What is sc2pp?

sc2pp is a tool and programming library to extract and analyze replay files made by Blizzard Entertainment's Starcraft II game. Inspired by awesome projects such as phpsc2replay, sc2reader and sc2gears, the main focus of sc2pp is for users to be able to parse thousands of replays in about a second, i.e. performance. This is why it is implemented in C++ with the help of libmpq (a C library for parsing MPQ files) and Boost.Spirit (a C++ framework for writing compile time parsers). Currently, sc2pp is available as a standalone set of command line tools, a library that can be linked against, or a python module. A PHP module is also planned in the near future, so stay tuned.

How to install?

The source code is (and will always be) available to anyone from the repository. I plan to release binaries for various linux distros and windows in the future, although this will require a significant extra effort, so it is not yet done. The preferred way to install is through the zero-install feed (if you haven't heard of zero-install, I encourage you to visit http://0install.net - it is an awesome concept). Failing that, your only option is to download and compile sc2pp on your own.

Okay, so how to compile?

Assuming you are on a modern Linux distribution, (apart from the essential tools like a C++ compiler) you will need CMake, the Boost libraries (and header files), GMP (and header files), zlib, bz2 and optionally libmpq (although you can opt use the version bundled with sc2pp). On a recent Ubuntu distro, this means these packages:

cmake libboost-dev libboost-date-time-dev libboost-program-options-dev libgmp10 libgmp-dev zlib1g libbz2-1.0 build-essential

Once you have the dependencies, building and installing sc2pp should be a simple process:

1. Clone the git repository from github:

    git clone git://github.com/zsol/sc2pp.git
   

2. If you wish to use the bundled libmpq, make sure to pull that down, too:

    cd sc2pp; git submodule init; git submodule update
   

3. Create a temporary build directory somewhere:

    mkdir build; cd build
   

4. Create the build infrastructure:

    cmake [path_to_sc2pp_source]
   

5. Start the build:

    make
   

6. If everything went well, you should be able to install the generated binaries and header files:

    sudo make install
   

The tools

Building the tools can be switched off by adding "-DBUILD_TOOLS=OFF" to the cmake command in the build instructions. There are several tools built by default:

• mpqinfo is able to tell you diagnostics about the MPQ file itself; it is useful for normal MPQ files as well as SC2Replay files.

• mpqunpack can extract the contents of an MPQ file. As with "mpqinfo", this can also be used on any MPQ file, including SC2Replay files.

• sc2details extracts some general information from a replay file, like the players' names, the map they played on, or when the game took place.

• sc2messages extracts the chat messages from a replay file.

• sc2events parses the game events (actions, screen movement, selections, etc.).

• sc2replay does everything the other "sc2" prefixed tools do.

The library

By default a shared library called "libsc2pp.so" (on linux) is generated for you. TODO header files, linkage, api documentation

Using it from Python

Add "-DBUILD_PYTHON=ON" to the cmake command arguments. TODO python versions, how to use, distutils...

Using it from PHP

Not yet implemented, stay tuned :)