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galileo31dos01

PrBoom+ recording demo from a save state

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A few hours ago I was recording a demo for a map but for personal reasons I had to stop recording and quit the game. Now I'm able to keep recording but I'm not sure about a few things and I don't want to screw up my beloved demo. 

 

To record I used -record demoname -loadgame X, since it's a demo from a savestate (continuous playing). I saved several times in another savestate to not screw the already used one. If I want to continue recording from the same demo, what should I do? Do I have to type -record demoname? Or should I include -loadgame X? 

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Why do you not pistol start maps like the rest of "the civilized world", so savestates are not an issue at all?

 

All of the NG2 maps are intended to be played from pistol start, by the way. Having carryover from previous maps, especially weapons and ammo, "break" the flow of these maps. If you want to get better, play the NG2 maps from pistol start, because that's how it's meant to be played.

 

There is little point in doing IDDQD practice, and barely any point in watching the routes of pistol start demos, if there is no need for you to emulate them, because you already have all the fancy toys and thus you can trivialize most of these maps interesting spots.

 

When you record a demo, and make a demosave, the demosave should be part of that demo.lmp only. However, if you do this, all your deaths, saves, and loads will also be recorded to that demo, meaning, everybody will get to watch these as well. Also, if you do save/load shenanigans there is always a small chance a demo may go out of sync at some point.

Edited by Nine Inch Heels

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You know, this topic was not created to talk about NGM2 or how I should play the wad. Besides, you didn't really answer my questions, you explained things that I (casually) already informed myself before, I'm asking if adding the command -loadgame X (where X is the savestate I used to record) is necessary to continue recording my previous demo or if just typing -record mydemo is enough and it will keep recording fine and later load fine. This is something that googling didn't help me.

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This is actually a topic I had been wanting to post/ask about, because I seem to have forgotten how to do it, or at least what I remember doing doesn't appear to work.

 

Here's what I remember:

 

Start recording your demo with "-complevel 9 -record xxx" plus any additional parameters needed.

 

During play, save game like normal.

 

Afterwards, change the "-record xxx" parameter to "-recordfrom xxx" 

 

Starting with the -recordfrom parameter loads the save game automatically, but as I said something here in all this is wrong, and I don't know what. Do not use -record xxx to continue a demo, it will delete(overwrite)  the old file by the same name and make a new one. Hopefully this will help steer you somewhere near the right direction.

 

Thanks DotW :)

Edited by Fonze

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I read here that -recordfrom was not the recommended way. The thing is that using only -record xxx will start the map in pistol start, but for continuous you have to -loadgame X to start recording from where you left before. Apparently if then you use -record xxx to continue the demo, it will eventually continue the demo. This is still something I'm testing, it's not 100% sure btw

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Starting from scratch, and using -cl 9 or other more 'advanced' complevels, it's a fairly simple process. You pick the level you're going to start from (say, map01 for the sake of example), and begin the game with your command line, something like:

 

prboom-plus -complevel 9 -iwad doom2.wad -file xxxxx.wad -skill n -warp 01 -record yyyyy

 

Where "xxxxx" is the name of the WADfile, n is the skill setting (1-5), and yyyyy is the name of the resulting .lmp file.

 

While playing on these complevels, you can save the game whenever you like. Then, whenever you die, or whenever you have to quit and step away for a while, you exit the game (note that -cl 9 at least will not allow you to actually access the load menu in-game) as normal. To resume where you left off, you simply re-launch the game with the same command line you initially used (i.e. same WADfiles, same -record name, etc.). The game will automatically begin at the point of the last save you used, and resume recording uninterrupted. To someone watching the final demo, every time you 'loaded' a game in this way during recording, they will see the mapstart screenblur effect and a perspective jump to the appropriate savepoints in the order they were used (and there is no need to package a save file with the .lmp file for the end user to view it properly, all they need is a matching/compatible version of the actual WAD file and game executable). You can use this method indefinitely and for various ends, i.e. to record a continuous playthrough through several successive levels over the course of several different play sessions.

 

Note that if you want to start a new demo file on the same map, you need to change the name of the .lmp file in the command line to something different. If you use the same filename for an entirely different playthrough, then you can start seeing some pretty weird/nonsensical cuts as recording continues.

 

This doesn't work in simpler complevels (-cl 2, 3, 4, etc.) for technical reasons (which I'm not going to pretend to really understand!), which is essentially what myk says in the end of the thread you linked above. Note also that the automatic loading/recording behavior above is a default port behavior which can be manually disabled if the user wishes, though it's unlikely you'd have done this without realizing it.

