Ns Demos

SNiperMarine · July 2003

<div class="IPBDescription">how do you run a ns demo?</div> you type "record (then demo name)"
in console to start he recording and stop to stop but how do you run the demo?

i got div player but how do you run it it doesnt run?<img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'>

Opt1mus · July 2003

play "demoname.dem"

if i'm not mistaken

SNiperMarine · July 2003

do you do that in console?

so you dont use windows media polayer to play a demo?

Blackout · July 2003

You can't use windows media player to play a demo. Once you get the demo file, place it in your ns directory, which will be under the half-life directory. It would be something like C:\Sierra\Half-Life\ns or similar. Once you've done that, start up natural selection, enter the console, and type:

playdemo <i>demoname</i>

Don't forget the .dem if it has one.
A great source of information about Half-Life console commands and tweaks is <a href='http://half-life.gamehelp.com/console/categories.html' target='_blank'>http://half-life.gamehelp.com/console/categories.html</a> . No popups and a lot of accurate documentation.

ANeM · July 2003

Windows media player?! Heck no. I think how demos work is they just record basic actions and commands, not everything. So if you used different models in recording the demo than in playing, it would still use the newer models, not the recorded ones. I think.. I'll go try that later to double check.
Anyways, demos use the HL engine to render, so unless you happened to get someone to screen cap while watching the demo in HL, you wouldn't be able to watch it in media player =P

Soylent_green · July 2003

.dem files are a weird half life specific recorded format, you even need to have the map and some sound files on the hard drive or it will complain about the map missing. This is why .dem files are so small. They do contain recorded sound but only voice messages, everything else are standard sounds and graphics allready found on the hard drive, no sense in the .dem file containing a duplicate.

You play demo files by going to the console and starting them, I think 'play demoname' is the usual command, you do not need to write .dem after the name of the file, but you can include the extension if you like. There are other commands to see for example how fast the computer is able to play the demo, if you are interested in this use 'timedemo demoname'. There should be no problem viewing demos as long as they where not recorded on a map you don't have(a non-standard map).

You can also use 'geek play', an external program capable of striping team says and fade to black etc, as well as some other useful features. But all it really does is start half-life and run the demo for you, you might as well start half life manually and run the demo yourself. Use 'record demoname' to record a demo and stop to stop recording, I think there is some bug with starting a recording while someone is using the voice messaging system to talk that could make HL freeze. I have encountered this a few times and it is fairly annoying.

Have fun.

Soylent_green · July 2003

wow 3 replies within 3 minutes(4 replies within 4 minutes including this one <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'> )

SNiperMarine · July 2003

ok thank you and by the way do u need div x to play a demo other wise i might deleate it... maybe i will anywasys??

SNiperMarine · July 2003

so how do i share demo files if you need the sounds so only ns players can play demos so if u dont u cant?

ANeM · July 2003

No. No DIVx, No media player. Nothing other than the HL engine. DEMO FILES ARE NOT VIDEO RECORDINGS. They record actions seen by the person recording and voicecomm.
That is all.
It then pretry much has HL generate bots using your own files (so if you have custom sprites/sounds/models, you will see them in the demo) and has the bots do exactly what was recorded.
It is not something you can pull up a video program and watch.. unless it was a video program based on the hl engine.. and that wouldn't happen anytime soon.

SnO0Py · July 2003

SNiper where are you from?

N1ght · July 2003

if u wanna share a demo, all you do is send someone the xxx.dem file, thats it, you dont need to send them anything else, all they need is the current version of ns on their computer to view it, and that as people say above is done by placing the demo in your ns directory, going into the console and typing 'playdemo xxx'

the only thing you need to share with people is the .dem file, all voice comms recorded etc are stored in that file aswell.

SNiperMarine · July 2003

so waht about the ns trialer how did they get it to be in window media player? cause that way you dont even need ns or unreal 2 or half life

(you dont need unreal 2 cause it is not half life)

SNiperMarine · July 2003

once in like ns_caged or some map the marine blocekd a door that goes down with an armory and the base was there and there was a ladder that went up to it and i tried to block people from getting up to get ammo and this guy recorded a demo of me or so he says lol

well they blocekd the ailens and i blcoekd them

SnO0Py · July 2003

SNiper...you didn't answer me...

SNiperMarine · July 2003

California

SNiperMarine · July 2003

California

ThinG · July 2003

Sniper use the search function, there have been lots of posts about how to record/play demo's.
There is an edit button at the upper right of each post you make, that way you can prevent double posting.

Here might be an answer to some of your questions:

- how to convert demo files into *.mpeg: <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=18&t=28549&hl=demos' target='_blank'>Clickeh</a>

- a thread of the EU vs USA match, including 4 delightfull demos for you to watch, and a link to a program called Geekplay (although they now named it SKplayer <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'> ) with which you can easily play demo files. Be sure to fill in your hl.exe directory once you've installed Geekplay, that way when you select a demo file and hit play, it will start up NS, and start playing the demo file <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=1&t=34462&hl=national+match' target='_blank'>EU vs USA thread</a>

- a thread where someone has made a demo play/recording script, which might be of use: <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=1&t=35856&hl=demos' target='_blank'>Demo script</a>

Hope this helped

Cheers

philmcneal · July 2003

use skplayer for demo playback

<a href='http://www.schroet.com/index.php' target='_blank'>http://www.schroet.com/index.php</a> in the download section

Papercut · July 2003

Youre from California?

No offense, but seeing how hard its to understand what youre typing, I dont think youre from California.

As I said, no offense.

ThinG · July 2003

Pm's have been made available for private conversations, <i> use </i> them!

We've seen alot of people whose knowledge of the english language was much worse than the threadstarter's. So, shush <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'>

Let's at least "try" to help the guy and stay on topic for a bit ^_^

Cheers

Ns Demos

Comments