Demo rec - Editing ;-)

[Loco_br]

Sorry, my english is poor ...

A thing that I would like that I was improved in the UT2k7 or up to one pacth for the UT2k4.
Somebody could make this.

About the demos of the games:

A editor of demos could exist.

You would use only the parts of the demos and would put all parts in only one demo!

That is better of what having an enormous work with the production of a video and problems of space.

All know that to make a video is necessary much empty space in the HD and a good PC.

You would see frags as in the demo.

This would be very good!

Or at least to improve the reproduction of the demo with the possibility to advance and to retrocede. If will not be possible to retrocede, at least advancing quickly for a certain point without needing to see all the demo. It went to be more nice and easy to keep to ours frags and also to share. A good video of 15 minutes requires 200 Mbytes and 15 minutes compact demo only 1~2megabytes.

[Crotale]

I'm not sure how feasible this would all be in the grand scheme of things. What you are basically asking for is a video editor style demo editor, which could give you a storyboard or timeline viewer/editor, as well as other functions such as keyframing, merging, overlays, etc. But if you think about the way a demorec works, it is nothing more than a script. The problem comes in that the script basically is a history of player avatars, positioning and movement, as well as other player induced events such as weapons fire and frags. The played map is also included.

To have the ability to "merge" demos, or even portions, is problematic if any of the key factors change between demos. The factors include and are not limited to: maps, player characters, detail settings, player counts, gametypes, mutators, and whether the demos are a mix or server-side or client-side recordings.

As for rewinding or playing a demo backwards, it cannot be done. Epic states that this is due to the fact that the demo itself has no control over certain events, such as steam coming out of a pipe at random intervals or the way a player's avatar may tumble or explode upon being fragged. These events may not be of concern to some players, but the de-synchronized action may produce some undesirable results.

[Loco_br]

I understood, is truth.
But to advance direct to one definitive moment in the demo would be good. And also retrocede … this would not be possible?

[|Axon|]

Very good It would help sufficiently
Vlw LoCo

[Jrubzjeknf]

well, being able to go forward/back in the demo would be cool. Also selecting 'Chapters' would be nice, for example when key events occur, like capping a flag, building a node and stuff like that.

[Loco_br]

The problem would be with the different maps.

How execute the demo where a part need a map that you not have?

The game would have that to load map for map for each frag.

But advance and retrocede in a more efficient way would be very good. Example: typing a time and game advancing or retroceding direct in this point.

[sphinx]

cool idea, but i fear its undoable to code it like that.

[Selerox]

As for rewinding or playing a demo backwards, it cannot be done.

Actually, there is a workaround for that (I think it was done in a UT99 demo program). Basically rather than rewinding, it skips forward back from the start of the demo to a set point (specified by the user). So although the demo's is skipped backwards, nothings being rewound.

If it works, then something like that should be included.

[_Lynx]

FF and REV are things that will be highly apporeciated. Also, it would be very nice if people could mark some points in demo, as said above and put some comments about them., with this info being save within demo.

[Crotale]

IIRC, you can use a console command to start a demo at a specific frame, but I cannot find the command.

Some of the options desired here would be good to have, such marking certain key events. A skip back to a specific frame or time feature might work in a demo, but not an actual reverse of demoplay. Again, this is due to uncontrollable events in the game such as weapons projectile movement, death sequences, etc, that cannot be scripted.