Minimap Renderer

Generates minimap timelapse videos from World of Warships replay files (.wowsreplay).

Quick Start

There are two ways to provide game data to the renderer:

1. Direct game install (--game) -- point at a WoWs installation directory
2. Pre-extracted data (--extracted-dir) -- point at a lightweight dump of only the files the renderer needs

Option 2 is useful when you don't have the full game installed (e.g. CI, a server, or a friend's machine).

Usage

Rendering from a game installation

minimap_renderer \
  --game "C:\Games\World_of_Warships" \
  -o output.mp4 \
  replay.wowsreplay

Rendering from pre-extracted data

minimap_renderer \
  --extracted-dir /path/to/extracted_data \
  -o output.mp4 \
  replay.wowsreplay

The --extracted-dir can point to either:

• The version directory itself (e.g. extracted/15.1.0_11965230/)
• A parent directory containing version subdirectories -- the renderer will auto-detect and match the replay's build number

Creating Extracted Data with wows-data-mgr

The wows-data-mgr CLI manages game data downloads and can dump the subset of files the renderer needs.

Step 1: Register your game installation

If you have WoWs installed locally, register it so wows-data-mgr knows where to find game files:

# Register as "latest" -- always uses whatever build is currently installed
wows-data-mgr register --latest --path "C:\Games\World_of_Warships"

You can also register a specific version:

wows-data-mgr register --version 15.1 --path "C:\Games\World_of_Warships"

Verify it was registered:

wows-data-mgr list

Step 2: Dump renderer data

Extract only the files the renderer needs into a portable directory:

# Dump the latest available build
wows-data-mgr dump-renderer-data --latest -o ./extracted

# Or dump a specific version
wows-data-mgr dump-renderer-data --version 15.1 -o ./extracted

# Or dump by build number
wows-data-mgr dump-renderer-data --build 11965230 -o ./extracted

This creates a directory like ./extracted/15.1.0_11965230/ containing:

15.1.0_11965230/
  metadata.toml              # version + build info
  game_params.rkyv           # serialized game parameters
  translations/en/LC_MESSAGES/
    global.mo                # ship name translations
  vfs/                       # extracted game files
    spaces/*/minimap.png     # map images (land layer)
    spaces/*/minimap_water.png
    spaces/*/space.settings  # map metadata
    content/gameplay/*/space.settings
    content/GameParams.data
    gui/fla/minimap/         # ship icons
    gui/battle_hud/          # plane, death, capture icons
    gui/consumables/         # consumable icons
    gui/powerups/drops/      # powerup icons
    gui/fonts/               # rendering fonts
    gui/data/constants/      # game constants
    scripts/entities.xml     # entity definitions
    scripts/entity_defs/     # entity def files

Only the files the renderer actually reads are extracted -- no map geometry, models, textures, or other large assets.

Step 3: Render

minimap_renderer \
  --extracted-dir ./extracted \
  -o output.mp4 \
  replay.wowsreplay

Renderer Options