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Hello,
I run a website that serves as a league for a small community of players (somewhere around 100 active players) for a custom map on StarCraft. A necessary component of the league is the ability to parse replays that are uploaded and provide game statistics. Only the replay header information is necessary.
From my 1.18 testing, it seems as though the replays are not backwards compatible with 1.16. In particular, the replay header, which previously used a variant of PKWARE's implode algorithm for compression, now uses something different. As a result, I am not able to parse 1.18 replays, and this would be fatal to the league, and possibly to our small community. A workaround has been prepared that entails manual watching of replays and filling in the necessary information, but this is not sustainable in the long run.
I have been trying to find out what compression algorithm this is, or how to decompress, with no luck. Is there anyone who has this information? Is it one of Blizzard's secrets or can this be public knowledge? If I contacted Blizzard directly, what are the chances that they would provide this information?
Thanks and regards,
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On April 03 2017 06:50 LoneySoul7 wrote: If I contacted Blizzard directly, what are the chances that they would provide this information?
Try it and you will find out. I guess it doesn't hurt. It will give you a definite answer, and on top of that you can share it here with people who may run into the same issue.
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What is the best/easiest way to contact Blizzard for something like this? Filing a customer support ticket doesn't seem quite appropriate for something like this. I've never done anything like this before, so pardon my ignorance.
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Why not just stay with 1.16 if worst comes to worst? Seems like you already have a dedicated community from what I understand, nothing really has to change for you guys.
It would be nice if Blizzard did release that info, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
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They're not just going to release that information
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On April 03 2017 07:56 LML wrote:Show nested quote +On April 03 2017 06:50 LoneySoul7 wrote: If I contacted Blizzard directly, what are the chances that they would provide this information? Try it and you will find out. I guess it doesn't hurt. It will give you a definite answer, and on top of that you can share it here with people who may run into the same issue.
this but i wouldnt hold my breath
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Dakota_Fanning
Hungary2341 Posts
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Dakota_Fanning
Hungary2341 Posts
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@Dakota_Fanning, I've sent you replays by email.
@mo0n_sniper, I cannot seem to be able to make threads on that forum. There is a dialog saying "BattleTag Required", even though I already made one, and I clearly see it on my account settings... tried clearing cookies, restarting browser; nothing worked
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Loney,
The devs read TL as well. Posting it here might get a reply, and they'll help you troubleshoot posting on their forums as well.
Cheers
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Dakota_Fanning
Hungary2341 Posts
On April 04 2017 04:48 LoneySoul7 wrote: @Dakota_Fanning, I've sent you replays by email.
@mo0n_sniper, I cannot seem to be able to make threads on that forum. There is a dialog saying "BattleTag Required", even though I already made one, and I clearly see it on my account settings... tried clearing cookies, restarting browser; nothing worked Thanks for the reps. I have analyzed them and I have good news for you.
It turns out Blizzard made 1.18 replays somewhat easier to "read". As mentioned, pre-1.18 replays used a modified PKWARE implode compression algorithm, and since 1.18, the compressed data blocks start with the 78 9C bytes, which are zlib magic headers:
78 9C - Default compression
I've tested it and they are indeed standard zlib compressed blocks.
Not sure if you're working on your own replay parsing lib, but I'm preparing something for SC-BW 1.18 and SC:R as well (it sort of became my habit... ).
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@Dakota_Fanning Any further findings? Looks like 1.18 replays consists of zlib compressed blocks. Would you please share the replay format if you have dumped it?
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jca2
France52 Posts
Hi there,
digged up my old bwchart source code and added the zlib stuff for 1.18. Here is a little alpha version of it, if anyone is interested.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/og3vbnwvueihypp/bwchart200b.exe?dl=0
I don't have the latest source code of bwchart, the one that was modified after I made it open source, so this version will miss all the updates that have been done since. If someone can point me out where the most recent source code is, I could add the zlib stuff in that version too.
Happy Easter!
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I was looking for this, thanks jca!
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jca, could you just host your version of the code on github and let the community branch/fill in the blanks?
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@jca2, could you please open source your code? Thanks
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Keeps telling me that some perfectly functional replays are corrupt ): Perhaps because they are from PTR, but 1.18 plays them just fine.
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Milzo
France656 Posts
jca still going strong after all these years! Merci beaucoup
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Nice job guys.I wonder if blizzard will patch the compatibility and allow viewing of old replays in sc:r.
Dakota are you back playing bgh yet? we should get a bgh tournament going to kick off sc:r. The games I've played on east were pretty low, but channel )v( was back.
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