Replays

The editor opens StarCraft replays (.rep files) and shows, on the map the game was played on, what the players did: where buildings went down and when, where units were sent, each player's build order and actions per minute, and the chat, on a timeline you can scrub or play. Map makers use it to see which paths and chokes players use, where and when they expand, and whether one start location plays differently from another.

Replays come with the Aftermath plugin, which is installed and on from the start. To open one:

• File ▸ Open Replay… picks one or more replays;
• File ▸ Open… takes a replay as well as a map;
• dropping replays anywhere on the editor opens them.

Replays from every version of the game are read. View ▸ Aftermath opens Aftermath's panel with no replay in front, to drop replays on.

A replay's tab#

Each replay opens the map it was played on in a tab of its own. A replay opens view-only: its tab has an eye where the unsaved-changes dot would be, and the status bar says View only. You can scroll, zoom, switch layers and select things, but nothing can be changed or saved:

• the palette, Layers and Properties panels are hidden (the View menu has the layer switches);
• the tools do nothing, and every menu item and dialog that would change the map is greyed;
• the toolbar leaves out Save, Undo and Redo, Cut and Paste, the brush, Symmetry, Players and Triggers, and has an Edit a Copy button in place of Save.

Save Copy As… still works. Edit a Copy (the button, or File ▸ Edit a Copy) opens an ordinary copy of the map in a new tab, which asks where to save the first time you save it.

Switching tabs switches replays, each keeping its own place on the timeline, and closing the tab closes the replay.

The timeline and the panel#

While a replay's tab is in front, a timeline runs under the map: Play and Pause, the time and the speed, a graph of the game, and marks for the fights, the chat and players leaving. Space plays and pauses, ← and → go ten seconds back or on (a minute with Shift), and Home and End go to the start and the end.

The column on the right has the game's details, the players, and tabs for the build order, the chat and the rest. On the map, each player's buildings and orders are drawn in their colour as the timeline moves. The Aftermath README describes every part.

The Replay view#

In the editor at scmjs.dev, a replay's tab opens on the Replay: the game itself replaying in the map's place, from the game's files you installed. Blizzard's map editor download is enough for this. A switch in the top-left corner goes between the Replay and the Map, the overhead view with Aftermath's marks and heat maps. The timeline drives whichever is shown.

While the Replay is shown, the editor keeps what still makes sense there:

• zoom works on it: View ▸ Zoom In and Zoom Out, Zoom to Fit, and the toolbar's magnifiers;
• the grid, the locations and other plugins' overlays are drawn over it, and View ▸ Grid, Locations and Location Names turn them on and off;
• View ▸ Fog of War shows the game's own fog, through the eyes picked in the Vision menu under the replay: everyone, or one player;
• the status bar's tile and position follow the pointer, and the minimap shows where the game looks; press or drag on it to move the game's camera;
• pointing at a unit shows what the game's console would: its name, owner, hit points and what it is doing.

What only applies to the map behind it — the layers, selecting, the clipboard, Find, the brush and the map's own toggles such as Units or Elevation — is left off the toolbar and greyed in the menus.

Analysis#

In the editor at scmjs.dev, every replay you open is also analysed: the game is played through in the background to see what really happened rather than what was ordered. Once it is done, Aftermath shows the units where they stood, what each player really built and lost, the fights and the key moments, and a camera (Spectate) that follows the action. View ▸ Replay Analysis opens a larger window with each player's economy and tech over the game.

Open several replays of one map and Map stats takes them together: how each start location did, which bases were taken and when, where the fights happened, and the ground no unit ever entered.

Note. In the desktop app and an editor hosted elsewhere, Aftermath works from the players' orders alone: there is no Replay view and no analysis.