[G] Casting BW w/ Res Exspander, TL RC and BWAPI

Welcome to my guide of how to combine BWAPI, Resolution Expander and TeamLiquid's Resource Counter while running in Windowed Mode. In the past in order to get Res Expander to work in correlation with TL's Resource Counter one would have to run two instances of brood war. Running one instance on a host OS while another one was run in a virtual environment while running a demanding streaming program either being xSplit or OBS. This method is incredibly demanding of a system. I wanted to make a less demanding and convenient way to achieve the same results. I have just done that.

Example

The Guide

You will need to download the files @:http://www.mediafire.com/?2ddb81d7ubng93q

Once it is completed downloading. Extract to desktop or someplace where you have easy access to the files.

Open the "Old wLauncher" folder.

Run the "wLauncher" application as administrator by right clicking on the executable.
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Once upon, click on the tab with the USB icon on it. Only check the options as followed: "RepFix", Resolution Expander and "W-MODE 1.02". Then click the button "Run SC" in the bottom left hand part of the window.

Once StarCraft has opened click the "2x" times button in the top right hand corner of the window border.

Upon hitting the "2x" button your StarCraft window will look like something like this:

You want to again press that "2x" button in the top right hand corner of the border of the window. Then your window should look like this:

There should be massive black space around the menu's. Go ahead into Single player and load up a replay of your choosing.

Your game should look zoomed out like this:

Go ahead and exit out of StarCraft once your done fooling around. We have to this first as for some reason we run into error(s) later on if we don't at least in my testing. Go back to the folder and open the "BWAPI" folder.

You will see two folders labeled: "StarCraft" and "WINDOWS". You are going to want to take the files inside both folder to their corresponding areas in your computer. The files in the side "StarCraft" folder will need to go to your StarCraft directory. In other words where it is installed. For me it is @ C:/Program Files (x86)\StarCraft. For the "WINDOWS" folder these files will always go the same directory: C:\Windows. If you have multiple partitions the C drive could be subject to change.

Once you have placed all the files in their corresponding areas go back to the "Brood War Casting" file and open the "BWAPI wLauncher" folder and run the "wLauncher" executable as administrator by right clicking the application.

Once opened, navigate to the tab with the USB tab. You should notice the list of plugins is slightly longer than the "wLauncher" inside the "Old wLauncher" folder. This is because we now have "BWAPI" and "BWAPI Injector (1.16.1)" plugins installed into this wLauncher. Now just select the following plugins and then press the button in the bottom left corner of the window: "APM Live" (optional), "BWAPI Injector (1.16.1)", "BWAPI", "RepFix", "Resolution Exspander" and "W-MODE 1.02".

When StarCraft launcher it should still be at its native resolution of 640x480 in its window. You also may come across a error windows stating "Could not get hLibModule". This has no impact on what we are doing. Upon my inspection this is file is responsible for the "/follow" command in BWAPI but this is only speculation at this point. So go ahead and press okay and go ahead and press the "2x" button once again in the top right hand corner of the border of the window.

This is how your window should look after one press of the "2x" button. Just press it one more time after this:

Now your window shall look like this again with a significant amount of blackness surrounding the main menu:

Let's jump into a single player replay to see what we should see! You should see something closely resembling this picture with health bars, crap ton of information of macro statics and other shit all the while in windowed mode:
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If you noticed between the "Old wLauncher" and the "BWAPI wLauncher" they were at different resolutions. I wanted to demonstrate that you can either use resolution expander at a １６：９ or ４：３ aspect ratio. By default we have a 992 x 558 resolution. I've provided a blank slate of a overlay that you can add your own graphics to here: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?e45xr19lo2u494i Just remember this overlay is designed specifically for 992x558 resolution.

So if we want to edit the resolution to something more fitting to yourself as maybe 1024x768 or 992x558 might seem too small or high for your viewing pleasure. We have to navigate back to our "Brood War Casting" folder. Then "BWAPI wLauncher" and then "Plugins" folder. Inside this folder you will see a file named "ResSettings"

Simply double click it and notepad will open. Just substitute the numbers for the "ScreenWidth=xxx" and "ScreenHight=xxx" with what you want. Remember Res Expander is a hack and so it not the most stable of plugins. Simply meaning if your getting screen tearing or Brood War keeps on crashing immediately of running most likely their is an issue with the resolution you picked. So simply try another or revert back to 992x558 or 1024x768. Remember to save your settings after editing.

