The tool records inputs into a movie file which has a .ltm extension. It is actually a tar.gz archive which contains four 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]
game_name=SuperMeatBoy ; name of the game executable
md5=a6fa991f40ef518b302a4a492af7259c ; md5 hash of the game executable
frame_count=81 ; frame count of the movie file
mouse_support=true ; are mouse inputs sent to the game
nb_controllers=0 ; up to 4 controllers are supported
initial_time_sec=1 ; number of seconds of the initial system time
initial_time_nsec=0 ; number of nanoseconds of the initial system time
length_sec=52 ; number of seconds of movie length
length_nsec=733333333 ; number of nanoseconds of movie length
framerate_num=60 ; numerator of the number of frames per second
framerate_den=1 ; denominator of the number of frames per second
rerecord_count=0
authors=me ; authors of the movie
libtas_major_version=1
libtas_minor_version=4
libtas_patch_version=0
savestate_frame_count=13 ; savestate frame for savestate movies
auto_restart=false ; does the game restarts automatically when closed
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

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 two settings 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

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 send 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

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....

Controllers

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, Y buttons
  • 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

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........

Framerate

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

Annotations

The third file is the annotations.txt text file, containing movie annotations.

Editor

The last file is editor.ini, containing informations for the input editor. It consists of a list of key/value pairs. The first section input_names contains the order and name of single inputs in the editor. The second section nondraw_frames stores the list of non-draw frames, so that they are shown in the input editor. Here is an example of such a file:

[input_names]
1\input=@Variant(\0\0\0\x7f\0\0\0\fSingleInput\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\xffQ)
1\name=Left
2\input=@Variant(\0\0\0\x7f\0\0\0\fSingleInput\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\xffS)
2\name=Right
3\input=@Variant(\0\0\0\x7f\0\0\0\fSingleInput\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\xffR)
3\name=Up
4\input=@Variant(\0\0\0\x7f\0\0\0\fSingleInput\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\xffT)
4\name=Down
5\input=@Variant(\0\0\0\x7f\0\0\0\fSingleInput\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0x)
5\name=x
6\input=@Variant(\0\0\0\x7f\0\0\0\fSingleInput\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0z)
6\name=z
size=6

[nondraw_frames]
1\frame=1
2\frame=3
3\frame=6
4\frame=48
5\frame=60
6\frame=102
7\frame=103
8\frame=105
size=8