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Hi guys,
Hi, what's up?
As mentioned in the HEAT Charity Tournament thread, I have been working with TBO to create a system that can automatically capture data from specially modified maps to give post-, or in-game analysis on the match.
I have named this system StarGraphed (apparently it's not already been taken and I like the name).
What does it do?
StarGraphed uses modified maps (normal match-maps with added triggers) to output data from a game as it is played to the spectators of the game. This data is then read in and parsed by an external tool in the background and, when requested, is displayed.
What does it capture?
Currently in prototype stage, it captures army compositions at 10 second intervals as well as when any unit is killed.
What do you do with that?
StarGraphed currently uses this to create stacked graphs of army layout split up based on player race:
Terran
- Workers
- Bio
- Mech
- Air
Zerg
- Workers
- Melee
- Ranged
- Air
Protoss
- Workers
- Gateway
- Robotics
- Air
With the unit deaths, StarGraphed takes their positions and use this to create a heat map of all the action in the map.
And the result looks like...?
This:
This is all generated from the gameplay data within 20 seconds of the game finishing!
Introductory map for this: TLO vs Grubby Group Stage Game 3
![[image loading]](http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q619/Gowerly/StarGraphed%20Prototype%20at%20Heat%20Tournament/GrubbyvsTLOGame3.png)
Game 3 of TLO vs Real - (This game consisted of a wall + cannons and then TLO rushing to the top left with drones)
![[image loading]](http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q619/Gowerly/StarGraphed%20Prototype%20at%20Heat%20Tournament/TLOvsRealGame3Final.png)
Game 2 of TLO vs Grubby (A lot of action here! 40+ minutes of units being killed):
![[image loading]](http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q619/Gowerly/StarGraphed%20Prototype%20at%20Heat%20Tournament/GrubbyvsTLOGame2.png)
Disclaimer: I know this one starts at 118/140 food. This is entirely my fault. I started recording the data too late. Thankfully not much fighting had happened at that point.
Alright, so what?
Well, further work will be done, of course. TBO believes we should be able to extend this to apply it to any replay of any game ever, which could be great. As for the reasoning behind doing it, we're looking at ways to digest the game that just happened easily before the next round starts. We're both into the analytical side of the game, so this suits us perfectly. We hope that others will be interested in what can be done with this and how it can be used in tournaments/casts.
Questions?
Go for it. Will update this thread if there are frequently asked ones.
What the hell? Why even bother?
We're hoping for a two-fold plan with this:
Short Term:
- Something to briefly talk about if the game requires it. Allows for visual representation of the game right after it is over. Especially for longer games it allows for the important points to be pointed out more easily.
- Getting a feel for something like this or tools like it. TBO has been very focused in increasing production quality with overlays or picture-in-picture tech. Something like this just adds to the list
Long Term:
Map Statistics.
With enough time we would like to set up a site for regularly updated statistics on maps played over time.
For example, some people may wonder where the fights are mainly done on ZvZs on Antiga Shipyard, or how many TvP's end up with air units by protoss. If we can get replay analysis working, all this is possible. We're excited about whether this can be done.
Can it be used by map makers to see how their maps are played out?
If you can get replays from them, then it's a possibility for the future.
Does it cause lag?
Currently, Stargraphed captures and outputs the following:
- Number of every type of unit per player (once every 5 seconds I think. Maybe even once every 2 seconds)
- Positions of every unit that has died in the last 5 seconds (output once every 5 seconds)
- Player Names/Player Races/Map information (name, size, etc) (output at the start)
- Total resources harvested per player (once every 2 or 5 seconds again)
It is ONLY output to the observers. The Players do not get any output. I spoke to some of the HEAT players and they did not notice any lag. The only time the framerate dropped for Tarson we weren't even playing one of the StarGraphed maps!
How much work is it to change the map to make this work?
As long as your map
- Supports Spectators, and
- Works normally as a multiplayer map
then you should be able to enable StarGraphed on it.
Currently there are 5 triggers and some variables that are added to the map
I enabled all of the HEAT Tournament maps in about 30 minutes. It was simply a case of copy/pasting the triggers in to the map and publishing them. The data is then output into the bank directory as some other custom maps that save data do.
What happened with Antiga?
No idea. I downloaded it in the Editor, updated it, re-uploaded it and then it was magically a single player game. Possibly due to it being a blizzard map? It'll probably be pretty trivial to fix, I'll look at modifying the MLG Antiga one and seeing if that fixes it. I just didn't have enough time to figure it out on the day.
What makes a blip on the heat map?
Any unit being killed that isn't:
- Natural expiration (hallucinations, zerg eggs, broodlings from expiring, etc), or
- Killed by your own team (unless it's by storm, siege tank splash or nukes)
Could it be modified to do live output?
If I can get the triggers that do that kind of thing into a map, then I don't see why not. That one may take a bit of time, though! Watch this space, etc.
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it will never cease to amaze me the kind of information and statistics the community comes up with.
that said, what purpose does this serve?
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On February 06 2012 02:56 BoxedLunch wrote:
it will never cease to amaze me the kind of information and statistics the community comes up with.
that said, what purpose does this serve?
I think this would be great in tournaments as a filler between games, to check the previous game and discuss some of the presented stats.
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Fucking awesome.
Analytical discussion by casters and such at events would be really beneficial using this.
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On February 06 2012 02:56 BoxedLunch wrote:
it will never cease to amaze me the kind of information and statistics the community comes up with.
that said, what purpose does this serve?
In the short term it would be good to see it used in casted tournaments. TBO and I think it should give something to talk about with the added benefit of quantifiability. You can see in one image how the army was made up at any point in the game and where all the fights happened. Were they closer to one side?
In the long term, if we can apply it to any game ever, we could do map stats. Apply the heat map over all games played to see where the most combat happened.
Could lead to asking why the fights happen there. If there are areas of the map where there are few to no fights, especially if there's minerals, could you expand there, or is the reason there are no fights there because it is a stupid place to expand?
You could adapt it to spot proxy pylons/hatches/barracks, etc. With the data we have found it is possible to get out of the map editor, we could expand it to find out pretty much anything.
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On February 06 2012 02:56 BoxedLunch wrote:
it will never cease to amaze me the kind of information and statistics the community comes up with.
that said, what purpose does this serve?
It shows the main attack routes and positions needed to defend and contain. It can help players with their positioning. Of course, I am not talking about pros, as they probably already have this knowledge, but this could be really good stuff for an average ladder player.
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I think its cool how you can see which part of the map gets the most action.
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On February 06 2012 03:10 Odoakar wrote:Show nested quote +On February 06 2012 02:56 BoxedLunch wrote:
it will never cease to amaze me the kind of information and statistics the community comes up with.
that said, what purpose does this serve? I think this would be great in tournaments as a filler between games, to check the previous game and discuss some of the presented stats.
Agree completely. They can analyze a little better what happened during the game. Except for that cannon rush...
OP, can you make a graph with the upgrades and researches during the game as well? The upgrade timings for mirror matches and TvP is so important, that could be useful information as well.
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your Country52797 Posts
Could you make a custom map which displays this info after each game?
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On February 06 2012 03:33 TiTanIum_ wrote:Show nested quote +On February 06 2012 03:10 Odoakar wrote:On February 06 2012 02:56 BoxedLunch wrote:
it will never cease to amaze me the kind of information and statistics the community comes up with.
that said, what purpose does this serve? I think this would be great in tournaments as a filler between games, to check the previous game and discuss some of the presented stats. Agree completely. They can analyze a little better what happened during the game. Except for that cannon rush... OP, can you make a graph with the upgrades and researches during the game as well? The upgrade timings for mirror matches and TvP is so important, that could be useful information as well.
I was trying to get the upgrades into the release for HEAT, but couldn't do it in time. It is definitely high on the list, though. It would add much depth to the army composition analysis, especially when comparing with the opponent, as it would signify timing pushes, etc.
As for putting the output into the map itself: I am unsure if this is possible. I do not think that the map editor itself is powerful enough to do that.
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Is it possible with that software to make a heat map over lets say 1k games to see where battles occur more often?
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It should be possible to do that. TBO and I believe it is possible to do this from replays with a bit of work.
If it is, we can definitely do this over time.
We both have plans for where we'd like this to go, so any suggestions can help us shape up what's most important.
