News Archive/2021

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Week 21

May 17th, 2021 - May 23rd, 2021

The craze of Ballance TAS had faded out in this week slightly.

BianMu got the new record, 9588, in Level 12 with HS mode.
Zigzag1263 opened a topic and said, onlyforyou__ now has been uncovering the final answer of each level’s speedrun. He thought we can talk about in there about the speedrun limitation of each levels.

BallanceBug published the preview version of his custom map, 210522. We will continuely track the release of this map, and post it in here when BallanceBug officially releases this map.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7367433860
Example video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1V44y1r7nS

yyc12345 post a test version of Ballance TAS Editor. This software now still is under developing.

Image:

An early UI of BallanceTASEditor

Week 20

May 10th, 2021 - May 16th, 2021

In this week, the unprecedented shortcut research craze caused by the new technology, Ballance TAS, still continues.

是♂不是♀ published his achievement that a protential shortcut in Level 2 Sector 4, has been proven as implementable.
z192380 post a topic to talk about some new protential shortcuts which discoveried(or re-discoveried) by himself.
onlyforyou__ published a new video which do 3 trafo bypass in one time in Level 2(by TAS).
GaiYin discoveried a new universal shortcut. slider bypass shortcut with wooden ball and zero push operation. It can be easily implement in TAS mode. In normal game mode, it need some skills and exercise to achieve.
澈零星魂 found a new shortcut in Level 4, Sector 5.
and etc…

Due to the development of TAS technology, more and more new record emerge.

Week 19

May 3rd, 2021 - May 9th, 2021

The Discord user, onlyforyou__, who post some fragements of TAS records after the release of Ballance TAS in #中文, now joined Chinese Ballance Forum and continuously work for TAS research.

In this week research, the greatest exciting thing is that the shortcut of Level 2 Sector 3 has been proven to be possible. Then some speedrunner learned TAs operation and do it by themselves successfully. Some breakthrough records were created after the discovery of this shortcut.

2-3鬼躲纸变
2-3 Stone Transform Shortcut

Then, onlyforyou__ found that another protential shortcut in Level 2 Sector 4, also is implementable. This shortcut also will greatly reduce the time consumption during Level 2.

2-4鬼躲石变
2-4 Stone Transform Shortcut

The TAS research is still on going level by level. Current progress is Level 2. It is expectable that more shortcuts will be discovered in future.

Level 2 Sector 3 shortcut TAS operation video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1YU4y1t7GJ
Level 2 Sector 3 shortcut operation by 澈零_星魂: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV11N411o7R3
New SR record of Level 2 by 绝世惊魂2035, the use of Level 2 Sector 3 shortucut: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7340699171
New SR record(2:08.205) of Level 2 by 澈零_星魂 with the use of the same shortucut: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1jQ4y1o71d (Note: Chinese Ballance Speedrun doesn’t have the limitaion of FPS)
Level 2 Sector 4 shortcut TAS operation video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV13K411F7iN

Ballexer released his new map, GaiYin (not the player who in Ballance speedrun field, it just named as the name of the Ballance player with the same name.). The design of this custom map comes from GaiYin and Ballaxer create this, and then GaiYin test it. This map is focus on the training of speedrun skills.

该隐图
Map GaiYin screenshot

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7340511646
Example video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Y64y117FA

BallanceBug opened a topic to talk about the establishment of TAS speedrun leaderboard. Recently, Ballance TAS technology have breakthrough development, so, BallanceBug want to get some ideas about whether open TAs leaderboard. Especially, there are already 2 new TAS records.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7335601519

Week 17

April 26rd, 2021 - May 2nd, 2021

Ballexer released his new custom map, Logic. Although it was called Logic, it still requires you to have some speedrun techniques.
dahkjdas post some of his opinion in release topic.

Preview images:

  • Map Logic screenshot 1

  • Map Logic screenshot 2

  • Map Logic screenshot 3

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7326684050 Example video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1N64y127b7

Ballexer released a new custom map, called Auto Map. As its name said, this map is originally comes from a Ballex custom map with the same name, and this map can be passed automatically.

