32 replies to this topic

[Grimolfr]

Game replays is commonplace with this style of game (arcade type matches). Why don't we have it? Plus, it'd help with content creation like youtube (read as, free advertising).

On a side note, it'd help with self training and unit training to be able to see what you or your unit did right/wrong.

Thoughts?

[Ward Serpentine]

You can always record your own matches using the nVidia ShadowPlay or a product like OBS.

[Nik Reaper]

I think we need the ability to move the camera as the "free spectator mode" does now inside a replay.

[Lily from animove]

kinda NO, its part of information warfare, youc an not simply spy someone elses tactics. you get the information fo the wa from what happened.

[Grimolfr]

Lily from animove, on 13 February 2015 - 03:59 AM, said:

kinda NO, its part of information warfare, youc an not simply spy someone elses tactics. you get the information fo the wa from what happened.

You would not be able to see someone elses replays unless they share them, and you'd only be able to see from your allies perspectives, like the observer cam already allows you to do.

Ward Serpentine, on 12 February 2015 - 09:22 PM, said:

You can always record your own matches using the nVidia ShadowPlay or a product like OBS.

I already have recording software. The problem is that recording software takes up more processing power and tends to conflict with various game processes, causing strange crashes, memory leaks, and the like.

[Baron Cunedda Kell]

Personally, I like the idea...to see how I got my butt handed to me... Wish we could shift to better position to observe the battle.... I saw video's of tournaments of this being done....people doing commentary during the match, shift around the map from above.... i would like to have that option, when I am dead...of course, but sadly I can see, how people would abuse it...

[Kalimaster]

There are several programs that allow you to record your games so you can replay them later. But as far as something in MWO, I would be hesitant.

[Uthael]

Bleh... Training... Tactics... The replays would most widely be used for "Check the headshot spree", "1000 damage in a match" or "got 8 kills" replays. And I would very much like to see those.

I don't play WoT or WT much but League of Legends has a 3rd party software called "LoLReplay". It makes each replay measure a few megabytes, seldom over 12. Considering matches can last an hour, that's great for sharing them!

So, since you're transferring the data to and from the server, why not make it available to the client in the form of a replay? It wouldn't require any more bandwidth from the servers that way. Combat and movement data only (I don't know if there is some other, game-mechanics-classified data).

Eventually, if you stretch it, there could be streaming and/or spectator support as well.

[Nik Reaper]

@^

It's true, and what we need, it's just that you would need to compare it to a replay of another real 3d game, as dota games are isometric 2d , it complicates many things as wepon vectors need more coordinates , we would need to know how much space and processing power is needed to record milisec by milisec of movement and balistic vectors.

Anyone knows any other fps that does this, ( Titanfall or mby some UnrealTournamet, Counterstrike? ), and can say how big those files get?
"note we are talking about a recorded match , not just someone recording what happened on there screen"

PGI is not very big on server power and connectivity from Canada, so they would not enjoy sending you an extra 12+ mb after every game so you could have your client reproduce the recorded game. ... not without mc involved.... Also I don't know if having a 3rd party program recording the game client side is a good idea as that would mean that the client has information that the player should not have access to and might be a liability for exploits, so only the server should have all the information and be responsible for the recording.

Edited by Nik Reaper, 14 February 2015 - 08:02 PM.

[Uthael]

WoT replays are 1-1.5MB. Full 3D game, with ballistics, destructable terrain parts and multi-section characters.
And mentioning "milisecs of movement and balistic vectors" you reminded me of a perfect example: Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. It's a RTS game, as 3D as it can get. There's no guarantee that even a guided missile will hit it's intended target. It's all simulated physics. Catching and dodging projectiles works as you would expect. Still, the replays over 1MB are an exception. And just to check it, I've downloaded someone's 24 replays in a .rar... They all compressed to under 1MB -.-

Conclusion; everything MWO has to record are:
-health statuses
-torso orientations (12 vectors, one for each player),
-feet orientations (same)
-arms orientations (same)
-times the weapons are fired
-times certain components are hit
-times that jumpjets are activated
-chat

All projectiles can be simulated from the client and wouldn't even have to have half-decent hitreg for you to know what's happening. Recording doesn't take processing power at all, it's just output to your HDD. Small one, too. Also, no 3rd party software involved, it would be MWO client itself that does it.
Edit: as I've said, only filtered combat and movement data could be available. Nothing that would make any exploits possible (and that would be another problem for another topic).

