Replay With Audio (RWA) - For Starcraft Broodwar 1.10/1.11

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Korean version of this page here (thx to Waxangel).

What is RWA ?

You all know what a replay is right? Well, 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 an audio commentary in it. An RWA file remains a regular .rep file (BW replay) that BW can load and execute like a regular replay, but it also contains audio. RWA tools provide an easy way to record and play those files. So how can we hear this audio commentary?

How to playback a RWA file ?

To hear the audio commentary in a RWA file you must use the tool called BWPlayer. It works a bit like APM Live! Simply start it and leave it running in the back. Then start BW and do the usual procedure to watch a regular replay. When the replay starts, if it contains audio then the audio will start playing automatically. You will see a message at the top left telling you who recorded that audio commentary and when.

If you are watching the replay in Single Player mode, the default speed is Fast. BWPlayer will automatically change that to Fastest by sending the 'U' key twice. If your shortcut for "Speed Up" is not 'U' you can enter another letter before starting the replay.

If you need to pause the replay or change its speed (x2, x4, etc) you can do so using the keyboard shortcuts (defaults are P,U,D) or by clicking on the BW buttons. BWPlayer will know about it and keep the audio in sync. So if the replay is paused, the audio will pause. If the replay plays at x2, the audio will be turned off but it will continue advancing at x2. So when you switch back to x1, the audio is back in sync. If by any chance you lose the sync between the repay and the audio, you should set the replay speed back to Fastest and then press F7.

WARNING: Don't try to watch a replay on BNet with other people watching with you. This will not work for many reasons, first one being they might have to download the replay (multiple megs), second one is the possible lag that will ruin the synchronisation and last one, the pause and speed buttons will not work across viewers. So if the host presses Pause for example, other people's audio will continue.

How to record an audio commentary ?

Audio commentaries can be recorded while watching replays, or directly while playing games. To record an audio commentary, you must first start BWRecorder and adjust the settings to your need. The two main settings are the Sound Device to capture the sound from and the Output Folder where the final RWA file will be created. This output folder should have enough space to hold the result file. The audio compression settings being fixed, you should expect approximately 250k per minute of data. Audio format is Ogg Vorbis, 22050 samples/sec, 16bits per sample in stereo.

You can pause the recording by pressing the 'P' key. Once the game or the replay is over, you need to press F8 to terminate the recording and create the RWA file. It is not automatic so you can decide when to stop (end of game or after stats panel for example). If you were commenting a replay, the replay file is automatically detected by BWRecorder and a copy of it with the "RWA_" prefix is created in the output folder. This file is the one containing the audio. If you were commenting a game, don't forget to save the replay cause you will be asked for it.

Messages that are typed by players during live games as well as messages that might be typed by the commentator during a replay commentary will all be recorded as well. They will be played back when watching the replay. Whispers are not recorded.

How is it better than just playing some MP3 audio commentary in WinAmp ?

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

For more information and troubleshooting, please read the FAQ.

Download

Please use right click + save as. Unzip the tools in a specific folder to make sure the dll files are next to the exe files.

BWRecorder + BWPlayer : RWA tools

More RWA sites at www.entropyzero.org.

A big THANK YOU to all RWA makers. Keep them coming.

Release Notes

02/19/05 Version 1.00S

-support for patch 1.12b

09/17/04 Version 1.00R

-trying to fix the pausing bug while recording.

06/05/04 Version 1.00Q

-Updated BWPlayer so it can switch automatically between 1.10 and 1.11 when a RWA is started from BWChart.

04/29/04 Version 1.00P

-Updated both BWPlayer and BWRecorder to make them work with BW patch 1.11. It still works with patch 1.10 as long as you select it on the main dialog before watching or recording any replay.
-Added an alert when you try to launch both BWPlayer and BWRecorder at the same time, or either one of them concurrently with BWCoach
-For people using BWRecorder: the detection of game pauses is using a new technique that works very well but there is one drawback. When the game is finished, the recorder will think the game is paused and therefore stop recording and display "Recording paused". You're only option there is to press F8 to end the recording. So make sure you've said all you wanted to say before you arrive in the resource display of BW.

04/11/04 Version 1.00N

-Updated BWPlayer only, with more reliable technique to detect game pause and resync

11/31/03 Version 1.00M

-fixed a bug with the F8 key that would raise the "Audio finished" message when you play or record two rwas in a row

11/18/03 Version 1.00K

-added tool called MAKERWA to manually build a RWA from an .ogg file and a .rep file

10/29/03 Version 1.00J

-added volume control in BWPlayer
-fixed some problems with key detection

10/26/03 Version 1.00H

-first release