I’ve decided to dedicate some posts to the processing of Demo files for Machinima, there is a bit of info out there regarding this topic, but its all a bit patchy, I figure it would be good to have all the information consolidated and referenced (read linked) in the one place.
For anyone who is starting out with demo recording, editing and exporting in the Source engine, I recommend you first read the Valve Wiki on demo recording tools. Its a good starting point for learning some of the lingo and concepts.
Though the demo system may seem daunting at first, my experiences are that once you get hands on and dive in, it all becomes fairly straight forward very quickly. Though there may be some seemingly random occurrences in replaying demos, they are negligible and most problems you will notice, turn out to be not so random, but rather, consistent. Most problems, have workarounds and will become just another part of the work flow (at least they have for me).
From personal experience, the demo files are restricted to recording players and live objects (further referred to as entities) within line of sight of the client (you) recording the demo. Though it seems a bit hazy to the exact method the process uses to define what is recorded and what is not, perhaps there is some proximity variable or it may just be the inherent buggy-ness of the demo recording/editing process. It has become clear to me that this restriction of what is recorded is not so much to reduce demo file sizes, but to hinder or stop wall-hacking.
So on these conditions I base my starting tips to recording demos (with Machinima in mind). Using the console (activated in game from Options>Keyboard>Advanced, be sure to check the “Enable Developer Console” giving access to the console where the “record [filename]” command is made. As stated in an earlier post, I recommend you use naming conventions to help you manage your demo’s later in the editing process. The more organisation/management done during shooting the more productive you will be in post which is when you will already have enough on your plate besides file management and sifting through a bunch of demo files not knowing which take was the decent one.
Once recording, your demo will record from your point of view, including your hud and playermodel (these can be hidden later) along with and in game chat/audio received (note this does not include your own voice transmissions). Be sure to keep close to the action that you want to record, but DO NOT be involved in said action, you are to be a passive recorder of the events you desire. I find that if you have still shots, its best to frame them in the demos and then roll camera, but if you know you are going to need to change the camera angles in demo smoother, then you can either frame a nice shot, or just stand idly by and do a total repositioning of the camera at a later stage. From here, you should have enough information to go shoot some demos, and I recommend you do just that. The next post will follow up on what to do next.
Part two coming soon.
T
Tags used on this post:
X .dem X demo drive function X demo files X demo recording tools X demo smoother X how to record a demo X machinima X source engine X VAC X valve demo problem X wall-hacking X wall-hacks X wallhacking X wallhac
