Demo Recording in Tribes: Ascend Dev. Build[1]
by: VegasKill
Probably many T:A players are not familiar with demo recording in Unreal Engine 3 games, since this function is not available in the official game by HiREZ, but only in the unofficial T:A developer build.
What are demos? Usually demos are programs with limited functionality, like one playable level in a computer game, for example. But in this case, the term demo comes from pre-recorded video game demonstrations of arcade games that are shown while the game is not played (game over screen / insert coin / attract mode). Attract modes demonstrating gameplay don't play video files, but run automated gameplay. This is possible due to the demo containing gameplay relevant informations, like players, player positions, movements etc.
Demos have some advantages over realtime video capture:
- Bulleted list item
- Low performance impact
- Small demo file size (16 player over 20 minutes usually lead to a demo filesize of 20-30 mb)
- There is no need for video capture methods (performance-hungry software or expensive hardware)
- The viewpoint is not limited to what the player sees, spectating other players (check against cheating) or free movement is possible
- Graphics quality does not depend on the graphics settings used while playing
- Allows movie makers to record spectacular looking frag movies (- modding could allow custom camera tracks)
This video shows some functions of the demo playback (note the console commands at the bottom of the video).
The demo was recorded on the map that loads by default when starting the development build.
Commands
The in-game console command to start demo recording is 'demorec'.
You can set the demo name by adding the desired name like this 'demorec [demoname]'.
'demostop' ends the demo recording.
'demoplay [demoname]' starts the demo playback.
The log (console command 'showlog') should show something like this:
- [0136.01] Log: Demo recording started to ....\TribesGame\Demos\demoname.demo
- [0251.79] Log: Demo ....\TribesGame\Demos\demoname.demo stopped at frame 2401
- [0251.79] NetComeGo: Close DemoRecDriver_0 DemoRecConnection_0 01/06/14 22:44:08
- [0269.07] Log: Closing down demo driver.
- [0303.98] Log: Attempting to play demo demoname
- [0303.98] Log: Starting demo playback with demo ....\TribesGame\Demos\demoname.demo recorded with version 7748, changelist 742347
The demo from the video is locally recorded, I had no chance to test demorec on dedicated server or as client, that is up to you, if you are curious.