Navigation

Emulator's main window can only display data of a single frame of the movie at any given moment.

The Piano Roll can cover data for tens of frames at the same time.

But an average movie has tens of thousands of frames. So TASer must often scroll the Piano Roll up and down to see the data about needed segment, and rewind emulator playback to see the data about needed frame.

Throughout the documentation this behavior is called "movie navigation". It takes major part of TASing, and Taseditor introduces many new ways of navigation, striving to make it as fast as possible. Depending on the situation some of them are better then others, so it's not recommended to stick to a single method.

Ideally, the navigation skills should move to your muscle memory, allowing you to always appear at the necessary place of the movie without interrupting the mental analysis of the current task.

All ways of navigating a movie:

Scrolling the Piano Roll

Playback cursor navigation

Selection cursor navigation

Special

Scrolling the Piano Roll

1. Using vertical scrollbar

Click on the scrollbar or drag its thumb to scroll the Piano Roll like any other list.

Playback cursor and Selection cursor positions are not affected by the Piano Roll scrolling.

When to use:

when you need to get to a far away section of the movie. The scrollbar allows to traverse thousands of frames at once
when you're searching for a segment which can be anywhere in the movie

2. Rolling mouse wheel

Roll mouse wheel up or down to scroll the Piano Roll like any other list.

The mouse cursor can be pointing anywhere, except History Log window.

When to use:

when you're observing a segment that doesn't fit into the Piano Roll visible area
when you're searching for a nearby segment

3. Crossing gaps

Point mouse cursor to any cell in Input/Markers/icons, hold Alt and roll the mouse wheel up or down to scroll the Piano Roll to the closest cell that contains a data different from the data of adjacent cell.

When to use:

when you see an emptiness in specific button column and you want to find the nearest frame where the button becomes pressed
when you see the specific button is held for many frames and you want to find exactly the first frame where the button was pressed, or the frame where it will be released
when you need to find previous/next Marker
when you need to find previous/next buttonpress
when you need to find the Bookmark above/below (in the icons column)

4. Paging through

Press Page Up or Page Down key to scroll the Piano Roll like any other list. The amount of scrolling depends on the size of the Piano Roll visible area.

When to use:

when you're searching for a segment which is likely somewhere nearby

5. Jumping to the beginning / to the end of the movie

Press Home or End to scroll Piano Roll to the beginning or to the end of the movie.

When to use:

when you need to observe the beginning or the end of the movie

6. Jumping to the Playback cursor

Click on the upper "Marker #" label (colored light-blue) to immediately scroll the Piano Roll to the Playback cursor position. Alternative way to do it is to press Shift key twice within a short amount of time.

When to use:

when you need to see the context of currently played frame of the movie
when you wish to return to the currently played segment from any other place

7. Jumping to the Selection cursor

Click on the lower "Marker #" label to immediately scroll the Piano Roll to the Selection cursor position. Alternative way to do it is to press Ctrl key twice within a short amount of time.

When to use:

when you wish to return to the currently edited segment from any other place

8. Jumping to the Marker above Playback cursor

Click on the upper edit field to immediately scroll the Piano Roll to the Marker which Note is going to be edited.

Works only when the View -> Follow Marker Note context option is enabled.

When to use:

when you need to see the beginning of the currently played segment

9. Jumping to the Marker above Selection cursor

Click on the lower edit field to immediately scroll the Piano Roll to the Marker which Note is going to be edited.

Works only when the View -> Follow Marker Note context option is enabled.

When to use:

when you need to see the beginning of the currently edited segment

Playback cursor navigation

The Playback cursor is always bound to current state of emulated game. This means that emulator affects this cursor when emulating the game, and vice versa, when you move this cursor, you affect the emulator.

There's one limitation in the controlling of the cursor: sometimes it can't immediately move to the desired frame, seeking takes some time.

When the "Follow cursor" checkbox in the Playback panel is checked, the Piano Roll automatically scrolls after the Playback cursor (except when seeking).

1. Frame-by-frame shift

Click on < or > button in the Playback panel, or press Shift + Up or Shift + Down, or use Frame Rewind or Frame Advance hotkey to move the Playback cursor 1 frame back of forward.

