Tool: Demo Player for STO Available for Download

rachelgarrett

PWEowned Rachel Garrett wrote:

After the PWE-Forum-nuking, I think I should restart this thread for those who need dev support:

Hi folks,

got tired of fiddling with shortcuts and the command line to play back demo files. So I made this little app, that should make life easier:

Star Trek Online Demo Launcher 2.9.6

Installation: You need Microsoft .Net Framework (at least version 3.5) to run the tool. Other than that, no installation is required.

Firewall settings: As of v 1.8.0 StoDemoLauncher wants to check with the sourceforge-server for updates every six hours (the first time directly after applicaton launch). If you do not want that, you can safely block its request using your firewall. No data is submitted, except for what the http protocol requires to download the current version information on this page. If a newer version of StoDemoLauncher is found, you are asked, if you want to visit the download page on sourceforge. That is all. You can safely block StoDemoLauncher with a software firewall and won't loose no functionality other than the auto-update. Since 2.9.0 you can disable the feature entirely in the Tools->Options menu.

Help

• Official Wiki and Help
• Detailed walk through of version 2.2
• Demorecord Tutorial video by Soriedem
• Original version of this post in from the old forums

Vanity

• STOked features StoDemoLauncher
• Sample of video rendered using the advanced settings from v2.7.2 (default settings)

Disclaimer: Be prepared for bugs. And backup your demo files! The tool is not developed, endorsed, supported, or affiliated in any way with Cryptic Studios, so please don't bug them about it. Also, use this at your own risk! I tested it with Win XP 32-Bit and Win 7 64-Bit and encountered no problems. But if you do, and it blows up your computer, that will be your problem and your problem alone . If you want to redistribute it, feel free to do so. I'm releasing it to the public domain as a birthday gift to the STO community. If you want to look at the source code, you can do so here.

I'd be glad to hear some feedback, bug reports, and feature requests.

Regards,
Rachel

P.S.: Thanks to CaptNeo, who setup the project at sourceforge.

darkstarkirian

don't forget to hit Branflakes up for a new stivky.

captrayvenwing

Thanks Rachel for all your work and for reposting this I had wanted to start learning how demorecord works.

Your my new hero

nxclass13

Demorecorded Mine Trap last night....tried launching them today and keep getting this message:

Fatal Error: Failed to load data for map: either the data does not exist on disk (failed to patch) or the crc or version number of the data on disk does not match what the code is expecting.
Technical details: map
"Maps/Planets/Events/Rom_Hfihar_Ground_Defend/Rom_Hfifar_Ground_Defend.zone"

Any hints or tips to make this work?

(just saw that there was a new thread for this /facepalm

dabelgrave

This is a great tool, but for some reason I cannot get the sound recorder to work. Half the time I get an empty 0 byte .wav file, and the other half of the time it might be a large file that contains nothing when opened in Audacity or other audio editors (assuming the file doesn't give any errors). Any tips on what I might be doing wrong?

psycoticvulcan

This thread is dead, folks.

But since I'm here ... is there a way to get this to work on Wine?

nextnametaken

dabelgrave wrote: »

This is a great tool, but for some reason I cannot get the sound recorder to work. Half the time I get an empty 0 byte .wav file, and the other half of the time it might be a large file that contains nothing when opened in Audacity or other audio editors (assuming the file doesn't give any errors). Any tips on what I might be doing wrong?

My guess is you have to enable to the system audio as recordable.
Right click the sound icon on your task bar, choose "Recording devices".
Enable settings and see which one allows for recording from the sound card.
Worse case scenario you have to run a line from the audio out to to an audio in and record that way.

This is tool could work for all Cryptic games with some modification but it seems the source code is read only.

I'm making a similar tool, its not as fancy as this yet, sure would be nice not to reinvent the wheel.
Here's the old version of my rolling stone.

spankminister

So I'm encountering a crash when attempting to play back demos from certain Mission Systems, for instance, Traelus System from the Satellite Repair (Neu_Patrol_System_03) and the VZA-4001 System from that Breen Mission (Bre_Vza-4001_System). The error is:

"Fatal Error: Failed to load data for map: either the data does not exist on disk (failed to path) or the crc or version number of the data on disk does not match what the code is expecting.

