The tool records inputs into a movie file which has a
.ltm extension. It is actually a tar.gz archive which contains three text files.
Config
The first one is
config.ini, containing all meta-data of the movie file. It consists of a list of key/value pairs. Here is an example of such a file, with added comments:
[General] authors=me ; authors of the movie auto_restart=false ; does the game restarts automatically when closed frame_count=81 ; frame count of the movie file framerate_den=1 ; denominator of the number of frames per second framerate_num=60 ; numerator of the number of frames per second game_name=SuperMeatBoy ; name of the game executable initial_time_nsec=0 ; number of nanoseconds of the initial system time initial_time_sec=1 ; number of seconds of the initial system time keyboard_support=true ; are keyboard inputs sent to the game length_nsec=733333333 ; number of nanoseconds of movie length length_sec=52 ; number of seconds of movie length libtas_major_version=1 libtas_minor_version=3 libtas_patch_version=6 md5=a6fa991f40ef518b302a4a492af7259c ; md5 hash of the game executable mouse_support=true ; are mouse inputs sent to the game nb_controllers=0 ; up to 4 controllers are supported rerecord_count=0 savestate_frame_count=13 ; savestate frame for savestate movies variable_framerate=true ; is the user allowed to change framerate
; Time hack values
[mainthread_timetrack] clock=-1 clock_gettime=-1 gettimeofday=-1 sdl_getperformancecounter=-1 sdl_getticks=-1 time=-1
[secondarythread_timetrack] clock=-1 clock_gettime=-1 gettimeofday=-1 sdl_getperformancecounter=-1 sdl_getticks=-1 time=-1
[General] authors=me ; authors of the movie frame_count=81 ; frame count of the movie file framerate_den=1 ; denominator of the number of frames per second framerate_num=60 ; numerator of the number of frames per second game_name=SuperMeatBoy ; name of the game executable initial_time_nsec=0 ; number of nanoseconds of the initial system time initial_time_sec=1 ; number of seconds of the initial system time keyboard_support=true ; are keyboard inputs sent to the game libtas_major_version=1 libtas_minor_version=3 libtas_patch_version=0 mouse_support=true ; are mouse inputs sent to the game nb_controllers=0 ; up to 4 controllers are supported rerecord_count=0 savestate_frame_count=13 ; savestate frame for savestate movies
; Time hack values
[mainthread_timetrack] clock=-1 clock_gettime=-1 gettimeofday=-1 sdl_getperformancecounter=-1 sdl_getticks=-1 time=-1
[secondarythread_timetrack] clock=-1 clock_gettime=-1 gettimeofday=-1 sdl_getperformancecounter=-1 sdl_getticks=-1 time=-1
Inputs
The second file is the
inputs text file. In this file, each line that starts with the character '|' is an input frame.
The content of one line depends on the three settings keyboard_support, mouse_support and nb_controllers above.
The line is a concatenation of sections for each device. Each section starts with '
|' followed by a identifier.
Keyboard starts with '
|K', followed by a list of Xlib KeySym (u32) values of each pressed key. They are encoded into an hex string and separated by the ':' character. The list is unordered, the order of the events that will be sent to the game for a single frame is arbitrary. If this section is not present, the default value for the keyboard is no pressed keys. Example: |Kffe1:20:ff53
Mouse starts with '
|M', followed by mouse inputs in the format: xpos:ypos:X:12345. xpos and ypos are x and y coordinates of the pointer (i32) in decimal strings (can be negative). The reference mode of these coordinates are described by X, which is a single character, either A (absolute coordinates) or R (relative coordinates). This is followed by 5 characters which are either a digit if the corresponding mouse button is pressed, or the character '.'. When decoding the file, the code only checks if the character is a '.' or not. If this section is not present, default value is 0,0 absolute coords and no button pressed. Example: |M202:264:A:1....
Each controller starts with '
|C' then the controller number (between 1 and 4). The controller inputs are in the format: axis_left_x:axis_left_y:axis_right_x:axis_right_y:trigger_left:trigger_right:ABXYbgs()[]udlr. The first 6 values are the axis values (i16) encoded in decimal strings. Then each character is either a button character or '.', indicating if the corresponding button was pressed or not. The order of the buttons are:
-
A,B,X,Ybuttons - back (
b), guide (g) and start (s) buttons - left stick (
() and right stick ()) - left shoulder (
[}}) and right shoulder ({{]) - dpad up (
u), down (d), left (l) and right (r)
If this section is not present, default value is 0 for axes and no button pressed. Example:
|C1-3977:-89:0:0:0:0:A..............
Flags starts with '
|F', followed by the format R1234ILUO. Each character is either a flag character or '.':
-
R: reset input -
1,2,3,4: controller X was attached -
I,L,U,O: controller X was detached
If this section is not present, default value is no flag. Example:
|FR........
When variable_framerate is enabled, we need to specify the framerate of each frame. Starts with '
|T', followed by num:den. num and den are the framerate numerator/denominator (u32). If this section is not present, default value is the metadata value. Example: |T60:1
If
keyboard_support=1, a list of Xlib KeySym (u32) values of each pressed key is appended to the line. They are encoded into an hex string and separated by the ':' character. The list ends with the '|' character.
If
mouse_support=1, mouse inputs in the format: xpos:ypos:12345 are appended to the line. xpos and ypos are x and y coordinates of the pointer (i32) in decimal strings (can be negative). This is followed by 5 characters which are either a digit if the corresponding mouse button is pressed, or the character '.'. When decoding the file, the code only checks if the character is a '.' or not. The list ends with the '|' character.
For each controller from 1 to
nb_controllers, the corresponding controller inputs is appended to the line, in the format: axis_left_x:axis_left_y:axis_right_x:axis_right_y:trigger_left:trigger_right:ABXYbgs()[]udlr. The first 6 values are the axis values (i16) encoded in decimal strings. Then each character is either a button character or '.', indicating if the corresponding button was pressed or not. The order of the buttons are:
-
A,B,X,Ybuttons - back (
b), guide (g) and start (s) buttons - left stick (
() and right stick ()) - left shoulder (
[}}) and right shoulder ({{]) - dpad up (
u), down (d), left (l) and right (r)
Each controller inputs end with the '
|' character.
Annotations
The third file is the
annotations.txt text file, containing movie annotations.