What kind of demo support is there in TF?

scirmast · Post by **scirmast** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 06:23 pm

I think every self respecting game should have a demo support. Quake had one, so I presume TF does too. But just to make sure

To be a competitve 1on1 game, demos are a must.

Post by **Willis** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 07:38 am

Yep, there is standard demo recording.

Demos in the DarkPlaces engine record your network output (even local single players create a local port and run like a network game).

Currently, the feature of turning on auto-recording is under way I believe, though it still needs a couple tweaks.

scirmast · Post by **scirmast** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 04:03 pm

Alright!

And I presume there is an option the change which player you are observing?

Post by **Willis** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 10:08 pm

From a pre-recorded demo? No. The network traffic you receive from the server is only what you would see as a player. It discards anything not visible to you. If you are recording from spectator mode, it is possible while you are recording, but you will never get a point of view from all players with the current demo system.

The reason for this is to prvent cheating in the network protocol. If everybody recieved all information about all players all the time, this would allow for cheats such as "wall hacks" where somebody could remove walls to always reveal player locations during actual gameplay.

Post by **DustyStyx** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 10:35 pm

Sounds like the crystall ball.

Post by **Willis** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:23 pm

I don't think I've ever used the crystal ball with more than 2 players before... gonna have to find out how it worked with 3 or more yet...

scirmast · Post by **scirmast** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:29 pm

That actually is a good way to prevent wallhacking. But also being able to switch between the players helps you determine if the other player uses aimbot.

And I also assume you haven't looked at the Crystal Balls code yet?

Post by **Willis** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 01:31 am

No I have not.

Also the demo ability you are asking for is on the todo list for the engine, but I'm not quite sure how it will work honestly... basically what it is is a full network recording from the server point of view, not the player point of view. I'm not sure if this will only be accessible to server operators or all players.

Daedolon · Post by **Daedolon** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 04:04 am

Willis wrote:I don't think I've ever used the crystal ball with more than 2 players before... gonna have to find out how it worked with 3 or more yet...

I think it just browsed through all of the players' views with every use and then shut down.

Post by **DustyStyx** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 04:23 pm

From what I remember it would cycle through the other players, pausing for about a second or so and then going onto the next. I don’t think it would shut down until it was out of power, it'd just keep cycling.

To accomplish this we would have to have some sort of split screen mode, prefrebly with some sort of concave distrotion effect, and a camera following each player.

scirmast · Post by **scirmast** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 06:58 pm

I am pretty certain Crystal Ball switched between players when you pressed the use key or the crystall ball key. Don't remember when I saw it though. Definitely in 1on1 you could turn it on or off.

Post by **DustyStyx** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 01:23 am

Well yes, you can turn it on and off with the use key. I'm just not sure it was picky about who it chose to display. More of a "There's a guy here, and here, and here." That sort of thing.