I'd been wanting to do something like this for a very long time. Inspired by my earlier high-resolution screenshot blogs and someone else's similar old work of Blue Storm (couldn't find it now), this is a 1:1 "screenshot" of the popular BW map Fighting Spirit, with events from 35+ replays superimposed on it, made from roughly 250 screenshots.
I wanted to create this around the holidays, but only now had time to get around to it. I hope you like it. The original file is 4000x4000 pixels in size, so no image host would take it without recompressing it, so here's a sneak-peek at the full version, some wallpaper-sized cutouts, and a download link to the full-sized version.
On January 21 2012 02:25 538 wrote: Most of the work was actually going through a lot of replays and picking spectacular/appropriate events to include (as space gets scarce it's harder and harder to find fitting things happening at a certain spot), I have plenty of experience assembling screenshots, so that goes pretty fast once I have the scene. I spent maybe 1.5-2 hours assembling the empty map, then three afternoons and a morning lazily watching replays and adding scenes whenever I had some time.
- [about doing the same with SC2 maps] I'm afraid that's not possible in the idea's current form - since SC2 is 3D, units look different from different angles, so you couldn't stich screenshots together like this.
- Which replays did you use? Where can I download them? All replays are from TL's replay database (except for 2 of my own) here's the list of areas I could match up with sources: + Show Spoiler [list of games] +
zerg main - ret (vs idra) zerg nat - Mahell (vs Starve_Lt) terran main - Sea (vs Chavi) terran nat - some iccup player vs 538 protoss nat PvZ: Starve_Lt vs minus-Mahell protoss nat PvT: Stats vs Flash middle - Pr0t0ss.Lt vs 1a2a3a[fou]
battlecruisers: KaZe_WinDy vs ILove~Dambi m&m-wraith army - Shinee (vs Juni) ensnare - Force[Name] vs tmxk2akdgofk PvZ battles at 6 and outside of zerg nat - Just_1st)ACW vs ty[3.33]
3rd East: Shine vs Piano 3rd North: Force[Name] vs tmxk2akdgofk 3rd South: KaZe_WinDy vs ILove~Dambi
- Will you do more like this? I might, sometime. If you can recommend a pretty map which has a) a lot of high level replays available b) very few map versions feel free to mention it!
- Download not working, other mirrors? Let me know in the comments as hosts give up, I'll be uploading new mirrors.
Funny thing is, I had actually thought of some of your streamed lategame PvZs while searching for something to put in the middle! Thanks for dropping by!
On January 20 2012 23:52 Stratos wrote: Did anyone find a DT btw?
I can tell you there are at least two! I think there are 4 types of standard units missing: firebats, ghosts, devourers and scouts. I kinda regret not having them now
On January 21 2012 01:22 hacklebeast wrote: are you the same guy who made this one? + Show Spoiler +
No, I was not. I've seen the idea first in a Blue Storm PvP montage, as mentioned in OP and above, but now that you mention it, I've seen that one before as well. (btw is that available in higher resolution anywhere?)
I did do a lot of high-res screenshots (see my earlier blogs), but never anything close to a full map yet, nor any montages from different games in one shot.
On January 21 2012 01:54 intrigue wrote: cool! spotlighted~
Thanks, awesome
On January 21 2012 02:04 2Pacalypse- wrote: holy shit WOW!
btw, here's that PvP on Blue Storm screenshot you were talking about: + Show Spoiler +
Yes, that's it, thank you!
On January 21 2012 01:56 OminouS wrote: How long time did this take?
Most of the work was actually going through a lot of replays and picking spectacular/appropriate events to include (as space gets scarce it's harder and harder to find fitting things happening at a certain spot), I have plenty of experience assembling screenshots, so that goes pretty fast once I have the scene. I spent maybe 1.5-2 hours assembling the empty map, then three afternoons and a morning lazily watching replays and adding scenes whenever I had some time.
LOOOOOOOL! That battle in the middle! It is the game between 1a2a3a vs Protoss, I just watched this replay yesterday and I was shocked that I made the screenshot when I saw stasis and maelstorm. OMG, what a coincidence!
On January 21 2012 02:40 gumshoe wrote: This is incredible, are there any famous match moments spliced into there?(Unlikely but would be cool, not that this sint already giga awesome)
Well, if you mean televised pro games, no, because pro replays are not released. All the replays* are from TL's replay database, so they do feature some pros here and there (for example, the terran main is Sea[shield]'s I recall) and high ranked ladder players.
