Thread

1. suby · 1789867347 · focus · HN ↗

   I don't know where else to write this, but I want to throw the idea out there. I have long wanted to take old broodwar televised matches, many of which are terrible quality 240p, and use machine learning to convert them to into perfect Broodwar Remastered frames. This seems tractable to me because you should be able to map the terrain sets to their remastered equivalents, and the game is just a series of sprites rendered at specific frames. Even if the source quality is terrible, I imagine this is able to be extracted at high quality since you can, eg, set up an automated pipeline which generates training data. Maps from original graphics to remastered, and then again for 240p -> tilemap positions for frame camera center + sprite positions / animation index.

   1. KeplerBoy · 1789907079 · focus · HN ↗

      Maybe one could try to reconstruct very closely matched replay files?

      1. 3eb7988a1663 · 1789926612 · focus · HN ↗

         Do replay files require consistency or can you spawn new units from the ether as required? I think you could get a system that would get the broad strokes unit placement correct, but having a shot-for-shot perfect replication seems impossible.

         1. duskwuff · 1789937748 · focus · HN ↗

            Replay files are streams of the orders given by players. They generally can't do anything which would be impossible in game.

            1. 3eb7988a1663 · 1789945146 · focus · HN ↗

               I suppose that makes sense for a deterministic engine. That way you have an ordered steam of actions with only one way to execute them.

               I was wondering how you could possibly sync up something like a Carrier that has multiple fighters.

               1. duskwuff · 1789946016 · focus · HN ↗

                  > I was wondering how you could possibly sync up something like a Carrier that has multiple fighters.

                  Same way as everything else - you play out the simulation and see what happens. The behavior of the interceptors is as deterministic as any other unit. (They just happen to not be directly commandable by their owner.)

                  1. 3eb7988a1663 · 1789946923 · focus · HN ↗

                     No, I get that. The pondering was before I knew it was a recording of actions. Once you know that, it is a fully self-contained box with external nudges from the players which get inserted into the simulation.
      2. duskwuff · 1789937607 · focus · HN ↗

         Not feasible. The VODs are from a spectator's perspective; there's a lot of action happening "off camera" (like players building units) which affects what's seen on camera later, and which would be extremely difficult to reconstruct from what's visible.

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