Skullgirls 2nd Encore News

I updated the GGPOtest branch to fix the bug with jarring repeated zooming if there are rollbacks during a superflash.

Join the ggpotest branch and test it!
- In your Steam Library, rightclick Skullgirls
-> choose Properties
-> choose the "Betas" tab at the top
-> in the box, type goodgamepeaceout and CLICK "Check Code". PRESSING ENTER WILL JUST CLOSE THE WINDOW WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING, so don't do that. :^P
-> it will say "access code correct"
-> in the "opt into" dropdown menu right there, choose "ggpotest"
And you're all good! Go play online!

If the build number is wrong, you may have to restart Steam.

Title screen build ID 16190

If this build is good for a couple of days I'll update the main game to it.

Hello, Skullfans! Yes, hello. It's me! Did you miss me? :^)

[h2]WHAT[/h2]
A member of our very own Skullgirls community came up with a way to improve online play! So I'm trying it out...the worse your connection to your opponent usually is, the more improvement you should see. It should make long distances like US EU more playable, and possibly help with wi-fi or bad connections, but it's not gonna suddenly be perfect everywhere it wasn't before.

[h2]HOW[/h2]
Join the ggpotest branch and play online!
- In your Steam Library, rightclick Skullgirls
-> choose Properties
-> choose the "Betas" tab at the top
-> in the box, type goodgamepeaceout and CLICK "Check Code". PRESSING ENTER WILL JUST CLOSE THE WINDOW WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING, so don't do that. :^P
-> it will say "access code correct"
-> in the "opt into" dropdown menu right there, choose "ggpotest"
And you're all good! Go play online!

Note that you CANNOT play this branch against people who have the normal version. I think.
But if you can, it won't break anything, but only the player in the branch will see any possible improvement.

[h2]WHAT again[/h2][h3]because WHY, WHO, and WHERE didn't really seem appropriate[/h3]
Normally, when GGPO detects that your game is ahead of the other player's inputs by too much, the game will wait for a small amount of time during which nothing happens. That's standard. However, Skullgirls has frameskip - that is, it runs faster than normal by 'skipping' rendering one frame out of every seven. So instead of simply waiting, now when GGPO detects that your game is ahead, it will simply not skip frames sometimes, rather than waiting, to slow down little by little and allow the other player to catch up without interfering with gameplay. Hopefully.

tl;dr - There should be less dropped inputs in bad connections.

I tested it a bit in a California-UK match, and it did seem to make a noticeable difference. Let us know if it works for you, I guess!

At CEOtaku, a number of people approached me and asked if I would add an option to the PC version to increase the input lag by 1 frame so they could practice for PS4 tournaments on PC.

Well, I done did it.

If you use the launch option

-ascendhigher

(which, you may remember, existed before)
it will now add the option

EXTRA Frame Delay (0 to 10)

to the Settings menu in-game, below GGPO Frame Delay.
This will let you choose from 0 to 10 extra frames of input lag at all times, and you can even change it from the pause menu. (That's 3-13 frames of total input lag, because the base amount is 3f.)

Online GGPO delay will be modified by this setting as well - if you choose 1f of EXTRA delay and 1f of GGPO delay, the actual GGPO delay will be set to zero so you still experience 1f of total lag. If you choose less GGPO delay than your local lag, GGPO delay will be set to zero.
Making it work the other way around was impossible, sadly...

To those of you hoping for more: I'm going back to working on Indivisible now, ya louts. :^P

Hot on the hooves Oh c'mon you knew I would! of the launch of Them's Fightin' Herds, we have a patch fixing one last Skullgirls bug!


- Hopefully fixed the issue where Training lobbies would sometimes be a normal lobby (without infinite life/meter/etc.) for one of the players. Thanks to Mane6 for discovering the cause and providing the fix!

Title screen build ID 15795
If this issue still happens on that build, please tell me!

Them's Fightin' Herds, the second game to use Lab Zero's Z Engine*, is now released on Steam!
For the next Two Weeks™, Skullgirls owners get 25% off purchasing TFH...and owners of GGXrd, BlazBlue whatever the latest one is now, and Skullgirls all get exclusive unlockable cosmetics for TFH's "pixel" characters!


Them's Fightin' Herds' store page is here.

And if you haven't yet registered for Combo Breaker 2018, do it!

* Mad props to the dev team for wading through my code, fixing it, and somehow still managing to make a game. :^)