( * The d-web bust is an exception, that's from my own iccup replays)
When I first saw your description, I thought you'd made a map with all the screenshots all superimposed together on to one map, kind of like this one in Unreal Tournament: http://www.artificial.dk/articles/alison.htm
What you've got is cool but was wondering if that idea would be feasible with the screenshots you've got.
The first time I saw the screenshot stitching technique was from YourRoleModel in one of the first big production value battle reports. It was only in one picture, ending the report, but at the time it blew me away. Keep in mind, this is BEFORE Blizzard implemented replays - all the screenshots were taken while obsing. The report is still up, check it out. Blast from the past:
just...wow, that looks amazing, just like those posters with a million things going on at once that you just sat and stared at as a little kid looking to discover new things
holy crap. this is AMAZING!!!!! ;D but omg, a poster of this would be the ULTIMATE CHICK MAGNET!! ahh I wonder what an sc2 version of something like this would look like lol
On January 21 2012 03:16 fazek42 wrote: Wow, absolutely amazing! You sir, are indeed awesome. However, the download link doesn't seem to like me. Does it give errors to anybody else?
At what part of the download do you get an error? Even before you see multiupload's host selector? Try thesedirectlinks to various hosts.
On January 21 2012 03:39 MisterFred wrote: The first time I saw the screenshot stitching technique was from YourRoleModel in one of the first big production value battle reports. It was only in one picture, ending the report, but at the time it blew me away. Keep in mind, this is BEFORE Blizzard implemented replays - all the screenshots were taken while obsing. The report is still up, check it out. Blast from the past:
(I think BR.com is from even before most Brood War fans' time.)
Speaking of innovations in reporting, why the hell don't we see more animated mini-map gifs of professional games? They're awesome.
Wow, I cannot begin to fathom how he created that shot without having replays. Maybe the saved game he mentions having helped him a bit, but that's still very impressive. (Also, 3-way FFA BR? How cool is that?)
There are a lot of relatively simple techniques that I'd like to see as innovations in casting BW. First and foremost, live replays, which shouldnt be difficult at all with a modern video editor. (I've seen someone do them, but never a mainstream caster) Too bad most casters just prefer single-pass recordings, which dont require much post-production work.
I'm really not sure how much extra information would an animated minimap provide, aside of some special cases, but I'd like to see more use of map images definitely, maybe some static analysis, either of a map itself or a unit formation. As far as I recall, moletrap (or was it Diggity?) for example used to do some map analysis before games, which was great, and there are some casters who pause a replay here and there, but I think there's much more potential in annotated, maybe slightly animated maps. (Think of a history tv-show showing frontlines moving, a chess analyst moving pieces around, or when they draw live on NFL games/stills to show strategies)
On January 21 2012 04:13 Osmoses wrote: Are these from 35 pro replays? Would be cool to know who's fighting who where here.
All but two scenes (carriers and the d-webs) are from replays in TL's replay database, so they might feature pros (progamers I recall seeing are Sea, Flash, Effort, Fantasy, Kal, Light, Chavi, etc), but I didn't take notes as to what replays were exactly used. I might try recalling what I used where, but I probably won't be able to provide a full list, unfortunately.
On January 21 2012 04:21 jodogohoo wrote: holy crap. this is AMAZING!!!!! ;D but omg, a poster of this would be the ULTIMATE CHICK MAGNET!! ahh I wonder what an sc2 version of something like this would look like lol
I dare you to pick up chicks with a poster of this. Blog the results.
On January 21 2012 04:08 varint wrote: would be neat if someone made one of sc2 so we could compare them
This is unfortunately not possible since SC2 is a 3D game. So if you pan the camera the slightest amount to either side your viewport changes and you would not be able to align the two screenshots together.
On January 21 2012 06:03 Iranon wrote: Aside: removed from depositfiles for copyright infringement? wtf?
Damn, Blizzard is on to me!
It probably just passed some bandwidth limit, hopefully the other links still work. Please let me know if other hosts die as well, I'll eventually reupload it.
On January 20 2012 23:52 Stratos wrote: Did anyone find a DT btw?
