ABSTRACT
This chapter lay outs the architecture of the in-game recorder system used internally in the creation of AAA games developed by Activision Treyarch. The recording of object data must have minimal to no impact on the speed of the game simulation, the memory requirements of the system must be fixed, and the recording of object data must have no impact on the outcome of simulating objects. With these requirements taken into consideration, the chapter describes the detail each of the main components used to create an in-game recording system, as well as the practical uses of debugging AI using recorded debug information in tandem with navigating through playback, also known as scrubbing through playback. In addition to in-game debugging with the recorder, external AI tools tapped directly into the recorder's current timestamp. Scrubbing forward and backward in time works on a completely different principle than the game world's time.
