An easier way to link Supreme Commander replays
I’ve created a quick-and-dirty converter that transforms GPGnet-specific links of the form replay:... into general HTTP links that can be accessed from any web browser anywhere. This isn’t so helpful on GPGnet itself because replay: links function just fine within the client, but it’s very useful for, say, linking to a specific replay in a blog comment. Now I wouldn’t recommend that this be used by people running their own fansites, because those of us with access to servers should be mirroring the replays (as SupComTalk does) rather than leeching off GPG’s bandwidth for downloads of replays. But if you don’t have a server and you just need a quick web link that you can use in blog comments or forums without having to worry about people needing to copy-and-paste replay: links, this is the tool for you.
So all you need to do is make sure you upload your replay to GPGnet upon finishing a game and then that replay can be downloaded by anyone anywhere with a web browser. Pretty neat, huh? Oh, and if you can’t figure out where to get the replay: link from: open up the replay vault from within GPGnet, enter a search query to find the replay you want, double-click it to open up the Replay Info dialog, and you’ll see a Chat Link text field along the bottom of the box (right above the “rate this replay”). Press the Copy button to copy the replay: link into your clipboard, paste it into the Supreme Commander Talk converter, and you’re good to go.
You can use the comments section on this post to test the converter by linking to your favorite replays.
Update: Okay, so I figured out the bug. GPGnet stores all of the replays compressed using gzip to save storage space on their end and bandwidth for everyone. To use the link above, you’ll have to download it, rename it to the .gzip file extension, and then uncompress it using gunzip under GNU/Linux or something like WinRAR under Windows. Gzip is a very standard compression format and it can be uncompressed on every operating system under the Sun (including Solaris, hehe). Gzip is probably more common than .zip, but you don’t realize it because gzip is used mostly in server applications, where it is kept away from the clients. I’m working on a better solution whereby my server will download the replay automatically, unzip it, and mirror it. It will also extract some information from the replay file, including what version of the game the replay was made with, what map it’s on, who the players are, etc.
May 14th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Cyde dosn’t work you get the download screen but…. Have you ever tryed opening the replays?
May 14th, 2007 at 7:26 am
Ah crap, you’re right, doesn’t look like it works for some reason. I’ll have to figure this out. Ugh.
May 14th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
If you’re mirroring replays do you suppose you could make a mechanism to upload locally stored replays? I save all my replays to my hard drive but rarely to the replay vault and have occasionally wanted to be able to link to one here.
May 14th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Well, you can’t really script that unless you already have a host in mind, anyway. Maybe if you assumed the user has a GameReplays account. I’m always wary of providing login information to random apps, though.
May 14th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Will: I’m not sure I understand the nature of your comment? SupComTalk is already hosted. No need for a GameReplays account or anything; I’d just do it all on this server.
May 14th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Heh very cool =). Sorry for the .gzip annoyance. Supcom replay compress extremely well, so we used it to cut down on storage space and bandwidth for serving them. Most replays are under 200k, which is on par with most web pages.