Go back to the "Brood War Casting" folder once more and open the "LiquidOverlayPub" folder. Then run the application "LiquidOverlay" as administrator by simply right clicking on the application.

I'm assuming you know how to use "LiquidOverlay" as it pretty self explanatory. Once you load up the overlay it should look like this:

We have a problem. We want the Resource Counter in the bottom left hand corner for it does not obstruct the viewer but also it is a convenient and slick way to cover the replay progress space. Unfortunately it is not as easy to simply drag it over it. However, have no doubt we have a method to fix this madness. Also for the purposes of this guide we don't want the other half of the overlay. We just want the resource counter so feel free to right click on the top left hand part of the overlay and click close.

We also run into yet another issue. Strangely when you screen capture the widescreen brood war it does not show the overlay in xSplit. It is obviously there on Brood War why isn't it showing up? Have no fear we're about to remedy that problem. So don't fret!

It turns out we can actually highlight the Resource Counter independently from everything else. However this can be overly frustrating to get highlighting. It just takes patience. I edge my way onto it on its top left hand corner and there is about a pixel or two where you can highlight. It is annoying but it should take no longer than 30 seconds.
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Once you capture the pesky Resource Counter you'll notice it actually isn't showing! I highlighted the area where it should be. It just shows a part of the map and not the resource counter. Which of course is problematic. The reason for this is that the Resource Counter is considered a layered window. Thankfully xSplit has a easy fix.

Go down and look at your "scene sources" in xSplit. You'll see that the Resource Counter is named "screen window "TLResource...". Simply right click it and you'll be granted with a new window that pops up. If your not on the "screen" tab click on it. Then under the "Screen Capture" header within the window there is a number of check box options. By default "Capture layered windows" is off. We want it on so go ahead and enable it and you'll finally see the Resource Counter in your xSplit window.

Now simply resize and place to your liking. For most casters and streamers they will place in the bottom right hand corner because it sleek way to obstruct the replay progression for viewers and displays very useful information to the viewer. Of course this could change if someone was whacky enough to make an overlay that it be better placed somewhere else but I doubt that would ever come into existence. Simply put you have the freedom to place it wherever you like.

While I wish this was the most perfect method of casting it still has its one small draw back. Remember how we could not simply move the Resource Counter back into the bottom of the screen? Well you still can't move it for the caster. The viewers don't see it which is the important thing. However I wanted to show that it is there on the caster's screen. However, while casting this this method it never made any difficulties for me at least. It will vary person by person.

Sources & Credits

Birdie and I have been trying to get combing both methods all the awesome tools at casters disposals. I would have never made it this far without his knowledge and findings he found along the way.
R1CH for allowing the release of his private software to the public. From this thread
Hellinsect, CyberSteroids.com and or who else made Resolution Expander
Phyrigian for making an English wLauncher
Cadical for releasing Resolution Expander version that compatable with wLauncher & Chaos Launcher; reference: + Show Spoiler +

On February 02 2012 08:46 Cadical wrote:
Anyone using wLauncher by any chance?

I made some translations on the launcher interface so it's easier to navigate. It's in a .7z file so you don't need to install it, but you may need 7zip to unzip it.

I removed few things like tab 1 and 2 contents because they are useless
+ Show Spoiler +

Made some translations on wJoiner plugin as well (if anyone's interested in that, it's basically an automated match making system)
+ Show Spoiler +

I also added few plugins such as CPU Saivor (better than CPU throttling) and Resolution Expander. I just renamed the .dll to .bwp and the launcher is able to inject it properly.

BTW, Resolution Expander is not compatible with wDetector, you will get a crash if you use them both at the same time. But it's nice to use it with other plugins (chaos plugin, lan latency, w-mode.. etc) when you are not laddering.

+ Show Spoiler +

If you use wDetector plugin, there will be an advertisement ie popup when you exit BW, I don't know how to get rid of that..

Download

Mars_Quirinus for making this thread which led me to "meeting" rQ.Probu
rQ.Probu for linking me this thread
AssuredVacancy for maintaining of thisthread and possibly the creator spectator BWAPI

[G] Casting BW w/ Res Exspander, TL RC and BWAPI

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