Preview images:

  • Map Auto screenshot 1

  • Map Auto screenshot 2

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7333209128 Video 1: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV13B4y1w71r Video 2: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV17v411j7xS Video 3: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1954y1j74x

Swung0x48 released a topic and said he has solved the black screen issue caused by the lost of 640x480 resolution. He released a patch to solve this problem.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7326960754

Week 17

April 19rd, 2021 - April 25th, 2021

Swung 0x48 is developing a new Ballance Mod Loader mod, called BallanceMMO. Just like its name, this mod allow you play Ballance with other players. This is a extraordinary technology and it achieved the function that many people have always dreamed of. This mod use some implements of Gamepiaynmo’s mod, SpiritTrail but doesn’t rely on it. So, obviously, this mod will use Shadow Ball to show other player’s position. There are no multi-player collision implements for this mod. Every player who are located in the same play room, will not share element’s status. Their play progress is individual. Maybe this funtion will be enhanced in future.
This mod is still under testing, but it is enough exciting. If you want to test mod, you can contact Swung 0x48 in this server. It would be better that you can speak Chinese because the test need voice communication and all testers speak Chinese.
If you just want to take a look for this mod, you can watch follwing 2 videos to know this mod deeply.

Forum topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7319274460
GitHub homepage: https://github.com/Swung0x48/BallanceMMO
Player viewpoint video (old): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1b54y1j7s4
Player viewpoint video (new): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1LK4y1N73A

梨栠washing, the author of the series of Ballance Mapping Video, post a new topic in forum, mainly collecting the new idea of his mapping videos. He said 3 quesitons.

  • Which part of mapping video can be enhanced or enriched?
  • Take a research for mapping dilemma.
  • Which part of mapping template can be enhanced or enriched?

Some mappers made reply and gave 梨栠washing some answers for his questions and also state their opinions.

Week 16

April 12rd, 2021 - April 18th, 2021

Gamepiaynmo released the first TAS record. It is better(1:16.726) than current best record which created by BianMu(1:17.391).
According release topic said, He uses random iteration to find the optimal solution. First, record a version that can pass the level, and then continuously add a small disturbance to the recorded key operation, observe the speed difference between the front and the back, and update the current optimal solution if the level can be cleared faster after the disturbance.
However, the interval that can be optimized at a time is limited, that is, a key operation of about 2-5 seconds. If a longer interval is used, the probability of passing the game after adding disturbance is infinitely close to 0. Therefore, an evaluation criterion is needed, which can judge whether the current solution is better when the ball goes to any position, instead of judging based on the time it takes to pass the level. So I asked BianMu to help record a TAS of the first level, and the time it took to pass the level was 1:19.477. Although there is no record breaking, the route is basically close to the fastest route, which is enough as a reference.
A brief evaluation criterion is structured as follows. By taking an anchor point on this path every 0.3 seconds or so, and then measuring the time it takes the ball to reach each anchor point for the first time. The existence of errors is certain, but it is enough for iterative optimization. So there is the final version of the optimization method:

  1. Capture the record which can be used to pass the level.
  2. Manually adjust some of the parameters, which can achieve some operations that players cannot complete, such as completing the left and right button switching within 1 frame, and completing the camera rotation within 1 frame.
  3. Using 2 to 5 seconds as an interval, find the optimal solution in this interval through random iteration. Adjacent intervals need a certain overlap to get the global optimal solution as much as possible. Try about 300 times in each interval until no better solution can be found.

The record file of this TAS record has been attached with the latest BML release package.

