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After seeing a noteworthy interest in demos in recent threads, as well as receiving a few recommendations for a demos forum, we've decided to give it a try. This forum is now the place on Doomworld to discuss anything and everything related to recording and watching demos for Doom-engine games. In addition to discussing existing demos, demo styles, techniques, tools, compatibility, etc., this forum is also for users to post their own demos. You can do this using the "attachment" feature (see the final post in this thread). You can also share your demos by hosting them in your own webspace or e-mailing them to one of the moderators of this forum.

We should stress how important it is to zip your demos and to include a text file in the zip. This makes it far easier for everyone else to know how to watch the demo. As a minimum, this text file should include: your name, the filenames of any wads needed (e.g. hr.wad) and the demo-compatibility format (Doom2, Boom or other).

It is also desirable to include some basic details about the demo, such as the category (e.g. UV Speed) and the time, and the executable used (e.g. Doom2.exe, Prboom-plus 2.5.0.6, etc.). You're very welcome to include a description of your demo - please tend to enjoy reading these, and it also makes it easier for people to know whether they should credit you for any tricks or ideas of yours that they later use.

The demo's file name should be kept short (8 characters), and follow similar principles to the compet-n demo naming: a couple of letters for the wad, two digits for the level number, and three or four digits for the time (and one letter to suggest the category, space permitting). When you are recording on a wad for which there is a pre-existing naming convention in use, please follow that convention.

Examples of suitable topics for discussion include:

how to record demos
which port (if any) to use
which demos you have most enjoyed watching
what control set-up to use
the techniques used by speedrunners
which maps are most demo-friendly
"demopack" projects
demo categories
demo news
built and tool-assisted demos: how to make them and which tools are needed

The moderators of this forum are Opulent and Grazza. Opulent is a very well-established member of the demos community, and runs the well-known site DSDA (the Doomed Speed Demos Archive). Grazza has been recording enthusiastically since 2002, but had been a keen watcher of them for many years before then.

Please note that this is not the only place where you can send demos. If a demo is suitable for Compet-N (i.e. you have used Doom(2).exe and the demo improves upon a current compet-n record or fills a gap in one of the compet-n tables), you can try sending it to Compet-N (go here for instructions). However, Compet-N is down at present and its uploads area full in any case, so this forum can serve as a place to post these demos. Andy Olivera's site is a good place to send pwad demos recorded with any executable, and also accepts TAS (tool-assisted) demos.

Feel free to comment constructively on other people's demos, and to ask for tips if you are having problems in your own attempts to record. The moderators of this forum both intend to watch all demos that are attached in this forum.

We accept demos recorded with the original exes or with any port - if you prefer Legacy, GZDoom, Eternity, Chocolate Doom, MBF, etc., there is no need to change. However, please note that demos recorded with the Doomsday engine (i.e. jDoom) tend to have very large file sizes, so if you want to use Doomsday, it is best to upload your demos to your own web space, and to place a link to them in this forum. And please note that Zdoom and its derivatives don't tend to have good demo compatibility between versions, so your demo may not be easily viewable very far into the future.

Many people use Prboom-plus to record or watch demos, as it has compatibility modes that make it a convenient choice for many wads. There are other threads in this forum that provide assistance with its settings. Be sure to state what compatibility mode you have used, and if a particular thread suggests a specific compatibility level, then it would be a good idea to use that level, unless there is a very good reason not to.

The rules for bumping threads are a little different from those for other forums. If you have a demo to post, and it fits neatly into an existing thread (e.g. if you have an Icarus demo, then the Icarus demos thread would be a natural place to post it), then post it there rather than starting a new thread. This applies even if the thread is old. But avoid bumping old threads just to make a comment on something that happened years ago.

We hope this will prove a lively forum, and be useful to everyone in the Doom Community with an interest in demos, ranging from newcomers recording for the first time, to experts looking to achieve near-optimized runs.

Enjoy!

- The Doomworld staff

Last updated: 4 June 2010

Last edited by Grazza on 01-14-04 at 03:34

10-13-03 06:44 #

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Grazza
ish

Posts: 10220
Registered: 07-02

Note about Tools-Assisted (TAS) and Built demos

The term "tools-assisted" generally refers to the use of slow motion and/or recording in sections (normally by re-recording). Use of these would be an extreme form of cheating if you claimed you had not used them. But in a TAS demo, it is explicitly stated that they have been used, and it is viewed as a separate category of demos. Generally, to be considered a good TAS demo, the time should be highly optimized or the task should be one that would be virtually impossible otherwise.

In a Built demo, the player goes a step further, and edits the demo at a gametic level, either via LMPC or using a special tool of some type. This enables even greater precision than is possible in a TAS demo.

TAS and Built demos are very welcome here, but be sure to make it very clear in both your post and your text-file that it was recorded with tool assistance, and which TAS methods were used. I'd recommend starting your text-file with the words "THIS IS A TOOLS-ASSISTED DEMO". (Yes, in big capital letters.)

If you record a demo with slow motion, joining, strafe-50 automation or other such hacks, but pretend it was recorded normally, then we will most probably notice, and won't be very impressed at all.

Please don't leave the moderators of this forum having to decide what to do with "suspicious" demos. This puts us in a very unpleasant situation, but one where we must take action in fairness to all the honest recorders.

02-24-05 14:39 #

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Grazza
ish

Posts: 10220
Registered: 07-02

This post answers some frequently-asked questions about the basics of demo-recording and demo-watching.

