Alone in the Dark (1-3)/AitD 1 any % SS

NHG's latest run (8:22)

THESE NOTES DO NOT REFLECT ON THE FASTEST SS ROUTE ANY MORE: SEE THE RUN BELOW FOR REFERENCE AND BRING IT UP IN THE THREAD FOR IDEAS ON HOW TO IMPROVE ON IT

NHG's latest run (6:21)

NHG's notes

If you think these notes are bad for learning the run, blame NHG and France in general. -LotBlind

So... Here I am again, for a new Alone in the Dark Improvement. I already knew that an optimization was possible when I posted the previous run but I'm glat to say that since then when found another cool trick ! As always, I thank LotBlind for his huge support and all the stuff I found by himself. Somehow I have the feeling that it's not the last time I run the game again. Maybe one day it'll be even shorter than Another world ?

My Goal was to add all the new tricks we found since the last speedrun of the game. There are 2 major tricks and few details here and there. Also we realized that Emily was slightly faster than Carnby, that's why I play with her. I'm not really happy with that as Carnby is the real hero of the serie but anyway...

I'll describe the new things in the run but I'll keep my previous notes for the parts where nothing changes.

Attic: Take the lantern and... Well, that's it. It's the only thing of value so I grab it before leaving the place. Screw you indian cover, I never liked you anyway !

3rd Floor - Antichamber: The only thing I really need in this entire floor is the oil can for the oil lamp. No sword, no row, who cares about weapons ? I have a freaking lantern ! Then I move on and open the door. Before going further I fill the lantern. Why now ? Well because the item is on top of the list as it's the last one that I picked up, I'll lose time to search it later in the game when my inventory'll be full of stuff. Let's continue !

Corridor/Landing of the stairs: Go to the right door ! Here begins the glitch celebration. I don't enter in the room, instead I run in a space between the door and the wall. With a certain angle, Emily is pushed through the wall and reaches the bedroom. Now, I open the door and here comes the first new (classy) improvement. I barely leave the room and then come back in to trigger the zombi-chicken. Once it's appearing, the camera'll focus on its coming on stage. Whyle the camera does not follow Emily, I can quit the room, pass through the door at the end of the corridor and quickly touch the stairs before the end of the camera defocus. As the camera was in a different room, most of things weren't loaded by the game anywhere else (door and Nightgaunt in this case), making possible the whole trick. No mirror, no bitchslap, only Emily's legs to run.

2nd Floor: Here the goals are the talisman in the library and the Matchbox in the Boudoir. To the right !!!

Boudoir: If I touch the chair, the ghost of what it seems to be Emily Artwood'll turn into bubbles who'll chase me through the whole floor and kill me if it touches me. Here's a trick that I absolutly wanted to be in the run. It may seems not difficult but running between the ghost and the gramophone without touching any of them is really tricky. I take the matchbox, leave the place and go to the door at the left of the stairs. I follow the hallway to its end, I open the door and use matchboxes to light/take the lantern in hand before going further (and when it's still on top of the item list).

Art Gallery: This time no cover, no auto-guided arrows of hell to manipulate, no medikit to use, nothing of that, sir ! I quickly use the space between the door and the wall to pass out of bound. It'll be complicated to fully explain how it works at this point, so let's just say that I make the game think that Emily is in another room than the painting corridor so I can pass through the walls of the gallery. By touching the good spot, the game reloads the good room ( the painting corridor ) while Emily is into a wall, wich allows me to pass through it. After that, I take a path leading me to the grandfather clock room (but still outside of the real map), avoiding to touch some spots who'll make Emily reappear in the library. Once I'm there, I grab the fake-book by the outside of the room, then I touch a spot who makes the game think that I'm in the painting corridor again, wich allows me to pass through walls of any other room as I did earlier. At this point I just have to touch a trigger in the library to reappear in it.

Library: Go to the left in the last corridor, here I put the fake-book on the shelf (the one just after the showy secret door), I enter in the secret room to take the talisman then I can leave the place by the double-door and reach the 1st floor. It is possible to pass through the double door using the clip-trip. It's slightly faster but the "corner" between the shutted door and the wall isn't still there. It seems to be luck-based.

