DiRT Rally Replay camera

Supernova76 · May 5, 2015

Hey guys,
there is a way to watch the replay only whit external camera tv ? Without seeing the shooting from inside or from the wheel arches .

Thanks

mesa · May 6, 2015

Supernova76 said:
Hey guys,
there is a way to watch the replay only whit external camera tv ? Without seeing the shooting from inside or from the wheel arches .

Thanks

There's no way, because Codemasters didn't put enough external camera to the track sides.
This is a reason why Codies use the same rotating camera replay sytem as they did before.
This is the most annoying thing in DiRT Rally.

I hope they will give us all length track side cameras with helicopter cams, as we love so much in RBR

mesa · May 6, 2015

I've just found Replay folder, where are 3 .xml files are stored.

dynamic_camera_rig_data.xml
replay_camera_system_data.xml
terminal_sequence_configuration.xml

May we could dit these files to stop annoying rotating replay cameras? I don't know, my english is poor to understand values stored in these files

Supernova76 · May 7, 2015

Maybe with a patch?

function9 · May 7, 2015

I know they have other things that take priority and I agree with that. And I know it's early access. But, it's a little sad their 2015 game has less replay capabilities than games that came out 10 years ago. The only other Codemasters game I've played is Colin McRae Rally 2005. That had TV/spectator cameras throughout the whole stage, on every stage. And you could keep it on any onboard camera you wanted without it cycling every few seconds. Also for some reason they don't believe in saving replays.

Tommi-TAG · May 9, 2015

Hello there.
I have the same thought about the replays.
Codemasters opened up a "Suggestion Box" on the official forum. And I found a thread talking about this topic.

Codemasters Official Forum: TV Replay (only from track ,outside the car)
http://forums.codemasters.com/discussion/6120/tv-replay-only-from-track-outside-the-car#latest

Of course, I've voted "Yes" and would like to post my comment later.

function9 · May 12, 2015

I was just reading on the Steam forums, some guys figured out there's a directory (apparently on C: no matter where you install the game) where the game temporarily writes the replays to and then deletes when the game is closed. Thing is, their replays are over 1 gb from what these guys have seen. And with SSD's being rather common nowadays, that much frequent writing and deleting isn't cool.

Tommi-TAG · May 12, 2015

Thanks for the info, function9.
It was about 5 years ago, Codemasters enabled us to add "-savereplay" option to F1 2010's shortcut and made it possible to save & watch the replays. The problem was the same, the size of the replay files. It required about 1GB for only 5 Laps race as far as I remember. It seems they have not improved it yet.

The old EGO based titles (DiRT 1, GRID etc.) had the decent replays. So, the full replay with only from the track or outside the car should be possible. I also hope the further development including the replays.

function9 · May 13, 2015

Me too, it'd be a shame if they can't get replays working how everyone is asking for. I don't get how they've done it this way for so long.

But if anyone's interested in a "fix" or disabling replays (and thus, not having them written to SSD), I found a way from the Steam forums. Open this directory:
C:\ProgramData\Codemasters\DiRT Rally\DataCache\<username>\replay
And make 2 files (make sure you can see file extensions in windows):
replay30.pbf
replay60.pbf
Right click on each, select Properties and check "Read Only" down at the bottom.

Again, this means you won't have replays until you remove those files from that folder. So if replays are a big thing for you and/or you don't have a SSD as C: drive or don't care, then don't do this.

As a related side note. Apparently there have been people complaining about some slight stuttering issues with the game. And after trying this, they say the stuttering is gone. I never had any issues like that so I can't say. Perhaps with that much data being written for replays, older machines might not handle it so well. Not entirely sure.

Tommi-TAG · May 13, 2015

Thanks for the information, function9.
It might be a useful way to solve the stuttering or some other replay related issues.

roksteady · May 18, 2015

I actually like it the way it is ... real rallies don't have an endless amount of road-side cameras. The road-side cameras they put in should have a purpose! My 2 cents...

Ole Marius Myrvold · May 18, 2015

roksteady said:
I actually like it the way it is ... real rallies don't have an endless amount of road-side cameras. The road-side cameras they put in should have a purpose! My 2 cents...

From an league point of view. It truly sucks that there are so few road-side cameras. (And no chance for saving replays, and replays in nice size).
This means, if we would ever be able to host a serious league here at RD, we wouldn't be able to make a highlight/review video of it, as we cannot get replays from other people. And if that option becomes available, we will have very little cameras to choose from. As the onboard cameras doesn't look spectacular in any way.

@function9 Does adding those files, disable the whole replay-system?

function9 · May 18, 2015

Ole Marius Myrvold said:
@function9 Does adding those files, disable the whole replay-system?

There's no viewing replays with those files in place if that's what you mean. You'll still get the option to view a replay and can select it though. It's still saving the audio of the replay for some reason, cause I tried it to see what would happen. It'll just sit on the results board while the audio plays. All that space for replays and it doesn't include the audio.

Hopefully the audio portion isn't another 1gb+, but I have been meaning to try and see where that's being saved to.

Ole Marius Myrvold · May 18, 2015

function9 said:
There's no viewing replays with those files in place if that's what you mean. You'll still get the option to view a replay and can select it though. It's still saving the audio of the replay for some reason, cause I tried it to see what would happen. It'll just sit on the results board while the audio plays. All that space for replays and it doesn't include the audio. Hopefully the audio portion isn't another 1gb+, but I have been meaning to try and see where that's being saved to.

ok, then I'll delete those files again! ;P I want to watch my replays. Poor SSD though.