[GEN][ZH] Add Replay Simulation feature #923

helmutbuhler · 2025-05-24T15:47:23Z

This PR adds the ability to simulate a replay via commandline and check for crashes and mismatches.

To simulate a replay, you must place it in the Replay folder and call the game like this:

generalszh.exe -headless -replay "Golden Replay #1.rep"

The console output will be something like this:

Simulating Replay "Golden Replay #1.rep"
Elapsed Time: 00:13 Game Time: 10:00/99:09
Elapsed Time: 00:28 Game Time: 20:00/99:09
Elapsed Time: 00:44 Game Time: 30:00/99:09
Elapsed Time: 01:01 Game Time: 40:00/99:09
Elapsed Time: 01:29 Game Time: 50:00/99:09
Elapsed Time: 01:49 Game Time: 60:00/99:09
Elapsed Time: 02:06 Game Time: 70:00/99:09
Elapsed Time: 02:25 Game Time: 80:00/99:09
Elapsed Time: 02:59 Game Time: 90:00/99:09
Elapsed Time: 03:14 Game Time: 99:09/99:09

As can be seen from that output, simulating a replay with gametime 99:09 takes about 3 minutes. Replaying it with fast-forward and setting Gentool-Speed to 100x takes about 4:15. For real replays with many players the difference can be much larger.

The exit code will be 1 if an error or mismatch occures and 0 otherwise.

You can also supply -replay multiple times in order to simulate multiple replays one after the other.

This PR also adds another commandline -jobs. When this option is supplied together with multiple replays to simulate, all replays are simulated in multiple worker processes in parallel. The number after -jobs indicates how many processes to run in parallel. Here is an example:

generalszh.exe -headless -jobs 2 -replay "Golden Replay #1.rep" -replay air_air.rep -replay air_china.rep

This will run the first two replays in parallel, and as soon as one is finished, run the third.

Simulating replays in separate processes can speed things up a lot if you want to check many replays. But it can also help prevent mismatches because right now the game doesn't clean everything up perfectly after a game. (Eventually we will want to fix those of course)

There are a few issues with this PR:

When calling a gui application via cmd, Windows by default hides the console output and runs the process in the background. This can be worked around with a .bat file like this:

START /B /W generalszh.exe -headless -replay "Golden Replay #1.rep" > sim_replay.log
echo %errorlevel%
PAUSE

Eventually we will want to add a cmake option to compile the game as a Console application.

There are two hacks at the end of SimulateReplayListSingleProcess to prevent crashes during gameshutdown. (It's quite possible that at least one of those will be fixed by #921, but I haven't checked yet)

There will be two followup PRs for this. One will add the ability to add a bunch of replays at once with a csv file. The other one will add a debug button in the ReplayMenu to simulate a replay without graphics (without having to use the commandline).

TODO

Replicate to Generals

…s::appendNextCommand()

# Conflicts: # GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/GUI/GUICallbacks/Menus/ReplayMenu.cpp # GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameLogic/System/GameLogic.cpp

# Conflicts: # GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/Common/CommandLine.cpp

# Conflicts: # GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/Common/Recorder.cpp # GeneralsMD/Code/Main/WinMain.cpp

# Conflicts: # GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/GUI/GUICallbacks/Menus/ReplayMenu.cpp

…defined (even in Release mode)

# Conflicts: # GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/GUI/GUICallbacks/Menus/ReplayMenu.cpp

…yList option

…e process

…eset();

This reverts commit 6b23bf8.

xezon · 2025-06-20T07:11:46Z

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Include/GameClient/ClientInstance.h

@@ -39,6 +39,10 @@ class ClientInstance
 	// Returns the instance name of the first game client.
 	static const char* getFirstInstanceName();

+public:
+	static Bool s_multiInstance; // Allow multiple instances of the game


This is wrong. These variables must not be writable after initialization is done. I have written the functions that need to be added in a previous comment. If you do not have time to do it, I can do that for you.

xezon · 2025-06-20T07:14:16Z

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/GUI/GUICallbacks/Menus/ScoreScreen.cpp

@@ -541,23 +541,35 @@ WindowMsgHandledType ScoreScreenSystem( GameWindow *window, UnsignedInt msg,
 			{
 				TheShell->pop();
 				TheCampaignManager->setCampaign(AsciiString::TheEmptyString);
+				if (!TheGlobalData->m_simulateReplays.empty())
+				{
+					TheWritableGlobalData->m_showReplayContinueButton = FALSE; // Tell GameEngine to quit.


I do not understand this. Isn't TheGameEngine->setQuitting telling game engine to quit?

xezon · 2025-06-20T07:16:16Z

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Include/Common/file.h

 																																			  */
 		virtual Int		seek( Int bytes, seekMode mode = CURRENT ) = NULL;	/**< Sets the file position of the next read/write operation. Returns the new file
 																																				*  position as the number of bytes from the start of the file.
-																																				*  Returns -1 if an error occured.
+																																				*  Returns -1 if an error occurred.


This change now touches a few unrelated EA comments. Is this intended?

This reverts commit a1266af.

xezon · 2025-06-20T09:41:08Z

Improvements appended.

I tested Score Screen with 2 replays in the Simulator, Continue and Exit button, and it worked correctly.

ClientInstance also worked.

xezon · 2025-06-20T10:17:10Z

Zero Hour compile error fixed. Edit: Debug compile error fixed.