1sd floor: Here... Well here nothing at all. I've got to reach the cellar but even the cellar-key is not necessary. I just use the glitch another time against the stairs, Emily will eventually touch the zone behind the door who'll make her go down.

Cellar: Nothing important to say here. Usually with Carnby, I maintain up and left when he is on the stairs so he starts moving as soon as he can, but weirdly with Emily she sometimes turns in the wrong direction. To avoid that I wait a little before using the left button. Also, Being too close of the barrels when I grab the block causes damage but it does not happen all the time.

Tunnels: In the whole section cameras are weirdly placed and you'll often find a wall in front of you after a screen change, so it's important to know the place well to improve movements. A "Chtonien" comes to eat me, I am not supposed to use this way but Aqfaq found a safe spot to duck the attack. Timing is very important, it doesn't work if I reach the spot too soon or too late. Of course being touched means instant death (50 damage, for the record 55 Life points is the max you can reach in the game). In this whole place, the "jump" action is available, and as I need it soon I activate it during the deadtime when I'm waiting for the Chtonien to be closer. Once the attack is avoided, I can follow the path (not too fast because simply touch the monster counts as a hit...). Funny fact: I am so not supposed to use this way that if I watch the Chtonien, it'll continue through the wall and will eventually disappear from the screen to reappear like 10 miles behind a wall but still visible (It kinda works the same when I use the glitch to pass through a wall and run out of bound for a while), and if I watch it too long the game will crash. I follow the subway until another Zomby-chicken attacks me. Wierdly, this one doesn't fall when I give him a hit, besides the camera angle doesn't help to do it correctly so I found another complicated-to-explain tactic. I come very close to him assuring that I'm aside from him. Then I jump with space button, the monster's attack won't stop me during it (however damages are real). With the jump I have to turn around the monster. To do that it's very important to release the Space button who prevent direction changing during the jump, now with LotBlind help Ido that only with 1 jump. After that, I can restart a run and quickly reach the hulk.

Waterpart: Once again there's no time to lose because a fish-man hunts me. First thing after my fall: grab the Oil Lamp. As the matchbox'll be wet in water, I wont be abble to turn on the lantern if it burns out. Having it in hands avoid water effect (even if we can clearly see Emily immerse the oil lamp, it's like a superpower). I follow the hidden tunnel who normally is here to comes you back at the beginning when you miss a jump during a long plat-form section that I avoid here. I come in a new huge room full of fake bridges and I quickly reach a flange to go out of the water. At this point I practically passed the whole "bridge riddle" so I only have to use the path in front of me. Weirdly, Emily has this boring behavior to fall after climbing the first edge. Stop running seems to be a good way to avoid that, that's why I walk here. This part may be a little tricky at first because of approximative gameplay... But I do it fine ! A chest ? With a gem needed to reach Pregzt room ? Who cares about that ?! Get out, I have a demonic ghost pirate to kill ! About the boulder just behind, I push it more than necessary by safety. I can pass sooner but sometimes it provokes the glitch: in the next screen Emily'll fall under the ground then he'll climb to come back to the "real ground". It's a big waste of time when he does that so it is better to take precautions. In the next room I simply follow the path, fall from the cliff and equip the lantern before going further.

