how do speed runners make those timers that seem to perfectly sync up with events that happen in game?
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There are many different timer apps used and shared amongst speedrunners. Some communities specify in their rules for submissions what kind of timer should be used or displayed in a submission video.
Most important thing to note is that some timers can be tied to the games the runner is playing so that when some specific event in the game occurs, it automatically trips a split in the running time.
This can’t be done with many games, those running on console for example. In those cases, the runner will have some hotkey that they hit with an off hand as close to the mark as they can, in order to trigger a split, that is probably set to be at some timing where the runner doesn’t need both hands on the controller.
Most of them are manually controlled, especially for retro games.
The thing is speed runners are used to inputting frame-perfect button presses, so, they know the exact time it should be hit and are usually extremely accurate in tracking those exact moments.
Actual world records and stuff are usually then ‘re-timed’ when they submit it and may be slightly different than the time the streamer hits.
[LiveSplit](http://livesplit.org/) can “split” or advance the timer to the next section automatically, with some PC games.
There are two ways, they can control the “splits” (when time is cut off at a specific point) manually themselves, or:
They can use an auto-splitter. With a program like Livesplit you can write a script that looks at particular areas of a programs memory (a game, or an emulator) and based on changes to particular areas of memory you can automatically trigger a split.
You can find more info about autosplitters here: https://github.com/LiveSplit/LiveSplit.AutoSplitters/blob/master/README.md
Follow-up question – how do they get perfect screen capture for console games like game boy?
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