FAChart/FAF Incompatibility

[VoiceofReason]

This happened with the last major update. I only actually downloaded and started using the program recently, so much so that I only got to analyze a few games before the update - and now, its a no go.
Main issue I had was the file extension of the replays is now *.fafreplay or something like that, where as before it was *.scfareplay - So I tried something basic and just renamed the file, again no go... Tried a couple other things just to get FAChart to open the replay one way or another but it would always hang and never display any data.
Great little tool, Here's a link to the creators main post about it
http://forums.gaspowered.com/viewtopic.php?p=472140

Hoping its something simple? Could we possibly get functionality of this program back if it isn't too much of a problem?

Thanks,
VoR

[Ze_PilOt]

You can't do that. fafreplay are base64 encoded and zipped. We have to write a "decode" tool in the lobby.

[Moritz]

You can't do that. fafreplay are base64 encoded and zipped. We have to write a "decode" tool in the lobby.

Here comes my idea:

Make an option to select fachart.exe in FAF, add a right click > open with fachart option in FAF replays tab, FAF will decode the .fafreplay to .scfareplay to a temp file and open it in fachart.

[VoiceofReason]

Ahh great, you guys make me soo happy seeing there is some attention on this; Right on guys, thanks for the update and info - Let me know how things play out, or if help is needed on anything; Personally may not be able to do so, but hey; I can always try and rally the troops for you

-VoR

[VoiceofReason]

*BUMP*

Actually have seen a few other people mention this in the Aeolus chat since I made this post originally. Figured this also, deserved a bump.

Any info/progress???

[hath995]

Hey there,
I'm happy to see folks are still using FAChart. Sounds like an update might be useful? I'm always trying to balance too many spinning plates but if people pester me I'll get around to it.

[rootbeer23]

You can't do that. fafreplay are base64 encoded and zipped. We have to write a "decode" tool in the lobby.

that is pretty braindead. base64 encoded? for what possible reason?

[Ze_PilOt]

- There are zipped. So they take way less space (you may have noticed that already).
- There have an header. That header contains lot of useful informations to display in the lobby This is a clear line of text, so it's easy to write a reader for it.
- So that header is easier to read if the file is encoded in text and not binary. So we encode the zipped replay in base64, so we can very easily open the whole thing in one operation.

And the replays are now so small than you can copy/paste them in a mail !

About the lobby in general, if you ask yourself "why did you do XX like that", the answer is certainly : because it's easier to code, easier to use, and easier is better.

[rootbeer23]

and easier is better.

i am just saying, the replay folder is larger than 300mbyte for me. maybe it is worth adding a very few lines of code to save
a significant amount of space on many hundreds of computers. You can store a line of text followed by newline followed by binary data. add a header field and it can be backward compatible.

[hath995]

I can totally agree with adding compression to replays. They are filled with repetitive data.

Ze_pilot, who should I talk to about the new replay format and how I might make FAChart compatible?