s2protocol.NET 0.9.6

Introduction

dotnet/C# implementation of Blizzards s2protocol for decoding/parsing StarCraft II replays (*.SC2Replay)

Getting started

Installation

dotnet add package s2protocol.NET

Usage

Decode from file path

ReplayDecoder decoder = new();
Sc2Replay? replay = await decoder.DecodeAsync(pathToSC2Replay);
Console.WriteLine(replay?.Header.BaseBuild);

Decode from stream

ReplayDecoder decoder = new();

await using FileStream stream = File.OpenRead(pathToSC2Replay);

Sc2Replay? replay = await decoder.DecodeAsync(stream);

Console.WriteLine(replay?.Header.BaseBuild);

Optional options:

ReplayDecoder decoder = new();

ReplayDecoderOptions options = new ReplayDecoderOptions()
{
    Initdata = true,
    Details = true,
    Metadata = true,
    GameEvents = false,
    MessageEvents = false,
    TrackerEvents = true,
    AttributeEvents = false
};

CancellationTokenSource cts = new();

Sc2Replay? replay = await decoder.DecodeAsync(pathToSC2Replay, options, cts.Token);
Console.WriteLine(replay.TrackerEvents.SUnitBornEvents.FirstOrDefault());

Known Limitations / ToDo

GameEvents

STriggerSoundLengthSyncEvent ⇒ no data SControlGroupUpdateEvent ⇒ no mask No BigInteger support

s2cli

A .NET global tool that emulates Blizzard's s2_cli.exe, powered by s2protocol.NET.
It decodes .SC2Replay files and prints structured JSON output.

⚙️ Built with .NET 10 and System.CommandLine.
🔍 Output is always JSON or NDJSON.

Installation

dotnet tool install -g s2cli

Usage

s2cli --replay path/to/game.SC2Replay [options]

Benchmark

Decode-only process comparison using test6.SC2Replay (base build 88500). Each target decodes the same replay once per process, materializes the decoded object graph, prints only a compact summary, and keeps the decoded data alive until exit. Results are 5 process launches on Windows 11 / .NET 10.

ChangeLog

<details open="open"><summary>v0.9.6</summary>

• Add missing GameEvent types
• Add new s2protocol versions with deduplication

</details>

<details><summary>v0.9.4</summary>

• Improved performance/momory usage
• MPQArchive.ReadFile(Async) now returns ReadOnlyMemory<byte> instead of byte[]

</details>

<details><summary>v0.9.3</summary>

• replaced runtime protocol*.py parsing with generated compact JSON protocol resources
• moved Python protocol files to the S2ProtocolJsonGenerator tool
• reduced protocol resource payload and optimized version fallback lookup
• marked built-in parallel decoding helpers obsolete; prefer DecodeAsync with caller-owned parallelism

</details>

<details><summary>v0.9.2</summary>

• improved protocol decoding performance by replacing reflection-based dispatch with prebuilt decoder metadata
• reduced MPQ decompression allocations by passing expected output lengths
• optimized tracker event parsing and unit connection mapping
• replay metadata deserialization now uses the generated JSON serializer context
• refactored public replay and event models from records to sealed classes
• ReplayDecoder.Dispose() no longer forces GC.Collect()
• added BenchmarkDotNet benchmarks and optional Direct Strike stress replay tests

</details>

<details><summary>v0.9.1.1</summary>

• update to dotnet 10
• add decoding from stream

</details>

<details><summary>v0.9.0</summary>

• Breaking Changes
• removed requirement for IronPython

</details>

<details><summary>v0.8.4</summary>

• s2protocol v5.0.14.93333.0

</details>

<details><summary>v0.8.3</summary>

• s2protocol v5.0.14.93272.0

</details>

<details><summary>v0.8.2</summary>

• s2protocol v5.0.13.92440.0

</details>

<details><summary>v0.8.0</summary>

Breaking Changes

• dotnet 8
• SC2 Patch 5.0.13 - s2protocol 92028
• PingMessageEvents

</details>

<details><summary>v0.8.0-rc1.0</summary>

Breaking Changes

• dotnet 8
• removed logging
• improved error handling

</details>

<details><summary>v0.6.12</summary>

• Protocol 91115

</details>

<details><summary>v0.6.11</summary>

• Protocol 90136

</details>

<details><summary>v0.6.10</summary>

• Protocol 89720

</details>

<details><summary>v0.6.9</summary>

• Protocol 89634
• Fix Gametime to UTC

</details>

<details><summary>v0.6.8</summary>

• Catch UnitIndex BigInteger
• New parallel decoding with ErrorReport: decoder.DecodeParallelWithErrorReport
• Parallel decoding tests

</details>

<details><summary>v0.6.7</summary>

• Catch Currupted Trackerevents
• Protocoll 88500 fix

</details>

<details><summary>v0.6.6</summary>

• Call GC.Collect() in dispose to release file locks
• Disabled default console-logging
• Added Test for protocol 88500 (5.0.10)

</details>

<details><summary>v0.6.5</summary>

• Save full path in FileName

</details>

<details><summary>v0.6.4</summary>

• Patch 5.0.9 - Protocol 87702

</details>

<details><summary>v0.6.3</summary>

• Python.StdLib to version 2.7.12
• JsonIgnore on UnitBorn ↔ UnitDied cycles

</details>

<details><summary>v0.6.2</summary>

• GameEvents
• AttributeEvents
• Tracker-Unit-Events mapping (Born → Died ...)
• Tracker-Unit-Events UnitIndex from protocol.unit_tag(index, recycle)

</details>

<details><summary>v0.6.1</summary>

• Fixed some types (nullable/BigInteger/long)
• Initdata is now available
• Json de-/serialization

</details>

<details><summary>v0.6.0</summary>

• Init

</details>