New replay feature for Fleet Ops?

posted on May 10th, 2011, 6:18 pm

Hi all, will the developers be working on a new replay feature? For example, in starcraft after you play a game you can save a replay and then post it and others can download and watch the replay.

Makes it easy to do commentaries vs having to record it live, etc. Also allows others to watch past games without using youtube.

So is this something the developers are thinking about? PLS pls! I ask you to have a replay feature!

posted on May 11th, 2011, 2:05 am

There is I think experimental code in A2 already, but the problem was the replay files were massive and I don't think it worked properly either.

Might be on the todo list, but expect it is quite far down the priority list.

posted on May 11th, 2011, 7:31 pm

I think A2 did have a replay feature. Wish they would work on it for Fleet Ops! Would be a great feature and muchly needed for multiplayer!

posted on May 11th, 2011, 7:46 pm

yes, such a feature exists within armada 2 but was disabled for a good reason. it is absolutely unusable as it is now as generated files are huge and even more than that they'll crash your game after a few minutes of recording.
currently it is not planned to invest more work on that feature. a todo exists

posted on May 11th, 2011, 7:49 pm

Fraps is pretty reasonable.

And Xfire isn't too bad, is it?  I never really got into that, but that's another possibility.  I think TParis is heading that one up.

posted on May 11th, 2011, 7:53 pm

ive never used xfire's recorder, is it free? is it better than fraps?

posted on May 11th, 2011, 7:55 pm

yes, such a feature exists within armada 2 but was disabled for a good reason. it is absolutely unusable as it is now as generated files are huge and even more than that they'll crash your game after a few minutes of recording.
currently it is not planned to invest more work on that feature. a todo exists

Is there a way to enable it nonetheless? I mean, without writing a new hook?
I'm just interested in how stuff works, maybe someone can utilize the interface for something useful at a later date. (Heck, if you had told me a few years ago that custom missions are possible, I would have laughed. Yet here they are.)
So, any information on how it works, and how it can be enabled/disabled, would be much appreciated (if you have the time, of course).

[DOCa Cola]

posted on May 16th, 2011, 11:31 am

Last edited by DOCa Cola on May 16th, 2011, 11:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

there is no way in the current release. i'll add some code that allows you to enable replays in the next patch (3.2.3). it is not possible to enable replays as described in the following instruction with the current patch 3.2.2
it'll be interesting to hear your experiences with that function.
that i don't forget to post it later on, when the patch is released, here is what you'll have to do in order to get replays working:

first create a emptry trigger file in your data directory "unsupportedextension_replay"
then open your fodata.ini file which you can find in the application data dir (type "%appdata%star trek armada ii fleet operations" in start->run box). there change the line m_replay from False to True
and finally get the replay0.tga from a stock armada 2 installation from texturesrgb and put it in your fleet operations install in textures

now run a game, a replay is automatically created now (you don't see that, but it happens)
now go to the load game screen as if you would want to load a saved game. there you now should find a savegame called replay. load it up, then you get the replay controls.

again, it's been years i've been toying with that feature and i remember it produced ridiculously large files with only a few minutes of action. i think that also very depends on what is going on. this solution is unlike fraps not only a video but a real replay mode like you know it from starcraft and similar.

if you want to disable replays later on, it should be sufficient to set the m_replay in fodata.ini to false again.

again, this is a experimental feature that didn't made it into armada 2 for a reason. there are currently no plans to work on fixing or finishing it. some impressions are still welcome, as i have only made a few tests with that feature

posted on May 16th, 2011, 1:20 pm

ive never used xfire's recorder, is it free? is it better than fraps?

Ye, it is free. Though I wouldn't say it's better than Fraps. The will be support for FleetOps in Xfire though I'm not sure when the proper update is going to be pushed out. Also, Xfire ingame might be a bit buggy in FleetOps. Still have to figure out what to about that.

posted on May 16th, 2011, 1:28 pm

hey doca, will enabling replays using this method break mp version compatibility? (for the next patch of course)

if so, will changing that line (m_replay) back to default of false restore the compatibility, allowing people to test on their mp install?

posted on May 16th, 2011, 2:59 pm

nope, this shouldn't break multiplayer. however i don't recommend this for players as i don't know if that cause a crash for you or not, as it does seem it keep the whole savegame in memory before saving (as it seems). should be ethically acceptable if used by observers

posted on May 16th, 2011, 4:51 pm

woohoo! Someone try it out and report back! Hope that it works great that way players can upload replay files for others to watch

posted on May 16th, 2011, 5:08 pm

woohoo! Someone try it out and report back! Hope that it works great that way players can upload replay files for others to watch

it almost certainly wont. it was left out of stock a2 because it was broken. the devs havnt changed it, so its still broken.

this opening up of the feature will allow people with knowledge (ie not me) to try fix it if they can. dont expect a quick fix either.

posted on May 28th, 2011, 10:28 am

i have had this feature now enabled during development and interestingly the file sizes weren't problematic as they were with the first tests. not sure why. there were other problems though like a huge speed drop in framerate...(down to 1 fps)
anyway, will be very interesting to get some feedback with the release of the next patch

[yandonman]

posted on October 23rd, 2011, 7:10 pm

Last edited by yandonman on October 23rd, 2011, 7:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sorry it took me so long to reply to this (thanks to Dom for prodding me in the right direction):

       Fleet Operations - Replay Feature Feedback
     - YouTube
 



1. Capturing was not a problem for my system for the most part. It would be awesome if various people playing would capture and note their experience.

2. Cloaking seemed to cause slowdown (I see some big IO spikes looking at perfmon)

3. Can only view from player one's perspective.
3.1 - Can't see other player's resource counts
3.2 - Am stuck with player 1's UI display (i.e. p1 is Klingon, I get klingon UI display)

4. Replay controls look silly how they are (understood that they're kinda 'alpha quality' currently)

5. Player 2 seems to get out of sync

6. Fast forward would be nice if it had x2, x4, x8, x16, x32 speeds

7. Hang on exit from a recorded vs AI game:
Play (with recording stuff on)
Became victorious
Hit Esc (bring up menu) - Saved game (normally)
Load game (without quiting game) - loaded the replay
Watched a bit (hit fast forward, play normal, moved about for about 2 mins)
Hit Esc - Eng Game
Hung



Edit: Attached screenshots of file system.
Question: Is the s3.ias and s3.sav (in the "save" folder) all that is needed to transfer a replay to someone else? Or is there more to it? (i.e. are files in the "savegames" folder needed as well? does one need to modify an index file of some sort to get it to show up?)

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