WeGo Full battle Replay tool

[Cid250]

Even if we still only have PBEM WeGo, will be nice to get a tool that allows to play the full battle if you provide all the separate files of the battle...

Such a tool will be a great step forward... Recording Videos will never be interactive... and great tactical lessons can be learned.

Even if this tool is done by a third party team, it can be launched as a paid "extra"... or if it is developed internally, may be it can be launched as freeware (due to the free advertisement effect, like the free demos).

Will be considered this tool in the medium future (next year, 2012 or later)?.

[Tactical Wargamer]

Hmm would be a neat feature I would pay for!

Love your signature

[Steiner14]

I would pay for it, too.

[gibsonm]

Sure but as has been talked about before whoever does this will need to address the file size issue.

I’m currently playing a CM:BN PBEM game and so far we have 24 files each at 10Mb (for what 12 mins of play and I think its a small / tiny QB).

What happens when that becomes a 4hr game of Bn Vs Bn (which is what it needs to accommodate - even if no one goes to that size)?

I appreciate the earlier discussion about only wanting the video and not the rest of it, but you still need a bit of grunt to go through those files and strip out the bits you need (even if that could be done).

Anyway I wish whoever does come up with it (if they can) the best of British getting it to work.

[LongLeftFlank]

For those who are really desperate to make home movies of their battles, why not buy the full-feature version of FRAPS? Hit F9 (Record) at the start of each WeGo replay turn you want to record, then F9 to stop. Or in RT, hit F9 to stop whenever you pause. Pretty simple. No need for Charles to do anything, and he can keep his attention on other features/games.

[gibsonm]

That’s fine if the view you have in Fraps is the only unit you are interested in (because the video is “single stream” if you like).

The previous requests have been for full replay across the battlespace.

So imagine your process then rewind, select another unit, record again, rewind, etc.

Not only that but if your video only has the view to the front lets say, then you need to do another if partway through you want to look left or somewhere else.

The Fraps option is fine if you know what you want to record already, but most people appear to want to be able to look from any vantage point in any direction throughout the entire replay.

[Steiner14]

Sure but as has been talked about before whoever does this will need to address the file size issue.

I’m currently playing a CM:BN PBEM game and so far we have 24 files each at 10Mb (for what 12 mins of play and I think its a small / tiny QB).

What happens when that becomes a 4hr game of Bn Vs Bn (which is what it needs to accommodate - even if no one goes to that size)?

Do you know the next/previous chapter keys on DVD-players?

A solution to do that could be a "CM-player"-frontend, that has the CM-engine transparently included and that only loads the actual replay file while it - make that optional for fast systems - already buffers the next one/previous one (if the CMx2 engine allows several instances being started, then the player could start transparently another instance of CM and load it transparently with the replay file).

Such a CM-player could also show - like normal media-players - a "chapter-list" (= CM-replay-files in that directory), maybe even displaying the duration during the battle. Just click on chapter "Minute 11-12" and the player loads the file and a few seconds later you can watch it. And if that tool would be extremely clever, maybe it even could generate a kind of auto-report by extraction of the game-data from the replay-files?

"Minute 11-12" Tooltip: losses: Blue 5 inf, Red 2 tanks

A kind of adminstrative tool within that player, that could search the HDs for replay-files and move them into separate folders, would be icing on the cake for not so organized people.

And if that tool would also ask you about the password for each replay-folder and remember it by saving a little TXT-file?

But maybe that would make WEGO way to attractive over RT and therefore Steve doesn't want it - oh, ofcourse not, because nothing can beat RT - it's not practicabe only because of the HUUUUGE development time of a small frontend.

[Steiner14]

Because i have my creative phase right now, here's a suggestion to combine full battle replay with optional battle-rules, that are discussed in another thread:

In the last replay file of a battle, CM adds a key to unlock the battle-rules for unrestriced replay and movement on the field.

As long as the CM-player (the software, not the player) doesn't find that info in the last file, it only can show the replays the way the battle-rules allow (locked to unit, restricted overview levels,...), just like a replay within the normal CM-game.

But if a valid key is found, the CM-player can unlock the battle-rules in every loaded replay-file and the replays can be viewed without any restrictions.

In more detail:

Assumption: CM has to read the applied battle-rules from every file, like it has to read the status of a unit to display it correctly. Additionally to the battle-rules, there is also one single but very powerful option included: unlock battle-rules.

To activate that option a (secret) key is needed.

But only the CM-game, that creates the files, contains the procedure to create the key. The CM-player frontend does NOT contain this routine. It can only READ the key - if it was included by the main-program.

For example when the last replay of a battle/campaign is created, the CM-game also includes the secret key for the CM-player-frontend to unlock the battle-rules during replay and includes it the last file.

The player-software checks if a file with a unlock-key is present (the last replay file) and tries to unlock the battle-rules with it. If the key fits, the CM-player-software asks if you want the replays being free from the restictions of the battle-rules. As long as the last file with the unlock-key is missing, the replays can only be viewed the way the battle-rules allow.

[Sitting Duck]

Because i have my creative phase right now, here's a suggestion to combine full battle replay with optional battle-rules, that are discussed in another thread:

In the last replay file of a battle, CM adds a key to unlock the battle-rules for unrestriced replay and movement on the field.

As long as the CM-player (the software, not the player) doesn't find that info in the last file, it only can show the replays the way the battle-rules allow (locked to unit, restricted overview levels,...), just like a replay within the normal CM-game.

But if a valid key is found, the CM-player can unlock the battle-rules in every loaded replay-file and the replays can be viewed without any restrictions.

In more detail:

Assumption: CM has to read the applied battle-rules from every file, like it has to read the status of a unit to display it correctly. Additionally to the battle-rules, there is also one single but very powerful option included: unlock battle-rules.

To activate that option a (secret) key is needed.

But only the CM-game, that creates the files, contains the procedure to create the key. The CM-player frontend does NOT contain this routine. It can only READ the key - if it was included by the main-program.

For example when the last replay of a battle/campaign is created, the CM-game also includes the secret key for the CM-player-frontend to unlock the battle-rules during replay and includes it the last file.

The player-software checks if a file with a unlock-key is present (the last replay file) and tries to unlock the battle-rules with it. If the key fits, the CM-player-software asks if you want the replays being free from the restictions of the battle-rules. As long as the last file with the unlock-key is missing, the replays can only be viewed the way the battle-rules allow.

^^^^^^ This.

It's like full replay at the lowest difficulty where everything is visible.

[Surrender Monkey]

Steiners approach is very similar to the one i suggested, alas WEGO players seem to be a small minority here.

Anyways, I will ofcourse try the CMBN demo when it's ready - and for WEGO support , I've found "Panzer Command: Ostfront" , the previous incarnation "Kharkov" was ok, but not up to the CMBB standard, but they're constantly devoloping the WEGO system, not abandoning it.