> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.marioded.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.marioded.com/reference/architecture.md).

# How recordings work

Understand what a recording contains and how recorder, player, and lobby work together.

Reverse separates capturing gameplay, storing a recording, and watching it. That lets you start on one server and later move to a network without changing how players choose a replay.

## From match to replay

```mermaid
flowchart LR
  Game[Gameplay] --> Recorder[Recorder]
  Recorder --> Storage[(Recordings and terrain)]
  Storage --> Player[Player]
  Player --> Viewers[Replay viewers]
```

The recorder saves the starting scene and supported actions. The player loads that data and shows the scene to viewers. The original gameplay world does not need to remain loaded on the viewing server.

## What is saved?

| Data             | Why it matters                                                                              |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Replay details   | Name, description, owners, and recording time are shown in the catalog.                     |
| Recorded actions | Movement, block changes, and other supported activity form the playback timeline.           |
| Starting terrain | Provides the world before those changes happen. It is stored separately from replay events. |

Keep the complete dataset when moving or backing up recordings. A `.rpl` event file alone is not the entire starting world.

## Capture and saving are separate steps

Stopping a recording ends capture immediately. Saving can take longer, so wait for the completion result before offering the replay to viewers.

A degraded result means the actions were saved but terrain was unavailable. A failed save is a different outcome. Integrations should handle both rather than treating every stop as a ready-to-watch replay.

## Watching a recording

A viewing session has a current position, pause state, and speed. Several viewers can share the same session, in which case they share its controls. Separate sessions allow independent watching of the same recording.

Seeking jumps to the scene at a different point. It does not modify the original gameplay world or replay every sound from the skipped time.

## Adding a lobby

The lobby shows accessible recordings, finds an available replay server, and asks the proxy to move the viewer there. The player server then opens the selected recording.

Shared recording storage and online-server coordination do different jobs: SQL can provide the common archive, while SQL or Redis can coordinate transfers.

{% content-ref url="/pages/sw2rn3Xw68PPxoBh1DT1" %}
[Lobby and proxy setup](/use-reverse/network.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}


---

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