As for the integration tools, yes, that should be doable also. Currently if I want to add it to a map it's 4 steps (copy all triggers from one map, open new map, delete all triggers and paste in mine, so even if it's not possible, posting how to do it should be sufficient, be sure to use maps that already support observers, though!).
Thanks for all your responses so far, it's great to see that people are positive about it!
Edit: The main reason for modified maps is that Blizzard takes a dim view of hooking into the game. This way it's all done with the Blizzard map editor, etc.
Edit2: The games I managed to capture from HEAT are here!
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Would be really cool to see TvT graphs. It will tell you exactly where the pro gamers tend to contest for position. In some maps its really obvious eg Xelnaga caverns but on Taldarim, it gets confusing where you should position your army.
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Very novel. This idea has potential.
I noticed that your axis is food-based. Would resource usage be a better indicator?
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There's a plan for a combined resource based army linegraph (which can then show both players on the same graph). The idea behind it being food-based is that it's generally what's discussed during a game (supply lead, etc)
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Have you consider just keeping the axis at 200 food then? otherwise a short game like TLO vs Real can produce some ugly graphs.
Love the heat mapping thing you have to the right. It'd be more amazing if it's animated!
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It is a tossup. If you cap it at 200, then in short games it's hard to gauge the army sizes, I might have set values 20, 50, 100, 200 instead.
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I don't want to be mean, but what use would this serve ever? Viewers have just watched the game, they know where the majority of the fights and such happened. It's not even interesting information, because it only gives you a vague idea of what kind of game just happened anyway. People can make those observations for themselves. I really don't want starcraft casts to end up with endless talk about pointless statistics.
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You say this is for casting, but I hope you may realize how absolutely invaluable this will be for map makers!
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wow, whether its useful or not, that is COOL. I really like the combat-heat map
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On February 06 2012 05:39 Grumbels wrote:
I don't want to be mean, but what use would this serve ever? Viewers have just watched the game, they know where the majority of the fights and such happened. It's not even interesting information, because it only gives you a vague idea of what kind of game just happened anyway. People can make those observations for themselves. I really don't want starcraft casts to end up with endless talk about pointless statistics.
Don't think about it as adding more post-game time, but tool to improve between-game discussion that already exist. Currently, casters often have to fill around 8 minutes of airtime in each Bo3 set. The best casters can paint a picture discussing what happened or throw in unrelated banters to fill time, but the less capable will often flounder trying to make noise. A visual aid like this will help both the caster and the viewers by providing an immediate reminder of the previous match, making the commentary better.
More importantly, this is the first significant effort in producing quality casting tools for commentators. Where are the instant replays, the picture-in-pictures for SC2? It's about time the community step in and make these casting aids available.
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On February 06 2012 05:39 Grumbels wrote:
I don't want to be mean, but what use would this serve ever? Viewers have just watched the game, they know where the majority of the fights and such happened. It's not even interesting information, because it only gives you a vague idea of what kind of game just happened anyway. People can make those observations for themselves. I really don't want starcraft casts to end up with endless talk about pointless statistics.
I'm definitely not looking to make the entire game a series of meaningless numbers, or make the casters spout stats after stats.
We're hoping for a two-fold plan with this:
Short Term:
- Something to briefly talk about if the game requires it. Allows for visual representation of the game right after it is over. Especially for longer games it allows for the important points to be pointed out more easily.
- Getting a feel for something like this or tools like it. TBO has been very focused in increasing production quality with overlays or picture-in-picture tech. Something like this just adds to the list
Long Term:
Map Statistics.
With enough time we would like to set up a site for regularly updated statistics on maps played over time.
For example, some people may wonder where the fights are mainly done on ZvZs on Antiga Shipyard, or how many TvP's end up with air units by protoss. If we can get replay analysis working, all this is possible. We're excited about whether this can be done.
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SICCCKK!!!! This is ultra helpful to mapmakers.
I think the most valuable feature right now is just to know where engagements happen- that way you can tell if the map is working the way you want it. For example- is there much harassment going on? Are all of the engagements near expansions or is there variety? Does map control work on the map?
Would love some more data on all of the ladder/gsl maps about where engagements happen (even just damage being dealt?).
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On February 06 2012 06:03 Primadog wrote:Show nested quote +On February 06 2012 05:39 Grumbels wrote:
I don't want to be mean, but what use would this serve ever? Viewers have just watched the game, they know where the majority of the fights and such happened. It's not even interesting information, because it only gives you a vague idea of what kind of game just happened anyway. People can make those observations for themselves. I really don't want starcraft casts to end up with endless talk about pointless statistics. Don't think about it as adding more post-game time, but tool to improve between-game discussion that already exist. Currently, casters often have to fill around 8 minutes of airtime in each Bo3 set. The best casters can paint a picture discussing what happened or throw in unrelated banters to fill time, but the less capable will often flounder trying to make noise. A visual aid like this will help both the caster and the viewers by providing an immediate reminder of the previous match, making the commentary better. More importantly, this is the first significant effort in producing quality casting tools for commentators. Where are the instant replays, the picture-in-pictures for SC2? It's about time the community step in and make these casting aids available.
Sure, but that's just a marketing pitch. I think it's a good precedent to set to develop such tools though, it's a nice initiative.
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I'm not gonna claim to fully understand/appreciate the usefulness of this, but it looks dope as hell. Keep at it !
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IPL already had something similar but not that detailed during IPL1 was nice to fill, but their builders built statistics were always way off xD
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This is actual next level stuff. Proper statistics, quick to access, simple and clear.
If you could hook up with GOM and get this into maps and on the "main stage" as well it would be insane.
Definitely possibly the thing with the biggest potential to add depth to game analysis that's ever come about.
Might also nudge people towards valuing analytical casting over say what you see as well.
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On February 06 2012 05:39 Grumbels wrote:
I don't want to be mean, but what use would this serve ever? Viewers have just watched the game, they know where the majority of the fights and such happened. It's not even interesting information, because it only gives you a vague idea of what kind of game just happened anyway. People can make those observations for themselves. I really don't want starcraft casts to end up with endless talk about pointless statistics.
Clearly you haven't watched much Starcraft 2.
Casters typically miss things (partly their own fault, partly the fact that players can multitask, and there are 2 players vs one caster).
It gives a useful summary and some insight that could potentially be missed in the heat of the battle.
Also, showing things like transitions and compositions in such a nice and comparable way at the end of the game is really nice, and allows people, especially in best of x matches, to look at how players responded to each other etc.
It adds a lot and makes up for the fact that there are many difficulties in casting. How often have you known what players have in terms of economy through a game? Hardly ever, because most casters don't pay attention. This, for example, gives you a summary of workers throughout the game.
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On February 06 2012 07:26 Lonyo wrote:
This is actual next level stuff. Proper statistics, quick to access, simple and clear.
If you could hook up with GOM and get this into maps and on the "main stage" as well it would be insane.
Definitely possibly the thing with the biggest potential to add depth to game analysis that's ever come about.
Might also nudge people towards valuing analytical casting over say what you see as well.
Hope GOM does pick it up. Probably Junkka lurks TL enough to notice this. Or the creators could talk directly to them.
But how does it look in the map screen? I see you posted only a cropped screenshot, but how does it actually look?
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Australia8532 Posts
Just on the unit composition graphs - is it possible to get one without workers - similar to how blizzard shows army supply and worker supply? I definitely find this interesting
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1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
Combat heat map is frickin brilliant.
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wow that is an impressive idea, great work. Really valuable for analysis.
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On February 06 2012 10:16 TiTanIum_ wrote:Show nested quote +On February 06 2012 07:26 Lonyo wrote:
This is actual next level stuff. Proper statistics, quick to access, simple and clear.
If you could hook up with GOM and get this into maps and on the "main stage" as well it would be insane.
Definitely possibly the thing with the biggest potential to add depth to game analysis that's ever come about.
Might also nudge people towards valuing analytical casting over say what you see as well. Hope GOM does pick it up. Probably Junkka lurks TL enough to notice this. Or the creators could talk directly to them. But how does it look in the map screen? I see you posted only a cropped screenshot, but how does it actually look?
The screenshot is of the whole thing. It seems to be impossible to show it in the actual map, as it is not powerful enough to generate the heat map. There is a separate system running outside of the game that captures/catalogues/archives the information.
