Relentless

Can't offer my own personal services on this since I don't even have time to put forth the umpteen ideas in my own head, but I can offer suggestions on just how to do it.

Anyway, here's how I'd probably do it without having to do too much editing:

1. Find a friend, preferably a tank but anything with good agro powers will do.

2. Have your pal herd some rikti up and play cameraman. If you're grouping up stuff around your level it'd probably be good if you had some stealthy powers and/or buffs to avoid the hassle of either of you possibly dying.

3. Edit the demo, either taking out your pal or replacing him with a rikti. Probably best to just take them out of it since they're probably a mile ahead of any moving herd. You could even avoid the editing by positioning yourself in a way that doesn't show your pal.

It may not be quite what you're looking for, but I hope this helps.

You're still keeping powers the same no matter where you go. Fighting hellions means your zombies will have pistols and baseball bats, but clocks mean you'll have zombies zapping you with electricity etc. Think of the mobs you fight as body doubles, because that's exactly what they are.

Besides, it's the Rogue Isles- who knows just what the 'water' really is there

Sounds to me like you're missing a codec. I can't say which one it might be myself though, since I don't use either of those programs.

The simplest and fastest way to get from demo to video is, of course, using something like FRAPS while playing the game. As for getting rid of all of the UI clutter, I'd playback a /demorecord and record that with your screen capture software. Alternatively, you can dump the demo into a series of screenshots and compile that into a video format, but that's more labor intensive and uses a lot of hard drive space.

Pretty much all of the basic how-to on demos is in the aforementioned wiki article, but I'd like to point out that Zloth's demo launcher is extremely useful for demo playback and a few other things. You can find links both in the wiki article and Zloth's signature.

Other than spending some money and getting a faster computer (I wish I had this option ), there really isn't any way to speed things up here. Some people have noted that the client loads a little quicker after the first time, but it's not really something I've noticed myself. I never thought about load times with/without the map either, so that also might save a little time.

[ QUOTE ]
This (the lack of coordinate information) is something I realize renders the Codex’s Map list only marginally useful, at best. To improve on this, I am planning an update to provide "reference coordinates" for as many maps as possible. The reference coordinates will key off of either the final mission "boss" enemy or major mission objective. These objects or enemies usually have a start spawn that corresponds to the "final" room in a mission. For the artified and unique maps, this usually also corresponds to the section of the map with the most visual style and design (ie, Tyrant's throne room), so I would expect this final room to normally be the one that demo-editing folks would be looking for in order to use a specific map.

I’m not going to have this ready tomorrow, or anything like that, but it is something I’m hoping to at least start providing information on, sooner rather than later.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a really good idea- something like that would be an extremely useful tool for new and veteran demo'ers alike. Keep in mind, however, that many of the unique and artified maps are the very ones that crash demos :/.

You could do some demo editing to sweep the camera around until you found something, but that would take a lot longer than actually going in the map and poking around in-game.

Making a demo in an empty sky is pretty easy, here's all you'll need to do:

Open a demofile with notepad (or any other text editor). In the first few lines, you'll see something like this:

1 0 Version 2
0 0 Map maps/City_Zones/City_01_03/City_01_03.txt
0 0 Time 13.540822

All you have to do to make an empty sky is take away the part where it calls up the map in line 2, so it should look like this:

1 0 Version 2
0 0 Map
0 0 Time 13.540822

Also note that line 3 is the time of day, so if you want a daytime sky, put a number there to reflect that. As you can see it's recorded in military time, so an entry of 9 would be 9AM, and 21 would be 9PM.

Yeesh... glad you showed up Agent, I would have never thought of that!

Glad to see you finally posted this as a video, it really is a great piece of work . Though I was hoping there would be an explanation as to why people are cheering this nemesis parade.

Sadly, ragdolls aren't even translated into demo playback anymore. And custom ragdolls? eep. Best I could figure each set of numbers meant something about the position/orientation of each joint or piece of the body- I don't think I would want to try translating that mess... though it would be really cool if someone had .

The demo you posted played just fine, though there wasn't much to see. Are you having trouble playing all demos, or just ones you've edited?

It's just about impossible to figure out what went wrong with the original demo without seeing it, since 1) it was probably just a syntax issue and 2) that demo already works . Since you don't have the original attempt, try to make the demo again and come back here if it gives you issues.

The skyfile bit is fine, that's in all sorts of demos. "Don't know how to read this demo" is usually the file extension, but could be something to do with the format of the demo itself. What exactly do you edit in the demo? What is the demo of (and in what zone)? Does the demo play before you edit it?

I suppose I can take a look at the file myself, that is, if you're willing to sacrifice a platypus and part with a cookie . If you create an account over at W00t Studios you can upload the demo through their file depot.

