Game recorder thoughts?

[EDcase 87]

I know its probably too early to answer this but it would be amazing if there were a game recorder similar to the After Action Report (AAR) for VBS2

Essentially this allows a replay of a game to be viewed in realtime from any angle including free camera.

For me the interesting aspect would be to record a PvP match and then capture and edit footage from the replay to make a competition programme for web or even TV.

If ragdoll were a problem then it could be dissabled for the replay.

As far as I understand, the recorder would capture character health?/position/rotation including weapon direction and fire state. This would then be played back and semi simulated so the ballistics might not match exactly to the original game but the characters would have information about their hit status so that wouldn't change.

Its obviously possible since VBS2 has it but it may not be so easily applicable to ARMA3.

Can any Devs comment?

Cheers,

[Crierd 24]

Being able to record what happened in the battle and replay them like a Counterstrike match and etc would be just plain awesome, for so many reasons. I can really see people making some amazing machinima with this, utilizing real game play footage.

[zooloo75 834]

Can be done with scripting :)

[EDcase 87]

Can be done with scripting :)

Thats great news. Are you volunteering? ;)

Would be very limited no?

(Cool tunes btw)

[zooloo75 834]

Thats great news. Are you volunteering? ;)

Would be very limited no?

(Cool tunes btw)

Thanks :P

I already made a recording script (although basic - just a resource for people to look at) but it records movement and animation, good for vehicles.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?154060-Primitive-Recording-System

[Sneakson 1]

Action replays similar to Halo is one thing I thought all games would have by today... 6 years ago now.

I also thought Garry's Mod would reinvigorate the Construction Set genre and that every game by now 9 years later would come with a similar, accessible editor for casual players.

Anyways I think this is impossible for ArmA.

Say you're recording a match using a lot of AI and ballistic mods -- when you watch the replay later on and don't have those exact mods installed in those exact versions the game won't have any idea what it's supposed to be showing you.

I could be wrong but savegames and replays usually don't carry over too wide versions in many games and I absolutely don't see how it could work if you were to remove or drastically change a component.

One replay size would have to eat a disk.

It would be a vanilla only feature and not worth BIS' time, I'd say anyways.

[Crierd 24]

Action replays similar to Halo is one thing I thought all games would have by today... 6 years ago now.

I also thought Garry's Mod would reinvigorate the Construction Set genre and that every game by now 9 years later would come with a similar, accessible editor for casual players.

Anyways I think this is impossible for ArmA.

Say you're recording a match using a lot of AI and ballistic mods -- when you watch the replay later on and don't have those exact mods installed in those exact versions the game won't have any idea what it's supposed to be showing you.

I could be wrong but savegames and replays usually don't carry over too wide versions in many games and I absolutely don't see how it could work if you were to remove or drastically change a component.

One replay size would have to eat a disk.

It would be a vanilla only feature and not worth BIS' time, I'd say anyways.

I envisioned the feature being used moreso for things like videos. For instance, let's say I play a really good game with my community, and didn't record it. I could go back, watch the replay, run around with a camera or choose different spectator modes, and record the battle and post it up on Youtube later that way. Or, I could place the camera next to another player as he shoots his M240 at a squad and pins them down, then pan the camera over and watch as all of those bullets impact.

I'm sure you can tell now what I'm getting at here. Since you recorded it yourself, and thus are replaying it yourself, then you of course have the mods, and there ya go.

[dmarkwick 261]

I guess mods & addons can be listed as required in the same way that missions already do.

[EDcase 87]

I envisioned the feature being used moreso for things like videos. For instance, let's say I play a really good game with my community, and didn't record it. I could go back, watch the replay, run around with a camera or choose different spectator modes, and record the battle and post it up on Youtube later that way. Or, I could place the camera next to another player as he shoots his M240 at a squad and pins them down, then pan the camera over and watch as all of those bullets impact.

I'm sure you can tell now what I'm getting at here. Since you recorded it yourself, and thus are replaying it yourself, then you of course have the mods, and there ya go.

Yeah, thats exactly what I hope it would allow us to do. Once that footage is edited together it could create some awesome videos. I think good enough for a TV show, hint hint... ;)

Ballistics re-calculation shouldn't be a problem. Lets assume that you are using the same mods. The bullet physics would be slightly different on playback. eg if you are killed with a riccochet. Since they depend on angle, surface and random probability it may not play back the same. BUT if the player state is recorded then they would be killed at the correct time and the bullets accuracy is less important. Most of the time you don't see them and they should be similar enough to see impacts near the target.

As to the amount of data. I'm thinking it would be less than video streaming but I might be wrong.

Edited June 12, 2013 by EDcase

[Koukotsu 2]

At the very least I'd love to be able to animate smooth camera sequences, kind of like Cryengine's trackview editor.

As in... set the duration of a sequence, register the initial/starting keyframe, advance the timeline, move the camera to a new location and register the next keyframe it should travel to, so on and so on...

I'd be thrilled to have something like this even without a replay recorder/viewer, for recording trial and error A.I. action :)

You could even reduce the acctime to around 0.2, record with the frame rate locked at something like 10fps, and bring the action back up to normal speed with video editing software to smoothly capture moments that would normally bring your PC to it's knees.

Edited June 12, 2013 by Koukotsu

[dissaifer 10]

Record should really be done by a server, as it has to have all the inputs... from what I've read about the engine, i would expect that local (movements within a certain radius) should be able to be captured, but this really would need a dev comment

[comc 1]

To avoid the whole bad modcheck that would probably result in crashes, you could be able to only view the last mission you played while the game is still running.

[EDcase 87]

Record should really be done by a server, as it has to have all the inputs... from what I've read about the engine, i would expect that local (movements within a certain radius) should be able to be captured, but this really would need a dev comment

Yes, it would record on the server since its handling the data for all players. The Hard drive of the server is not used much so it would be perfect for recording the data. Remember this is NOT the same as recording video. Its much less data.

To avoid the whole bad modcheck that would probably result in crashes, you could be able to only view the last mission you played while the game is still running.

Err... duno what you mean there. It would record position/rotation etc for each character onto HD of the server. That would probably need to be converted into a normal mission to play back with a camera script. I don't know if it would be possible to add controls to rewind/fast forward etc?

Edited June 13, 2013 by EDcase

[ArmaMovies 0]

guys give me your feedback about this 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FrwG8RTyAU   

[Jackal326 1181]

I too would like an AAR-like feature ingame, though I can see the practical reasons for its absense.

 

And am I the only person that misread this line from Sneakson's post?

...replay size would have to eat a disk.

 

 

guys give me your feedback about this 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FrwG8RTyAU   

 

Aside from spelling 'Patient' wrong, not bad...