@bkrow: Would be trivial to remove the workers from the army composition
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Germany29 Posts
As you seem to like puns, you could call the act of modifying a map "grafting", then you'd end up with StarGrafted maps ... 
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Germany29 Posts
More stupid ideas for heat maps:
- animated heat maps for long games, by using only part of the data, within a sliding window along the time axis (these would visualize transitions in map control, or transitions of tech)
- distinguishing between combat heat (where damage is done to enemy units) and maneuver heat (where units move without firing)
- distinguish between ground and air combat/movement
- defensive heat: where bunkers, cannons, queens, spine/spore crawlers are firing near a friendly base
- rush pressure heat: where bunkers, cannons, queens, spine/spore crawlers are firing near an enemy base
- static map control: where the above units are placed far from bases
- drop pressure: where units are fighting that did not themselves move there (i.e. nydus, medivac, warp prism)
These are just starting points. The progamers and the map makers and the casters will know best what insights can be gained from specialized heat maps or animations.
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Yeah, I'm hoping to get some input on what would be good.
The animated heatmaps are planned, as well as per-player heatmaps.
Also thinking about expansion locations over 100s of plays on maps to see what areas aren't expanded to often, etc.
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Wow, good job!
You should definitely see if GOM would be interested, perhaps after a little polishing or fine tuning.
I think what this probably needs most (it's not clear if it already has it) is the ability for casters to choose what information they want to look at. For example:
They possibly do not want to have the worker count on the same graph as the combat units type distributions. They serve to make the combat units graph more difficult to read and squish it all up. A side by side worker or income graph for the two players would be nice.
On the combat graph side, they need more direct customization. Being able to choose between a gateway/robo/stargate breakdown and a melee/ranged/air breakdown is cool (although probably not a choice, more protoss against zerg?). They should also be able to do the various comparisons in terms of counts, food, or cost (with a minerals against gas breakdown).
What would be more interesting is for example: if the casters know that a standard PvT needs to open with storm or collosi and will then probably end up incorporating both the combat unit composition graph should have options to specifically track and highlight (in different and more attention grabbing colours) the high templar and collosi counts throughout the game.
This should be entirely customizable so that the caster/analyzer can show or find the information that they want to use. Ideally it will capture all of this data separately in the computation, so that the casters can toggle these on the fly during their analysis, and do not have to know precisely what information they want to highlight before clicking the analyse button. But even if this is not possible, it will still be very powerful.
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Those are all good ideas, SyX.
What I'm trying to keep in mind at all times is that choice breeds indecision. The more options you give people, the less they will do.
If it is possible to come up with a way to get what I think, or is generally accepted to be, the most important information on there first, and then possibly add more options to change it away from that, then I think that would be best.
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True, but I am trying to look at it from the perspective of a high level, proffesional caster, like those working for GOMtv. I believe that they are experienced enough to know what they would like to see. Having said that, there is definitely no harm in creating the best possible non customizable one first, and then adding options later.
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Germany29 Posts
Ultimately, the difference between a good technology and a good product is a user interface that guides even a clueless first time user to interesting results. (If I knew how to specifically do that, I'd push Apple out of the market. :-)
However, this whole idea of dynamic maps and graphs for RTS plays is still very new. So an interface for mere mortals should probably not offer a whole lot of options. But in order to help this new technology to maturity, another interface should exist for experts. Who other then them could play around with the possibilities and ultimately find the metrics that offer the most insight to the non-expert users?
In other words, there should probably be a "raw" toolbox for map makers, or for a tactical coach of a team of progamers, with a lot of options. This could then be hidden behind an interface that offers just 3 or 4 "cooked" templates of basic statistics to a more casual user (or to a live caster, who does not have the time to flip many switches and fine tune the output).
(This indirectly touches on the question if you intend to get rich with this new technology. If you want to claim it for yourself, you'll need to have all the good ideas by yourself, and must hide the internals of the software. If you want to evolve this technology as quickly as possible, you'll want to open it up so that as many others as possible can contribute. The choice is yours, and my suggestions are free to you and any competitors in either case.)
