of the pretty brutal difficulty later on it's good enough as a main activity as well.
After beating a stage if your score for it is high enough you unlock flavor text.

Originally posted by Wishmaker_Latias:

As for the main focus I'm deciding between EoSD(the high praise I keep hearing) and Fairy Wars (It just sounds fun, and nothing else was really suggested for that matter)

EoSD is really good. Especially for the older titles I'd recommend you to grab the VSync Patch as it reduces the latency (especially for PCB as it has crazy input lag). From what I've heard Fairy Wars is pretty short and easy.

Originally posted by Wishmaker_Latias:

No easy to unlock practice without modding the game(Yes, totally this, after seeing the amount of stars Nue has I'm positive I'll need to go for some skip options to practice those spells)

https://www.reddit.com/r/touhou/comments/3ejp3h/guide_using_spoileral_for_efficient_practice/

[Meneluma]

Originally posted by GMGMaker:

Because of the pretty brutal difficulty later on it's good enough as a main activity as well.

If it's really that hard, and fun then I'll have no choice but to move it to the main activity, for now I'm still deciding on what I'll start with as a main activity.

EoSD is really good. Especially for the older titles I'd recommend you to grab the VSync Patch as it reduces the latency (especially for PCB as it has crazy input lag). From what I've heard Fairy Wars is pretty short and easy.

Vsync in this case is for imporved controls or a smoother image?
I'm kind of suspicious of the feature after the butter on ice controls Super Hexagon gets as a side effect from the improved visuals from Vsync turned on. It being on by default was pretty rage inducing once it got to the level where natural control sensitivity is already set to high by level attributes.

As for Fairy Wars and difficulty, I'd base my estimations of difficulty on the vote of the majority, but I'd need more opinions, because no joke I've seen a person say GFW 1cc is harder than LoLK 1cc, which completely throws the image LoLK built for itself out of the window. Though considering the Cirno memes I wouldn't leave out the possibility of trolling.

https://www.reddit.com/r/touhou/comments/3ejp3h/guide_using_spoileral_for_efficient_practice/

Bookmarking for when I'll need it later.

[ChurchGorilla]

Forgot to add the link to VSync patch https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Game_Tools_and_Modifications#Vsync_Patches
To make it work together with THcrap (great tool for easily adding translations and other neat features into the games) edit the games.js file and set the path of the game executable to the path of the vpatch.exe
Also EoSD requires a couple extra steps to make it work but it's explained in the link.

Originally posted by Wishmaker_Latias:

If it's really that hard, and fun then I'll have no choice but to move it to the main activity, for now I'm still deciding on what I'll start with as a main activity.

It still can be played as a side activity as well thanks to the self contained structure (1 stage = 1 pattern)

Originally posted by Wishmaker_Latias:

Vsync in this case is for imporved controls or a smoother image?

Improved controls. Don't remember how bad the input lag was in EoSD but PCB had an insane amount of input lag without it.

[Meneluma]

Originally posted by Sicris:

Yea that works to if your PC can handle recording a bullet hell at that resolution without slowdowns. Most my videos were recorded in Fraps (at the time) which would only record at default plus my PC back then (which was a gaming PC) was not really strong enough to record bullethells at 720p so had no choice but to upscale in MeGUI.

I maybe could get 1080p recording a replay, but filesize is the biggest hurdle, anything that passes 2GB just cancels the recording and does not save it, plus I probably will get weird results since my native is not 1080p. Since replays can have cuts, I'd rather do short 1-2 stage sections in a good res/fps and edit around. The second video is garbage because it used the settings I set for the live capture, that also got dragged through the mud by youtube itself, and is of two segments instead of 3.
The live capture which did not save since the size flew past 2gb.
Might re-record that one if I feel bored at some point.

Edit:
By the way if you do plan to play touhou 1-5. You may want to mention it here. It's not like with other emulators that is just load the ROM and play.

They are not very high on my priorities, there are ten other main games that I haven't played along with fun sounding spin-offs are easier to set up.
If you know of an emulator optimization guide or already made one, you could link it, for me to bookmark for future reference in case I run out of games to play. But you don't need to write one on the spot because I'm not going to play the earlier ones for a long time. ~50 hours to 1cc one times 10, yeah, a while. Not to mention EX stages.

And wow that post of yours had some heavy editing.
2 different sets of videos even...
One thing that I expected from an unoptimized emulator were chameleon sprites that don't fully render and partially blend it with the BG, but I guess lag and missing audio channels are bad enough by themselves.

Originally posted by GMGMaker:

Improved controls. Don't remember how bad the input lag was in EoSD but PCB had an insane amount of input lag without it.

I hope no one considers Vsync as a thing that can invalidate your score, although if it is really that bad without it, then I guess not.

[ChurchGorilla]

Originally posted by Wishmaker_Latias:

I hope no one considers Vsync as a thing that can invalidate your score, although if it is really that bad without it, then I guess not.

Nah, it's legit.

[Meneluma]

Tried EoSD without Vsync first as a test will try to change it now.
Any tips on how to cap the fps of EoSD to 60?
It runs at 85 for me which apparently doesn't allow for replays.
Should also set up Vsync soon.

