Zloth

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Does this include the infamous Map Patch? Because we never got a straight answer on whether or not that was legal. Please detail what is acceptable and what is not.

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I'll be surprised if they do that. As soon as they do, somebody will find some way to twist what they say and make a cheating hack then throw a fit when they get banned. Much better to just say it's all illegal then do some selective enforcement.

Thanks!

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Whether Fullscreen or Windowed, ALT+F4 will close it immediately and properly. CTRL+ALT+DEL causes windows to end the thread which can have adverse effects on the file.

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Nah, it's just reading the file so it won't mangle it. (I guess the Results folder isn't done any more so no worries there.) However, I found out later that you can end these demos in full screen by just hitting the ESC key. I think it's back in this thread somewhere. That and Alt-F4 are definitely better to use than killing the thread.

Or better yet, dink around with your demo first and then FRAP it.

Finally got a demo edit program in working order! See this thread!

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uh, just rotate the camera, mid-mouse button.

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Somebody over in MMORPG.net was having problems with that - the wheel-as-mouse-button thing wasn't working at all for him. The Page Up key should work like the middle mouse if your mouse wheel/button isn't working right for you.

Good idea, but it didn't work. It just ends at the slash. (A pity, we could have stuck in all manner of escape codes in there!

Looks like there is a bug in the format demos are saved in. If a chat message includes a " mark, the message will not play back correctly. For instance, if you try to say:

That's his "nice" outfit!

When played back in a demo, this comes out as:

That's his

And in the demo file itself, the text portion of the command will be something like:

"That's his " nice" outfit!"

Blah. What a mess. You should probably just replace the enclosed " marks with one or two ' marks.

You may notice that some of your demos just sit there at the end. They eventually loop back but it takes forever!

If you open up the demo file itself and go all the way to the end you'll probably find a single line with a HUGE delay time. Something like:

54016 31 float 5 FloatMiss

That first number means the demo will pause almost a minute before the demo will loop.

Fixing it is easy. It's right at the end of the demo so just delete the line. Or change the first number to something sane like 50.

I'm not sure about the cause. I *think* it may happen when you don't use /demostop at the end of a demo and just let it stop automatically by zoning or logging out.

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btw a question... i'm playing back some demos and sometimes the sound cuts out... and sometimes it returns... not really sure what's up there or how i can fix this. any thoughts?

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That's a demo bug. When the Reflections update came out, demo playback got a LOT more stable but the sound now freaks out. I'm sure Cryptic is aware of it but, as demos aren't an officially supported feature, the fix will come when it comes.

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So my question would be how do i do a convert for the demmo to another format?

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Let me be a bit nitpicky.... you do not "convert" a demo. A demo and a video are completely different things. A video is a collection of a series of images. A demo is just a list of commands that City of Heroes can read.

That said, I think you want to look at this thread for how to record video from a demo. (Converting a video back to a demo just isn't going to happen.)

I believe he's a Giant_Sprocket. There's a database going at City of Villans (sic) that has quite a few NPCs and powers.

Wow, that does work well! No 640x480 limit! Thanks Gladius!

(Though there were a couple more steps. You really have to go in under Video->Frame Rate to set the source frame rate to match whatever you used to record. Probably smart to select a compression format, too. I went at 12fps at 800x600 with no compression and was using just under one gigabyte per minute!)

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This is great, Oh my god, this is the coolest thing I've seen added to a MMOG in forever.

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Air Warrior did it back in the late 80's! In fact, they had some things better. We could detach the camera there and fly it around in the demo so we could easily see the action from a different perspective. Very nice!


As to the chat bubbles - you can edit them out easy enough. Just send the demo to notepad, find the chat text you don't like, and change to an empty string. See the demo edit faq (linked to above) for more info on that.

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I dont have Premiere. Is there any freeware software that will allow me to string demodump TGA into an animated gif or mpg of somekind?

Or is it more effective just ot use moviemaker and record the demo while its playing. Thanks.

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Funny you should ask, because I just found out how to make WMV files using the game's own demodump, Irfanview, and Window's Movie Maker 2. All free!!

Just do the -demodump at 640x480 rez and a fixed 8 frames per second. This will create a boatload of .TGA screenshots. Now fire up Irfanview and select the batch processing under the File menu to convert all those TGA files to BMP format. (They come out about the same size.)

Now bring up Movie Maker 2. Look under the Tools/Options... menu and select the advanced tab. Turn the picture duration down to 0.125 and click OK. Click the Import Pictures link on the left side, go to where your BMP files are, highlight one, and press control-A to select all the files in the directory and open them. Now just drag all those pictures down to the bottom area and click "Save to my computer" in the left area. Crank crank crank crank.... POOF! Semi-instant movie!

I haven't seen a way to get MM2 to go higher than 640x480 or show pictures for less than 1/8th of a second but, for outright free, I think this does pretty good!

