View Full Version : Battle recorder questions
Toda Nebuchadnezzar
03-26-2002, 20:42
A few questions about the battle recorder:
What format do the battles get saved as?
Can I edit parts of these battles to use in other programs for example Flash or Swish?
How does the battle recorder work? I cannot get it to work properly, it doesn't record.
Thanx in advance
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Grand Master of
The Knights Templar
"non nobis Domine non nobis sed Nomine tuo da gloriam"
http://www.gifs.net/animate/aniyin.gif
Toda Nebuchadnezzar
03-26-2002, 20:43
Soory another thing, is it possible to edit the banners of the units in Shogun for the battle recorder.
I have the design for the banners/flags of the units but don't know if this is possible.
thanx in advance.
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Grand Master of
The Knights Templar
"non nobis Domine non nobis sed Nomine tuo da gloriam"
http://www.gifs.net/animate/aniyin.gif
Konnichiwa,
I haven't tried it, but my guess is that any game you play, a record can be considered as a game you play right then, uses files stored in your local copy of STW. So, if you've edited the Oda mon (a BIF file), you'll see it in the record, also when your opponent plays Oda.
The files are stored in Dumplog and are called replay.dat. A texteditor can read some of it's contents. You can't really use parts of it, as it's actually not a recorded movie (it would be much larger then).
There's a workaround though, but a labourintensive one, you'll need a spicey computer and some software.
This is the software you need:
Animation Shop (distributed together with Jasc Paint Shop Pro).
An utility that can convert AVI to MPEG (AVI movies are very large), like Blaze Media Pro.
Preparation: empty the TGA folder in the STW directory.
Playback the record, determine which events and parts of the field show important events.
Play the file again and make screendumbs (F2).You can decide to make 1 every 1 second, or make more of a slideshow (it doesn't matter much for the size of the final product).
Launch Animation Shop, and make a new movie, import the TGA screendumbs you just made (An Shop has a wizard, so a bit toying shows how to use it). In short: many pictures played back quicly makes a movie.
Save the new movie in AVI format (the An Shop I have doesn't support MPEG, if yours does or you found a better prog than save in MPEG). Don't be suprised, a 15 second AVI could easily be 80 MB, a MPEG still about 1 MB. A 10 Minute battlerecord in MPG could easily be 30 MB.
Use BlazeMediaPro to convert AVI to MPEG.
Usage of the recorder. The easiest approach is making two shortcuts to SogunM/W.exe (right click, create shortcuts).
Name one shortcut Record, the other Playback.
Rightclick on Record, select properties, click the Shortcut tab and check the Target box. It should read something like this now (depends on location):
E:\STW\ShogunM.exe
Add this: ER
It should look like this now (don't forget the space):
E:\STW\ShogunM.exe ER
Hit the apply button and exit.
Rightclick on Playback, select properties, click the Shortcut tab and check the Target box. It should read something like this now (depends on location):
E:\STW\ShogunM.exe
Add this: mEP
It should look like this now (don't forget the space):
E:\STW\ShogunM.exe mEP
Hit the apply button and exit.
Launch STW using the Record shortcut to record a battle (beware only 1 battle can be stored in dumplog at a time, so back it up after you recorded 1).
Launch STW using the playback shortcut to view a battle.
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Ja mata
Toda MizuTosaInu
Daimyo Takiyama Shi
http://www.takiyama.cjb.net
Toda Nebuchadnezzar
03-27-2002, 18:31
Sounds taxing Tosa but naturally I will give it a go. Thanx for the help tis very much appreciated.
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He is the Messiah
No i'm not the Messiah
Only the true Messiah would deny it.
Alright then I am the Messiah.
HE IS THE MESSIAH HOORAY!!!
How about using a camcorder or webcam http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif? But seriously I am considering doing it...
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tootee the goldfish,
headmaster of Shogun-Academy (http://shogun-academy.tripod.com)
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Toda Nebuchadnezzar
03-28-2002, 02:01
Er cheers tootee mate. An interesting idea, but dunno if it will work. Anyway I have the software that Tosa-sama said and will get to work on it right away.
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He is the Messiah
No i'm not the Messiah
Only the true Messiah would deny it.
Alright then I am the Messiah.
HE IS THE MESSIAH HOORAY!!!
Kraellin
03-28-2002, 03:18
tootee,
you could also send it to your television, record it on your vcr, then play it back thru your computer and convert it to an .avi. you'd need the hardware for the i/o to the television and vcr, but it could work. in fact, if you have tivo or something like that, it would prolly work even better, since tivo captures in digital imaging, not analog like a vcr.
K.
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The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.
Kraellin:
That's a wonderful idea, Kraellin, it just might work.
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Pain is weakness leaving the body.
http://members.fortunecity.com/argus1000eyes/fighter.gif
Hey Gothmod
Who is that poor guy trying to do a kamehameha ?
Tera.