 

Edit: Oh, and I may well be mistaken (there's a lot about PrB+'s advanced demo functionality that I don't know myself), but I don't think you can successfully retroactively force this method partway through a playthrough which you weren't initially recording. If this is not correct, I would certainly like to hear a little tutorial from someone more knowledgeable, as well, just for educational purposes!

 

Edit 2: It probably wasn't clear from what I wrote above, but note that the final .lmp file will contain every second of 'footage' from while a recording session was running. So, if you got partway through a level, died, pressed spacebar to respawn at the start of the map, stared at the entry door for 30 seconds, and then quit the game, before loading up your last save from the session later on that same evening, the final demo will show everything up to and including the death, the 30 seconds of salty staring, then the 'load' and continuation of the game from the last save point. Nothing is omitted.

Edited by Demon of the Well

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Thank you for additional information that I was ignoring:

 

43 minutes ago, Demon of the Well said:

(note that -cl 9 at least will not allow you to actually access the load menu in-game)

That explains why I wasn't permitted to load during a random recording!

 

44 minutes ago, Demon of the Well said:

to record a continuous playthrough through several successive levels over the course of several different play sessions.

 

From what I've experienced, which is little to nothing, you do need the savestate to watch the demo IF you started to record from a game saved. Otherwise if you load that demo without that savestate it will start with only the pistol and screw the gameplay. 

Either way, my case was pure experimental and I'm still learning how to proper do a demo in continuous mode, it will be easy whenever I decide to pistol start a map. 

 

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38 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Thank you for additional information that I was ignoring:

 

That explains why I wasn't permitted to load during a random recording!

 

From what I've experienced, which is little to nothing, you do need the savestate to watch the demo IF you started to record from a game saved. Otherwise if you load that demo without that savestate it will start with only the pistol and screw the gameplay. 

Either way, my case was pure experimental and I'm still learning how to proper do a demo in continuous mode, it will be easy whenever I decide to pistol start a map. 

 

From what you're saying, it sounds like you may in fact be able to begin a recording in the middle of a previously unrecorded session by referencing a savestate in the command line. This is something I've never done or considered doing, and didn't really realize was possible, but there's still a lot I don't know, as aforesaid. Assuming your next playthrough begins on a pistol-start (say, on map 01 of whatever the next WAD you play is), however, you can use the method I posted above to record your whole continuous playthrough without trouble, and without need of an additional save file for playback. If you're trying to show only a selected segment of the whole playthrough to an audience, however (and without a -skipsec workaround for a massive hours-long final file), I guess that must be what these additional recording functionalities are for, and so my thanks in turn for making me aware of them, in a roundabout sort of way. :)

 

Not to push an agenda on you or anything, but for reference, in the vast majority of cases, if you're giving targeted feedback or trying to show something specific about balance or level design of a particular map in demo form, it is typically considered customary to play whatever level it might be from pistol-start (even if it's smack in the middle of a multilevel mapset), and begin from square one in that regard. This is more a matter of convention than anything like an ironclad rule, of course, and there are a relatively small number of mapsets throughout history where the continuous balance is essentially the only real balance (if you take my meaning), but it's something to consider if you're interested in getting into the habit of recording a lot more of your playtime.

Edited by Demon of the Well

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16 hours ago, Demon of the Well said:

my thanks in turn for making me aware of them, in a roundabout sort of way. :)

You're welcome!

 

16 hours ago, Demon of the Well said:

Not to push an agenda on you or anything, but for reference, in the vast majority of cases, if you're giving targeted feedback or trying to show something specific about balance or level design of a particular map in demo form, it is typically considered customary to play whatever level it might be from pistol-start (even if it's smack in the middle of a multilevel mapset), and begin from square one in that regard. This is more a matter of convention than anything like an ironclad rule, of course, and there are a relatively small number of mapsets throughout history where the continuous balance is essentially the only real balance (if you take my meaning), but it's something to consider if you're interested in getting into the habit of recording a lot more of your playtime.

Yep, recording these days was just for testing and showing how I more or less develop myself in a map from my current way of playstyle. That doesn't mean I'm going to keep recording since I usually take a lot of time to play maps regardless of pistol-starting or continuous, and nobody (not even me) would have the patience to stay an hour in front of the screen watching a "slow motion" demo, when there are already packs of fast paced optimized demos served for the audience. Unless they play like me and have that patience.

Whenever I feel ready to opt for a different style I will consider recording and paying more attention to particular stuff that makes a map "good" or "bad".

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