Implement - Arma II battlerecorder

[cri74 10]

Hi there !

In common interest of stopping hackers and cheaters i think a way to record what happens ingame would be a superb tool. Even though we now got BE, it seems those looking to destroy the game for everyone else allways find new ways of getting into the game and stop the fun :(

A battle recorder would give admins hard evidence to back up the claims of cheating/hacking by provideing a movie file to actually see what happend. This kind of recorder will record every movement of everyone logged into a server playing a mission, the way i see it -- it would be recording maprefferences and other usefull stuff, and log it to a file. To view it you would have to start arma2 and play the file inside the game to see what happened. That way the recorder would not record as a movie file, but as data playback rendering a movie where the viewer have options to switch slots and players and camera views... sort of like a units cam. In a sence the way people can script movies and AI movement, but actually recording into a logfile that could be playd back at a later time if needed.

Edited March 17, 2010 by cri74

[Nutty_101 0]

Not sure but there was talk about this a long time ago and it came down to it being a major feature in VBS2 i think. Might be wrong though as for the reason.

On the cheating/hacking portion a video most the time will not help you as they use scripts to destroy servers. You best bet is to log the packets. With that you can see them creating everything etc.. Best method and you just their whole ip range.

[-=Firewall=- 10]

A battle recorder like the recorder for MP Games in WIC would be awsome.

If you try to record a game with CamStudio or such, you get a huge file very fast.

[SASrecon 0]

Hows about someone sets up a DH slip for this?

[firefokker 14]

A proper recorder would not only be good to catch cheaters, but in general would bring a shedload of advantages if properly implemented!

Nevermind all the stunning visuals you could grab from any perspective after a big and memorable shootout; for post-mission analysis and tactics tweaking this sort for thing would be invaluable I'd imagine.

Ideal would be something like one of the many replay functions you get with Flight Sims: The full set of fast/slow forward and rewind; being able to have the camera shadow any unit on the ground or in the air (1st & 3rd person), as well as a free-camera to roam around the battlefield.

However, looking at BF2's pitiful Battlerecorder (no rewind for starters) I guess that this sort of thing is technically challenging or even undoable for 1st person shooters; the amount of data to store would probably phenominal for ARMA2., even if everything is rendered by the game engine on the fly like Cri74 suggests above.

Still, could any Dev please comment on this thread to let us know IF anything recorder-like is in the pipeline?

Cheers!

Edited April 11, 2010 by Firefokker

[Lzryde 10]

In BF2's Battlerecorder you could set the 'quality' of the recording. 1 being the lowest (bigger intervals between player movement updates and such, much less data stored), and 10 being the highest (smallest intervals between updates, maximum data stored).

It is a great idea, but I've heard this is a feature from VBS as Nutty_101 said. I would guess that BI is reluctant to pull another major feature from VBS for Vanilla/OA.

But from a marketing standpoint for BI, a feature like this would allow the ARMA community to create better videos much easier and spread the holy word of ARMA to parts unknown.

I know this thread is a bit old, but it is still very relevant to a major feature ARMA2/OA is missing.

[Engioc 10]

A proper recorder would not only be good to catch cheaters, but in general would bring a shedload of advantages if properly implemented!

Nevermind all the stunning visuals you could grab from any perspective after a big and memorable shootout; for post-mission analysis and tactics tweaking this sort for thing would be invaluable I'd imagine.

Ideal would be something like one of the many replay functions you get with Flight Sims: The full set of fast/slow forward and rewind; being able to have the camera shadow any unit on the ground or in the air (1st & 3rd person), as well as a free-camera to roam around the battlefield.

However, looking at BF2's pitiful Battlerecorder (no rewind for starters) I guess that this sort of thing is technically challenging or even undoable for 1st person shooters; the amount of data to store would probably phenominal for ARMA2., even if everything is rendered by the game engine on the fly like Cri74 suggests above.

Still, could any Dev please comment on this thread to let us know IF anything recorder-like is in the pipeline?

Cheers!

This is exactly what I'm looking for right now. I've been taking some screen grabs just to use as part of my screen saver and whilst I have taken some nice shots it would be so much better and easier if I could have a replay of events during the mission so I can capture action from any angle. Very difficult right now to take shots at the right time to capture the exact moment a tank, heli or anything actually fires a shot, all shots so far are after the shots were fired and only from and inside camera perspective. I'd love to have a free roam camera so I can take "in action" shots and see the guns actually firing, missiles as they fire *** (or even follow the missile/bullet etc to target) ***, or as I drop a flare. ArmA2 has some great action but most of it is lost because you cant capture them at the right time or your simply too busy controlling the tank/heli etc to take the screenshot.

My understanding was that VBS had some kind of reply feature so the various military orgs could analyze/review the missions so they can work on any weaknesses.

Anyway its a feature I'd LOVE to see.

@Lzryde

Why wouldn't BI want to take this feature from VBS to A2?

As you said yourself it would be a great feature and help to really showoff this game with vids or screenshots and might bring more fans in when they see the game in action. One of the biggest thing's I've noticed with A2 is how little its known and even the reviews on it tend to be rather short and don't include much in the way of screenies or videos, most people I talk to have never heard of ArmA. Also some of the best games around atm are including video editors or in built photo/screenshot features (GTA4, Anno 1701/1404, Test Drive Unlimited are games that immediately spring to mind for me). I notice other games are going down the same road, basically letting the community advertise for them.

Edited August 3, 2010 by Engioc
Fixing typos ***changes inside***

[kohlenhydrat 10]

As you said yourself it would be a great feature and help to really showoff this game with vids or screenshots and might bring more fans in when they see the game in action.

that it is, a battlerecorder and(or) freecam mode would help me so mutch to make greate ingame video footage and i think it would be a easy with it to convert sceptic clanmates to play arma, or at least try the demo : )

[b00tsy 28]

In the six months I play ArmA2 and expansion I have never noticed a cheater in MP. I think it is because this game attracts the more mature gamers and not the bunny hopping teens. for that matter it is a bliss to play ArmA.

I would like to see a spectator cam for all players though and a free cam would be great too as I like to record vids as well. In some other games you can use a command (SP mode) to make you non phys (such as Half-Life and cod4) so your character can fly around in 1st person mode to record things.

[Pulverizer 1]

Yeah... When you think about it, what kind of a "combat simulation" doesn't feature post-mission playback of the events? A very half-assed one. All sorts of flight, racing and tank simulations always feature a recording function.

Also, FPS games have featured demo recording ever since Wolfenstein 3-D, and online multiplayer FPS games have featured demo recording ever since there was online multiplayer FPS games (Doom, QuakeWorld).

It's not like they would be bringing a military grade function to a consumer product or anything, which is usually the argument against VBS functions.

---------- Post added at 03:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:15 PM ----------

I would like to see a spectator cam for all players though and a free cam would be great too as I like to record vids as well. In some other games you can use a command (SP mode) to make you non phys (such as Half-Life and cod4) so your character can fly around in 1st person mode to record things.

There are user-made spectator scripts. And a free camera mode is in by default, you start it like this:

player exec "camera.sqs"