Edit2: I don't think it's an issue at all, but if someone is THAT concerned about information warfare, cut all enemy data that's not in your team's LoS or on the radar. Given choice, I think 95%+ would trade their own replays with the enemy team to be able to merge them. And that would also become a common request and a problem to be solved. Voting do disable recording before a custom match solves it for the group vs group tournament events. And even then, you don't record the voice data in these matches. You can speculate on the next 2 steps, but you don't see the all scenarios or a tactic. You just see the outcome of one case. And if you can understand the team's tactic from that, it wasn't much of a tactic anyway and you probably realized it before the game finished.

I think I've covered the solutions to negatives. What OP had said still stands. As does the desire to share great winning matches.

Edited by Uthael, 05 March 2015 - 10:55 AM.

[CaptainBoom]

For the sheer fun of watching your mech in action, from an outside view and/OR free roaming view perspective.

Purpose:
The replay function addresses a vacuum in the Mechwarrior experience. The ability to go back and relive glorious battles, from all angles. The added benefit, is that it also ARMS the fan community with the tools required to make spectacular videos for various promotional activity. The least of those.... "SHOWING PLANET EARTH HOW UNBEARABLY AWESOME!!! Mechwarrior Online is". Talk about setting the awesome bar above all other games people might choose to play these days. Mechwarrior, has "perfected" the "Stomp Stomp - BOOM!" mech experience. Nothing comes close... and you know what? everyone else who doesn't know Mechwarrior yet, needs to realize this. The fan-dom possess skilled individuals, who.... with all due respect - work in other video game companies and the like - if you added the sum of the value of all the skills from the fan-dom and staked it against Pirahna Games own internal fleet of quality skilled people... no offence guys, but as great as a 100 highly skilled people are.... it can't possibly compare to 10 thousand equally skilled people, who are willing to do promotional material for free. They did, and still do... financially support your efforts. How much so.... would they willing would they be to do the visual marketing aspect for you. Spectacular!! (The cost - return value is better on their end, and I dare say... stratospherically better return of investment for your bottom line)


Therefor, design the replay with several camera shots available - attached to each mech. Over the shoulder. Cockpit side view, across the nose view, ground view and birds eye view. Each shot could also be a unique "field of view perspective" as required to pull off these epic shots. What ever seems particularly freaking awesome. I mean... ask yourself, honestly... why make all these awesome mechs in the first place, if you can't actually get up close and view the magnificent detail work Piranha Games should be known for.

The potential for user based YouTube videos is enormous. For those who are really gifted in video editing, the work output from the community would raise MWO into the public spotlight. There are many many, seriously good shots and stories that happen on each battlefield. The value of user expression and admiration of their teams work, and the beauty of Mechwarrior can't be truly expressed in any other way. For those NAY-Sayers who still say... "Locked inside the cockpit, is good enough?" for shame! You can't even get out of your mech to watch yourself walk around in your new paint job. That simple experience - "alone" is missing.


Method that sucks:
Video capture is while playing an already visually intense game like this is suicidal to performance... which will also be recorded. No, that is not going to work as a effective solution. Let's drop that dead horse of a cliff. Video recording to local hard drive while playing Mechwarrior... that's ridiculous.... you all see this right?

What the top studios are doing:
The latest method of recording, is simply for the server to record all the commands/values streaming in from the 24 user connections. Those millisecond stamped command streams, when played again, will recreate the battle field exactly, because those values are the same stream of commands that lead to the exact results that just happened. So... forget recording the monitor (give your head a shake). No, instead just download the command stream records for the battle. Plug and play. Star Craft 2 does this and it works perfectly every time I replay it. Flawlessly. The servers are already recording this piddly stream of data, so why not save to hard drive? Have the download available for 30min then if no one wants it, it expires.

Blizzard can achieve this, why can't Piranha games?

By the way... speaking of tweaking the experience, Blizzard tweaked Star Craft to be polished enough to handle tournament style visual overlays and data windows. Replays where just the tip of the iceberg. Mechwarrior Online has such greater substance and visual awesome-factor... compared to StarCraft 2. If there is any game worthy of world wide tournament broadcast its got to be Mechwarrior online. It should be Mechwarrior online.

Edited by CaptainBoom, 23 June 2015 - 10:34 AM.

[Tordin]

I say YES. It could help you learn from your mistakes and fine tune performance.