Generals fails compiling until the code is replicated to Generals.

xezon

From my side things look ok now.

…Playback(). This was causing the last gametime to be incorrect in console output

helmutbuhler · 2025-06-21T22:54:06Z

I synced with Generals and also reverted one commit that caused the gametime in the last log to be zero.(see commit)

You can merge now.

xezon · 2025-06-22T04:37:50Z

Very nice. I updated the command line arguments in the Pull Request description. I think it would be nice to have this feature description moved to our wiki.

helmutbuhler added 30 commits April 15, 2025 23:29

Fix messy code and potential null pointer dereference in RecorderClas…

8005a7b

…s::appendNextCommand()

Fix Replay playback not working after running analysis on a replay.

c2f8d14

Add replay simulation functionality

942e5e1

# Conflicts: # GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/GUI/GUICallbacks/Menus/ReplayMenu.cpp # GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameLogic/System/GameLogic.cpp

Add -simReplay command line option to run replays without graphics

120fa4b

# Conflicts: # GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/Common/CommandLine.cpp

Return Exitcode 1 if mismatch is detected in a replay while simulating.

a77e2b3

# Conflicts: # GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/Common/Recorder.cpp # GeneralsMD/Code/Main/WinMain.cpp

Make Replay Simulation compile in Release and remove VERIFY_CRC.

f0057b7

# Conflicts: # GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/GUI/GUICallbacks/Menus/ReplayMenu.cpp

Fix draw assignment in StealthUpdate::changeVisualDisguise()

3241aef

Show analyze and simulate button in replaymenu when DEBUG_LOGGING is …

9fa390b

…defined (even in Release mode)

Add code to write out replay list to textfile

7900ab1

# Conflicts: # GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/GUI/GUICallbacks/Menus/ReplayMenu.cpp

Update WriteOutReplayList()

3499ccd

Make Replay extra buttons show up always

818161f

Add m_playbackFrameDuration to Recorder

19b8a42

Update WriteOutReplayList and add ReadReplayListFromCsv and -simRepla…

4e562e2

…yList option

Add more logging to SimulateReplayList and run each replay in separat…

60789e6

…e process

SimulateReplayList: Count errors

3852327

Factor CreateProcessA into helper function

8faca18

Make Performance Timers work (WIP)

6b23bf8

Make SimulateReplayList faster by calling TheParticleSystemManager->r…

c0671bd

…eset();

Add GameClient::updateHeadless()

dffca9e

Use pipes to retrieve worker process console output

6b3348f

Add SimulateReplayListMultiProcess. It seems to work now!

a2e7c5a

Use TerminateProcess to work around crash

efd7c14

Expand columns in WriteOutReplayList and fix ReadLineFromFile

4673944

Add Job stuff to ReplayProcess

9b7eadc

Fix Jobs for VC6

a82de61

Revert "Make Performance Timers work (WIP)"

4835c7f

This reverts commit 6b23bf8.

Merge tag 'maaaaaaaaaaaaain' into sim_replay_sh

7efcf7c

Fix date formats in comments

7352e5b

Remove copied comment

2f01c18

Remove bugfix that doesn't belong here

08fad6f

helmutbuhler added 6 commits June 19, 2025 15:48

Change comment

89431bf

Move CommandLine::parseCommandLineForStartup(); to DebugInit

87462b7

Convert one missed #if defined(RTS_MULTI_INSTANCE) to use new global

dbf9d82

spelling occured -> occurred

a1266af

Remove unused var

6d5b60c

Add comment

754b054

xezon reviewed Jun 20, 2025

View reviewed changes

helmutbuhler and others added 9 commits June 20, 2025 09:27

Add console output in case map is not found

104a25b

Revert "spelling occured -> occurred" in part

a3a21b9

This reverts commit a1266af.

Refactor ClientInstance code

cb021ff

Remove GlobalData::m_showReplayContinueButton

a4bf57f

Fix SIMULATE_REPLAYS_SEQUENTIAL constexpr'ness

a0ecf5a

Return WorkerProcess::startProcess if CreatePipe has failed

ee4a554

Add assert for m_readHandle

f80d432

Clarify -jobs range in comment

6b72afd

Move logic to count running processes into separate function

7dbe6f7

Fix constexpr in VC6 build

ede82f8

xezon changed the title ~~[ZH] Add Replay Simulation with Commandline~~ [GEN][ZH] Add Replay Simulation feature Jun 20, 2025

xezon added the Gen Relates to Generals label Jun 20, 2025

Fix debug compile error

118ef4d

xezon approved these changes Jun 20, 2025

View reviewed changes

helmutbuhler added 4 commits June 21, 2025 23:53

Merge branch 'main' into sim_replay_sh

e2947b4

Auto Sync with Generals

05ca54e

Apply manual sync for failed autosync

df74c7f

Revert TheCommandList back to TheMessageStream in RecorderClass::stop…

1a7d27a

…Playback(). This was causing the last gametime to be incorrect in console output

xezon merged commit 5104ace into TheSuperHackers:main Jun 22, 2025
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[GEN][ZH] Add Replay Simulation feature #923

[GEN][ZH] Add Replay Simulation feature #923

helmutbuhler commented May 24, 2025 •

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[GEN][ZH] Add Replay Simulation feature #923

[GEN][ZH] Add Replay Simulation feature #923

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helmutbuhler commented May 24, 2025 • edited by xezon Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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TODO

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helmutbuhler commented May 24, 2025 •

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