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Looks nice! But in terms of composition I believe that I'd have a lot more use of a chart like this:
![[image loading]](http://i44.tinypic.com/t7dbb4.png)
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Really cool, this is something that could be super useful. It would be nice if the heatmap showed which player started in which position.
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Nice job. Stuff like this should be Blizzard's job though. This belongs to the post game screen instead of a third party software running off of map triggers.
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Impressive, really.
Hope to see that after games during some tourney, might be useful.
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Amazing tool I can see a lot of potential for this.
On February 06 2012 05:39 Grumbels wrote:
I don't want to be mean, but what use would this serve ever? Viewers have just watched the game, they know where the majority of the fights and such happened. It's not even interesting information, because it only gives you a vague idea of what kind of game just happened anyway. People can make those observations for themselves. I really don't want starcraft casts to end up with endless talk about pointless statistics.
A lot of people like the above poster simply don't get the point of this at all. You need to have looked into the structure of the replay file to understand the point of this. At the current time it is impossible to do any accurate replay analysis since the replay files are simply a list of actions (both valid and in-valid actions) this means you cannot accurately determine the current game state from the replay at any point in time.
Another reason why this is important is that with this information a tournament could in real-time display a number of new statistics including heat maps etc... that would take SC2 statistical analysis to a new level likely on par with other sports such as football, tennis, baseball etc...
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I see huge potential for statistics like this as a crawl or text based tournament updater. If you could manage to get these statistics to report live and include appropriate triggers like "TLO takes down Huk's 3rd" you could create an amazing app for people who can't watch tournaments. There have been so many times that I've been at school or work and wanted to know what was happening in a tourney, but I couldn't watch the stream. If there was an automated way to report significant moments like engagements or major harass you could create a simple automated text information stream so that even people who can't watch can keep up. I have no idea if this is within the realm of possibility, but having something equivalent to "Patriots score a touchdown" automatically pushed to your phone would be amazing!
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combat heat map ... im having the wierdest boner right now
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Unit composition / Unit type graphs are decent, but these heat maps are extremely cool! It would be cool to see data from a ton of these stacked together on a given map with regard to every matchup. That way we could see who the aggressor is mostly, and who is doing most of the attacking, and where! It would also be cool to make a more diverse heat "color" spectrum, one to designate one player from the other in a 1v1 scenario.
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On February 06 2012 05:43 a176 wrote:
You say this is for casting, but I hope you may realize how absolutely invaluable this will be for map makers!
Yea, this is a sick tool for analyzing map balance.
Beyond that, as a broadcaster, I can see some very handy ways for using something like this in a game analysis, or when talking about finer points of map-based strategy.
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On February 06 2012 02:56 BoxedLunch wrote:
it will never cease to amaze me the kind of information and statistics the community comes up with.
that said, what purpose does this serve?
None. It's statistics made into colors for the sake of........ statistics in colors.
*edit*
I have nothing against attempts to analyze maps to study balance and whatnot, but this is not the answer we're looking for.
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Canada13389 Posts
On February 07 2012 15:26 MrBitter wrote:Show nested quote +On February 06 2012 05:43 a176 wrote:
You say this is for casting, but I hope you may realize how absolutely invaluable this will be for map makers! Yea, this is a sick tool for analyzing map balance. Beyond that, as a broadcaster, I can see some very handy ways for using something like this in a game analysis, or when talking about finer points of map-based strategy.
Look all I know is based on the screenshots provided that third TLO v Grubby game must have been ridiculous!! The TLO vs Real game at a glance not so much 
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Nice work, Gowerly. I guess the biggest hurdle here is that each map has to be prepared beforehand to be able to output the needed information during the game, what with so many map versions floating around already.
I never got around to asking you this while sitting next to you at the HEAT Charity event, but how exactly do the triggers work? I take it they persistently write data out to harddisk during the game? Could this potentially be a concern for lag? And what qualifies as significant "combat" to show up on the heat map?
In what way exactly does the map have to be prepared with such triggers? Is it a lot work? Also, every time Antiga Shipyard came up as a map at the tournament you sighed and said it doesn't work with that map. Is it simply because that map was not prepared to output data? Or is it a special kind of map that could not be prepared?
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I think this could be a tremendous help with the balance of maps used in tournaments. By utilizing the "battle hot spot" features in coordination with the outcome of games, mapmakers would be able to discern what features they should and shouldn't use when creating their maps.
