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Thread: Registration is up and a battle recorder is made public

  1. #1
    Senior Member Senior Member Erado San's Avatar
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    Hi guys,

    Cool news on the http://www.totalwar.com/community/index.htm
    homepage:

    Registration is up again. Haven't tested it yet, but apparently all the redirects are working allright now.

    And to top it a battle record option that has been available for debugging can be used right now.

    Enjoy.
    A voice from the past is heard in the lands...

  2. #2
    Summa Rudis Senior Member Catiline's Avatar
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    Bingo

    Many thx for the info Erado

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  3. #3
    Member Member Shoko's Avatar
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    As I’m sure you know, battle replays were one of the things most in demand by the Total War community. Actually, the game always had a replay function which was used for debugging. Recently, however it has been discovered that this can be made to work in release versions too. It was built as a debug feature, so there are a few drawbacks, but in general it works fine. Here’s what to do:

    To Record Battles.
    To turn on recording you need to run Shogun from a command line prompt with the command line ER. Each battle that is fought will be recorded to a file in the dumplog folder. Unfortunately, recordings are always saved to the same file name, so each battle that is recorded will overwrite the previous recording.

    To Replay a Battle
    Start Shogun from the command line with the command line mEP. This will replay the most recently recorded battle. At the end of the battle, all the troops will freeze.

    However one very important fact here, is that if you want to swap files to watch each others' battles you need make sure you are running identical versions of STW MI/WE. That will mean the same patches etc. This should also work with Shogun Total War, but this has not been fully tested yet.

    Gah! so how u do this? Dont understand how to get it to work?
    Can i have it simple, and in English plzs.
    Step by Step....sure alot of other ppl will ask the same....

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    Clan Kenchikuka

  4. #4
    Senior Member Senior Member Kraellin's Avatar
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    i'll be damned. it works! in fact, it works pretty damn well! i just recorded and played back a custom battle. amazing. it's been under our noses all along.

    for those that arent that familiar with command line operations, hit your start button, find the menu item called "run". find the browse button and run thru your files till you find the we/mi executable. click on that and it will come up on the run line. put a space after the path and executable name and then add the ER for recording or the mEP for playback and hit ok.

    doing this will start your game up as usual. so far i've only tried this in custom but it did record an 8 player custom game and did play it back.

    when you launch the game in record mode you cant also play back in that mode. you must quit the game and re-launch using the mEP parameter and the game will launch and automatically play back your recorded game

    pretty cool!

    one tiny little thing here. the units in the game will display their proper colors and banners, but when you move the cursor over a unit it wont show if it's an enemy or friendly by using the different colors attached to the cursor. they'll all show as white. minor.

    edit: if indeed the dumplog folder is where this is being kept then i'm pretty amazed again. the files there were total of about 100k for a roughly 3 minute game. that's pretty compact.

    also, if you have no browse button on your RUN item stuff, just enter the path, the executable and then the ER or mEP.

    edit: ok. had that 2nd file wrong. there is a checksum file besides the replay.dat file. the checksum file was 691k, not 69k. read it wrong the first time.

    K.


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    The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.

    [This message has been edited by Kraellin (edited 01-07-2002).]

    [This message has been edited by Kraellin (edited 01-07-2002).]

  5. #5
    Senior Member Senior Member LordTed's Avatar
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    horah

  6. #6
    Member Member Shoko's Avatar
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    no,no,no still cant find it?
    Is this what im looking for we/mi executable.?
    Which file or folder it be in....Sorry for being so dum....lol But i got so much shit on my comp

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    Clan Kenchikuka

  7. #7
    ex-CA Senior Member Target's Avatar
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    If you've got a shortcut to your Shogun exe ( and I know you have ), you can add these command line parameters to that. better still, make a couple of copies of your shortcut to Shogun - 1 for record and one for playback.

    anyway, here's how to add the commandline parameters:

    Go to Start->Programs->TotalWar (may be wrong cos I don't have it installed )and RIGHTCLICK on the "Shogun: Total War" shortcut.

    Now LEFTCLICK properties ( one up from the bottom of the list)

    left-click in the "Start In" box, and position the cursor at the end of the text that's in there at the moment.

    Now Add a space

    NOW add ER if you want to record OR mEP if you want to playback. NOTE: don't enter both, cos it won't work. Only one OR the other.

    Click OK.

    Now just click on the shortcut like you're firing up a normal game and it should work it's magic.



