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Skootroot

Is it possible to record demos on ZDoom?

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I found out about DooM demos and recording them like last week and I want to know if it's even possible to record demos on ZDooM. If there is a way to record demos, then how do you?

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Recording a demo in Zandronum worked perfectly fine for me so I guess other ZDooms work. 

 

From command prompt:

zdoom -warp 1 -record mydemo

(modfy parameters to your liking)

 

And to playback:

zdoom -playdemo mydemo

 

Your file will be named mydemo.lmp.   But unlike using -file whatever.wad you don't type the .lmp file ending.

 

Not messing with the command prompt so much I like to make a txt file in my doom directoy, with whatever command line, and rename it to .bat.   And I just right click and edit it with notepad afterwards.

Then just run the batch file containing zdoom -whatever commands.

 

You can also use a response file.

 

Save this is a txt file named whatever.rsp

-file whatever.wad

-warp 1

-skill 4

-record mydemo

 

Then in whatever.bat simply have:

zdoom @whatever.rsp

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Recording demos is indeed possible with ZDoom, but the problem is that a demo recorded with ZDoom or a derivative port is most likely only compatible with the specific version of the specific port it was recorded in. Hence it's generally advised to record demos in ports with better demo compatibility, such as Chocolate Doom and PrBoom.

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It is possible to record demos in ZDoom and its derivatives, however, the problem here is that these ports were not designed with this in mind as they are not vanilla accurate.

 

This also extends to the fact that demo playback is broken between versions. For instance, if you record a demo in ZDoom 2.8.1, it's going to be compatible only with that specific version and nothing else - it will desync if played back in something else. For proper demo recording, a port such as Chocolate Doom, Crispy, PrBoom, and Eternity is recommended.

 

An example of command line argument to record a demo would be: -iwad doom2.wad -file av.wad +compatmode 2 +map map01 -skill 4 -record demoname. The demo will be found in the port's folder as an .lmp file. Skill 4 is UV difficulty, and compatlevel specifies the compatibility level required to ensure that the wad plays correctly (2 is Doom Strict here).

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2 hours ago, MFG38 said:

it's generally advised to record demos in ports with better demo compatibility, such as Chocolate Doom and PrBoom.

 

Alright. I'll try PrBoom

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You will obviously have to record demos in (G)ZDoom for WADs and mods designed for those ports, but for those that weren't, PRBoom is the way to go. ZDoom is discontinued and 2.8.1 is the latest version, so use that whenever possible.

There are a few additional quirks related to (G)ZDoom demos. The primary one I've encountered is that, unlike vanilla and Boom recording, you're not allowed to pause the game in any way during recording, be it opening menu or pausing the game, or the recording will be instantly cut at that point.

(G)ZDoom's demo file format stores a ton of data regarding your personal game settings, including the ones you set for specific gamemod, so you don't have to worry about those - just set them beforehand in options menu during regular play. Anyone playing these demos back will also have all those options set to yours during playback, as long as their (G)ZDoom version and all wad/pk3/zip files loaded are identical with yours. You will, however, sometimes need to specify additional command line parameters, such as player classes (Hexen-derived stuff, some gamemods, etc). See this link for more details.

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To record create a text file with notepad and copy - paste the following code, save it to the same folder as zdoom.exe and rename the file to have the cmd extension (eg as record.cmd):

set /P dem=Enter demo to record(without lmp):

zdoom -record %dem%

 

To playback just drag over zdoom.exe the *.lmp file.

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