If Dolphin was better than it is I'm sure we would already have this. But there are enough bugs in the emulator, and load times are so widely varied on PC (especially compared to console), that there's not a good reason to want to add it.
The time differences between emulator and console aren't really to the point where they need to be seperated. The only reason the 1:35 cut is a rule is because it's very easy to make a convincing tas, and even then if someone has enough interest in the game to get past 1:35 then hardware isn't really too expensive. Personally, I would agree to having the emulator cutoff being pushed lower since 1:30s aren't hard enough to get to suspect a tas or splice but I think it serves it's purpose. Not to mention the fact that a leaderboard split would lower the competetiveness of the game overall. One of the things that I've always thought was the best about our leaderboards was simply the number of unsplit runs which made, in my opinion, for having a better time increasing in skill. Also, i'm assuming a big reason for the sm64 split was because of virtual console which we don't have to deal with. In conclusion, a leaderboard split to dodge the cutoff would in no way solve the reason that it's there in the first place and I don't think it's necessary. However i suppose that would be up to the community.
It is not exactly easy to make a convincing TAS, unless you're already familiar with Dolphin TAS tools, which many aren't. And Sunshine often perform the same or look the same visually, so it'd be very easy to spot.
Dolphin does not run well enough with Sunshine on many computers for it to be good to compare to proper console runs of the game. The likelihood of it having proper load times, proper handling of good, not lagging, or just not having some form of cheating in it are infinitely less likely than if you ran on a proper console. The only real reason it is on the leaderboards at all is to not discourage people who may not have proper hardware or capture equipment to play without it, so we allow it up to a certain point. While this point isn't at all unattainable fairly quickly for most, we also don't want to encourage the use of emulator at all.
Funny thing is that i checked the entire leaderboard and i see no emulator runs. So a sub category would convince people to run on emulator or maybe even both.
Emulator runs are hidden by default, but there are 35 on the any% board if you turn off the filter at the top
Wow. That's amazing. So you decided to install a time barrier for emulator runs so that emu runners who (legitimately) approach a possible sub 1:35 would need to make a decision if they want to try to PB sub 1:35 or just throw enough time to make it onto the board. Seriously ?
But since that's not enough, let's just make emulator runs hidden by default to scare off the filthy emu scrubs even more.
To be honest guys, just confess to your true standpoint and ban emulators entirely instead of letting them in just to punch them right into their faces.
I’m not sure why emu runs are hidden by default tbh, but they can’t just be allowed because 1) Dolphin sometimes ignores goop altogether (hence why the 2014 any% TAS gets a full 3:00.00 in Sirena 6, and it can still happen on the most recent versions) and 2) it’s much easier to make an undetectable spliced/tool-assisted run on emulator than it is on console.
On the other hand, there are reasons for emu to be allowed up to a certain point, namely 1) it allows newcomers to start running without having to get the proper hardware to play and record, and 2) it’s unlikely that anyone would bother splicing a 1:35 time. But for the reasons I mentioned, emulation is never recommended; it’s only allowed for convenience.
