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#1: Warsow movie making tutorial Author: Mukelo, Location: Finland

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:13 am
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This is a short tutorial which will you guide through recording a demo in Warsow (0.1b) and exporting it with high quality slow/fast motion and free camera angle effects.

Requirements:

1. Warsow
2. Sony Vegas (I use version 6)

Step 1: recording demo

Start Warsow normally and when you want to record, bring up the console and type:

Code:

record <filename>

When you want to stop recording, simply type:

Code:

stop

The demos will recorded in your /basewsw/demos/ folder. You can watch your demo by selecting demos in the Warsow main menu.

Step 2: preparing demo to be exported

Next you need to decide the basics: movie resolution and FPS. You can change the exported movie resolution just by changing resolution in Warsow. Modifying the FPS will not affect the output FPS, unless it's set smaller. Playing back the demo with 100fps does not mean it will be exported as 100fps movie. Default FPS for exporting is 25.

Modifying the FPS of exported movie is done with a console command:

Code:

cl_demoavi_fps <value>

If you want a 30fps movie, you type:

Code:

cl_demoavi_fps 30

Even with slower machines, you can set the FPS value very high. Keep in mind that the movie size gets very big though. 25fps or 30fps should be adequete for most purposes.

Step 3: applying effect to a movie to be exported

During demo playback, you can for example change the speed of the movie or the camera angle.

Changing game speed in demo is done with timescale command:

Code:

timescale <value>

Default value is 1. Set it higher or slower at will (0.1 or 10 for example. Above 10 might crash your game or do wierd stuff).

Pausing / continuing demo:

Code:

demopause

Switching to freecam mode:

Code:

democam

Democam cycles through different views. Camedit is the freecam mode. Fly with the cam normally using mouse and wsad-buttons. To go up, press SPACE and to go down, press CTRL.

This all might seem hard when you just want to fastforward to a point then apply slowmotion on the fly and switch back to normal speed. This is when scripting comes handy. You can bind keys and do aliases for different commands to your config.cfg file in your /basewsw/ folder. Here's a few examples:

Code:

bind x "+sm"

alias +sm "timescale 0.1"

alias -sm "timescale 1"

Explanation: Keeping x-key pressed on your keyboard will slow the demo to 0.1 (very slow) and releasing it will make it play back normally. So, keep button pressed for slow motion. The "sm" is just the name of the command, it can be whatever you want. + means key is being pressed and - means it is released. After alias is the command you want to execute and bind puts that command to a certain key, X in the above example.

Code:

bind x "demopause"

Explanation: Pressing X wil execute the demopause console command. Press X to pause the demo, and X again to continue.

Using this kind of scripting makes your movie making a lot more comfortable and fun. Remember to put the bind and alias commands to the right places (see your config.cfg file in the /basewsw/ directory for reference).

Step 4: exporting movie

Forget Fraps. If you played with 100fps and record with 25fps using Fraps, game speed in video will be 4x slower. Forget also Gamecam, it doesn't work with Warsow. You need to use the Warsow's built in demoavi command.

Warsow doesn't actually export a movie. It exports a series of .jpg / .tga pictures, which Sony Vegas can quickly and automatically combine to a movie. This is a very good thing, since you can use high FPS values even if your computer isn't that fast.

If you want to capture the whole demo, type:

Code:

demoavi <demo name>

If you want to capture a portion of the demo, play it and type following while playing:

Code:

demoavi

typing demoavi again in both situations, exporting will stop. All exported images will be saved in you /basewsw/AVI/ folder. For more about demoavi and related commands, see your /docs/demoavi.txt document.

Step 5: using Vegas to build the movie

Open Sony Vegas and select Import Media from the first drop down menu. Navigate to the /basewsw/AVI folder and select the first image. Tick the Open Still Image Sequence option and verify that the range of pictures are correct.

...Open and have fun.

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