from the we-do-it-all-for-the-glory-kills dept.
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
The new replay tools offered in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds are so much more than standard video-capture technology. In fact, it isn't video capture at all -- it's data capture. The 3D replay tools allow players to zoom around the map after a match, tracking their own character, following enemies' movements, slowing down time and setting up cinematic shots of their favorite kills, all within a 1-kilometer radius of their avatar. It's filled with statistics, fresh perspectives and infinite data points to dissect. This isn't just a visual replay; it's a slice of the actual game, perfectly preserved, inviting combatants to play God.
The toolset comes from South Korean company Minkonet, which just opened a second office in Los Angeles. PUBG is its first big client, and last month's rollout marks the first real mainstream implementation of this data-capture technology.
It definitely won't be the last. According to Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Gilbert Kim, Minkonet's phone has been ringing off the hook since the PUBG announcement, with studios around the world wanting a piece of the replay pie.
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/01/pubg-playerunknowns-battlegrounds-3d-replay-minkonet-future/
(Score: 2) by Kilo110 on Friday January 05 2018, @12:41PM (3 children)
TF2 had this. You could save game data and replay the entire match. It also had great spectator modes to go along with it.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @04:56PM (1 child)
It's older than that. I know the original Doom had a demo recording mode that worked exactly like this. Remember the demo playing behind the menus? This tech could be even older than that, but Doom is the oldest I can think of off the top of my head.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @07:31PM
I'm not quite sure Doom counts. Of course it didn't normally record games, you just had to add a switch (-record, IIRC) on the command line to record demos. But the real problem is that that switch also changed gameplay -- because the demo format stored rotation with less precision than normal play, you had to play with that reduced precision when recording a demo. It didn't matter at short range, but could be quite noticeable when e.g. chaingun sniping at long distances.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday January 05 2018, @05:16PM
Heck, 2D platformers had this back in the days when CPU speeds were measured in single-digit MHz. This has been the default method to handle video game replays for as long as they've existed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @12:47PM
Um...
Video capture is expensive. Video capture of the whole map, even in something like Star Craft is even more expensive, and games like that have been able to replay an entire game for many years.
Logging unit positions and actions takes a lot less data, and is therefore a viable strategy even on machines that only live up to the minimum requirements of these kinds of games.
Which method do you thing a ten year old game uses? The one that requires a pretty beefy video capture card even today (I'm not sure how large the maps are, but I'm pretty sure it's more than a regular 4k video stream - remember that you'd need to capture the entire map at the highest available zoom), or this "new" technique that would work even on older hardware?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday January 05 2018, @12:57PM
FOSS games like sauerbraten have demos, with selectable POV for all players, with keyboard mappable camera movement. Think a virtual drone. Add to this the possibility to speed up and down the demo playback and you have a whole lot of options for your frag movies.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Friday January 05 2018, @01:44PM (2 children)
This is actually also how Super Smash Bros internally stores replays, to my understanding; it just keeps track of player commands, starting positions, and things like that. It has historically goofed up sometimes do to a few oversights like a few moves with random results that aren't properly accounted for.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @02:00PM
AFAIK, this is how most games have stored replays, since replays first appeared. You couldn't really capture hours worth of full-screen video on a 10MB HDD, even if that full screen was 320x240 with 256 colors.
In fact, I don't recall playing a single game offering replay functionality where it was implemented as video recording. Maybe article was written by someone whose only experience with "replay" was Youtube videos...
(Score: 2) by forkazoo on Friday January 05 2018, @09:35PM
Yup, game replays have always been about re-rendering rather than replaying an actual video capture. They were originally created as a way to debug strange behaviors by replaying what happened off-screen to see what the AI was doing, and things like that. And you could instrument the replays to see recorded variables that aren't visible during normal gameplay. It eventually got exposed as a user-visible feature in some games because it was kind of neat, but there's nothing fundamentally new about PUBG doing the exact same thing as when I was watching RTS replays in the 90's trying to understand how the hell I got my ass kicked so bad.
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Friday January 05 2018, @03:41PM (3 children)
If it's 100% accurate it seems like it'd both be a tool for investigating that impossibly good player, and for new players to improve. If you can see the replay of the player that beat you can learn the trick. This seems like it'd improve the quality of exploit reports, or at least let them prioritize reports with a commented replay.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @06:26PM (1 child)
I used to run a Half Life server (Half Life already did exactly this, in 1998, but if we're going to be anal about it even Doom did this in 1993 by launching it with the "-record" switch) that recorded replays of every match, with the replays downloadable on the server website, and it was often used for exactly this, being able to see if the impossibly good users aim snaps to the head of the nearest player in view, etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 06 2018, @01:02AM
I'd like to add, as a former Source-engine server admin myself, the demos produced by the Source engine are great but are finite in terms of resolution. It makes for easily discerning those "spin-botting" individuals who don't even bother to hide their cheats. But when it comes to players who are truly that quick and accurate, sometimes the accuracy and time-resolution of the demo engine can leave much to be desired and can give the false impression that things happened instantly or in a jarring manner. This is far more apparent when you compare live professional CounterStrike Global Offensive matches against the downloadable demos of the same matches (although this supposes you are actually watching live, not through HLTV which has its own set of issues). ok im done with my pedantry.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 06 2018, @01:20AM
CS:GO has a mechanism built-in that allows players to report suspected cheaters. These players' games are then disseminated to specific players who can review these demos in a program called Overwatch. Demos which are deemed to be suspicious are further forwarded onto the game developers to be looked at and determine if a ban is needed. Outside of Overwatch server admins will, at their discretion, use these demos as evidence when banning players from their own servers.
(Score: 1) by mmh on Friday January 05 2018, @03:48PM (2 children)
They want their technology back.
https://www.quake3world.com/q3guide/demos.html [quake3world.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @04:08PM (1 child)
I distinctly remember playing back "recordings" of the original Descent (demo).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @04:42PM
Yes, Doom in 1993 had this capability way back when too...