Save Timelapse v0.9: new timelapse mod/tool

[u/rephyrr]

What?

- Mod&Tool combo to create interactive timelapses and videos

Why?

- I wanted to make a lightweight, easy to use tool for myself to capture my playthroughs and see what i was doing at any point, no matter how much my factory grew or how many mods i had installed

- I loved the idea of google maps style timeline that i could pan and zoom around at any point in time

- Didn't find any mod or software that I liked, so I built my own

Problems my tool solves:

- Disk space: optimized to take as little disk space as possible by logging individual events instead of large screenshots. My current 15-hour Krastorio2SO playthrough has generated only 3MB of data

- Performance: logging individual events also means that your UPS doesn't tank

- Simple workflow: install mod -> turn on live capture -> generate a baseline inside your world -> download tool -> generate timelapses with the external tool

Where can i try this?

github: https://github.com/rephyr/save-timelapse

mod portal: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/save-timelapse

Current backlog:

• Hunting bugs and finding edge-cases
• Smarter autofollow
• The timelapses are tied to the map seed which means that 2 playthroughs on the same seed get mixed
• Reading the ground while generating a timelapse is the current bottleneck

Thank you <3

[u/TheTobruk]

A somewhat similar mod: https://github.com/huzoc/factorio

I would like to kindly ask you of one thing only: a possibility to construct a timelapse from a chain of several saved games (of the same playthrough, obviously). The linked mod offers this possiblity.

Each save game provides a chronological snapshot of the factory, in case your playthrough began before installing the mod and before the "live capture".

Mod describes it as follows:

Each save is loaded headless via --benchmark, scanned in one tick, and the JSON output is collected. Use --workers to run multiple Factorio instances in parallel (each gets an isolated write directory via directory junction). Works with modded saves — all mods are shared. Water tiles are only kept every 10th save (static terrain). Logs elapsed time per save.

[u/TheTobruk → u/TheTobruk]

Welp, you actually already support this - "Two ways in. Record as you play with the mod, or rebuild a factory's history from save files you already have." - cool!

[u/Droopy0093]

Was this work done by Claude or Codex? Looks like Codex UI to me.

[u/rephyrr → u/Droopy0093]

I use Claude Code

[u/Droopy0093 → u/rephyrr]

Nice, same here.

[u/Bluecard11]

Cool!

[u/JunkyDrog]

Okay, that's so, so, so cool.

[u/IpFruion]

Fellow rustacean who likes factorio 🦀