hi, i'd like to have the possibility to watch the spr,mpr files without having to start lfs everytime.
Because everytime i'm reading the forum and someone posts some mpr about something, i always have to start lfs first.
Which is annoying since lfs isn't the "speediest" apllic.

thx

for a (race)game I guess it's quite a fast startup...

quickest game to load that i own but yes, it would be handy.

Personally I find LFS quite quick to start up...

Unfortunately what you want cant really be done at this stage, as basically a replay is just a set of "input instructions" for each vehicle in a race.

as more or less expected... sad

I think really that what you are asking for isnt really possible, as a SPR/MPR viewer would basically have to contain the entire LFS engine, and load all the same resources, so I cant see how it would be any quicker.

However, what would be really helpful, is if we could use windows file associations so that when we double click an SPR/MPR it loads LFS and plays the replay. That would be really helpful, I must admit I never bother to watch replays people post on the forums because I cant be doing with the hassle, but if all you had to do was download to desktop and double click, it would be much easier.

Quote from colcob :

However, what would be really helpful, is if we could use windows file associations so that when we double click an SPR/MPR it loads LFS and plays the replay.

True. Noted.

Mr. Scawen: didn't you mention earlier today you're having vacation?

Yes but I'm staying in touch and can add to my notes sheet, even if I'm not coding all day.

I'm not actually away on a real holiday, I am just having a break from hard work.

yeah, im glad its called soft ware.

Wouldnt it be possible to easily convert it to an AVI using LFS Movie Maker or something? I looked at it once but never took the time to learn it.

I believe RFactor allows the output of the replays to AVI (but it takes about 20 times longer than the actual replay).

Yea, if I could output MPR or SPR files to an AVI with a full 60FPS ( I don't care how long it takes as long as I get the quality ) that would be awsome. I could do videos in 720p with no problem, that and I would not have to deal with the crap that FRAPS thows at you when your trying to record video from LFS.

Quote from colcob :

However, what would be really helpful, is if we could use windows file associations so that when we double click an SPR/MPR it loads LFS and plays the replay.

That is a brilliant idea, and id prefer to see that to a seperate player.

Although obviously that might require a registry key, which would completely clog up your system and be bad and evil... or something. Because software that doesnt interact with the operating system in any way is alwaysbetter, right?

I have no idea about that.

Personally I wouldn't be making LFS write to the registry. My job would be, if possible, to make LFS run when passed a spr or mpr filename as a parameter. Maybe it comes in like a command line parameter? I haven't even looked into it, never done something like that, so I don't know.

I think you can manually set up file associations, and hopefully that's not too hard.

There's my vague thoughts on the matter.

Quote from Stellios :

That is a brilliant idea, and id prefer to see that to a seperate player.

Yeah me too. A separate player would have to contain the whole of LFS anyway.

Quote from Scawen :

Yeah me too. A separate player would have to contain the whole of LFS anyway.

Fair point

This is a great idea.

I am drumming up support (and not found any) for a league, and I would find it useful as I would be able to get videos the right res for Video ipods, so I could video podcast whole race meetings

But this would need support for audio commentary, that spectators could hear, but NOT the drivers. We don't want them getting information like that, do we.

I added a shortcut to the mpr and spr folder to the windows "send to" menu.

You can add custom shortcuts to applications or folders (/mpr,/spr) in the (hidden?) “SendTo” folder. The “SendTo” folder is located in the C:\Documents and Settings\<userid>\ folder. You may need to set the options to show hidden and protected operating-system files (Go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View - from a Windows explorer window.

This way you can just right click on am mpr or spr and send it to the right folder.

Couldn't you just open Windows Explorer go to Tools>Folder Options>Flie Types and create a new file extension associated with LFS? It wouldn't play the file but it should just open LFS for you. Just a thought.

I should open LFS it doesn't move the File to the right folder. So it is a bit pointless.

Quote from Pain-less :

Couldn't you just open Windows Explorer go to Tools>Folder Options>Flie Types and create a new file extension associated with LFS? It wouldn't play the file but it should just open LFS for you. Just a thought.

Nope, just tried it about 15 mins ago. It throws an error at you saying 'Invalid Command File'.

Quote from Pain-less :

Couldn't you just open Windows Explorer go to Tools>Folder Options>Flie Types and create a new file extension associated with LFS? It wouldn't play the file but it should just open LFS for you. Just a thought.

Yeah, thats the idea, but LFS needs to be written to handle being started with the file to open as a parameter. I presume there is a standard windows method that is called when you double click a file with a program association, which causes the program to launch and attempt to open that file. All that needs to be done is for LFS to 'open' replays.

Of course people would then need to manually associate mpr's and spr's with LFS.

Quote from Scawen :

Yeah me too. A separate player would have to contain the whole of LFS anyway.

If LFS wouldn't always load the last used track area, it would start much faster. Then there wouldn't be need for a separate player. Time is spent much better improving the current multiplayer replay viewing ... it isn't quite user friendly. Try changing some options in the middle of viewing a MPR or try to view one race incident from several angles (lets assume you have always save replay on[==10s/100s/1000s mprs] and the MPR is couple days old), you'll see what I mean very soon...



When you manually make* file .x open in program y, the cmd line args[0] is the fully qualified path name enclosed in quotation marks. (IIRC)



*Dblclick .mpr, click select yourself..., browse, find lfs.exe,ok, ok, ok...

Quote from Krane :

If LFS wouldn't always load the last used track area, it would start much faster.

I'm casting another vote to skip the track loading on startup if possible. Most times you want to race on another track/server so LFS loads a new track anyway.