I can tell you there are at least two! I think there are 4 types of standard units missing: firebats, ghosts, devourers and scouts. I kinda regret not having them now
I saw the infested CC but where are the infested terrans?
On January 21 2012 08:27 Antimatterz wrote: Would be neat if you made this into a "Where's Waldo?" type thing with like a solitary zergling somewhere that you have to find.
would be neat if anyone could name all the games this was created out of ^_^ (I know, that's asking for way too much, especially since none of us can hope to watch everyyyyy bw rep ^_^
On January 21 2012 08:27 Antimatterz wrote: Would be neat if you made this into a "Where's Waldo?" type thing with like a solitary zergling somewhere that you have to find.
would be neat if anyone could name all the games this was created out of ^_^ (I know, that's asking for way too much, especially since none of us can hope to watch everyyyyy bw rep ^_^
zerg main - ret (vs idra) zerg nat - Mahell (vs Starve_Lt) terran main - Sea (vs Chavi) terran nat - some iccup player vs 538 protoss nat PvZ: Starve_Lt vs minus-Mahell protoss nat PvT: Stats vs Flash middle - Pr0t0ss.Lt vs 1a2a3a[fou]
battlecruisers: KaZe_WinDy vs ILove~Dambi m&m-wraith army - Shinee (vs Juni) ensnare - Force[Name] vs tmxk2akdgofk PvZ battles at 6 and outside of zerg nat - Just_1st)ACW vs ty[3.33]
3rd East: Shine vs Piano 3rd North: Force[Name] vs tmxk2akdgofk 3rd South: KaZe_WinDy vs ILove~Dambi
Too people who thinks wow this is cool, downloadin it won't make it much cooler. You're wrong :D Good Job Five-Three-Eight For some reason I get Deja-vu vibes
Wow, this is amazing. And I just got even more mindblowing idea - imagine if all those thing were interactive. Like you can watch some of the pieces that is happening in-game. And it can be build as some sort of interactive book "highlights of sc:bw".
Am I just going to far with this? =) Please tell me what you think about it.
This is by far one of the COOLEST things I have ever seen, I would LOVE it if you made more. Its like a where's waldo but a billion, nay, a TRILLION times better. I could look at this for such a long time. It would be really cool if you did this with some SC2 maps as well as more BW. since I love both equally. This is definitely going to be one of my wall papers
On January 21 2012 12:32 LaughingTrees wrote: Hardly any Z
The only flaw. Otherwise astonishing. I remember the original that OP mentions, not the map, but I remember seeing the concept. This one is probably better though.
For those who want to put this as their desktop background, the OP included 4 images to begin with. I created 9 more for a total of 13, each 1366x768, and together which cover pretty much the entire map. Let me know what you think as I am not exactly a photographer.
In china virtually every file sharing site has been blocked by now so I am uploading this to 115.
Thanks to all of you for the overwhelming response
On January 21 2012 17:03 Buddhist wrote: I went ahead and uploaded it on my own server to that you don't have to download it to view it.
Feel free to add this to the OP:
Wow, awesome, thanks a lot - added. Just let me know if the bandwidth gets out of hand though, and I'll remove the link :-p
I also added a small FAQ to the OP answering some recurring questions.
On January 21 2012 12:32 LaughingTrees wrote: Hardly any Z
On January 21 2012 12:37 YellOwSky wrote: Wow this is Awesome, but not not enough zerg!
First of all, sorry, I tried to keep a decent balance of things. Do notice though that while zerg only has 2 bases, they are the only ones with offensive presence in mains - taking out the top-left, stopping mining at the bottom-right protoss base, and doom-dropping the zerg main.
Wow... Those 1366x768 pictures actually make the game look excellent. Makes me wish for there to be a small graphical update to BW =( As if that would ever happen.
So I checked it out and if you were to make a poster of it, it would be 34cm x 34cm or 13' x 13'. Could be cool in a little black frame or something although you'll likely have to get it custom made at that size. I can't say where a cheap place to buy them online but this place looks pretty customisable http://www.ezeframe.co.uk/ but this one slightly more authentic and not cheap looking http://www.fastframes.co.uk/ You'll want a 35 by 35 frame as it's a tad over (not including borders)
If you're not very comfortable going down to a printers IRL (me too they're all arseholes) I highly reccomend http://www.solopress.com/posters/ for EU but there are many other reliable printers online that might ship more locally to you. (if you're not sure about a printer PM me and I'll check out the site to see if it's legit.)