Forum topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7307178276
Gamepiaynmo TAS video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQf6E7iatIk
Comparision video(comparing between TAS record and current best record): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1XQ4y1o7Fu

Uigoir is an extraordinary speedrunner in Ballance. He was active in the Chinese community around 2007, after that, he retired. This week, he returned to the Chinese community and had a lot of communication with some community members in many aspects, especially speedrun.
I think you are familiar with uigoir, perhaps. You can find him on YouTube, and you have probably watched his Ballance speedrun video. The return of uigoir excited all the members of the Chinese community. At the same time, this is also an affirmation of the game Ballance. Those players who temporarily left the community have not gone far, they still remember this game that brought him happiness.

uigoir on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/uigoir
Review the famous video of uigoir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK2b4HtOowM
uigoir released topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7304464675 ## Week 15

April 5th, 2021 - April 11rd, 2021

Ballexer updated his custom map, Trap. He added a new sector for this map.

Map Trap screenshot after update

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7289059079
Video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV17K4y1m7H2

BallanceBug released the new version of his custom maps, which fully created by himself within recent 10 years. This map type was called the simplified map version. It greatly decline the difficulty of map. This is the common type of modified map and famous in the early years.
In topic, he rewinded his mapper path from 10 years ago and said some opinions about recent mapping situation.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7296070707
Download link: http://ballancebug.ys168.com/ (Download in 中心下载区/2021/近三年纯个人地图简单弱智版改图.7z. If you don’t understand Chinese, please copy folder name and use Ctrl+F in search web page to locate it.)

Week 14

March 29th, 2021 - April 4th, 2021

Gamepiaynmo invented the beta version of Ballance TAS(Tool Assisted Speedrun).

TAS is the common speedrun mode in other games. But for Ballance, due to Ballance’s physics engine, there is a common view that Ballance doesn’t have any possibility to implement TAS. For example, if you input the same key operations, the game engine will show the different result in different test round. It is entirely unacceptable for TAS.

After some of Gamepiaynmo’s reverse work of Ballance physics engine, Gamepiaynmo unstood the reason why Ballance TAS have unstable result. The physics calculation of Ballance is related to game fps, exactly, the delta value which is frequently said by some game developers. This value is affected by your computer’s performance, running programs and etc. It is impossible to keep the same value within different test round without any other special operations. This is the first issue which should be solved in the implementation of Ballance TAS.
But the computer is a honest guy. If you input the same conditions, the same process routines, the computer will always output the same result. The initial confitions is gotten from Ballance physics engine. This is the second issue which should be solved in Ballance TAS.

Current situation:
Have the problems been solved entirely? No, we just take the first step. Gamepiaynmo don’t have Ballance physics engine’s source code, and he just an amateur of reverse technique. Currently, Ballance TAS can do:

  • Replay the entire level, couldn’t clip and recontruct the replay file to get the perfect speedrun record.
  • Only work on the first launched level after the game launching.
  • Have massive bias in too much physics calculation scene, such as 4-3, 13-3.
  • The ball fragements, which generated after passing ball trafo, is disable due to it can not be controlled currently.

Protential application in future:
Prove the uniqueness of speedrun record. The delta value is different in different game round. The delta value is just like the fingerprint of a specific speedrun record.

How to use:
Download the latest version of BML, and it support TAS mod. In default, this mod is disabled. You should enable it in mod configuration page and restart game to enable Ballance TAS. For recording, if you enable TAS, all of your passed level will be record, but if you exit or restart the level, the record will stop automatically. For playing existing TAs file, you should press the button in level pick page after enabling TAS, and choose a TAS file to load and play it.

The select page of TAS replay.

TAs mod only record 8 keyboard operations, including up, down, left, right, shift, space, q, Esc. Any other keyboard or mouse operations will be ignored.

This TAS has been tested by Gampiaynmo, BallanceBug and yunjuyihao. In follwoing urls, Gamepiaynmo provided his TAS records of Level 1 to 3. If you see the ball’s position is corresponded with the shadow ball, it mean that the TAS works.

Ballance TAS still is a experimental function. It is too early that apply this in real gameplay. It just for fun now. And any ideas are welcomed.

