How to watch a replay ?

[gzou]

Hi newbie here.

I wanted to watch a replay found on this forum
(from Omnom's Experimental Balance Changes)

But when opening RA I didn't see it under the avalaible replays.
I copied the replay file under ".openra/Replays/ra/release-20170527/"
The replay did appear but it is unplayable.
The "watch" button stay grey.
Do I need something else in order to play it ?

I added a screenshot.

Note I didn't found anything in the game wiki (https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/FAQ) maybe we could add an entry there ?

[FiveAces]

You do not have the map in question, hence why the game does not parse the replay. If you want to get the map, open the replay file in an advanced text editor and scroll all the way down - close to the end, there should be a text string stating "MapID = xxxxx" where xxxxx is a string of random characters and numbers. Copy that string into the search field of http://resource.openra.net/maps/ and download the corresponding file.
Put the file into your map folder and restart the game - you should now be able to see the replay.

[gzou]

Thanks that worked ! The map was in the replay thread.

[Sleipnir]

The next release will make this a bit friendlier by letting you install maps directly from the replay browser: