test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

Unofficial Guide to using demo_record for Machinimas

124

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Is there any new development on this feature? I can record and stop recording but I am unsure if I have the proper command to play back my recording. Old Praey here needs the EXACT command so he can get it right, ha-ha! Any help would be appreciated folks :D

    Disregard folks, found the video :P
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    psigar wrote:
    When using the ingame voice chat, your character mouth moves when you speak into your mic. When using demo_record the mouth animation does not show up.
    example: in my Christmas video two characters are supposed to be having a conversation (using the ingame chat for the mouth animation), and I use demo_record to record that scene. Then when I play the scene back, the mouth animation does not appear, the characters are just standing there.
    If I Frap the scene, of course the animation is there. So my question is - is there something missing (i.e. user error) or is this a bug in demo_record?

    Just checked this.

    Those animation events are not being parsed by the demo recorder. Unfortunately, we're going to have to catch this ingame with traditional capture.

    Note to development: Want Entity Talk track on timeline or capture talk animations.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Thanks. That's what I was afraid of. I wanted to make sure before I shot my Christmas video.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    Finally had time to sit down and do some editing. Working on a video I did with my girlfriend not too long ago. I'm experimenting with some of my video editing softwares effects. I SHOULD have that new video up by the end of the day. Being a silver player will take some getting used to so:confused: Until I pick up the specialist AT there won't be any "Shift" videos for a while.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    Looking forward to it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    Champions Online: Heroes Live Here

    Hope you lot like it. Back to the race to level 40 for now :D
    :cool:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    Neat timescaling. I like it.

    Which technique did you use to remove the workspace ui? Did you crop?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    Yes sir I just cropped it in my video editor. Next time I'm gioing to set the FOV wider so I can crop the time indicators on the top right out of the video and still get enough action in the shots.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Hey Brou, is there a way to get things like character names, life bars, etc in demo_record, or does that only come through in gameplay? I want to use demorecord for some PvP videos, but for that I think you really need to see names and lifebars.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Just got your message.

    Let me see if I can enable nameplates somehow.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    I hadn't seen it yet, and maybe I am missing something COMPLETELY...but would anyone be able to point me in the direction of making sure effects that are happening as far as environment while in game recording stay put when playing back the demo? For example...with Bloodmoon going on right now, the purple-ish fog creates a desirable effect for me, on top of that, recording at "night" in MC. However, when I go to playback the demo, it is day time, and no fog (except for the distanced fog, which I know where that is to turn on/off.

    Any help is appreciated.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    cyreeo wrote:
    Hey Brou, is there a way to get things like character names, life bars, etc in demo_record, or does that only come through in gameplay? I want to use demorecord for some PvP videos, but for that I think you really need to see names and lifebars.

    Dug through all of the console commands and debug panels.

    I am not able to get the UI to appear, unfortunately.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    awwhownice wrote:
    I hadn't seen it yet, and maybe I am missing something COMPLETELY...but would anyone be able to point me in the direction of making sure effects that are happening as far as environment while in game recording stay put when playing back the demo? For example...with Bloodmoon going on right now, the purple-ish fog creates a desirable effect for me, on top of that, recording at "night" in MC. However, when I go to playback the demo, it is day time, and no fog (except for the distanced fog, which I know where that is to turn on/off.

    Any help is appreciated.

    Not sure about the event FX (those are highly problematic in MC and there isn't a clear fix for it yet.) but to make sure it is night time, open your demo in a text editor and change this line:

    startWorldTime 0
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Brou wrote:
    Not sure about the event FX (those are highly problematic in MC and there isn't a clear fix for it yet.) but to make sure it is night time, open your demo in a text editor and change this line:

    startWorldTime 0

    That is a huge help...thanks!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Brou wrote:
    startWorldTime 0

    awww yeah! Learn something new everyday :D
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laOlzpLBPfM

    Made this little number a while back. Thought I'd share. Wish I used camera paths more but I was too lazy to figure it out. Brou! Want guide!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    I'm going to make an "Intro to Timeline" first. Unless something horrific happens, I have some time thanks to Spring Break.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Brou wrote:
    Dug through all of the console commands and debug panels.

    I am not able to get the UI to appear, unfortunately.

    Thanks for searching anyway :)

    I did this demo of a BASH match a couple weeks back. Had fun with the playback speed:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x87_peBhyzE
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Grrr! Since I always have to switch keyboard settings... The tilde never seems to work on my keyboard.

    (Yeah, Got to switch from my native language all the times since I'm one. But it seems I cannot do it while the game is running already I noticed once.)

    Any alternate way to access the console?

    I at least got better in Cam path, except that when I do pause the frame I'm on is not automatically following for the cam. (Got troubles also to do slight rewinds :S)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Grrr! Since I always have to switch keyboard settings... The tilde never seems to work on my keyboard.

    (Yeah, Got to switch from my native language all the times since I'm one. But it seems I cannot do it while the game is running already I noticed once.)

    Any alternate way to access the console?

    I at least got better in Cam path, except that when I do pause the frame I'm on is not automatically following for the cam. (Got troubles also to do slight rewinds :S)

    I tried /bind to assign /console to a numpad key, but it does not seem to be working. I am still looking for a solution.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Cool Brou. :)


    Thank you. Anyway, if I can't do fluid videotype of things... I have to admit just that Demorecord helps a LOT having nice screenshots ^^.

    I can't wait your next Video Tutorials BTW. First was well done and helped greatly ^^
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    i type /demoplay into the command line and it doesn't work, what should i do? :/
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    i type /demoplay into the command line and it doesn't work, what should i do? :/

    Use a dash and not a slash.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Brou wrote:
    Use a dash and not a slash.
    haha ohh my bad -facepalm- thanks Brou.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    well I decided to mess around with Demorecord again. Seems to be a lot easier this time around than the last time I did something with it. Still having problems with the camera not fully panning unless I save and exit out. Oh well.

    My DJ Robot decided to turn it up in Caprice
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    Malvourus wrote:
    well I decided to mess around with Demorecord again. Seems to be a lot easier this time around than the last time I did something with it. Still having problems with the camera not fully panning unless I save and exit out. Oh well.

    My DJ Robot decided to turn it up in Caprice

    It's one of the reasons I am holding back on the camera tutorial. It almost always ends up with me apologizing for the bugs. :/


    Also: Great job on the video! If you're feeling courageous, right click on the left end of the timeline and try adding Field-of-view tracks and more. They tween just like camera path keys. You can have as many as you want.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited March 2012
    I've noticed that in open main instances I've always been unsuccessfull so far not to freeze computer on stopping the Demo Record (But they save some bits).

    I think that Caprice bit was great because I guess my computer can't hold much crowd/instance space cappacity.

    So, whatever I do, I best choose well where to do it ^^ (Got long absent from a team some day that way... I was recording shots in the desert where a gust of wind just trew the pets around in some location. Funny but... Just froze the system). Somehow RenCen just won't do it!
  • itsbrou#5396 itsbrou Posts: 1,778 Arc User
    edited July 2012
    Okay, back to life.

    This is @Brou, the original author of the thread.
    Brou in Cryptic games.
  • mdfymmdfym Posts: 2 Arc User
    edited July 2012
    Checking in too this is @RACE
  • stmothstmoth Posts: 284 Arc User
    edited July 2012
    Red 5 standing by..
  • josefkafkajosefkafka Posts: 8 Arc User
    edited July 2012
    Hi all!
    I've been playing with the demorecord function to do some machima. I'm aware of the ShowGameUI function to hide messages, but I still get XP popups (the little purple ones) when a toon defeats enemies in my demorecord files. Is there any way to suppress these? I've been into the console and wracked my brain for a command that might work, but haven't had any luck yet.

    Anyone know how to do this?
  • itsbrou#5396 itsbrou Posts: 1,778 Arc User
    edited July 2012
    josefkafka wrote: »
    Hi all!
    I've been playing with the demorecord function to do some machima. I'm aware of the ShowGameUI function to hide messages, but I still get XP popups (the little purple ones) when a toon defeats enemies in my demorecord files. Is there any way to suppress these? I've been into the console and wracked my brain for a command that might work, but haven't had any luck yet.

    Anyone know how to do this?

    I will dig for a command to suppress them. If I cannot, I will tell you how to manually remove all the xp events from the demo in text edit. :o
    Brou in Cryptic games.
  • josefkafkajosefkafka Posts: 8 Arc User
    edited July 2012
    I will dig for a command to suppress them. If I cannot, I will tell you how to manually remove all the xp events from the demo in text edit. :o

    Wow! Thank you so much. I appreciate the quick and friendly reply. I'll send you a few G or items in game as a thank you.

    Very much appreciated.

    All the best!
    @samsa1979
  • spellchekcspellchekc Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited July 2012
    I'td be so much sweeter to be able to import the art assets into source filmmaker :-(
    August 28th!
  • itsbrou#5396 itsbrou Posts: 1,778 Arc User
    edited July 2012
    I went and invoked "Showgameui 0" while the demo was playing and it suppressed notifications of rewards.

    Did you make sure to pause, throw that in the console, and resume?
    Brou in Cryptic games.
  • josefkafkajosefkafka Posts: 8 Arc User
    edited July 2012
    I went and invoked "Showgameui 0" while the demo was playing and it suppressed notifications of rewards.

    Did you make sure to pause, throw that in the console, and resume?

    Tried showgameui 0 and it does supress the big yellow popups, but not the little purple ones. :(

    Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I've uploaded a video showing what I mean to youtube. It's not a gamebreaker in terms of my ability to do the machinima, but just more annoying than anything (I can edit around it). The video quality of the upload isn't great, but you can see the purple popups in both videos (the second has showgameui set to 0).


    http://youtu.be/BAjAtmPtG0Y

    Any help, if possible, is appreciated. Or maybe I've borked that demo. I'll try another one and see if I can get rid of the UI messages.
  • itsbrou#5396 itsbrou Posts: 1,778 Arc User
    edited July 2012
    Looks like it is something related that does not turn off with that command.


    Showgameui 0 will block these messages.
    Messages
    {
    Time 10.250479
    Message <&NotifySendWithOrigin 20 "You received 10 Resources." "Resources" 10 7195.462890 235.463973 -1604.262939 &>
    Command 65537
    EntityRef 35520579
    }
    But something like this gets under the radar, yet is almost the exact same thing.
    Messages
    {
    Time 10.250479
    Message <&NotifySend 17 "XP +14" "" "" &>
    Command 65537
    EntityRef 35520579
    }
    I could not find a suitable command to suppress the XP popup :(

    Unfortunately, we are left with the dirty method, which is opening the .demo file in a text editor and removing the message, leaving empty quotes for it instead of the red text above, or assigning the TIME value to be at 0 or far into the future ahead of the scene.(risky)

    Use the keyword notifysend to help you find these entries in your demo.
    Brou in Cryptic games.
  • josefkafkajosefkafka Posts: 8 Arc User
    edited July 2012
    Thanks for the help!

    I really appreciate it. :)

    All the best!
  • itsbrou#5396 itsbrou Posts: 1,778 Arc User
    edited July 2012
    No problem. Let me know if you run into more problems.
    Brou in Cryptic games.
  • trychamtrycham Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited July 2012
    Hi guys, this is a great thread. I have a question regarding global playback speed.

    I know I can use left arrow to slow down speed such as x0.25. When I approach a scene, I pause then take a screenshot. However, when I resume, the playback speed always resets back to x1. What I want is to retain the global playback speed of x0.25. Is this possible? Thanks. You guys are amazing.
  • itsbrou#5396 itsbrou Posts: 1,778 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Just got around to this. Sorry for being late.
    I'm going to find this for you.

    UPDATE: Type this in the console:
    Timestepscale <int>

    Where <int> is a whole or non-whole number. As an example, typing
    Timestepscale .01

    will scale the time down to one hundredth of its normal speed and begin playback from pause this way.
    Brou in Cryptic games.
  • madsamuraimadsamurai Posts: 6 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Nice! I have to sit down at some point and think up another video. Anyone have one they want to share?
  • stmothstmoth Posts: 284 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Hey Brou, how do I find commands to make the characters do poses? Like the NPS emotes that we don't have access to.
  • itsbrou#5396 itsbrou Posts: 1,778 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    stmoth wrote: »
    Hey Brou, how do I find commands to make the characters do poses? Like the NPS emotes that we don't have access to.


    There was a command, but it didn't want to work because it expected me to have all the game assets extracted from the hogg and sprawled out in directories, and well...we can't do that.

    The other way is replacing poses in places that look like this:
    updates
    {
    EntityRef 33685551

    positions
    {
    Pos 71.997803, 1.939941, 25.322998
    Rot quat4 0, -0.484799, 0, 0.874626
    pyFace 0, 1.012267

    animBits
    {
    BitName Talk
    }
    }
    }
    EntityRef is you when you find out near the top of the demo just what number represents you.

    Positions contains your position in 3d space, as well as your model orientation angles.

    Animbits, the one you want, contains the name of an animation that the character is performing at the instant the update is called. The timestamp is a little way up the .demo file, and update is nested inside it.

    You can also look for your costume in the demo file and change the stance line.

    I do not have a comprehensive list of animations, but am trying to.
    Brou in Cryptic games.
  • bluhmanbluhman Posts: 2,410 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    The way I figured out how to hack it together was to just paste one of your costume files over an NPC entity doing the animation in question. After a bit of fooling around with some captured footage of an emote I'd really like to see, I got this.

    The problem with this method is that sometimes you replace the wrong NPC, since they're all identified by really long, esoteric numbers. So you end up getting stuff like earth dragons doing girly robot poses.

    Of course to bypass this all you could just paste the same costume file onto every NPC with the same name, but then you might end up feeling self-conflicted.

    And then you'll just paste 3 completely disparate costume data strings onto one skeleton and behold the horrors that result.

    EDIT: aaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
    How to block a user with μblock:
    forum.arcgames.com##.Comment:has(.CommentHeader:has-text(username))
    
  • vorshothvorshoth Posts: 596 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    bluhman wrote: »


    I am so tempted to crop that and make it my avatar around here.
    [SIGNATURE REDACTED]
  • madsamuraimadsamurai Posts: 6 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    vorshoth wrote: »
    I am so tempted to crop that and make it my avatar around here.


    awww The link seems to be broken :(

    Edit never mind got it. thats epic!
  • itsbrou#5396 itsbrou Posts: 1,778 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Brou in Cryptic games.
  • ellabelle1ellabelle1 Posts: 3 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    what do you do if you can't remember the name of the demo file you saved?
  • xvii013xvii013 Posts: 31 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    ellabelle1 wrote: »
    what do you do if you can't remember the name of the demo file you saved?

    You can directly access your demo files from the following location:

    Champions Online\Live\demos

    (Exact path depends on how you installed CO of course, but that's the usual directory)

    :smile:
Sign In or Register to comment.