Topic link: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7288036786
Download link: https://github.com/Gamepiaynmo/BallanceModLoader/releases
TAS record download link(password: s7kf, download TAS_Records.zip and decompessed it into Ballance\ModLoader\): https://pan.baidu.com/s/1NknemKAUmKElAj3vLDTjOQ

Ballexer released his second custom map, Trap(圈套), collaborating with Entity_303. The original design is a Ballex custom map with the same name. Ballexer migrate its design and bring it into Ballance.
The significant elements of this map is looping rail and floor. Due to this, this map is a super hardcore map for every players. Although it is enough hard, it still is simpler than Ballex’s Trap. So, unless you are confident in your Ballance technique, don’t try this map. This map is not suit for normal players.

  • Map Trap screenshot 1

  • Map Trap screenshot 2

  • Map Trap screenshot 3

Review Ballex map: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ft4y1S76a
Trap in Ballance video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV13A411K7xj

At the Ballance 17th birthday, 澈零_星魂 made a video as the present of Ballance’s birthday.

Video link: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1jb4y1X78E

Week 13

March 22rd, 2021 - March 28st, 2021

BianMu(变形的木球) got a better record in CHS Level 01 with 4732 points.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7277063395
Video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ny4y1b7Eu

绝世惊魂2035 post his personal record, CHS13, 8209 points. View video in topic page.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7278314869

In this week, some players ask some common Ballance issue in forum. For example:

  • How to install Ballance on Windows 10.
  • My ball speed is too high.
  • Where is the Ballance installer.
  • How to publish my custom map.

Some questions are so vague that couldn’t be answered. However, almost questions have been carefully treated.

Week 12

March 15th, 2021 - March 21st, 2021

wb130152 post a speedrun video and his record was only a little bit away from the new speedrun record. Watch the video in topic page.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7268663307

Someone opened a topic and talk about whether the map can have different version which have different difficulty. Because not all of players can play the hardest map. This method can fullfill different player’s requirements. Accoding to all repies of this topic, it is a good idea, but it is hard to be done.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7269942665

dahkjdas recently invited some players to test his new custom map. It is possible that his new map will be released within few weeks.

Many people released their personal record, or some videos and screenshots about their playing of custom maps in this week. There are a list.

Week 11

March 8th, 2021 - March 14th, 2021

Swung took a deep research for Ballance resolution script. He firstly took a research for Screen Modes and Synch to Screen, which were the Level scripts within base.cmo. He mainly solved the problem that Ballance frequently show a black screen and stop working on new machine or other platform.
After this, He, BallanceBug and other Ballance community members wrote a fulfilled Wiki page which describes how to deal with Ballance startup issues.
He also said he are working for getting the root issue of the problem that game freeze when you got an extra life. However, current research result has solved enough previously pending Ballance bugs.

Screen Modes research result: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7255161804
Synch to Screen research result: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7256674070
Conclusion Wiki page: https://ballance.jxpxxzj.cn/wiki/Ballance%E5%90%AF%E5%8A%A8%E5%B8%AE%E5%8A%A9

Ballexer released his new custom map: Confusing(迷惑). In release topic, he said his map have an estern egg and you should not put this map in Level 12 otherwise you will never see it. Accoring to his description, the decorations of this map have assist work from BallanceBug and dahkjdas.

Screenshot:

Map Confusing screenshot

Release topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7259813352

孤水白莲 post a topic called Imaging the Ballance containing Level 14. He mainly talked about that which custom map is the best match for Level 14, and he also attached some limitations. Some members took part in this topic.

Topic link: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7261378173 ## Week 9

March 1st, 2021 - March 7th, 2021

Gamepiaynmo released a new version of Ballance Mod Loader. He mainly focusd on solving the issue opened by Swung, which indicated that BML couldn’t run in Wine. Gamepiaynmo use dynamic hook address to solve this issue. If you have problem with running BML in Wine, you can try it out.

