Mr. Ekted's ssVCR 1.3
=====================

   Mr. Ekted's ssVCR is a playback utility for Subspace games record by 
   Mr. Ekted's PowerBot system. It is not perfect, and then only as good as
   the reliability of the data. It does not track weapons or other specials,
   and does not use any sort of physics engine to calcuate position or bounces
   of ships or the ball. It simply uses object locations as received by the 
   record mechanism and interpolates everything else. So ocassionally you may
   see an object go through a wall, until there's another update. Updates are
   only received for the region near the object being specced, so only the
   ships near the ball will show up, just as in real Subspace.
   
   That being said, I think this is still a valuable tool for analyzing a game.

Installation
============

   Download and unzip ssvcr13.zip. The first time you run ssVCR it will ask you if 
   you would like to set (or change) the file association for .ssg files. If you
   allow this, you will be able to double click on .ssg files from within Windows
   Explorer (not IE) to view them.

Interface
=========

   This utility currently does not support palettes, so the colors may be "off"
   on displays with 8-bit color (256).

   Map

      Gray lines are drawn for all map tiles. Warbirds are yellow dots, and
      Javelins are blue. If names are enabled, the ball carrier's name is red, 
      otherwise the ball carrier gets a red outline to his/her dot. Yellow/blue
      X's show kill locations, with the associated name in gray. "Lag lines" 
      (below) are dotted gray. If the ball is loose it is shown as a red dot.

   Timeline

      The timeline is the horizontal tool just below the main map display. The
      long horizontal line represents the entire recorded game. Each large tick
      is 10 minutes, each small one 1 minute. The yellow/blue triangles show
      any events (only goals right now) that happened. The gray position marker 
      shows what point in time the map is displaying. Clicking the left mouse
      button on the timeline moves the current time. You can also drag the mouse
      with the left button down. To thr right of the timeline is the current game 
      time (relative to 0) in minutes, seconds, and tenths.

         *** The following feature is not obvious from the user interface ***

      If you Shift Left/Right Click on the timeline, two points in time are 
      selected, and are indicated by a gray bar. All of the paths taken by both
      teams are shown. Doing this stops playback. Starting playback disables this
      feature.

   Toolbar

      Each button has a tooltip describing what it does and the shortcut key.

      Open (O)

         Open a Subspace game file for playback. You can also double click on any .sgg
         file if you have setup the file association.

      About (A)

         Shows info about app.

      Names (N)

         Toggles display of player names. No names are shown in full map mode.

      LagLines (L)

         Toggles display of "lag lines". The are lines drawn from the previous 
         update to the next for all objects. The longer the line, the more time
         between updates. This indicates how laggy the player or the server is.

      Goto Beginning (B or W)

         Go to start of game.

      Goto Prev Event (< or ,)

         Go to 20 seconds before the previous event (goal).

      Reverse Very Fast (Alt-R)

         Play in reverse at about 5 times speed.

      Reverse Fast (Ctrl-R)

         Play in reverse at about 3 times speed.

      Reverse (R)

         Play in reverse at about normal speed.

      Back 1 Frame (Left Arrow or -)

         Go back 0.1 seconds. You can hold down the quick key for this action
         to rewind at your keyboard repeat rate.

      Stop (SPACE)

         Stop all playback. Pressing SPACE while stopped returns to the previous
         playback mode, if any.

      Forward 1 Frame (Right Arrow or + or =)

         Go forward 0.1 seconds. You can hold down the quick key for this action
         to fast forward at your keyboard repeat rate.

      Play (P)

         Play at about normal speed.

      Play Fast (Ctrl-P)

         Play at about 3 times  speed.

      Play Very Fast (Alt-P)

         Play at about 5 times  speed.

      Goto Next Event (> or .)

         Go to 20 seconds before the next event (goal).

      Goto End (E)

         Go to end of game.

      Zoom In (1)

         Show the map approximating client screen of Subspace.

      Zoom Out (2)

         Show the map approximating client radar of Subspace.

      Show Whole Map (3)

         Show entire map.

Disclaimer
==========

   This software is Copyright ⌐ 2000 Mr. Ekted. All Rights Reserved.

   This software is distributed as-is with no implied or expressed warrantees. Use 
   of this software is at the risk of the user. The author is not responsible for 
   any damage or loss it may cause.

   This software is freeware. It may be distributed freely provided it is complete 
   and unmodified.