[Kde-games-devel] Reproducing random numbers

[Kevin Krammer]

On Tuesday 14 April 2009, Ian Wadham wrote:

> I was hoping to avoid that (using the KISS principle).  I am trying to get
> a reproducible playback from just the player's inputs and the random number
> stream.  Another approach might be to record the outputs (sprite moves) and
> make the playback a movie, rather than actual play.

At the moment of recording both variant should more or less render the same 
result.
However, they are fundamentally different in nature.

One of them I'd call an input recording, the other one output recording.
An output recording will always display what the user has seen, an input 
recording will display whatever the application currently does with the 
input.

Input recordings are often used to test for regressions, e.g. if you record 
the inputs while you play a level and you reach a certain score, you can 
replay the input after any change to the code or level and check whether you 
would still reach the same one.

Input recordings are also nice for "what-if" scenarios, i.e. replaying up to a 
certain point but then taking over control of the user input and check what 
would have been the outcome if you did certain steps differently.

Cheers,
Kevin

-- 
Kevin Krammer, KDE developer, xdg-utils developer
KDE user support, developer mentoring
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