What is Bruteforce?

Bruteforce is an automated script, built into TMInterface, that allows you to search for a faster time. This search is completely automatic and does not require manual adjustments of inputs. You simply run the script and let it simulate 1000’s of runs, each time with slightly changed inputs from the original replay. If the bruteforce script finds a faster time than your original replay, it will display the inputs of the new run, as well as save them to a special result.txt file.

The bruteforce script can be configured for other targets other than the finish time, such as a specific checkpoint time or triggers. Its settings include how inputs should be changed, when they should be changed and more. See Parameter configuration.

There are no universal settings that apply to any replay. Every replay needs tuning the settings according to the task at hand for optimal search. These settings can be customized in the Bruteforce tab in the Settings UI, or through console commands.

Launching bruteforce

First, you must obtain a base replay, which input’s will be changed to search for a faster time. After you have obtained a valid replay that finishes the race, you are ready to bruteforce it.

1. In-game from the main menu, click Editors, then Edit a Replay, choose the replay you want to bruteforce from the list.
2. Click Launch and then Bruteforce.

After clicking the Bruteforce button, TMInterface will open a separate console window in which you can see the results of the script. See Parameter configuration for configuring parameters.

Once a run with a better time has been found, the script will a message green text, like so:

...
Reached new hundredth: 24.32, iterations: 14
New better precise time: 24.323466363, iterations: 14

Checking out the results of bruteforce

You can stop the bruteforce script at any time by focusing the bruteforce console window and pressing the Esc key on your keyboard. If the bruteforce script found any time improvement, it will get saved into a script named result.txt (configurable in the Settings UI). To load the result use the load command in the console:

load result.txt

and load the map the replay was driven on.

Innerworkings

The bruteforce script works by re-purposing the Validation feature of the game to use a “simulation only” mode of the game to simulate physics as fast as it is possible. This allows for great performance and usable results in many scenarios. While the simulation runs, TMInterface will monitor its status to determine what action to take next, be it rewinding to a specific state or evaluating results. Because TMInterface natively supports save states, it can use them to significantly reduce the time it takes to try an input combination. For example, if an input was changed at 23 seconds, the bruteforce script will not simulate the entirety of those 23 seconds before the change. Instead, it will restore a save state that has been saved before the search phase, to immediately jump to where an input change happened.

It is also worth noting that you can write your own bruteforce evaluation scripts and even completely take over the simulation with the TMInterface API.