Labyrinth, Pregzt & Escape: Time to use an abusive shortcut ! By using the corner-glitch in the rock-door at the entrance of the labyrinth, Emily falls to the lower floor (wich is the water level). After that I have to follow a weird path: come back to the "normal road" (even if I'm under it) by passing through the boulder. I take a large turn willingly because if I approach the rock by the left, Emily will reappear in the room behind the boulder. Once I'm in the first intersection, I'll be mysteriously transported in the enlightened version of the labyrinth, wich is apparently considered as a different place judging by the fact that reaching limits of the screens lead to different places in the dark labyrinth (most of time I lose Emily or stuck him in infinite blackness). Now that the room is bright, I go to the top of the screen without going to much to the left because it makes Emily go back in the dark labyrinth. When I'm close to the boundary, I'll reapear in Pregzt sanctuary in the middle of a wall. I can't pass through it so I have to climb to come back to the real world. Following the limit of the the screen leads me to the end of labyrinth just behind the rock-door, still in a wall. Now I come back to Pregzt room by touching a climbable edge, Emily operates his incredible jump and finally I'm back to reality. I follow the cliff without seeing myself, wich is kinda tricky. If I fall underwater, Chtulu monster'll stuck me and if I'm too close to the walls, Emily will climb it (not a big deal but a big waste of time). Now I simply reach the sacrificial stone by prododging some fireballs. Thanks to Emily speed, I can manage to reach it just before the 5th fireball, using the collision to launch the lantern faster. I take the hook who'll open the rock-doors, put the talisman and throw the oil lamp on Pregzt tree-face. Once he is burning, the fish-man and all the monsters of the mansion die and some rocks fall in the room. Now I can leave this cursed-place. With the 2nd rock-door, the same glitch than before can happen. If I run against the door when it's opening, I can fall under the floor and sometimes I can't even go back at the real floor, Emily just runs indefinitely under the background. Except that, there's no special trick to talk about until the end, I just take the shortest path using the hook on rock-doors and the secret passage by the wine cellar. Near from the beginning of the tunnels, the boulder is still present because the Chtonien did not eat it as it was rushing toward the other direction (because of my cellar path), so I'm forced to use a detour.

Phew, what a quick adventure ! And say that Emily almost asked for some ginger detective to do the job, it would have been a waste of money ! At least she could wait to be kidnapped by a ghost cowboy before begging for help... But that, my friend, is another story ;)

As always, thanks to the SDA communauty, and thank you LotBlind of course ! Until the next improvement of course... -_-'

List of potential improvements to the 6:21 run

• These are in a very tentative state and require lots of work to sort out.
  • Very clearly you can probably make the lag snap over the crack in E1 consistent if you use the door leading to R1 as the setup, since you end up standing at around the same X-coordinates afterwards each time and facing due W. It requires running kf1 or kf3 I think but... sound cues for the win!
  • read where it says "In SS runs as well, if you need to do something in the inventory you can combine it with getting a door to open if you time it well."
  • PRACTICAL TIPS / OPTIMIZATIONS: this whole section has a lot of stuff that could translate well into SS runs.
    • specifically SPACE snapping NHG didn't know about (using a lamp of course). This is probably quite tricky to learn to do consistently but definitely saves time if used extensively.
      • Also by holding SPACE with the lamp INHAND, you're reducing RNG calls to 1/frame most of the time, meaning the intervals between random noises being played increase, potentially saving some frames of lag, especially in E5/E6.
  • Faster rotations by starting the rotation first, then starting to run. If learned well, this technique is bound to save time somewhere. Probably when picking up the talisman.
  • The way NHG exits the library is sub-optimal. Instead of opening the doors to R2, he should have clipped against the S door instead. Definitely saves time and can be made fairly consistent.
  • There might be a time save if you use COLLISION CLIPPING in E3. So you run from E3R5 to R0 to R1, then clip (just regular sideways clip) into R13, and follow the rest of the instructions where it says "The locked study doors (and study desk)." I have surmised that you can't pick up the items that you're using for the collision clip into the desk without first coming back up the stairs but that might be incorrect, not sure. Also not sure if you can easily get back the same way in an SS run using the same technique or whether you have to come back through the cellar.
  • Where it says "There's a frame or several when you start opening a door inwards when you can still go to the inventory."
  • Read where it says "In Single-segment runs, when running into a door to open it inwards," although I don't know if some of this stuff is a repeat of each other. Lotsa notes about how to open doors fast!
  • AND MORE STUFF ABOUT DOORS: "Some ANIMs can be canceled by taking damage, for example opening a door in single-segment runs is slightly faster this way (knockback ANIM lasts 55 frames while a door takes around 120 to open or close). " But I don't know if there's any enemies or such close enough to make this feasible in AitD 1.
  • Something you have to remember in SS runs: "When you've gotten close to a corner and you want to continue clipping along a different collider, you may want to take a "baby step" just to get as close to it as possible first. Basically required for single-segment attempts at clipping into the secret room so the Vagabond doesn't have the time to intercept you." EDIT: When entering E6R0, instead of turning around and clipping against the door, it's faster (probably) to do a lag snap to get to R6 OOB that way, on the S side of where the rooms meet. Could be a little difficult to be consistent at though.