Well you seem to be right. There is no extra little FX entry for the spotlights, they just flip on at night. Since they seem to turn on around 8PM game time, which is still during "afternoon sunset", you should be alright by entering 20 under the time entry.

You seem to like finding interesting problems sonic, this better be one helluva demo you're making . I'll take a look at it when I get home in a few hours and let you know what I find.

I'm a bit unclear on what you're asking. Are you getting the "fatal error" with the demo editor, or after you've edited it and are trying to play it? Check the file and make sure it has a .cohdemo extension (not .txt or the ever-annoying .cohdemo.txt).

As for getting the movement stuff right, what are you having trouble with specifically? I know the interface can be a bit quirky so it takes some getting used to. If you haven't already, take a look at the readme file that comes with the editor- it offers a much better explanation on that feature than I could probably give you .

My best guess would be that there's an FX feature attached to the police drone. I won't be able to double check until later, but your best bet is to find a police drone with the lights on, record the demo, then look for any FX entries for that drone.

Hah, great video! I kept thinking to myself, "what would he wish for that would give him a big orange head?" And now... well, now I know .

It seems I was barking up the wrong tree with that first animation, that's a totally different power he uses. I noticed in Dies arae, ol' Statesy-poo looks up at his fist when he uses that power, but in the 1HSLAM animation, he doesn't do that . Anyhoo, I found the animation and FX you're looking for .

Animation: ZEUS_LIGHTNING
FX (oneshot):
POWERS/ELECTRICITYCONTROL/STATESMAN_LIGHTNINGSTORM.FX 0

Well if that isn't just a big ol' fistful of argh....

hmm, I don't see any extra fx entries near that one, or any new NPC entries, and it doesn't appear to be specific thing for Statesman either... well you sure have me scratching my head here. Of course it would help if the demos I had were someplace other than in the RSF, there's just a ton of stuff to look through. Really sorry I couldn't be of more help here, but I'm sure someone here has it figured out .

On a sidenote, thanks for the 3 minute distraction, it's one of my favorites .

I'm assuming you know how to record and play demos already. If not, that's not a problem, you can find a good guide right here.

Demo editing will let you do (almost) anything your heart desires in the world of CoH, but it takes a little knowhow on how demos are laid out. For a better understanding on demo editing, I suggest taking a look at this guide.

The simplest way to get your shot, which I'd generally recommend for demo editing newbies, is to simply fight any mob and replace that model with Requiem. Of course the easiest way in this case is just to go fight Requiem and record a demo, but if that's not so much an option here's what you can do:

Let's say you picked a fight with a Galaxy Adjutant and recorded the demo (since you're replacing the mob with Requiem, it's best to fight something nictus-y. We don't want him pulling out a hatchet now, do we? ). Find the demo in your "client_demos" folder, which is in your "City of Heroes" folder.

Here's what the entry would look like in the demo (all of the numbers in this entry will probably be different in your demo, this is just for reference):

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>0 2889 NEW "Galaxy Adjutant"
0 2889 NPC Council_Galaxy_Lieutenant
0 2889 POS -1119.5 0.015625 -5956</pre><hr />

All you'll need to do now is replace the model of the Galaxy with that of Requiem (only change the part outlined in red):

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>0 2889 NEW "Galaxy Adjutant"
0 2889 NPC Council_Requiem
0 2889 POS -1119.5 0.015625 -5956</pre><hr />

And voila- your galaxy is now an AV .

I can't say for sure since I don't have the capability to check it at this very moment, but I believe this may be the FX entry you're looking for:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>POWERS/ELECTRICITYCONTROL/STATESMAN_HAMMER.FX</pre><hr />

It was used in conjunction with this MOV entry in the demo I'm looking at:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>1HSLAM</pre><hr />

Hope this helps .

There always seems to be some problem or another when it comes to demos. Certain maps crash the client (usually the really cool ones ), the custom weapons don't show up, and so on. Sadly the response (when we get one) has always been that it's a low priority issue, and honestly, I can understand why. The demo using community is a pretty small chunk of the CoH population, and demos don't directly affect the game itself. Perhaps a 'consolidated issues' thread for demos is in order for this new forum. That would help, uh, consolidate the issues! .

As for your more specific problem, it sounds to me like you might be missing a line or two in your demo. Since old versions of the weapons still show up, replacing the FX features should clear things up. Of course if you're missing a line here or there, then it would revert to the 'invisible' weapon again. It could be something totally ambiguous, though, and without taking the time to look at the demo itself it can be harder to diagnose. W00t studios lets you post demo files, so you could always put it up there for someone to look at, too.

Another job well done . Always makes me wonder why they didn't include the destroyers in invasions, it's such a cool item that never actually gets used in the game.