Pianta 2 Instant Text

Channel:

Noki Doki

Subscribers:

924

Published on August 15, 2023 4:29:24 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLfa9gvzyvU

Game:

Super Mario Sunshine (2002)

Duration: 1:03

544 views

34

By reading a sign during the Piantissimo race, it's possible to make the textbox at the end of the race come up 26 frames faster than normal. This is subject to the same route requirements as the text skip we've known about for a while, so they can be combined together when those requirements are met, which is sadly not the case on any common routes. But this can also be used independently in Noki 5 (with the boat rental sign) and Gelato 5 (with the Surf Cabana sign), which haven't been tested for this yet!

EDIT: Actually, there are no route requirements, it just always works! But it can be combined with the text skip if you happen to get that.

Inside the level, all you have to do is read the sign after starting the race, then complete the race and line up with the flagpole and the Pianta, just close enough that the B prompt to talk to her shows up when you spray her. You also need to be facing within 1024 angle units (5.625°) of her.

So what's going on? Well, the game uses scripts to handle things like NPC dialogue. Normally scripts are free to run as long as they need to each QF, but the script interpreter has a special (debug?) mode that only runs up to 32 instructions at a time, and that mode triggers based on an uninitialized variable, so it may or may not activate depending on what was in memory before the level loaded.

If that mode is active, the script that ends the race and triggers Piantissimo's text is too long to run in one QF, so it can't assign the right dialogue properties in that first QF. This is not always a problem, because the script starts running as soon as the dialogue is triggered, whereas the textbox only needs its properties once Mario is done turning towards the NPC.

But if Mario's close enough to facing the NPC, he'll complete his turn in that first QF, and since the script isn't finished yet, the textbox will reuse the properties from the last displayed textbox, in this case the sign, and start appearing instantly!

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