Demo upload automation

[MatrixCL]

I have a dream...which is based on N++, a platform game where you need to collect as many points as possible, check waypoints and finish as fast as possible (time substracts points). Whenever you completed a level, your replay is uploaded automatically, and in the game you can check all other players their personal best, see the world records, and replay those runs.

 

See where I'm going?

 

There is a DSDA source port already now. It is possible to implement something like that. You fill in your username and password in the settings, and whenever you're done with the map or episode, you submit. Then the game checks for which speedrun type you met the requirements and uploads it. Then you can see e.g. that you're in the top XX% best of the world.

 

The main goal here is that everyone who wishes could send in their personal best. Because right now it still seems DSDA is actually meant for new records. You may upload non-WR-demos (which I just did for Valiant), but if everyone would start submitting their personal best for all possible PWAD's, there wouldn't be enough capacity to process all of them.

 

It's a far fetch, but this could be implemented step by step, or agile if you will. The first step would be an API, through which demos can be uploaded; current administrators could already make use of that. Then make a user registration system on the DSDA website, so people can do it themselves. As a full-stack web developer, those two steps are something I could help out with. And then we can implement it in the game, where we add an "save & submit" option. We can start having this option only for the classic Doom and Doom2 WAD's, and later on find a way to detect which PWAD. And who knows, much later we can allow people to register in the game, see the list of demo's and watch replays from there.

 

Just a thought. :) Wondering what yous think of it.

[Dimon12321]

It was invented a long time ago. IIRC, there's a DD somewhere in Discord which describes most of the requirements. All we need are some skilled, reliable and enthusiastic programmers who would implement all these in code.

Edited May 29, 2021 by Dimon12321

[GoneAway]

DSDA already has an api, that's how all the demos are uploaded. And it already has accounts, that's how the maintainers authenticate for the api. Automatic validation of demos is the hard part, which we're currently working on. There are all kinds of problems associated with that, none of which are coming from the web development side. Some of the things you said are already on the roadmap, like being able to browse & download demos from inside dsda-doom, but the overall proposal isn't something I see happening.

 

Unfortunately the main outcome I imagine would be adding a lot of noise (and expense) on dsda that mostly benefits the more casual players.

[MatrixCL]

Alright, nice to hear things are in the pipeline. :) Being fairly new here, it's tricky to catch all the things that are happening already, so sorry for the redundancy.

 

The reason I mention it, and why I do not see it as noise, is that it's fun for people to have runs that are comparable to their level. Now we only see the best of the best, and casual players like me see an impossible mountain to climb. But if there are an abundance of runs, you can actually a way to improve yourself, which is generally the goal and fun of gaming in general. And you can implement a ranking.

 

A way to see through the noise is to just show the top three best results for a certain PWAD, map and speedrun category, with a button/link "see more" where you can see all the other submitted demos. That way all people can upload their best results without cluttering the list.

 

Also some people have multiple entries. Those may be interesting for the top, but in general my idea was some sort of a ranking among players. (per category, PWAD, or whatever you can sort and filter on)

[GoneAway]

"it's fun for people to have runs that are comparable to their level"

 

Since you mentioned that you're new here, I'll tell you some of the ways we already address this kind of thing.

 

- We do demo packs for new wads regularly where everyone in the discord is invited to compete on fresh maps. These tend to attract some new players and players of various skill levels, so you can either focus on completing things that haven't been done yet, or competing with other players at your level in an environment where the maps aren't "solved" yet.

- We have "demo month" contests with various conditions and gimmicks aimed at giving options to players of different levels.

- In general, this community has incredible support for "table filling" which is completing runs for maps that don't have any yet. Putting out a uv max for a map that doesn't have one for instance is going to be welcomed with open arms and support no matter what your skill level is. So while tackling iwad records may be an imposing prospect, there are plenty of open areas for new players to make an impact, and this is a common entryway.

 

Hiding runs on dsda is an idea that comes up from time to time, but it's basically the opposite of the current philosophy of the site, so I don't see it happening any time soon. As far as "some sort of a ranking among players. (per category, PWAD, or whatever you can sort and filter on)", that already exists: see https://dsdarchive.com/wads/doom2/leaderboard for example.

[MatrixCL]

Great, thanks for the info! I guess I should get more active on the Discord channel then. :)