Swung’s issue: https://github.com/Gamepiaynmo/BallanceModLoader/issues/7
Ballance Mod Loader GitHub page: https://github.com/Gamepiaynmo/BallanceModLoader

Week 9

February 22nd, 2021 - February 28th, 2021

yyc12345 found the way to decode / encode Virtools language pack file, NLP file. Now, it is possible to create some language pack to change the display language of Virtools and it is convenient for some Virtools beginners. For example, almost Chinese mapping beginner. Because almost Chinese mapping beginner do not have enough English skill to use Virtools fluently. So, a translated Virtools may be beneficial to them.

This translation project was started by HCF(韩长甫). yyc12345 just took a research for the NLP file when HCF facing the issue that he couldn’t decode NLP file. There is a image that show the partly translated Virtools user interface.

A naive attempt of Virtools language pack

HCF’s topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7222850419
yyc12345’s GitHub code: https://github.com/yyc12345/gist/tree/master/VirtoolsNLP

SR的感觉 published a new Ballance texture package called CcOoLlOoLl. But all replies of this texture package are negative responses.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7233165136

Week 8

February 15th, 2021 - February 21th, 2021

SiZhong(四中2014届1班) made 2 lives on February 15th and 16th. He tried challenging CHS 07 and played Ballex in live.

Live replay video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV11X4y157ib
Live room: https://live.bilibili.com/10382419

Ballancebug, 走路草(Oddish) and 该隐(GaiYin) met in a network cafe and made a stream via Oddish’s account on Bilibili.

Live replay video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Py4y1a7aC

晚來_天欲雪 made a live on February 13rd. He played various custom maps.

Live replay video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1yy4y1h7yu

Week 7

February 8th, 2021 - February 14th, 2021

yanteng3 released the annual topic for celebrating the Spring Festival. Many community members participated in this topic.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7225465499

Swung added a new command line, /seg clear for his BML mod, Segment. This command can clean current level’s segment record.

GitHub page(download the latest version from Release page): https://github.com/Swung0x48/Segment

Ga Yin got better record in CSR 11, 2:40.985.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7223530864
Video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Hy4y1Y7pP

飘动的雨灵 published his 1-13 combined level CHS spedrun video.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7226535693
Video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Mt4y1z7ZW

dahkjdas published his new custom map, 原初星辰(The Original Stars). According his words, this map was built without anyone’s test and this map is the present for the Spring Festival. This map have 8 sectors and was built in 4 days(less than 20 hrs).

Preview image:

The Original Stars

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7223102179
Download in Discord.

In Valentine Day, Chinese Ballance Forum published a annual Valentine Day topic and gave good wishes the couples in the community.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7227444686

Week 6

February 1st, 2021 - February 7th, 2021

变形的木球(BianMu) got better record in CHS 08, 5680.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7213841640
Video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1y54y1p7M6/

湮尘灬冷曦 published his new custom map, 危之环(Dangerous Loop). This is a short but challenging custom map. Sector count is 6 and diffuculty is 4 star in 5 star.

A preview image:

Dangerous Loop

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7214239129

dahkjdas released his new custom map, 萌新快乐图2.0(Beginner Friendly 2.0). (Translator note: its name is not corresponding with its content. This is a hard map and it entirely not suit for beginner.)
According to topic, he said he didn’t have enough power to make a complex map so he created this map. And this map have some shortcut and may can be suit for speedrun.

A preview image:

Beginner Friendly 2.0

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7217559612

yyc12345 published his map Chinese Ballance Memes at the same day when dahkjdas released his map. Because this map has been released in Discord previously. So I didn’t write more in there.
Almost player who played this map said a lot of good memories are brought back through some structures in this map. Also someone said this map can bring happiness to players. However, some players think this map is too awful because it is too hard. and even caused a player delete Ballance forever.

Topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7217213284

BianMu(变形的木球) made a 7 hours live on February 6th, 2021.
At the begin of this live, he played 3 Ballance custom map: Chinese Ballance Memes, Dangerous Loop and Beginner Friendly 2.0. And in following live time, he played 3 Ballex custom map. At the tail of this live, he successfully spent 3 hours to got better record in CSR 04, 2:10.349.