    ------------------
    Quote MagyarKhans Cham:
    i even suspect Target is coming here to hype things up.[/QUOTE]
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  8. #8

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    damn target what hyping secrets u hide more from my Khan?

    quote:I gallop messages around, dont track me I can bring war as well

  9. #9

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    btw how will it effect 4 vs 4 in onlineplay?

    will it be more laggy?
    quote:I gallop messages around, dont track me I can bring war as well

  10. #10
    karoshi Senior Member solypsist's Avatar
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    nice recorder.
    someone please wrap all this jargon up in a nice package so all i have to do is click on a windows icon to see the movie, please

  11. #11

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    jeez i tried every version but the dumplog dir stays empty....
    quote:I gallop messages around, dont track me I can bring war as well

  12. #12
    karoshi Senior Member solypsist's Avatar
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    okay i just tried the registration, and got nothing

  13. #13

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    jeeez i hope this isnt your buggest hyping action:

    i tried running ER suffix from porperties and from start run

    it were all costum battles, should it be online battle only?
    quote:I gallop messages around, dont track me I can bring war as well

  14. #14
    Member Member Shoko's Avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Target:


    Go to Start->Programs->TotalWar (may be wrong cos I don't have it installed )and RIGHTCLICK on the "Shogun: Total War" shortcut.

    Now LEFTCLICK properties ( one up from the bottom of the list)

    left-click in the "Start In" box, and position the cursor at the end of the text that's in there at the moment.

    Now Add a space

    NOW add ER if you want to record OR mEP if you want to playback. NOTE: don't enter both, cos it won't work. Only one OR the other.

    Click OK.

    Now just click on the shortcut like you're firing up a normal game and it should work it's magic.

    [/QUOTE]In the start in box i just keep getting invalid?Plzs help....


  15. #15
    Senior Member Senior Member Kraellin's Avatar
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    k. Target made one little boo boo there. you dont add it to the 'start in' box; you add it in the 'Target' box. otherwise, just like he said. and yes, it does work.

    i've now recorded 2 online battles. both were 2v2 games. i've also recorded one custom 4v4 games, so it seems to work in most modes. it ONLY works during an actual battle, as far as i can tell, so dont expect to see captures of your campaign maps. i dont think it'll do that.

    also, and this is really cool for those that like to make stories of stw battles with screenshots, you CAN take a screenshot during the replay of your recorded battle and it will save this in the normal location, the tga folder. you can also pause the replay just like in a normal custom battle. if there are any more controls i havent found them yet, except escape...that one will end the replay and kick you back to your desktop.

    in my replay i could move the camera around wherever i wanted to, but, i have camera limits set to off in my options anyways, so i dont know if this will hold up if you do have your camera limited in normal mode. i suspect it wont. the replay seems to take the viewpoint of being completely objective. it wont show you YOUR unit's icons like in a battle and it wont display the control buttons at the top. it will display the radar map.

    i havent noticed any particularly noticable lag in multi games with the recorder on. nice :)

    now for the bad news. the replay saves to 2 files. one is a replay.dat file and the other is a checksum file. in one very LONG game, these 2 files combined for 9 megs worth of saves. that's pretty hefty at first glance. however, the game was indeed very long, prolly a half hour to an hour.

    just remember, every successive game you play will overwrite the last game, so if you want to save that great battle you just played, alt-tab out of the game and copy BOTH of those files to another folder! to replay that saved file you'll have to copy it back into the dumplog folder and then run in replay mode.

    if yer having trouble making extra shortcuts of the executable, put one on your desktop and right click on it. pick the menu item for creating shortcut and voila', you'll have a 2nd one.

    this puppy is pretty slick. thanks CA!

    K.


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    The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.

  16. #16
    Senior Member Senior Member Kraellin's Avatar
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    magy,

    i know you have more than one executable in your directories. make sure yer editing the right one and make sure you add a space before the ER or the mEP, but after the .exe file and on the same line. then just run your game in the normal manner from that executable. you wont get any message that yer now running in record mode and in playback mode it will skip all the intro stuff, including the menu pages and will go directly to the playback. when it ends, just escape out.

    so far, this works in custom and online games. havent tried the campaigns.

    K.


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    The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.

  17. #17
    the goldfish Senior Member tootee's Avatar
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    I'll be damned!! A battle recorder! Can't wait to go home and try it out.. argghhh 8 more hrs in the office to go..

    So, the recording quality is good? Now we can have great story-telling!