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Proud member of Clan Kenchikuka (http://www.totalwar.org/kenchikuka).
evil is within us... http://www.totalwar.org/site/emomalta.gif
Visit my resource site here! (http://terazawa.totalwar.org/)
Toda Nebuchadnezzar
03-29-2002, 22:09
Tosa-sama I cannot get the shortcuts to apply. It always says its invalid.
So basically I cannot get it to work! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/frown.gif
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He is the Messiah
No i'm not the Messiah
Only the true Messiah would deny it.
Alright then I am the Messiah.
HE IS THE MESSIAH HOORAY!!!
Konnichiwa,
I guess I didn't explain properly how to create shortcuts.
Locate and open the directory of your STW WE/MI copy on the harddisk.
You'll see two STW exe files, one
is called Shogun.exe and is only about 44 kb. That's the one you should forget about here.
The other is called ShogunM.exe (ShogunW.exe ? in case of WE edition) and is about 7.9 MB. That's the one you need.
Right click on the icon of the exe and drag (move mouse and hold right click) the (ghost) of the icon to the desktop. Release the button, you'll see a dropdown menu now. Select Create Shortcut(s) Here.
Rename this shortcut to Record. Repeat the procedure to create another shortcut called Playback.
When you follow this procedure, the shortcuts will point to the proper exe and have the right working directory.
Both shortcuts should now start STW WE in a normal way. Edit the Target line as explained in the first post and you'll have two shortcuts for playback and record:
Rightclick on Record, select properties, click the Shortcut tab and check the Target box. The Target line should read something like this now (depends on location):
E:\STW\ShogunM.exe
Add this: ER
It should look like this now (don't forget the space):
E:\STW\ShogunM.exe ER
Hit the apply button and exit.
Rightclick on Playback, select properties, click the Shortcut tab and check the Target box. The Target line should read something like this now (depends on location):
E:\STW\ShogunM.exe
Add this: mEP
It should look like this now (don't forget the space):
E:\STW\ShogunM.exe mEP
Hit the apply button and exit.
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Ja mata
Toda MizuTosaInu
Daimyo Takiyama Shi
http://www.takiyama.cjb.net
Do I need an additional file to get the battle recorder working? When I edit the target path on my shortcuts I get "target box is not valid" error.
I am not what you would call a smart man.
Konnichiwa,
No extra file is required.
Make sure the targetbox has the path where your copy of STW is installed too. In my case it is
E:\STW\ShogunM.exe
In your case it could be:
c:\programfiles\Shogun\ShogunW.exe
Or anything else. When you make the shortcuts as described this path should be correct for YOUR situation. Only add ER and mEP as described. Make sure to include a space between the path and ER or mEP.
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Ja mata
Toda MizuTosaInu
Daimyo Takiyama Shi
http://www.takiyama.cjb.net
Toda Nebuchadnezzar
04-11-2002, 00:05
Thanx Tosa. Unfortunately I gave up because I'm lazy, but I think this thread has helped a few others access the Battle Recorder so I thank you for your directions.
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He is the Messiah
No i'm not the Messiah
Only the true Messiah would deny it.
Alright then I am the Messiah.
HE IS THE MESSIAH HOORAY!!!
thanks for all of your help guys. i'm certain my target path is correct. i'll have to keep screwing with it as i am not sure why it will not work.
"E:\Total War\Shogun - Total War - Warlord Edition\ShogunW.exe ER"
the above is the path as it appears when i am done editing it. just keeps telling me it is unvalid. oh well.
TheLastEuropean
04-16-2002, 01:58
Hello all, the solution to those who get 'Target box not valid' etc. is:-
PLAYBACK
--------
"C:\Program Files\Total War\Shogun - Total War\ShogunM.exe" mEP
RECORD
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"C:\Program Files\Total War\Shogun - Total War\ShogunM.exe" ER
The parameter has to be OUTSIDE the quotes!
Open Windows Explorer or (My Computer etc.) and go to the "Shogun - Total War" directory and make the shortcut from the actual ShogunM.exe file, edit it, then use that to run the program.
It didn't seem to work from the desktop icon - might be my computer or maybe windows doesn't accept parameters from the desktop.
Kraellin
04-17-2002, 00:43
win98se accepts it from the desktop. that's how i had mine when i had them on the desktop.
K.
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The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.
I think theres something wrong with the recorder.I record my battles and played this guy on a map and lost.I then decided to watch the game I played to see what went wrong so I won't make the mistake again.The weird thing was on the video I couldnt belive my eyes.The guy I lost to started running away and I won? Yet on log file and in original game I lost.
Hheheehe
Icey
I have this problem only once, and its also a 1v1, and also I supposed to lose and yet it replay with me winning. It was a close battle.
Another is logfile. Today I encounter this weird problem for the 1st time. Polar, Ham, MNS and I were playing junk battle (1v3),and after battle, the logfile header file only listed me vs ham. But the main tables listed all 4 players stat. And Polar logviewer only report 3 players, I guess its because the logfile is corrupted?
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tootee the goldfish,
headmaster of Shogun-Academy (http://shogun-academy.tripod.com)
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