Live room: https://live.bilibili.com/21888790
Live replay: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Pf4y1r7ep
Speedrun record video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Gv4y1Z7zi

Week 5

January 25th, 2021 - January 31th, 2021

Swung released a groundbreaking new mod, FramerateUnlocker. It main function is leting Ballance have unlocked frame rate in window mode.
This mod have following settings:

  • FrameRateOverrideType: 0: Enable VSync. 1: Unlock frame rate. 2: Custom frame rate limitation. Other integer: Keep current settings. Overwrite this setting when you restart game or change settings in Graphic menu. * FramerateCap: a float number. The frame rate value used when FrameRateOverrideType is 2.

Swung also made another topic which describe this mod’s principle in detail. In this topic, he firstly introduce Ballance windowed unlocked frame rate. At the follwoing content, he stated the basic principle of unlocked frame rate based on some Virtools SDK function. After that, he used the priniciple which is concluded by himself to explain some existed phenomenons and perfectly solved a historical problem.

He said his research is inseparable from the help of BianMu and yunjuyihao. For solving some research issues, he developed a new BML mod called Statistica.

Additionally, yunjuyihao released another topic 2 days before Swung released his new mod, which is focused on how to implement unlocked frame rate in Ballance window mode. In this topic, all the contents is summarized experience in the past few years. This topic must be of great help to the development of Swung.

A Statistica image:

The ingame output of Statistica

Release topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7212294069
Principle topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7212893473
yunjuyihao topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7210474023
GitHub project(download mod in Release page):

yyc12345 released a new BML mod, called FontCraft. This mod can change Ballance in-game font. This mod have similar font setting with Swung’s mod, Segment. Because this mod is inspired by a reply which is comes form Swung mod’s release topic. This reply ask Swung whether Segment’s font setting can change Ballance in-game font.

All of this mod’s settings will be applied after you restart the game. And please ensure you know font copyright. Some fonts have copyright and shouldn’t be used in commecial Ballance video. The author of this mod does not burden any consequences caused by this mod.

Preview image:

The Mod config page of FontCraft

Download from follwing Discord message.

BianMu(变形的木球) made a live on January 25th, 2021. He mainly played Ballex. At the tail of live, he show the groundbreaking technology, Ballance frame limit in window mode, which is researched by him and Swung. And, show some BML mods, especially Swung’s Segment.

Announcement topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7210887509
Replay video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1wX4y1N7oQ

Rushing_balls made a kichiku(Japanese word: 鬼畜, きちく) video for Ballance called “Ba instruments Flower Dance”.

Release topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7212458997
Video link: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1NU4y1x7qa

The “Personal opinions on common misunderstandings of mapper” discussed last week became deserted this week, so I no longer pay attention to the subsequent development of this topic.

Week 4

January 18th, 2021 - January 24th, 2021

ImbalancedDream(失衡之梦) released a mapping script tutorial, which is comes from 9826HZg’s book, “Textbook of Creating Scripts in Maps of Ballance”. 9826HZg’s book is a handwritten book which have 7 chapter, 40 pages. He write this digital document at the same time with learning from the handwritten book.
This digital book almost perfectly reproduces the content of the handwritten book and don’t have ImbalancedDream’s personal opinion. Also, due to limited time, he did not make the last chapter into an digital book.
This book is written in Chinese.

Book catalog * Make a level with script * Principle * Basic method * Add & connect BB * Restore flame * 4 easy examples * Extra flame * Column transition * Attach BGM * Attach tutorial (just like tutorial in Level 1) * Other uses * Frequently used or useful Building Block(BB) * Virtools Array introduction * IC introduction * Appendix

Release topic (for preview book): https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7200898395
Download book: Our MEGA network disk * Handwritten book: Tutorial / Textbook of Creating Scripts in Maps of Ballance / Handwritten Book.pdf * Digital book: Tutorial / Textbook of Creating Scripts in Maps of Ballance / Digital Book.pdf