Technical Details: map
"Maps/Solar_System/Bre/Bre-Vza-4001_System/Bre_Vza-4001_System.Zone"

Another user had a similar problem here (http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=11244861&postcount=122)

I'm willing to go in and edit the demo file itself, I'm just not sure what CRC/version I'd need to even change. Any help would be appreciated, this seems to affect a lot of systems.

rachelgarrett

spankminister wrote: »

So I'm encountering a crash when attempting to play back demos from certain Mission Systems, for instance, Traelus System from the Satellite Repair (Neu_Patrol_System_03) and the VZA-4001 System from that Breen Mission (Bre_Vza-4001_System). The error is:

"Fatal Error: Failed to load data for map: either the data does not exist on disk (failed to path) or the crc or version number of the data on disk does not match what the code is expecting.

Technical Details: map
"Maps/Solar_System/Bre/Bre-Vza-4001_System/Bre_Vza-4001_System.Zone"

Another user had a similar problem here (http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=11244861&postcount=122)

I'm willing to go in and edit the demo file itself, I'm just not sure what CRC/version I'd need to even change. Any help would be appreciated, this seems to affect a lot of systems.

That is a known problem with demorecord and demo playback in Star Trek Online. Some maps simply cannot be recorded and played back anymore without the client crashing. For almost two years now, I and other community members have pointed out the problem to Cryptic, but because demorecord is just an unofficial feature of the client, Cryptic does not mobilize the resources to fix the issue.

I'm sorry, but there is nothing I can do in the StoDSemoLauncher to fix the issue.

Regards,
Rachel

spankminister

Thank you so much for your reply, and for your work supporting the Demo Viewer! I've made a couple of videos using it, though I still aspire to the level of the anniversary tribute videos

I also encountered some other issues that I wasn't sure what to do with... is this a good place to put them, or is there a place to work out bugs on the sourceforge/wiki that you'd prefer?

An issue I've seen is that demos of certain maps sometimes load in the viewer with no details-- for instance, on the Fleet Starbase map, the glass windows will not be transparent, instead loading with a flat texture, or the same issue with the Fleet Embassy map and the aquariums. Further, certain objects like bar furniture and chairs will not load. What's weird is that if I play the demo, then hit the rewind button to restart, THEN everything will load properly. This doesn't seem to happen every time, and I'm unable to determine what triggers it... checking and unchecking various options didn't seem to help. I guess a workaround would be to load it properly in the Demoviewer, then record it with FRAPS, eh?

holger1974

That sounds amazing and google is a great help if you at least know what you need to search for Hope for updates

rachelgarrett

Never thought, I'd touch this again, but here I am!

Cryptic moved the game client executable to a new directory, which resulted in lots of confusion for the launcher.

2.10.0.0 should work fine again. Please let me know if you experience any bugs.

Regards,
Rachel

rachelgarrett

mattjohnsonva wrote: »

after the demo has rendered it logs into the game within demo so both the game and the demo are mixed.

mattjohnsonva wrote: »

BTW, demoplayer doesn't work properly anyway at the moment, the pathing seems to be totally screwed up, I don't think it's me as I've used it many times and others have said the same, what do you think?

Both issues look very much like regression bugs in the demo player.

mattjohnsonva wrote: »

Whilst you're looking at this, is there a way to remove the friends login notification, the remove notifications doesn't seem to do that.

May be possible. Probably, STO has changed the way it logs these messages in demo files. Would have to investigate to find a solution. However, I don't have the time anymore to maintain and extend the demo launcher the way I used to five years ago. Yesterdays fix was an emergency measure and pretty easy to pull off, so I made an exception.

That being said, the project is open source and public domain, so feel free to tinker with it. I'd be happy to incorporate well documented code.

Regards,
Rachel

teamcraft433

Personally, I can't open the debug window anymore (With the shortcut F5)

cers001

I get these errors that i don't have: steam_api.dll , vivoxsdk.dll, physx3debug_x86.dll physx3commondebug_x86.dll where did i get them?

sthe91

cers001 wrote: »

I get these errors that i don't have: steam_api.dll , vivoxsdk.dll, physx3debug_x86.dll physx3commondebug_x86.dll where did i get them?

Have you gone to Options in the launcher, checked that on-demand patching is not on, turned that off if it is and then checked Force Verify, applied it, and then let the game patch?

daerdelush2

Glossing over the fact I had to make a new account just to be able to post, since making a new thread is forbidden.

I have the following issue with the new reddit version of demolauncher:

it opens minimised, and when I alt enter to maximise it it opens some random demo file, I deleted all my demos save the one I want, but I still want to be able to switch characters from the demolauncher menus, which I cannot see anymore. Can anybody help.

>> Apparently you can make a shortcut and force it to start maximised from the shortcut tab.

SOLVED :D