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Thanks for the responses so far (positive and negative alike. It's good to get the spectrum of opinions on this).
I thought about the stacked graphs in the style above. They each have their benefits and drawbacks (one is sometimes hard to read, the other makes it difficult to show exactly how large the total army is - I'm looking for a way to get the best of both there).
To answer the latest round of questions:
Does it cause lag?
Currently, Stargraphed captures and outputs the following:
- Number of every type of unit per player (once every 5 seconds I think. Maybe even once every 2 seconds)
- Positions of every unit that has died in the last 5 seconds (output once every 5 seconds)
- Player Names/Player Races/Map information (name, size, etc) (output at the start)
- Total resources harvested per player (once every 2 or 5 seconds again)
It is ONLY output to the observers. The Players do not get any output. I spoke to some of the HEAT players and they did not notice any lag. The only time the framerate dropped for Tarson we weren't even playing one of the StarGraphed maps!
How much work is it to change the map to make this work?
As long as your map
- Supports Spectators, and
- Works normally as a multiplayer map
then you should be able to enable StarGraphed on it.
Currently there are 5 triggers and some variables that are added to the map
I enabled all of the HEAT Tournament maps in about 30 minutes. It was simply a case of copy/pasting the triggers in to the map and publishing them. The data is then output into the bank directory as some other custom maps that save data do.
What happened with Antiga?
No idea. I downloaded it in the Editor, updated it, re-uploaded it and then it was magically a single player game. Possibly due to it being a blizzard map? It'll probably be pretty trivial to fix, I'll look at modifying the MLG Antiga one and seeing if that fixes it. I just didn't have enough time to figure it out on the day.
What makes a blip on the heat map?
Any unit being killed that isn't:
- Natural expiration (hallucinations, zerg eggs, broodlings from expiring, etc), or
- Killed by your own team (unless it's by storm, siege tank splash or nukes)
Could it be modified to do live output?
If I can get the triggers that do that kind of thing into a map, then I don't see why not. That one may take a bit of time, though! Watch this space, etc.
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Love it, great work
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Interesting project, and yet another example of the great things our community can come up with.
I added a link to this thread in my list of related links in the Ui discussion thread. Hope you don't mind .
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Looks awesome so far.
Haven't read all of the thread, but if this hasn't been mentioned yet, to be able to play out a fast forward version of the data points over the time in which they happened in the game would be very interesting for filler between casts. Would create a sweet overall strategic vision of the game in terms of troops movements.
Keep up the good work! Don't let this project go like happened with SC2Buddy
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Impressive work, guys. 10GB bandwidth used in 4 days. Will have to swap hosting.
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Could you show spawn locations on the heat map as well?
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Yes, that is one of the things I am looking to add. It's not as easy as I thought it would be, but it should be possible to at least work it out from what you can get from the map information.
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Okay I'm getting ready to do a release of this in the near future (the next couple of weekends).
It will come in two flavours:
Live, Single Game Stat Capture
This looks like the verison you see in the OP
- Will work on some maps that I publish on EU ("+ SG" maps)
- Is run at the same time as SC2
- Will know who is playing and who is observing
- Will only output to those that are observing
- Instructions will be provided for use on here
Silent Stat Capture/Multi Game Stat Tracking
- Will run with the same maps
- Will provide a mod for map makers to add to their maps to track output (if I can figure out how to do that - anyone know?)
- Will provide heatmaps for many versions of maps
- Can filter by map and matchup (TvP, etc)
Future versions:
- Filter by spawn position
- Track expansion order
- Some other stuff if people request it.
Check back here for updates!
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would be nice to show who spawned where on the Combat Heat Maps
edit - whoops, 2 posts above me, heh
anyway, the program looks pretty sweet, i especially love the heat-map idea!
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I am super excited about this. MOAR DATA plZ! nom nom nom
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We need a program that can output the p-values of stuff casters say based on historical data.
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On April 17 2012 11:39 Torpedo.Vegas wrote:
We need a program that can output the p-values of stuff casters say based on historical data.
Omg amen brother
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I would like to see some of the big tournaments utilize this amazing program.
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EPT
