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If we keep a complete record of all player inputs we can also replay the exact game after the fact, a great feature that arises as a consequence of this design

If we keep a complete record of all player inputs we can also replay the exact game after the fact, a great feature that arises as a consequence of this design choice.

malexw 6y ago
A great feature not only for players, but for developers as well. If every change to game state goes through an event system you can reproduce any bug or crash as long as you're careful about making sure that the event stream is recorded before the process is killed.
hinkley 6y ago
This ended up being an enabling technology for e-sports too, didn't it? The observer gets the replay log (cheap), and broadcasts the pixels out (expensive) to the world with very little impact on the game play for the active participants.
- setr 6y ago
  No one watches sc2 matches by loading up the game and running a live replay -- it's all video streaming/streamcasting. Casters do use a live (delayed) replay, letting them poke at any arbitrary object in the game, but a video stream of that is what gets broadcasted. Low bandwidth broadcast isn't really relevant I think to esport success -- the "complete" replay aspect to even 1 viewer (the caster) however might be
  - xsmasher 6y ago
    I think you're in agreement with the post you're replying to. You both say that the game state is sent to a non-player machine that creates the actual video stream seen by the viewers.
    - setr 6y ago
      Sort of -- im saying that for streaming, this doesnt much; deterministic lockstop does little for the general viewership, and saves relatively little processing compared to recording the stream directly on the player's machines. Much more notable is the impact it has on casting, where it's presence is clearly felt -- casters are granted much more freedom, and can be much more thorough and descriptive, when complete replays are available (versus simple dumb video). We agree about the technogoly -- we disagree on its impact

If we keep a complete record of all player inputs we can also replay the exact game after the fact, a great feature that arises as a consequence of this design choice.

malexw 6y ago

A great feature not only for players, but for developers as well. If every change to game state goes through an event system you can reproduce any bug or crash as long as you're careful about making sure that the event stream is recorded before the process is killed.

hinkley 6y ago

This ended up being an enabling technology for e-sports too, didn't it? The observer gets the replay log (cheap), and broadcasts the pixels out (expensive) to the world with very little impact on the game play for the active participants.

setr 6y ago
No one watches sc2 matches by loading up the game and running a live replay -- it's all video streaming/streamcasting. Casters do use a live (delayed) replay, letting them poke at any arbitrary object in the game, but a video stream of that is what gets broadcasted. Low bandwidth broadcast isn't really relevant I think to esport success -- the "complete" replay aspect to even 1 viewer (the caster) however might be
- xsmasher 6y ago
  I think you're in agreement with the post you're replying to. You both say that the game state is sent to a non-player machine that creates the actual video stream seen by the viewers.
  - setr 6y ago
    Sort of -- im saying that for streaming, this doesnt much; deterministic lockstop does little for the general viewership, and saves relatively little processing compared to recording the stream directly on the player's machines. Much more notable is the impact it has on casting, where it's presence is clearly felt -- casters are granted much more freedom, and can be much more thorough and descriptive, when complete replays are available (versus simple dumb video). We agree about the technogoly -- we disagree on its impact