Swung0x48 published his new BML mod again, Segment. This is a fully refactored Mod. Its main function is showing time and score when you pass the checkpoint. This mod required BML version is 0.3.30 (or newer version).
In this version, he move sector time and score information from console output to the side panel. Additionally, it can display history comparing result, just like LiveSplit. If you push Restart button in pause menu. This mod will remeber your pervious score and show the comparing result in the next play with color(red, green and yellow). But, if you exit the level and re-enter the level. The history will be wiped out.
But this sector based record method is not accepted by Chinese speedrunner. The main reason is almost Chinese speedrunner don’t use sector for comparing record. Chinese speedrunner perfer to use special spot, such as a extra point, or a special position, for comparing record, rather than checkpoint. Swung agree to speedrunner’s opinion but it is hard to implement in program. Also, he encountered a problem when developing this mod. He use too many Label and it will massively decrease the FPS when you open Overclock in BML. He try some solution. Finally, he pick Text instead of Label to show data in game. It solve the performance problem.

Preview image:

Ingame screenshot of Segment

Release topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7201755295
Video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1oz4y1S7Yi
GitHub page(download the latest version from Release page): https://github.com/Swung0x48/Segment

Ballancebug submit a topic on Chinese Ballance Forum, called “Personal opinions on common misunderstandings of mapper”. He said he wanted to talk about this very early. Also, he said this is only his personal opinions. He welcomes others to post replies in topic for discussion. He mainly stated 5 opinions in topic.

  1. Mapper cognitive bias about difficulty
  2. The logical map must follow the path I designed. Shortcuts are harmful to my creativity and must be eliminated.
  3. The optimization of the details of the map is an unreasonable request / The details of the map must be done without any flaws
  4. If the map is not made difficult, it will be difficult to reflect my various creative designs
  5. The map is unqualified if it is not particularly long or particularly substantial

Many people participated in this discussion, including mappers and many players. yunjuyihao has brief and clear opinion, that the map suiting for speedrun is a good map. Also, there are someone have sharp opinion. Burning红云 said, nowaday, map release topics only have spam replies, such as, awesome, good and etc. He couldn’t think a good map can be created in this weird atmosphere and it will cause a vicious circle. He even criticized the naming of the map, believing that no map’s name matches its content. He think mapping become the accumulation of beautiful but useless technique and he couldn’t find previous mapping feelings.
Also, someone talk about this argument in detail. 平衡四边球, 口语大赛, Tert_Wei and etc used a short paragraph of text to explain their point of view, mainly related to how the difficulty should be determined and what the mapping is for.
Additionally, this question is actually an argument between Ballancebug and dahkjdas about mapping. dahkjdas also participated this argument and released his 3 opinions as a response to Ballancebug:

  • Player subjectivity or author subjectivity
  • Creative point or garbage point. Design is not to shackle yourself.
  • Production or design

In following replies, Ballancebug and dahkjdas also had many discussions in this argument. The weekly report will continue to follow this discussion next week.
Due to this discussion is written in Chinese, it is hard to give reader a full view of this topic. And due to my(the author of this report) limited English skill, the translation may have some subjective content. If you can read Chinese, you can view the full topic via following link. This argument may be translated in future if some translators have spare time. Chinese Ballance mapping technology is so modern that someone even can talk about what the mapping is for. But here, there are still many people who don’t even know how to create custom map. This can’t help but feel embarrassing.

Topic link: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7199449643

Week 3

January 11st, 2021 - January 17th, 2021

BianMu(变形的木球) made a live on January 17th, 2021. He mainly played two maps: 都会十字(Metropolis cross) and 原野之上 2.0(Champaign 2.0). Also, he played a new Ballex custom map.
He said that he always has been busy with exams, experiments and graduation projects. Recently he has gained enough time to make a live.

Live replay: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1gT4y1K7Vv

你好吗我好的 published a homemade funny Hitler Rants video to express people’s anger at people who steal other people’s Ballance speedrun videos.

