Demo Forum please

[Floride]

I know making demos is a niche group amongst us, but it'd be nice to have one thread were all things demo-related can be posted. For instance, demo playbacks don't play back audio so I'd post something like "Anyone else having audio issues?" before I'd bother the devs with it. While I'm on the subject, new demo files won't play at all since the April 7 update. I found the cause - 3 extra "PARTNAME" parameters added to every character. Delete the last 3 of a character and the demos play fine although for an MSR demo you'd have to do edit these 3 lines on every player character just to get the demo to playback.

People love sharing their machinimas and raw files and vids. A Demo forum header would be awesome.

[M3z]

Is there a list of commands anywhere for demos? Always wondered if you could edit them.

[zvelf]

How does demoplay work now? Do we use homecoming.exe with it now that it has replaced score.exe? Homecoming.exe -demoplay doesn't work for me nor does homecoming.exe -patchdir homecoming -demoplay. What am I doing wrong?

Edited June 15, 2020 by zvelf

[GM Tock]

There is plenty of info on the topic on a different forum for anyone who wants to modernize it for Homecoming.  (I know I'm rushing right past the OP here... I'll bring it up to Staff and see what they think.)

 

As for how, there's a box in Tequila that accepts Launch Parameters in the Options window.  Anything you'd put on the command line, you can put there.  (Just remember to blank it before playing the game.) 


(The client will find any demos in the Tequila folder under the sub directory "client_demos".  No need for a full path.)

The Shortcut method still works.  Head to /hc-bin32 or /hc-bin64 and find cityofheroes.exe (Which one is right?  Ask: which client do you click when launching from Tequila?  That one...) right-click, then "Create Shortcut". Then edit the shortcut.
 

Quote

No command arguments from the current patch manifest is necessary: the client is 100% offline when playing a demorecord.  Also, once made, you can drag this shortcut or cut and paste it into the client_demos folder for quicker editing.

The demo record will play, then repeat at the end endlessly.  To leave demo playback, press ESC which will halt playback, then Alt-Tab to find a modal window asking if you want to exit demo mode.

Edited June 15, 2020 by GM Tahquitz

[zvelf]

Thanks so much for this information and the link!

[Darmian]

Thanks also! Used that and it.. mostly... worked. I say mostly because it had the blue wheel circling throughout the playback and some items were missing/invisible, such as character clicking a glowie I know is there but the glowie itself isn't visible. What am I doing wrong here?

[AboveTheChemist]

The wiki also has a decent amount of info on demo recording and demo editing.

[Darmian]

Those are very helpful but unfortunately don't help with that issue. 

[AboveTheChemist]

6 minutes ago, Darmian said:

Those are very helpful but unfortunately don't help with that issue. 

My post wasn't intended as a reply to your issue, but rather to simply add more information resources to the thread as a whole. That being said, under the Limitations of Demos section of the Demo Recording page, it notes that glowing mission objections generally don't appear in demos. I think I have noticed the 'blue wheel circling' issue myself in the demos I have made, but it's been a while and I can't double check it at the moment.

[Darmian]

Oh no criticism of you! Just me stating a fact concerning my experience 🙂

[GM Tock]

Blue wheel circling, you mean the mouse cursor?  That's a Windows hiccup for the most part if that's the case.  For machinima use, if letterboxing or frame crop is an option, burying the mouse on a screen corner at the start of the demo might help.  If not, in the Mouse Control Panel, you can change the blue waiting circle animation to a regular pointer and move to the bottom right corner.  That would reduce the mouse to a single black pixel when 100% at the corner.

[Darmian]

7 hours ago, GM Tahquitz said:

Blue wheel circling, you mean the mouse cursor?  That's a Windows hiccup for the most part if that's the case.  For machinima use, if letterboxing or frame crop is an option, burying the mouse on a screen corner at the start of the demo might help.  If not, in the Mouse Control Panel, you can change the blue waiting circle animation to a regular pointer and move to the bottom right corner.  That would reduce the mouse to a single black pixel when 100% at the corner.

Thanks!