Recording demos...

CyonPro

<div class="IPBDescription">...and then converting them to video</div>Alright, seeing as I will starting work on my long-delayed map, ns_forge, I was hoping at some point into the map's development to be able to record some demo walkthroughs of portions of the map.

I know how to record demos in HL/NS, but my problem is, I have no idea where to get software that will convert demo files from HL into .avi or DiVX .avi. All I know is that the process involves splicing the demo into individual frames, then recompiling it into an .avi, but my efforts at finding the software to do this have be fruitless.

If anyone could point me in the direction of such tools (I know there was an ns_freon preview movie similar to what I'd like to do, with music, to boot) I'd be very grateful.

(Mods: If, for some reason, you feel this post would be better suited to another forum, then by all means...)

JediYoshi

There's some software mentioned somewhere here:

<a href="http://gamingscreenshots.com/movietut.asp" target="_blank">http://gamingscreenshots.com/movietut.asp</a>

CyonPro

AHA! Thanks JediYoshi, this is what I was looking for.

Kidzelda

There's also an easy-to-read, every bit explained tut over on the old <a href="http://www.planethalflife.com/vision" target="_blank">Persistence of Vision</a> site.It gives you links to all the programs needed and how to use them.Also, remember that when you transform it toavi, you lose the sound, which you need a seperate program to record (I believe the tut mentions this).

DOOManiac

another way to do it is to TV-out to a vcr or digital camcorder, then TV-in through some sort of tv capture card, then edit as you would in your favorite video editor (Premiere sucks!). that gurantees no problems with low resolution/framerate

Kidzelda

The way HL works is it splits the movies in to BMPs, which all movie editing programs will load (including Premiere, VideoMach, etc.), then you have the option of adding sound, or making all the bmps in to a few different movies so they can have diff framerates (good for showing off cool stuff like in Frag or Die CS video_, and then sticking them together.

JediYoshi

Also for making demos you could use Adobe Premire, but then you would have to buy it(or <span style='color:red'>be like me and do bad things because I was dropped on my head as a baby</span>). It's good with adding effects, sound.



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DOOManiac

Premiere sucks! There are many cheaper, better, faster, more stable, more compatible, and equally feature equipped alternatives. Like ULead's mediastudio, which can even crank out DVD format, which premiere can't.

I love adobe, but I hate premiere.. heh

CyonPro

I use both Premiere (the "free" version) 6 and ULEAD Video Studio, never had any problems with either. Except for the one time I tried to use a 1 gigabyte source file for a music video I was creating (it was an entire movie at 1500 bitrate).

Anyway, my problem was that I didn't know how to get it from demo format to something that Premiere/UVS could read. Of course, you guys have now more than answered my questions. Thanks again <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->