How to Use Replays

Pilots!

Version 1.2 of World of Warplanes has, among other things, brought a long-awaited feature to the game: Replays! Replays are recordings of the games that you’ve played,which allow you not only to review but also analyze your battles using additional features.

What you should know is that there's a big difference between a World of Warplanes replay and a video recording you may have made with external software. These in-game replays are stored using a specific algorithm which shrinks down the file size to only a few megabytes for even the longest battles. Additionally, unlike with space-hungry videos, you will experience no framerate drops from recording an in-game battle replay.

How to activate the World of Warplanes replay function

In order to start recording replays of your battles, you’ll need to turn on the feature in the Settings menu. The function is turned off by default as a precaution in case you’re playing on a PC that’s not your own and you don’t want to leave copies of your game on its hard drive.

• Go into the Settings menu and switch to the Game tab.

• At the bottom, you’ll notice a new section called Battle Replays. Check the box labeled Save battle replays in order to have the game start recording your battles.

Note that the line below shows you the folder where the replay files will be stored.

• You can also check or uncheck the box Automatically delete replays older than # days to either keep your replays forever, or have the game delete the oldest ones periodically whenever you like.

How to view a World of Warplanes replay

First, make sure that your World of Warplanes client is completely closed – replays are loaded "cold" into the client and don't log you into the server.

Then, go to the folder where your replays are saved, as shown in the previous section. In it, you’ll find files that are named like this: 140307_151403_usa_4_p-36c_16_fortress.wowpreplay

The filename is not random; it contains the following information:

• 140307 – date of the recorded battle, in the format YYMMDD 
• 151403 – time of the recording, in the format HHMMSS 
• usa_4_p-36c – nation, tier and plane model that was used 
• 16_fortress – name of the map the battle took place on

Then, simply double-click on the replay file that you want to view.

If the replay doesn’t open for you, try using the “Open with…”-command by right-clicking on the file and selecting the WorldOfWarplanes.exe from your game’s root directory.

How to control playback

• As in the game normally, hold down the right mouse button and move the cursor to enter the Free Camera mode
• Hold down the right mouse button and use the mouse wheel to make the camera zoom in or out

• Hold down the Ctrl key to make the replay control panel appear:

• 1 – Go back to the beginning of the recording. Alternate keyboard key: Home
• 2 – Go back 20 seconds. Alternate keyboard key: Left Arrow. Shift + Left Arrow will jump back 40 seconds
• 3 – Slow down the playback. Alternate keyboard key: Down Arrow
• 4 – Pause/un-pause the replay playback. Alternate keyboard key: Space
• 5 – Speed up the replay playback. Alternate keyboard key: Up Arrow
• 6 – Jump ahead 20 seconds. Alternate keyboard key: Right Arrow. Shift + Right Arrow will jump forward 40 seconds
• 7 – Jump ahead to the end of the recording. Alternate keyboard key: End

The same keyboard commands that are available in the regular game are also valid in the replays:

• Ctrl+Home turns off the interface
• Pause Break takes a screenshot in .png format

Note that the replay only saves the action around the plane that you were actually following in the battle. When you go into the postmortem view in the replay, the camera will switch to the plane that you subsequently locked-on to during the battle that you’re viewing. So far, there is no option to jump to planes other than those that you actually followed. This could change in the future as the game develops further.

Using the dedicated replay functions will not only allow you to view your replays, but also jump directly to the specific moment in the game that you are looking for. You’ll also be able to slow down the playback in order to gain a better view of everything that is going on. Use the Free Camera mode to rotate the camera around your plane, freeze time, and create awesome-looking screenshots that are unobstructed by the game’s interface.

Take a look at the gallery below to see some screenshots that have been created using the Update 1.2 replay feature!