New (2007): Please see this thread for information on an easier way to watch demos. This works with most demos recorded with the "vanilla" engines, Boom, MBF, etc.

A demo is not a video clip. It is a recording of the player's actions. The original games and most ports support the recording and playing back of demos. In general, demos only play back with the same engine (exe) that they were recorded with (but see the red text below). You also need to make sure that any wads required (iwad or pwad) are the same version as was used to record, and haven't been modified in any way. So if you have for some reason rebuilt the nodes for your iwads, you'll need to reinstall them from the original disks, and if necessary patch them up to version 1.9, or else restore them from a backup. Note also that Doom95 cannot be relied upon to play back Doom2 demos (it works well with Ultimate Doom demos though).

To watch a demo, you put "-playdemo" in the command-line, followed by the name of the demo file. Thus:
doom2 -playdemo 30nm2956
plays back the demo named 30nm2956.lmp using doom2.exe and the doom2 iwad.

To play back a pwad demo, you need to include the pwad in the command line, as normal, using "-file". Example:
prboom-plus -file hr.wad hrmus.wad -playdemo 30hr2843
plays back the demo named 30hr2843.lmp using prboom-plus, and Hell Revealed.

Dragging and dropping also works with prboom-plus - drag and drop the demo file (and any pwads and dehs needed) onto an icon for prboom. Note that the default iwad it uses is Doom2.wad. If you need to use a different iwad, then you need to specify it with "-iwad" in the command line, or else to make an icon to another copy of prboom-plus that has a different iwad (simplest way: put a copy in a folder where there is a copy of doom.wad {or one of the Final Doom iwads, whatever} but no doom2.wad).

To record a demo, you need to put "-record" in the command line, followed by the name you want the demo to have. You will also need to specify a skill level and warp to the level on which you want to begin. Example:
eternity -file av.wad -warp 01 -skill 5 -record an01-xxx
records a demo temporarily named an01-xxx.lmp using Eternity, on Nightmare skill starting on map01 of Alien Vendetta.

In some ports, compatibility modes have been implemented that enable them to play back demos from some other ports. Most notable is Prboom-plus, which will play back demos from the original games, Boom, MBF (and some others) with a high degree of success. (A failure is known as a "desync", and generally means the player starts acting crazily, shooting walls, and most often dying.) Eternity will reliably play back demos from the original games and MBF demos, while Chocolate Doom will handle "vanilla" demos well.

Prboom-plus can also be used to record demos in several formats. See the documentation and this post for details.

The majority of demos you'll find online will play back with Prboom-plus. This program will normally autodetect the demo format if it is one that it can play back. There should generally be a textfile accompanying a demo. Read this to see if you need to use a different port to watch the demo, or if you need to "force" a complevel via the command line (it is very rare to need to do this). The most common other ports for recording are Legacy and Zdoom. In each case, you will need to make sure you have the same version of the port that was used to record it. (A Zdoom demo from version 2.0.47, for instance, is quite unlikely to play back with 2.0.63a, etc.)

Useful links:
Andrey Budko's PrBoom-plus (also: prboom-plus sourceforge site). This comes in software and OpenGL "flavours" - use either prboom.exe or glboom.exe.
Eternity
Compet-n (accepts "world record" demos on the iwads and selected pwads, as long as they are recorded with the original DOS exes)
newly incoming compet-n demos
Doomed Speed Demos Archive (click on "Single Player" to get a listing of pwads for which there are SP demos; DSDA accepts almost all demos on any pwad)
Doomworld Demos Forum (you are here! Discussion, recording projects, demos, tips, and anything else to do with demos and speedrunning)
Doom2.net (lots of info, especially on deathmatch)
Archive of Compet-n, DSDA and Pdang demos
Heretic-N

06-25-05 15:49 #

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Grazza
ish

Posts: 10220
Registered: 07-02

Here is a quick run-down of how to use the attachments feature.

You can attach demos only in a zip file (please include a txt too), and they must not be more than 200K. For larger ones than that, please e-mail them to me or Opulent, or upload them to your own webspace (or wherever) and link to them from there. Please avoid file-hosting services that will nuke the link after a short period of time: we want the demos to remain available to people browsing the Demos forum in the future.
Start making your post as normal, and use the "Attach file:" window to browse for the file you want to attach.
Do not abuse this feature.

05-02-07 03:05 #

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Grazza
ish

Posts: 10220
Registered: 07-02

Generally speaking, the Doom demos community takes its lead in terms of definitions of standard demo categories from Compet-n, though everyone is free to define their own new categories if they wish.

Note on Max demos (as there has been some confusion due to an old ambiguity in the compet-n rules that was clarified by Adam Hegyi only in the compet-n forums):

To be a valid demo in a Max category (including UV Max and UV Fast), all killable monsters (with the exception of lost souls or anything spawned by a boss shooter) must be dead when the player exits the map (and all reachable secrets need to be triggered). This means that any monsters revived by an arch-vile must be rekilled.

If there are unreachable monsters, or any that for some reason are unkillable, then these can be left alive.

If on some particular map it is very hard to kill all monsters (but it can't be demonstrated that it is physically impossible to kill them), then the closest to Max can be considered valid. Any later demo featuring fewer monsters left alive at the end can be considered "a better Max" than the earlier demo, even if the time is slower. (Of course, it is possible for the demos community to agree upon map-specific rules or conventions in vexing cases.)

07-25-09 01:27 #

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Doomworld Forums > Special Interest > Doom Speed Demos > Welcome to the Demos forum! READ THIS THREAD

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