Arcanaville

For those with limited experience with demorecord and/or are not technically inclined, here's the step by step process of how to do this:

1. Log into LIVE and enter your base with any character. (This will also work on Beta and Test, but I'm assuming most people's bases are on Live, and important to note you can record on any server and still playback with the beta client, which is necessary for the free flight feature).

2. You might want to consider moving to a neutral room other than the one with the entrance portal, unless you like watching yourself zone into the base (actually, I haven't tested this completely yet; this is a bit of a guess as to what's going on, but its harmless in any case).

3. Type the command /demorecord filename where "filename" is the name of the file you want to set for this recording.

4. You can run this for any length of time you want; it works even if the recording is only a second or two. When you have a few seconds, stop the recording by typing the command /demostop

5. The recording will by default show up in the client_demos subdirectory under where ever your City of Heroes game client is installed. For example, on my Windows 7 64 bit system, my City of Heroes client is installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes and by default demorecord files end up in C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes\client_demos

6. Go to the directory where your beta client is installed. On my system its in C:\Program Files (x86)\CohBeta. Find cityofheroes.exe. Make a shortcut. I rename mine "cityofheroes - Demoplay" but that's entirely up to you.

7. Edit the shortcut. It should look about like this:



In the target blank highlighted, you should see something like "C:\Program Files (x86)\CohBeta\cityofheroes.exe". Change that by adding to the end: "C:\Program Files (x86)\CohBeta -demoplay full_path_to_demorecord"

** Note that the additional stuff is *INSIDE* the quotes. **

For example, something like: "C:\Program Files (x86)\CohBeta -demoplay C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes\client_demos\mybase.cohdemo"

CAUTION: whatever filename you gave in step 3, the game will append ".cohdemo" to the end as the file extension. You have to put that in the shortcut above or it will not work.

8. Run the shortcut.

9. Press F2 once. This will free the camera. You can now move using the wasd keys (plus x and space for up/down) and the mouse. The mouse is not inverted. Pressing F2 again will move the camera back to its normal position (where it was during the demorecord). Note that the demorecord will loop constantly: this may have an effect on the appearance of the demorecord if there are effects happening in the base (they might flicker, for example, as the recording loops).

10. When you want to exit, either hit ESCAPE or just close the client window.


Note:

- if you get disoriented or lost, F2 puts you back to where you started.
- the camera doesn't obey bounding areas: it can pass through walls, floors, ceilings, and objects
- walls, floors, and ceilings tend to have one-way textures. Meaning, you can see them from the inside, but they are invisible if you are on the outside.
- if you are one of those people that plays with the mouse Y-axis inverted, the demorecord free-flight camera doesn't honor that setting. It will take some time to get used to the mouse moving the wrong way vertically.


How it can fail:

1. Playback looks weird, I don't see my character or the base, just some weird dark sky.

Most likely the path to the demorecord file is wrong, and the client is playing back nothing with the default sky.

2. The controls don't work.

Possibility #1: you are using the live or test client. Only the I24 BETA client will work.
Possibility #2: you forgot to press F2, or you hit it twice.
Possibility #3: you are using keys other than WASD X or Space. QEZC don't seem to do anything, and I don't know if demorecord honors keyremapping although I don't think it does. For movement, WASDX, Space, and Mouse.

Black Pebble may have provided an interesting option to base builders that want to preserve their bases in some form. In another thread he mentioned an unannounced feature that is in I24, and in the I24 beta client. There is a freeflight camera option when playing back demorecords.

In other words, demorecord yourself in your base for a while. Then play the demorecord back, but with the *Beta* client instead of the live client.

Now hit F2. Your camera is now decoupled from the original recorded one. You can now fly around the demorecord with wasd and the mouse. Hitting F2 again returns the camera to where it would have been in the demorecord.

I don't know if you can just stand in one place in your base or not when you record although I think you can: I haven't actually tried this in a base yet. But I've tested the feature with an old demorecord from a long, long time ago and it works. See this post: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...9&postcount=81 for an example of the feature in action.

I will try to test this inside my base to see if there are any issues with it, but I have no reason to believe it wouldn't work. And this would allow you to fly around your base - or at least fly the camera around your base - if it works properly.

In fact, since cameras don't obey bounding boxes, you might be able to see your bases in ways you can't even do now.

Uberguy had the original idea that this would be very useful to base builders, so thank him for the idea to cross-post this information. I don't know everything about this feature yet: I only first played with it last night. I just thought I would get the information out there as quickly as possible, while I'm still playing with it. There may be problems, glitches, hitches, or other issues. But if it works, it might be a really nice way for base builders to keep a record of their bases - they could even show them off long after the game is shut down. Just keep a copy of the I24 beta client around.

Edit: because this seems to be a point of confusion:

You do not need to port your base to BETA. /demorecord on live. That file can be played back with the Beta client.

Note 2: Detached camera control has been confirmed to be working on the LIVE client for playback as well by multiple players. So there's no need for the BETA client at all.

To me this is like asking what part of grandma I don't miss.

One day when I tell stories about City of Heroes, and I will be telling stories about City of Heroes, I'm not going to be telling about that time I steamrolled +6 missions with a team that did nothing wrong. I'm not going to be talking about the time I got MoLRSF on a cakewalk. I'm going to be talking about that first time I entered a mission and the mission wasn't there. I'm going to be talking about that time I entered the front door to a building and ended up in the middle of a forest. I'm going to be talking about that time I used Nova in the demon room and crashed my client; the time Elude was playing Whirlwind's animation; the four and a half hours I spent getting Zookeeper; the four and a half thousand hours I spent getting Empath; the time Indy port looked like the planet from The Mark of Gideon.

I will be talking about getting lost in Perez, getting lost in Orenbega, getting lost under Boomtown; getting lost in the Shard. Getting killed by that first sniper in PI, getting killed by that first ganker in RV, getting killed by that first Monster pull by the ferry, getting killed by quartz eminators, by stacked caltrops, by stacked vengeance.

I'm going to be talking about every single failed attempt to get Preservation Specialist.

And I'm going to miss all of it.

I'm glad to see that even with sunset looming, the forums continue to spin with all of the logic it has nurtured over the last eight years. I'm especially proud of the fact that posters can continue to post disapproval of posts that disapprove of posts that disapprove of posts that disapproves of something specifically because they disapprove of a disapproval with an absolute straight face.