Topic link for watching video: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7189857649

Week 2

January 4th, 2021 - January 10th, 2021

LengXi(湮尘灬冷曦) released his new custom map: Champaign 2.0(原野之上 2.0). This is the first custom map in 2021.
This map have 8 sectors. This map inherit the previous map feature in this series. Accoring to release topic description, ths map have middle difficulty and author think everyone can play it. This map is consisted of logic(50%), speedrun(20%) and scenery(30%) structures and don’t have any high difficult spot.
ballancebug support this map’s huge platform problem. Zzq take responsibility for 8 extra flames and portals. And, 9826Hzg help the author physicalize bounce & zero-fraction floor.

Preview image:

Champaign 2.0

Release topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7184345261

yyc12345 release his new BML mod: BallanceOptiFine.
BallanceOptiFine’s aim is that add shadow, transitional column and etc for old Ballance custom maps. Due to Ballance technology limitation in that time, the majority of old custom maps don’t have these features and this mod can fix this. This mod required the lowest BML version is 0.3.29. But almost people still using BML’s old version. So in release topic, only rare people reply this topic. Also, some people think this is useless and don’t response for this.
This mod only have Chinese manual, which can be viewes in its GitHub project. English manual is work in progess.

Release topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7184357654
GitHub link: https://github.com/yyc12345/BMLMods

CheLing(澈零星魂) made two live on January 9th and January 10th. He played two maps: 都会十字(Metropolis cross) and 原野之上 2.0(Champaign 2.0).

Live replay:

yyc12345 made a live on January 9th, 2021 and mainly making his new custom map. He use Blender to create his new custom map and almost finished his map’s main body. He said after decoration, this map can be released. There are no replay video for this live. He also post a pre-release version in Chinese Ballance group and tried to collect advises and ideas.

Week 1

December 28th, 2020 - January 3rd, 2021

dahkjdas released his new custom map: 都会十字(Metropolis cross). This map became the last custom map in 2020. According to release topic’s introduce, this map started to be created on July, and it finally released in this day due to some various reason.
This map have 5 sectors, predicted difficulty level is 4 in 5. and it can be passed within an hour and a half at the first try according to author says. It is a logic map. This map contain a special element: Stopper rail. It is represented in game with pink color. And he put much work on the metal tube.
Stopper rail is the elements which only allow elements use them. The player ball will omit them, just like go through them directly.
The author also introduce this map’s each sectors. For more detail, please view release topic.

Preview:

Metropolis cross

Release topic: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7175013796

SiZhong(四中2014届1班) made a live on January 1, 2021. He mainly play the new custom map of dahkjdas, 都会十字(Metropolis cross).
Currently, there are no replay video for this live.

His live room: https://live.bilibili.com/10382419 His live notice: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7176446900

plAer-2 released the year report in Chinese Ballance Community. This report make a conclusion of this year’s speedrun and mapping achievements within 3 images. What makes everyone astonishing is that dahkjdas contribute 21 custom map in this year.
plAer-2 originally want to post a English version in Discord. But it was put aside due to the custom map don’t have proper translation.

Report url: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7177044225

yyc12345 put a pre-release version of his new BML mod, BallanceOptiFine in CHinese Ballance QQ group.
The aim of this mod is add shadow, transitional column and etc for old Ballance custom maps. As we know, old Ballance custom maps don’t have these features due to limited technology in that time, so this mod can forced add these features in old map. It will make the old map more modern and beautiful.
The lowest required BML version of this mod is 0.3.29.

GitHub link: https://github.com/yyc12345/BMLMods/tree/master/BallanceOptiFine

Gamepiaynmo updated his BML to version 0.3.30. It mainly fix CKTexture issue. Solve some call errors.

At the end of 2020 and the head of 2021, the member of Chinese Ballance Community greets each other in community to celebrate the coming of the new year.

取自“https://ballance.jxpxxzj.cn/index.php?title=News_Archive/2021&oldid=8055”