You'll have to get an A2 poster printed as it's slightly too wide for an A3 (if you want I could shrink it down to A3 but I really don't think it's worth it to save 3 bucks) and if you request I'm 100% certain any decent printer will trim it down for you before delivery.
You'll need it at 300dpi in PDF format. I've got the file but no way to make it publicly available. Would it be possible for someone to PM me and i can e-mail it?
On January 21 2012 21:46 FreudianTrip wrote: You'll need it at 300dpi in PDF format. I've got the file but no way to make it publicly available. Would it be possible for someone to PM me and i can e-mail it?
Is 300 dpi standard for small posters? I'm no graphic artist, but I thought 150-200 was fine in most cases.
Thanks for a new desktop background. Amazing work. Like WOW! :D it looks so good too as a desktop background, like the visual quality is nicely defined. ^___^
On January 25 2012 08:11 beef42 wrote: Cool work, but can I bother you to make a few 4:3 versions to choose from? We're still a few left with... shall we say "original" hardware.
You can make a few yourself using Irfanview, just open the entire image, Edit --> create custom crop selection, pick your resolution, Save and Apply to Image, hold down right click to drag the box around, and then Crop (Ctrl+Y) and save.
- Will you do more like this? I might, sometime. If you can recommend a pretty map which has a) a lot of high level replays available b) very few map versions feel free to mention it!
If you take a look at the TLS packs and zimp's replaypack's collection. You should pretty much be able to do the same for the majority of the newer maps.
Thanks for the PMs calling my attention to the requests here, I'll try finding the files and re-upload them soon. (Can anyone recommend a good image host that wouldn't resize such a big file? Maybe things have changed since I last tried.)
On September 17 2013 16:30 lichter wrote: I'm actually interested in turning this into a poster.
Actually I think you could probably earn some compensation from this.
Have people choose games they want featured on the HD Image and have a corner or something in which each section's game/time/winner is shown.
I'd totally pay for this
If you read back in the comments, there had been some talk about turning it into a poster, but I don't know if anyone went through with it. (I seem to recall a guy saying in PMs he did, but couldn't find it now)
I like parts of your idea, I can imagine a "crowd-courced" project like this: - We pick a map via a poll. - We place a virtual grid on the map. - People can claim fields of the grid by posting their own replays and timestamps, which have epic scenes on them at the claimed grid-position - Once the grid is full, I make the HD screenshot from the submissions in a week or two. But of course, strictly for free, otherwise it wouldn't fit the mentality of the BW scene
On September 17 2013 16:30 lichter wrote: I'm actually interested in turning this into a poster.
Actually I think you could probably earn some compensation from this.
Have people choose games they want featured on the HD Image and have a corner or something in which each section's game/time/winner is shown.
I'd totally pay for this
If you read back in the comments, there had been some talk about turning it into a poster, but I don't know if anyone went through with it. (I seem to recall a guy saying in PMs he did, but couldn't find it now)
I like parts of your idea, I can imagine a "crowd-courced" project like this: - We pick a map via a poll. - We place a virtual grid on the map. - People can claim fields of the grid by posting their own replays and timestamps, which have epic scenes on them at the claimed grid-position - Once the grid is full, I make the HD screenshot from the submissions in a week or two. But of course, strictly for free, otherwise it wouldn't fit the mentality of the BW scene
Would there be interest in a project like this?
Sounds pretty awesome. Although you should reserve some spots for good Scout, DA, Ghost and Queen usage.
On July 30 2015 02:17 bITt.mAN wrote: Yo, all the links are dead and the wayback machine doesn't help either - does anyone have a full-resolution copy of this lying around, please? Cheers
I'll dig up the original, throw me a PM reminder if it's not up in a week!
On July 30 2015 05:40 [UoN]Sentinel wrote: Did the poster idea ever get off the ground?
Not that I know of. If somebody did make a print of it, they better report in!
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/QUaC4.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Tz9gb.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ZS7Uy.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/c0cYt.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Mx99K.jpg)
amazing work!
Thanks for dropping by!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/lllKP.gif)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/qVerv.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://tkoe.us/ul/ul/FS_full.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://2imgs.com/2i/t/bf595872a1.jpg)
