4.4: PBEM replay does not work

Paul Vebber · Post by **Paul Vebber** » Fri Nov 10, 2000 1:10 am

Tom can correct me, but I believe the max size of the .rec file is 20MB. We felt that should cover the biggest battles. We are still not sure why the discrepencies in showing events is happening...

That 20MB should compress to around 1MB for transfer.

Kharan · Post by **Kharan** » Fri Nov 10, 2000 5:07 am

Originally posted by Paul Vebber:
Tom can correct me, but I believe the max size of the .rec file is 20MB. We felt that should cover the biggest battles. We are still not sure why the discrepencies in showing events is happening...

That 20MB should compress to around 1MB for transfer.

Nope, max size is 2.28MB. I've tested it pretty thoroughly on two machines and played 4 full PBEM games with version 4.4 and .rec file has never exceeded 2.28MB. And always when the replay stops prematurely (it shows all events up to that point), the .rec file is 2.28MB.

It is very interesting that it indeed should go past that limit. Tom, maybe max size just isn't set correctly?

[This message has been edited by Kharan (edited November 09, 2000).]

Tom Proudfoot · Post by **Tom Proudfoot** » Fri Nov 10, 2000 5:14 am

Yes, it's supposed to go to 20 megs now, but there is apparently something wrong somewhere. Probably one of the numbers didn't get changed (the code is pretty, um... interesting).

Tom

Kharan · Post by **Kharan** » Fri Nov 10, 2000 6:01 am

A way to test VCR max size:

Select hotseat, Blenheim scenario. Quit both German and British first turns. On German second turn move all units their max radius (easiest by "a" and "g" keys), fire a few units at a hex and save before the turn ends. Alt-tab out of SPWAW and check the appropriate .rec file size in save-directory.

What I tried messing with in mech.exe:

"clicked on vcr button; gRecorder = %d, cPlayer = %d, gRecChannel[1-cPlayer].idx = %d, active = %d InitRecorder failed... Player 1: Loads = %d, Quits = %d Player 2: Loads = %d, Quits = %d"

"saving vcr replay as '%s' saving structure info, size = %d saving channel 0, size = %d
saving channel 1, size = %d finished with vcr replay save %d freeing olf data loading vcr replay as '%s' Calloc for channel 0 failed Calloc for channel 1 failed loading channel 0, size = %d loading channel 1, size = %d finished with vcr replay load %d"

"InitRecorder(); size = %d, channel = %d, recordNow = %dQ Unable to allocate memory for vcr recording!ordNow = %d StartRecording(); channel = %d Stop Recording(); channel = %d did not stop! RewindChannel();(channel = %d, eot = %d, read = %d %d %s pane added
PlayBack(); channel = %d, num = %d gRecChannel.readIdx = %d, .idx = %d read packet #%d could not read any more packets"

Kharan · Post by **Kharan** » Fri Nov 10, 2000 7:09 am

Should max size be 20MB or perhaps 22.8MB ?

Pack Rat · Post by **Pack Rat** » Fri Nov 10, 2000 8:08 pm

Bottom line is there any work around at this point for the VCR, ver 4.4?

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

Good hunting,
Pack Rat

Kharan · Post by **Kharan** » Fri Nov 10, 2000 8:39 pm

Originally posted by Pack Rat:
Bottom line is there any work around at this point for the VCR, ver 4.4?

No, except that you can try to conserve the measly 2 megs by doing the important stuff first and shooting before moving.

SlowHand · Post by **SlowHand** » Wed Nov 15, 2000 9:40 pm

PV wrote:

Its a tough problem, for now, hard core pbems will probably do best sticking to version 2.3 for now until we can get a fix out. We have a lot going on, both personally and Matrix-wise right now, so it will be several weeks before we can get a fix out.
We will fix it, its going to be a bit...

Thanks very much for taking the time to update me/us (and other "hard core" PBEM'rs) along with the suggestion to stick with 2.3 for now.

It's enough to hear that Matrix will resolve this sometime. And understood that this is something that may take some time. Meanwhile we'll slug it out with 2.3

Better-Informed Happy Camper o/o and back to his 4 PBEM games

Fuerte · Post by **Fuerte** » Sun Nov 19, 2000 11:56 am

Originally posted by Tom Proudfoot:
Yes, it's supposed to go to 20 megs now, but there is apparently something wrong somewhere. Probably one of the numbers didn't get changed (the code is pretty, um... interesting).

But if the file size in 2.3 was never bigger than 3 MB, and it always displayed the replay correctly, then the bug is somewhere else. As you have said, the replay file gets filled with unnecessary data, and that's the real problem. Of course increasing the size to 20 MB may be a solution, but it's not a very beautiful one.

Because that bug seems to be so hard to fix, I'm guessing that you are not able to reproduce it with a debug version. Am I right? Perhaps there is a bug in the compiler? There is a service pack 4 for MS Visual Studio 6 around, if that is what you are using. Or perhaps you should disable some optimizations from the release version.