When to use:

when you need to explore events of current segment carefully

2. Rewinding by mouse wheel

Hold the right mouse button and roll mouse wheel up or down to move the Playback cursor.

The mouse cursor can be pointing anywhere.

When to use:

when you need to explore events of current segment carefully/quickly

3. Dragging with mouse

Click on any cell in the leftmost column of the Piano Roll ("Icons" column) to send the Playback cursor to the frame. Also, click on any cell of the column and hold the left mouse button to drag the Playback cursor by moving the mouse. This method also allows to scroll the Piano Roll by dragging the Playback cursor outside (above or below the Piano Roll).

When to use:

when you're searching for an in-game event of the movie

4. Jumping on Markers

Click on << or >> button in the Playback panel, or press Shift + Page Up or Shift + Page Down, or hold Shift and roll the mouse wheel to move the Playback cursor to previous or next Marker.

When to use:

when you need to set the Playback cursor to the beginning of currently played segment (provided that the frame of the beginning is marked)
when you want to see events of previous/next segments

5. Jumping to Bookmarks

Press the hotkey (0-9) corresponding to the number of desired Bookmark, or click on a frame number in Bookmarks List, or click on a Bookmark icon in the Branches Tree to send the Playback cursor to the bookmarked frame.

When to use:

when you need to re-watch events of the movie starting from a bookmarked frame (e.g. watch the movie from the beginning of Level 2)
when you changed Input before the bookmarked frame and want to see new events at the frame

6. Jumping to the beginning / to the end of the movie

Press Shift + Home or Shift + End, or click the cloudlet or the fireball in the Branches Tree to move the Playback cursor to the beginning or to the end of the movie.

You can also press the Play movie from the beginning hotkey (Shift + R by default) to move the Playback cursor to the beginning of the movie.

When to use:

when you want to watch the movie from the very beginning
when you need to fill all movie frames with Greenzone data

Selection cursor navigation

Selection cursor is usually located on the frame where the most recent changes of Input were made, but you can also move the cursor to any other frame when needed.

The Piano Roll automatically scrolls after the Selection.

1. Frame-by-frame shift

Press Ctrl + Up or Ctrl + Down to move current Selection 1 frame up or down.

When to use:

when you need to transpose Selection up or down

2. Moving Selection to the beginning / to the end of the movie

Press Ctrl + Home or Ctrl + End to move current Selection to the beginning or to the end of the movie.

When to use:

when you need to select the same set of frames at the beginning or at the end of the movie

3. Jumping on Markers

Click on << or >> button at the bottom of the Toolbox, or press Ctrl + Page Up or Ctrl + Page Down, or hold Ctrl and roll the mouse wheel to move Selection cursor to previous or next Marker.

When to use:

when you need to set the Selection cursor to the beginning of currently edited segment (provided that the frame of the beginning is marked)
when you want to move to previous/next segments

4. Tracking the Selection History

Press Ctrl + Q or Ctrl + W to revert Selection to its previous or next state.

This method of navigation allows to return to previously edited segments and quickly recollect the sequence of recent changes.

When to use:

when you need to return to previously edited segment
when you need to select the same set of frames as before

5. Returning to the origin of Clipboard data

Press Ctrl + B to revert Selection to its state at the moment of the last "Copy to Clipboard" operation.

When to use:

when you need to remember where the Input was copied from

Special

1. Finding Markers with a given text

Open the Find Note window, enter the text to search and click Find next or press Enter key to set the Selection cursor to the closest Marker which Note contains the text. The Piano Roll automatically scrolls after the Selection. You can search up or down from the current position of the Selection cursor.

When to use:

when you need to find the segment, knowing some of the exact text it is labeled with

2. Jumping to the segment with similar description

Leave the Playback cursor in the current segment and click the Similar or More button to set the Selection cursor to the Marker containing the most relevant Note. The Piano Roll automatically scrolls after the Selection.

This method is described in the Advanced Features chapter.

When to use:

when you need to find the segment with a description similar to currently played segment.

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