jca, creator of BWChart, APM Live and other Blizzard games related programs, released his new program called RWA, replay with audio. But what is this? Well, there's what jca says himself:"Imagine you could watch a replay and at the same time, listen to someone commenting the replay, for example some gosu player explaining the various moves and strats during the game. Well, that's exactly what it is: a replay with audio or RWA"
Technical explanation
The RWA file is a Starcraft replay file that Starcraft still can load, the only change is that it includes an audio file (Ogg Vorbis, ~22 samples/sec, 16bits stereo). First of all, you must download and execute the program called BWPlayer. Now, you select the replay you want to view and hear, and start watching it like normally in Starcraft. You are able to pause or adjust the speed of the game at any time, and the audio will syncronize with it. Notice that you cannot simply press on the BW buttons but you must use the hotkeys in order to make the program matched with the sound. The hotkeys are: Pause, Speed up and Speed Down.
Notice that the audio will not work if you play the replay at x2 or higher, but it will be matched with the replay so it works when you go back to fastest speed. If you by any reason lose the synchronize between the replay and the audio, simply go to fastest speed and press F7.
Not made for multiplayer
To watch and hear an RWA file, you'll have to do it in single player mode. Why is that?
1) It will take long time for the players who are joining your game to download the specific replay including the audio, which is several megabytes big.
2) The lag will most probably distrub the synchronisation between the replay and the audio.
3) The replay hotkeys (Speed up, Speed down & Pause) will only work at the host computer and is therefore not accessable.
However, if you play on LAN on fastest speed without any pauses it should probably work fine.
Better than Winamp + BW
According to jca himself, this program is much better than using Winamp and Brood War. These are his reasons:
- 1) The recording and playback are totally integrated and transparent. Game/replay beginning is always detected automatically.
- 2) The audio is compressed to a small 250Kb per minute. For example, a 20 minute game will be about 5 Mb.
- 3) The audio and the replay are in one unique file, which makes uploading and downloading easier.
- 4) The audio is played back automatically. No need to go start your WinAmp or anything else.
- 5) The audio commentary is always in sync with the game, even if you pause or change the speed (try do that with Winamp...)
- 6) Player messages are also recorded and played back
There are currently 12 examples published at BWChart.com for download. Some games from Teamliquid.net Exhibition matches are available, recording by tiamat and others.
GosuGamers will test the BWRecorder (made for recording your own RWA files) during the next broadcast from sGPL and if they are successfull, we will make them available for public download. Big thanks to jca for producing these lovely key programs which keeps this game alive and active.
Links
BWChart.com - Download BWPlayer
BWChart.com - Download any of the 12 samples