Might as well try to set up the others I'm going to play sometime not too far in the future.
GFW, TD and STB seem to run at 60 and the only concern I have is setting up the controls for GFW so they would feel not too confusing. And the speed differences of STB, I like the one life rapid-retry format though.
Though could you explain the:

Originally posted by GMGMaker:

After beating a stage if your score for it is high enough you unlock flavor text.

What's the indication whether you got it or not?
I did all scenes of stage 1 now and am very confused, is it Aya's picture being different?
Because some were really terrible and I still see some text.

Nothing else on top is needed right, they're not that old, I assume not.
(TD and GFW are going to go in my backlog, I'll focus on the other two first)

[ChurchGorilla]

Originally posted by Wishmaker_Latias:

What's the indication whether you got it or not?
I did all scenes of stage 1 now and am very confused, is it Aya's picture being different?
Because some were really terrible and I still see some text.

It depends on the color of the text. If the text is blueish and Aya is talking about needing more pictures to write something useful that means that your score was too low.
If the text is pink/red then it's fine.

[Meneluma]

Originally posted by Sicris:

The video covers most of the major PC-98 emulators. Anex86 is most likely the one you will end up using though since it's the most strait foward and easiest to use.

Well that doesn't sound nowhere as complicated as setting up the games themselves.

The older games have issues with modern windows.

Download the DX8 to DX9 converter and place the file in the Touhou 6,7,8,9, and 9.5 game directories.

Not sure why the wiki lists StB as needing that old DX patch though, it seems to run fine for me without, and with it on it messes up recording like a lot. Removing it solves it though.

While the patch did not solve the fps issue for EoSD(an obscure checkbox in configuration did). it does boot up the graphics faster letting me see the intro screen, without the patch the visuals only kick in when you're at the main menu alrady.
And it solves recording issues, which is nice.

Originally posted by GMGMaker:

It depends on the color of the text. If the text is blueish and Aya is talking about needing more pictures to write something useful that means that your score was too low.
If the text is pink/red then it's fine.

Oh that means I've got them all on stage 1, I was worried because my scores were all over the place from 20k to 85k and the images all looked different making me think there is a rank system.

[ChurchGorilla]

The score and difficulty can vary from scene to scene.
In general though as long as you take pictures with Aya, the boss and a decent amount of bullets you should easily reach the required score

[Meneluma]

Originally posted by Sicris:

Originally posted by Wishmaker_Latias:

Not sure why the wiki lists StB as needing that old DX patch though, it seems to run fine for me without, and with it on it messes up recording like a lot. Removing it solves it though.

Because anything before touhou 10 was not made with DirectX 9 and this solves a lot of problems on multiple computers. Why it's giving you problems I have no idea. Maybe it's conflicting with the vsync patch? (wouldn't know, never used the vsync patch)

I'm not using vsync for 9.5. Though I may want to try, I swear tha camera just doesn't go off a lot.
Not using the DX patch on StB has the same start up effect as EoSD without it, where the initial graphics load takes a while. Just StB doesn't skip anything during slow initial load, unlike EoSD(Though I don't like the amount of bloom the startup screen of EoSD has, it hurts a bit to look at it, didn't mind skipping it actually). But with the patch installed StB's recording goes to all hell giving audio with a black screen, or shrink the window to 25% of my recording resolution and leave the rest of the space black, still retaining the original resolution and file size in general.

I still need to test how well does TD and GFW record, EoSD didn't feel like something in desperate need of control repairs with vsync, GFW controls seemed far more alien to me, though that probably is the whole point with the delay on freezing and all.

Edit. Everything records just fine, TD seems ridiculously easy based on the massive progress from my first attempt, everything is so easy to capture so far or at least to time out with the silly healing mechanics.
Surprisingly so far I found Fairy Wars to be the hardest. Is it supposed to be so delayed on the freezes, or is vsync required for it?

[Meneluma]

@GMGMaker
You mentioned Shoot the Bullet having great patterns, at about which point in your opinion do they start showing up?
Because so far(19 scenes in the first three stage cleared) most were either forgettable(most of stage 1 and the occasional one here and there later on)
Or memorable for being such a spamfest of super dense pattens being launched every second or something as crazy as that not letting you get close to the boss. Like Amaterasu, Doll Mira Ceti(bonus points for famously oversized bullet sprites)

Mito no Mitsukuni has to be my favorite so far, it is great because it is very fun. And it at least feels like regular touhou without over the top rapid-fire (even though it took as much attempts as some spamfests from that stage)
Yamato Kingdom could also be good if not for instakills without warning by the lasers out of nowhere right after recovering from taking a shot, which happens to usually erase the warnings where the lasers will come from, happens quite a lot o the second to last shot.
Okay, I'll give Straw Doll Kamikaze for being well designed, though I'm not a huge fan of that one.

[ChurchGorilla]

Originally posted by Wishmaker_Latias:

@GMGMaker
You mentioned Shoot the Bullet having great patterns, at about which point in your opinion do they start showing up?
Because so far(19 scenes in the first three stage cleared) most were either forgettable(most of stage 1 and the occasional one here and there later on)

The good patterns (and challenge) starts from level 5. The first 3 levels are just there to get accustomed to the controls and the camera system.