[Lord Auriel]

BUMP. yes. Because a replay feature is essential, and the whining about "meeeeh I don't wanna share my OP gameplay tactics" is not an argument. A simple replay feature would be enough - see your own match from your own perspective and give the viewer a way to switch between 3rd person and 2st person, and of course a FF/RW button. That would be nice for starters.

It's a win/win really. more youtube videos of MWO, more chitchat in forums and reddit, and so on. Shadowplay is a crutch for not having a replay feature, not a valid substitute.

[Makenzie71]

Grimolfr, on 13 February 2015 - 05:11 AM, said:

You would not be able to see someone elses replays unless they share them, and you'd only be able to see from your allies perspectives, like the observer cam already allows you to do.

No, but you could look at your death again from a different angle, spot that absurd gauss rifle toting raven that took you out while ECM protected on a cliff 700m away...and tell your teammates.

No this game is about simulating actual combat scenarios (or as actual as mech combat can get). Dead is dead. The fact that we can still F9 to see our exact position and spot while dead is bad enough.

[butchly13]

Makenzie71, on 14 October 2015 - 02:48 AM, said:

No, but you could look at your death again from a different angle, spot that absurd gauss rifle toting raven that took you out while ECM protected on a cliff 700m away...and tell your teammates.

No this game is about simulating actual combat scenarios (or as actual as mech combat can get). Dead is dead. The fact that we can still F9 to see our exact position and spot while dead is bad enough.

I think the point of this feature request is NOT to be able to see a replay during the match but to watch it afterwords. I agree, this game does not need a "killcam" like COD. But a way to watch a recent game you played to figure out where you messed up would be awesome.

Personally, if I were PGI I'd add this feature and ask the community to work on putting together training videos for new players to watch. Now they can put more advanced training grounds features on the backburner and rely on the community to put together content. God knows a lot of us just want a bigger player base so PGI can get more funds to hire better developers to make the game even better. Heck, now that I have a few mechs to play with and I'm playing consistently across matches I plan on making some YouTube videos and starting to stream my gameplay when I'm on. Having the ability to do post-commentary on gameplay, breaking down the match as it happens, looking at different players from different angles, would be awesome to teach beginners.

And if you're still not convinced, if new players had more visual resources to learn to play the game maybe they'd stop LRM boating or playing the easiest builds that don't contribute to the team. Maybe they'll stop shooting you in the back as much or start torso twisting and surviving longer. Maybe people will start enjoying the game more!

Errr, sorry, got a bit excited there...

[Hawk_eye]

It would also help reporting bugs and stuff (or having supposed bugs examined by the community)
WoWs has it and the support team often asks to include the replay file in your bug report.

Seriously, a replay function would do sooooo much good.

[Omi_]

Most people are missing the meaning of what the OP is asking for. They are asking for an event-driven recording that lets the game play back a match, kind of like how a player piano plays key presses.

WoT and any modern RTS are isometric 3D, which have way different stuff going on as opposed to a first-person shooter. You can assume that a replay from MWO would be at least 50% bigger than WoT, since it's mostly vectors and their changes that make up a replay file. Most likely, MWO replays would end up even bigger yet with so many independent weapons, criticals, customizable mechs, etc.

[butchly13]

Hornsby, on 28 January 2016 - 06:37 AM, said:

Most people are missing the meaning of what the OP is asking for. They are asking for an event-driven recording that lets the game play back a match, kind of like how a player piano plays key presses.

WoT and any modern RTS are isometric 3D, which have way different stuff going on as opposed to a first-person shooter. You can assume that a replay from MWO would be at least 50% bigger than WoT, since it's mostly vectors and their changes that make up a replay file. Most likely, MWO replays would end up even bigger yet with so many independent weapons, criticals, customizable mechs, etc.

Then players should have the option of saving locally. Don't make the servers handle the load or manage storing the replays. Let users pick whether they want to record. Even if you could only record a private match, that would be better than nothing. After all, private matches are used by groups to train new recruits or practice in. What better way to learn than to watch the match unfold from a 3rd person perspective not tied to a specific mech.

I know I'd like to be able to review my matches while trying out for a group.

[Khosumi]

Why aren't replays a thing yet. I want to have free cam in it as well, get cool screenshots and whatnot, and no, it wouldn't stress the servers as replays are all local.

[KursedVixen]

No they should be like what Halo 3 and beyond had. so we can evauluate our preformance and learn more from our mistakes.

Edited by KursedVixen, 24 March 2016 - 04:33 AM.