Navigation
Navigation
FCEUX main window can only display data of one frame of a movie at any given moment. Piano Roll can cover data for tens of frames at the same time. But average movie has thousands of frames. So TASer constantly needs to scroll the Piano Roll up and down or rewind emulator playback to get the data about needed frame or group of frames.
Throughout the documentation this 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 one.
Ideally, the navigation skills should move to muscle memory, allowing you to always appear in necessary place of the movie without interrupting the analysis of current task.
All ways of navigating a movie:
Scrolling Piano Roll
1. Using vertical scrollbar
Click on the scrollbar or drag its thumb to scroll Piano Roll like any other list.
Playback cursor and Selection cursor positions are not affected by Piano Roll scrolling.
When to use:
2. Rolling mouse wheel
Roll mouse wheel up or down to scroll Piano Roll like any other list.
Mouse cursor can be pointing anywhere except History Log window.
When to use:
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 data different from the data of adjacent cell.
When to use:
4. Paging through
Press Page Up or Page Down key to scroll Piano Roll like any other list. The amount of scrolling depends on the size of Piano Roll visible area.
When to use:
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:
6. Jumping to Playback cursor
Click on the upper "Marker #" label (colored light-blue) to immediately scroll Piano Roll to Playback cursor position. Alternative way to do it is to press Shift key twice within a short amount of time.
When to use:
7. Jumping to Selection cursor
Click on the lower "Marker #" label to immediately scroll Piano Roll to Selection cursor position. Alternative way to do it is to press Ctrl key twice within a short amount of time.
When to use:
8. Jumping to the Marker above Playback cursor
Click on the upper edit field to immediately scroll 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:
9. Jumping to the Marker above Selection cursor
Click on the lower edit field to immediately scroll 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:
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.
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 Playback cursor 1 frame back of forward.
When to use:
2. Rewinding by mouse wheel
Hold right mouse button and roll mouse wheel up or down to move Playback cursor.
Mouse cursor can be pointing anywhere.
When to use:
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:
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 Playback cursor to previous or next Marker.
When to use:
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 Playback cursor to the bookmarked frame.
When to use:
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 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 Playback cursor to the beginning of the movie.
When to use:
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:
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:
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:
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 remember the sequence of recent changes.
When to use:
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:
Special
1. Finding Markers with given text
Open the Find Note window, enter the text to search and click Find next or press Enter key to set 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 current position of Selection cursor.
When to use:
2. Jumping to segment with similar description
Leave Playback cursor in current segment and click the Similar or More button to set 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:
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