Idea for a Source Port

[ultdoomer]

I'm not sure if there is one like this already, but It would be cool if there was a source port that let you play doom in a Windows Media Player-type screen. I'm not saying it would convert it from lmp format, but it would put it on the screen with stop, rewind, fast-foward, and splice buttons, along with a sliding bar below the in-game window. This way you could make TAS demos a lot faster and easier since you wouldn't have to exit Doom everytime you want to splice. Just an idea.

[TheDarkArchon]

That's one of the most pointless feature requests EVER.

[Graf Zahl]

And one of the most impractical to implement!

[andrewj]

Rewind would be quite a challenge, probably need to do it in 30-second chunks - reload level and replay all ticks upto the required time.

Slow-mo, fast-forward, and pause would all be straightforward. Showing the current and total playing time: also fairly easy.

Splice sounds like a very specialised function, probably too much for a normal source port. A button that lets the viewer take over control at a certain point would be possible though.

[nightice]

Er...why not just record the game with FRAPS and edit it with Windows Movie Maker/iMovie?

[Piezo]

I wouldn't mind those functions in demo playback, but in real time I think would be a mess.

[ultdoomer]

TheDarkArchon said:

That's one of the most pointless feature requests EVER.

Graf Zahl said:

And one of the most impractical to implement!

It's not pointless or impractical. I said it in my OP. Now, you have to exit and fast-foward if you want to splice. If there was a program like this, you wouldn't have to exit. If you make a mistake, you would just slide the bar a little bit to the left, and click "splice" to start recording again. It would be a lot more efficient that way.

Ajapted said:

Rewind would be quite a challenge, probably need to do it in 30-second chunks - reload level and replay all ticks upto the required time.

Splice sounds like a very specialised function, probably too much for a normal source port. A button that lets the viewer take over control at a certain point would be possible though.

As far as rewinding and fast-fowarding goes, I was thinking the slider would move one space for each gametic, much like the screen moves one gametic everytime you type in a new one in the Doom Replay Editor.

That's what I meant when I said "splice". That's the term that DOS-Doom and TAS-Doom used. I guess in Andrey's modified PrBoom, it's called "join".

[insertwackynamehere]

If someone could succesfully do this, then.. WOW

[NiGHTMARE]

ultdoomer said:

It's not pointless or impractical. I said it in my OP. Now, you have to exit and fast-foward if you want to splice. If there was a program like this, you wouldn't have to exit. If you make a mistake, you would just slide the bar a little bit to the left, and click "splice" to start recording again. It would be a lot more efficient that way.

Graf means it would be impractical for a programmer to implement, not for a player to use.

[Jehar]

nightice said:

Er...why not just record the game with FRAPS and edit it with Windows Movie Maker/iMovie?

My experiance with FRAPS has been quite crappy. It kill mah framerate.

GamerCam worked much better for me...

[DaniJ]

And one of the most impractical to implement!

Only if the demo system used a "script of actions/inputs" like the original Doom demo format does.

It is very possible/practical to implement such features in a system that doesn't rely on such a format.

[Graf Zahl]

But the size of such demos would be extremely huge. The big advantage of Doom's format is that the amount of data created is extemely small, even if you play for a rather long time.

And considering that most ports don't have such a thing and that the important ports concerning demo playback (PrBoom, Eternity) can't simply alter it it will be quite impractical.

[DaniJ]

But the size of such demos would be extremely huge. The big advantage of Doom's format is that the amount of data created is extemely small, even if you play for a rather long time.

I'm aware of that but it is a necesity if people want this kind of extended functionality.

If people want these features then it is impractical (and probably wouldn't work too well in the case of rewind) to implement them in the old Doom demo format. So unless a port is willing to support both formats your left not being able to watch existing demos in the "old" format.

This is Doomsdays situation with regard to demos. It uses it's own demo system that does away with the limitations of the Doom format but it suffers from the issues above. Hence one of the reasons why Doomsday isn't used more often for demo purposes even though it is a far superior format (which incidently could quite easily support these features).