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  18. #18
    Member Member Polar's Avatar
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    best new year gift i've ever received

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  19. #19
    Member Member Polar's Avatar
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    ok i tried it on my pc. the 1st time i launched with Shogun.exe. it didnt work. then i used ShogunM.exe to launch, it worked.

    so basically, just use "ShogunM.exe ER" to start recording (ShogunW.exe for warlord edition), and "ShogunM.exe mEP" for replay.

    since its only a debug function, we cant expect a nice interface, hope it will be made a standard feature for MTW. my only complain is, why output the checksum.txt in ascii format?? its a waste of disk space! i know it maybe easier to read for debuging, but...c'mon....reading a binary file with hexeditor is not that hard same goes for log files, even i keep deleting unimportant ones, my logfile folder is still over 300mb!! it would be only a few percentage of that amount if the files were output in binary

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  20. #20
    The Black Senior Member Papewaio's Avatar
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    Cool those file sizes seem the size of 6 large jps which works out the same as some of Solys visual posts on battles.

    Will be cool to have links to sites to download these and view as both boasting verification, mega horde viewing {timer off, popcorn on} and as educational viewing... how to beat campers, how flanking really is strategic rear, primers for newbies (defending/attacking bridges and castles} the possibilities are huge!

    If you could save multiple versions without Alt-Tab. And could replay from a selection it would be awesome.

    I'm going to have to try this out!

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  21. #21
    the goldfish Senior Member tootee's Avatar
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    does recording battle slow the MP slow signigicantly? Cya in 4/5 hrs times.
    tootee the goldfish,
    loyal roach of Clan S.G.

  22. #22
    Senior Member Senior Member Kraellin's Avatar
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    Target,

    you realize you've just opened pandora's box, right? the standard for future games from CA is now raised a notch ;)

    it's a great addition! i hope you have a few other little surprises for us left ;) much thanks!

    K.


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    The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.

  23. #23
    Member Member Magyar Khan's Avatar
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    wil this baby unreveal all my 3 vs 3 tactics?? snif snif
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    visit us at wolves.magyarkhan.org
    and youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/ClanWolves
    and watch a Creative Assembly employee struggle in battle....

  24. #24
    ex-CA Senior Member Target's Avatar
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    sorry about the bad info there, and thanks Kraellin for covering for me.

    I should point out that the battle recorder was absolutely nothing to do with me. Like the official site says, it was done as a debug tool by the guys who did the battle map side, and discovered to work on gold-disk exes when someone did some patient experimentation. All I did was tell you guys who were unsure how to set it up - and I even did that wrong :|

    I'll tell the guys involved how ecstatic you all seem to be. They'll be chuffed.

    Oh, and Polar the log files were only ever included cos Erado-San asked for them, so they're written in a format that's sort-of easy to read without needing any specialist tools.

    ------------------
    Quote MagyarKhans Cham:
    i even suspect Target is coming here to hype things up.[/QUOTE]
    "i even suspect Target is coming here to hype things up."
    MagyarKhans Cham

  25. #25
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    Really cool
    thx.

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  26. #26
    Member Member Shoko's Avatar
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    Nope Still no luck Still says invalid when try?
    Tried in Target box like said still no good.
    My start up in;"C:\Program Files\Total War\Shogun - Total War"
    Have a short cut to it.
    Made 2 more copies of short cut......
    But still wont go in?
    Yep target box keeps saying in valid file.

    This is how it supposed to be put in.....
    "C:\Program Files\Total War\Shogun - Total War\shogun.exe ER"
    And the same with the other but mEP?

    Run through it again;must be taking a wrong turning somewhere
    Man i want to see this work....
    Help! bloody help!..Driving me nuts........

    ------------------

    Clan Kenchikuka

  27. #27

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    i have the same probs but havent tried this yet

    "so basically, just use "ShogunM.exe ER" to start recording (ShogunW.exe for warlord edition), and "ShogunM.exe mEP" for replay."

    quote:I gallop messages around, dont track me I can bring war as well

  28. #28
    Member Member Gothmog's Avatar
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    Try:
    "C:\Program Files\Total War\Shogun - Total War - Warlord Edition\ShogunW.exe" ER
    --------------------NOT----------------
    "C:\Program Files\Total War\Shogun - Total War\shogun.exe ER"
    ----------------------------------------

    My point being, the space+ER should be outside of the quote block.

    And of course, you want to have the correct path and intial execusable to begin with.

    If your path is diffrent from mine, just replace

    "C:\Program Files\Total War\Shogun - Total War - Warlord Edition\ShogunW.exe"

    with whatever applicable.

    [This message has been edited by Gothmog (edited 01-08-2002).]
    Pain is weakness leaving the body.

  29. #29

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    i get the same thing shoko, can someone plz givs a rundown of how to make this work for us computer idiots plz

  30. #30
    Member Member Gothmog's Avatar
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    Just follow what Target and Kraellin said. The only inaccurate part of Target's description is, as what Kraellin has pointed out: the "start in" should be "target". (Guess for once, Target didn't do his shameless self-promoting )

    Pain is weakness leaving the body.

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