Brood War Television was originally developed by Lasgo and GosuGamers first posted a news about the program back in 9th June 2004. The project dropped dead as a result of Lasgo's fading interest for StarCraft. However, the project was recently revived by
CDS)Ashur at BWProgrammers.com.
Brood War TeleVision is a "plugin" or "third party program". It is launched using BWLauncher.exe (v2) and loads with StarCraft. BWTV analyzes a replay file, each command, and simulates it in a StarCraft client - in any speed, just like a normal replay. The observer, watching the game with BWTV, sees units and the game play almost as if he'd been sitting next to the player's screen ("first person mode"), except for the mouse which unfortunately is not saved in the replay file.
BWTV, using the features described above, has been released under the name "OP3" for patch 1.11b but dropped dead since no update was made as 1.12 was released. OP3 in itself was, during it's time, a highly appreciated program enabling you to sit back and relax while watching replays and being able to watch them with a lot more detailed than "manually" watching a replay. But there's a lot more than just the OP3 feature...
What makes BWTV so unique is also what makes the Head Administrator of GosuGamers shriek from excitement when hearing that the program has finally been reannounced; the live stream. BWTV reads a replay file from the BWTV server and simulates the match in the client's computer. A video stream does this, though the main difference between BWTV and a classical Video Stream is that a replay file is around 100 kb while a video file in the same quality can be several hundred megabytes. GosuGamers made » a theoretical calculation on the numbers of possible observers for a 10mbit/s server and got the result of about - hold tight - 285,000 simultaneous observers*. This allows an awesome amount of gamers to live observe finals of events without having to wait for the replays to be released.
If we see it strictly community wise, this opens the first real possibilities for really exciting community shows in StarCraft. One of GosuGamers' ambitions with GosuBet was to be able to turn events into community shows. One fact remained and has constantly been removing parts of the excitement - one could never watch the real games live. As soon as the replays were out, you already knew whether you had lost or won your GosuBet. Using BWTV, however, you can first place a bet on the match and then tune in to the live stream, cheering for your favorite player to win. Another idea which was brought up was to see is a synchronizable radio shoutcast though that is yet undeveloped.
CDS)Ashur at BWProgrammers.com.
What is BWTV?
Brood War TeleVision is a "plugin" or "third party program". It is launched using BWLauncher.exe (v2) and loads with StarCraft. BWTV analyzes a replay file, each command, and simulates it in a StarCraft client - in any speed, just like a normal replay. The observer, watching the game with BWTV, sees units and the game play almost as if he'd been sitting next to the player's screen ("first person mode"), except for the mouse which unfortunately is not saved in the replay file.
BWTV, using the features described above, has been released under the name "OP3" for patch 1.11b but dropped dead since no update was made as 1.12 was released. OP3 in itself was, during it's time, a highly appreciated program enabling you to sit back and relax while watching replays and being able to watch them with a lot more detailed than "manually" watching a replay. But there's a lot more than just the OP3 feature...
Live stream enabling thousands and thousands of viewers
What makes BWTV so unique is also what makes the Head Administrator of GosuGamers shriek from excitement when hearing that the program has finally been reannounced; the live stream. BWTV reads a replay file from the BWTV server and simulates the match in the client's computer. A video stream does this, though the main difference between BWTV and a classical Video Stream is that a replay file is around 100 kb while a video file in the same quality can be several hundred megabytes. GosuGamers made » a theoretical calculation on the numbers of possible observers for a 10mbit/s server and got the result of about - hold tight - 285,000 simultaneous observers*. This allows an awesome amount of gamers to live observe finals of events without having to wait for the replays to be released.
A real community show
If we see it strictly community wise, this opens the first real possibilities for really exciting community shows in StarCraft. One of GosuGamers' ambitions with GosuBet was to be able to turn events into community shows. One fact remained and has constantly been removing parts of the excitement - one could never watch the real games live. As soon as the replays were out, you already knew whether you had lost or won your GosuBet. Using BWTV, however, you can first place a bet on the match and then tune in to the live stream, cheering for your favorite player to win. Another idea which was brought up was to see is a synchronizable radio shoutcast though that is yet undeveloped.
Getting started with BWTV
- Download » BWLauncher for 1.13e v2.260 (lastest version required in order to use BWTV)
Download » BWTV Observer v479.
Extract the content to your StarCraft directory and run BWLauncher.
Select BWTV Observer and check the box called "Load on start". Click configure and set BW mode to 800x600 and make sure that "Unit Selecting", "Unit Pinging" and "Screen Interpolating" in order to have yourself a first person mode.
Close the configuration window and hit "Run 1.13e". Load a replay and start the game. Use G or H to select the player you wish to observe. Use T or Y to select player for the first information row and B or N to select player for the second information row.
If you are having technical problems » Ask for help at BWProgrammers.com.
Schnibl0r defending his main in the WGTour 2on2 finals. Screenshot taken while BWTV Observer was running.
BWTV Observer running in 800x600 mode, with several statistics being displayed on the sides.
Configuration for BWTV Observer.BWTV Server still not released for public!
The BWTV server will not be released for free to the public. Ashur mentioned that a license to use it will be sold to interested parties. No price has been announced yet and Ashur also mentioned that the server is not yet bug free. More details regarding the server as it is released - until that happends, go observe all your replays in first person mode!
* Technical facts: Some argue that a server can not hold that many client ports open simultaneously, so the number got degraded to somewhere around 10,000, though Norman claimed this could be overrun using virtual hosts.
