Demo Recording Question

FlatlineUTD · February 2003

<div class="IPBDescription">Rates and Voicecomm</div> Whenever I try to record a demo, it ends up all choppy and jumpy. What do you folks set your rate to when you're recording a live, online match? I need it to be smooth without causing any lag to the server.

Also, is there a way to record your own voicecomm? Unless I'm mistaken, I've seen a few replays on Shambler.net that has the demo taker's voice. Whenever I try I just get the icon in the bottom right corner and no sound.

Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated!

ZiGGY · February 2003

I havent made a HL demo in 2 years... it filled up my hd after 15 minutes lol <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'>

nothing · February 2003

voice_loopback 1

From this thread:
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=17&t=24590&hl=echo' target='_blank'>http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/in...t=24590&hl=echo</a>

FlatlineUTD · February 2003

Thanks nothing - any idea about the rate variables?

MonsieurEvil · February 2003

Hmmm. I never use a special rate when recording dem's. What is your rate currently set to and what is your real connection speed in Kbits?

If by choppiness and jumpiness, do you mean that you don't see (in NS) entities showing up and the HUD tends to 'shimmy' or not show up, or show up only portions? Or does the whole series of actions tend to 'teleport' around?

SemperFi1 · February 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Flatline[UTD] @ Feb 27 2003, 02:22 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Whenever I try to record a demo, it ends up all choppy and jumpy. What do you folks set your rate to when you're recording a live, online match? I need it to be smooth without causing any lag to the server.

Also, is there a way to record your own voicecomm? Unless I'm mistaken, I've seen a few replays on Shambler.net that has the demo taker's voice. Whenever I try I just get the icon in the bottom right corner and no sound.

Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated!  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
My old pc that used to get 5 fps in almost all HL mods couldnt record demos well. It may be your ping or your FPS. This leads to alot of choppyness in the demo playback.

FlatlineUTD · February 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (MonsieurEvil @ Feb 27 2003, 03:27 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Hmmm. I never use a special rate when recording dem's. What is your rate currently set to and what is your real connection speed in Kbits?

If by choppiness and jumpiness, do you mean that you don't see (in NS) entities showing up and the HUD tends to 'shimmy' or not show up, or show up only portions? Or does the whole series of actions tend to 'teleport' around?  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
My rate is currently set to 6000 and I'm on a (now) good cable connection. I was pinging under 100 on my server, and my framerate is about 75 FPS.

I was recording as a spectator - it was choppy to the point where the players were teleporting, but their movements weren't fluid as they were when I'm actually in-game.

0range · February 2003

i have a geforce4 ti4600 512 mb ddr 1.8 p4 etc.. and when i playback demos they are choppy as well.. Like im only gettin 15 fps or something. I play games perfectly smooth but the demos are always choppy <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'> i too wanna know how to fix this

regis · February 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (MonsieurEvil @ Feb 27 2003, 03:27 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Hmmm. I never use a special rate when recording dem's. What is your rate currently set to and what is your real connection speed in Kbits?  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
i've never had to mess around with any rate commands for demo recording either. Alot of things can cause laggy/jittery demos, low ram, high ping, low fps, packet loss (which is fine if your rate is at 5k).

BTW Monse, need to get in touch with ya... guess what's 100% done! <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

MonsieurEvil · February 2003

Ahha. Your FPS rate is at 75? Set (only during recording, mind you) your fps_max to 60 (or lower), and try again. That's a known issue for the HL engine in general.

SemperFi1 · February 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (regis @ Feb 27 2003, 04:03 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> BTW Monse, need to get in touch with ya... guess what's 100% done! <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
Holy ****! you finnaly finished the alpha version of the bottomless peanut bag?!

DocZ · February 2003

Seeing as you are on a cable connection, you should probably set your rate to 9999999 (basically sets it to max, the server will limit it guaranteeing you get the highest rate possible). You should probably do a speed check of your connection to see how many kbits/sec you get and make sure. A rate of 6000 is quite low for high speed internet

regis · February 2003

i wish i had some freakin peanuts <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'>

Zenn · February 2003

I have a better question. How can i get the NS Hud to show up in the DEMO? (things like Parasite, ammo, etc.) Any anyone else having trouble with demos on ns_nothing? Every demo I do on ns_nothing doesn't play...it just kinda shows an errored up HLTV style overhead map...which is REALLY strange.

Sandrock · February 2003

I've been told that using GeekPlay to watch demos can cause similar problems to what you are describing. If you are using GeekPlay, make sure you have viewdemo selected, not startmovie, before you watch the demo. I don't use GeekPlay myself, so I can't verify this, but this is what I have been told by people who do use GeekPlay. Hope it helps.

Zenn · February 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Sandrocky @ Feb 27 2003, 04:42 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I've been told that using GeekPlay to watch demos can cause similar problems to what you are describing. If you are using GeekPlay, make sure you have viewdemo selected, not startmovie, before you watch the demo. I don't use GeekPlay myself, so I can't verify this, but this is what I have been told by people who do use GeekPlay. Hope it helps.  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
Heh...wow, ya know what? I was using Geekplay (mostly cause I can't figure out any other way to PLAY my demos). I'll give just using viewdemo a try. On a side note...how do I play my demos WITHOUT geekplay?

0range · February 2003

if your demo was named "orange" you would just open up ns then pull down console and type:

viewdemo orange

Amped1 · February 2003

What's the difference between 'viewdemo' and 'playdemo'?

Zenn · February 2003

I tried watching my demos through the game normally, without using GeekPlay...my two demos I had on ns_nothing are still highly bugged and won't play...I can only assume its an error in the demo itself. Also, most of the HUD still doesn't ever show, nor does any of the voicecomm (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't). Suggestions?

kaxman · February 2003

viewdemo was added (I believe still prerelease) to the latest HL build for demo playback with slow-motion, fast forward, random seek, rewind, crap like that.

playdemo still does the old school; straight through the demo once at normal speed and done...no interactivity.

Imp3 · February 2003

1st of all, laggy demos are caused by ur updaterate (cl_updaterate), std. is 20 so ur demo only records in 20fps although u have ~75 set ur Updaterate so 50-70 and it'll play smooth.

I never had any problems with geekplay, but the viewdemo causes often demo errors etc. I recommend to use playdemo instead.

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I have a better question. How can i get the NS Hud to show up in the DEMO?</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

I want to know the answer by myself 'cause I want to make an NS movie, but without hud it looks not that nice.
In the NS trailer u can see the hud so there must be an way.

ElvenThief · February 2003

I don't know if it's because Geekplay was originally developed for CS or not, but often my NS demos will no play back if I check viewdemo in it.
I do believe Flay mentioned improved demo playback as one of the things coming in 1.1

Also, keep in mind that besides playing back your demo, your computer is literally running an NS server playing the game out from your view again. That's a lot of entities/playerdata to handle, plus your view to boot.

Demo Recording Question

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