Export replays to mp4

This has long been a problem… but I’d like to suggest to the devs to think about having a function that will save a replay to mp4 - so you could select a replay, click “export to mp4”, then a popup will ask you what player to export as - it will save that game out, view locked as that player… age old problem solved….!?

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Can’t this already be done with a screen recording software and just running the replay. The only downside being that it will take the game length amount of time to convert 1 replay.

I guess so, but if there’s been an update you can’t play older replays back and you would have to obviously rely on getting separate software

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I’m not sure if you understand how the game saves replays. It’s only saving the user actions, that’s why they don’t work anymore if anything changes in the game’s execution of those actions, it relies on the execution of them being completely deterministic. To export to a video format requires the game to first of all run through those actions and re-calculate the effect of them, rendering the resulting gameplay, and then it would have to be encoded and saved. You can already do this by viewing the replay and using software such as OBS to record it. It doesn’t make much sense for the game to bring in functionality like that, when it’s already available for free from other sources.

Also, IMO, it’s best to record your games to a video file while you play them, as that is the only way to 100% guarantee that when you watch it back you are seeing exactly what was on your screen when you played the game. I once had a game that had weird graphics problem, and they weren’t visible when the replay was viewed.

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Yeah I understand what saves in the replays - I’m also a developer so I understand what’s involved and to a large degree why an upgrade causes the reply to break - it’s just a shame that 20 years in, it’s still a breaking issue - so I thought I would suggest an alternative that might encourage more casting/sharing and communication about the games that take place. It’d be a nice feature add.

This could be done server-side more easily I agree and for older versions too.

if steam made it easier to download and play older versions, no problem.

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