I was able to view several (not all) of my demos from the Rikti invasion once the Reflections patch went in! However, the sound system got seriously hosed. It was worth the trade, IMHO.

I messed up on the float command! The number is actually the type of float being done and the string is which message to show.

So far, I've only seen two types, 5 and 6. You can see type five but not type 6 in playback. You can put type 5's over anyone. 5's that appear over the player use a smaller font than those over other players. Here's a list:

float 5 FloatOutOfRange
float 5 FloatMiss (normally the only one that appears above objects other than the player)
float 5 FloatRecharging
float 5 FloatInterrupted
float 5 FloatNotEnoughEndurance (out of power)
float 5 FloatNoEndurance (too tired)

The 6's are recorded but do not appear in playback:

float 6 FloatFoundClue
float 6 FloatFoundEnhancement
float 6 FloatMissionComplete

I'm sure there's a float 6 FloatMissionFailed, too, but naturally I have no examples of that. <smirk>

Do one from scratch!? Oh my, that would be a mighty tedious to do by hand! I think it would be a ton easier to record a demo then modify it. That will at least get you started at a point that isn't deep inside some wall!

Camera movement is done by using the CAM object. It gets moved around and oriented (PYR) just like any other object. If you change the last number to, say, 3 on all the CAM's PYR statements then you'll get an upside down demo!

If you're looking for demo examples, my website for my demo launcher also has a few sample demos you can download.

A program to make global edits might be interesting. Maybe instead of splicing a program could go in and make all the timing values over a range really small so you fast forward through the dull parts?

A power demo is another thing in the neat but tedius section. Take two heroes and put a couple of simple MOBs in front of them. Do this in a good sized room, maybe something from the CoT city. Then edit in every single player power with a quick chat message to say what it is. (Possibly skipping the movement powers.) This will give us a power demo catalog, of sorts.

Unfortunately, I keep wasting all my free time playing a certain addicting online game!

Sure they do! 5th Column do their workouts and speaches. There's probably an emote to get Lost bosses up on a box doing a speach. And so on.

Great FAQ!

Steamy Mist has been particularly helpful when combined with the SuperLeap power. The stealth aspect cuts down on a lot of unwanted encounters and it protects you when you manage to land right on a red's head. It doesn't seem to slow down leaping at all.

Hurricane can be very nasty in corners. I sometimes can push one or two minions that have broken into the back lines into a corner with my hurricane then turn my back on them and forget about them until the battle is over. (Of course, if the battle runs a bit long and I run out of endurance....)

Oh, and once you get over level 16 or so, you NEED to go back to Perez Park. Put on your mist and your hurricane then go annoy several large spawns of low level gangs. Turn on your boombox and watch as several dozen tuff guys completely fail to even get close enough to swing at you!

It turns out the Freakshow disguise mission is just plain broken right now - the power fails to make you look Freaked even in the game. Hopefully the power effect I listed above will start working again when the bug is fixed.

I've created another FAQ file describing the demo file format which gives some editing tips to those who would like to fiddle with their demos.

I'm just describing the .cohdemo file format here. For info on how to make/play demos in the first place, see my Screenshot & Demo FAQ.

Demo File Format FAQ

Demo files are remarkably easy to read, yet I still have many questions about them. Consequently, this FAQ file still has much work to be done on it. Still, I believe I can save a lot of future demo editors some time by imparting what I’ve learned dinking around with the .cohdemo files.

Each line of a demo file has the following format: Timing, Object ID, Command, and Data.

Timing is easy, that’s just how much time has passed (in milliseconds?) since the last command. Many will start with 0, particularly at the start of a demo, indicating the command should happen immediately.

Object ID is also easy, it is simply a number the demo uses to identify each object in the demo. Each object is initialized with a NEW command to indicate what it is. Object numbers can be re-used so just because object 35 is a Reaper at the start of your demo doesn’t mean it is at the end of your demo. There is one special object called “CAM” to indicate changes in the camera’s point of view.

Commands and data tell CoH what is actually being done…..

Commands

Version – this has always been version 2 as long as I’ve been watching. If this ever changes, watch out. This whole FAQ file could become a waste of bits! I’ve never tried changing this number.

Map – the map that’s being used for the demo. Again, I’ve never fiddled with this. Changing it would probably result in most of the action happening inside walls. Note that using an elevator does not change maps! It just moves you far enough away that the areas you have already explored are off the edge of your map display in the game.

Time – how many hours past midnight the demo starts at. This is pretty irrelevant for indoor missions but you can change this to switch the action from night to day on an outdoor mission. Set it to 18 or 19 for a sunset, for instance.

POS – the object has changed to this new absolute position on the map. Changing it puts the object in a different position. The second number is the Z coordinate. One unit looks to be about one foot.

PYR – (pitch yaw roll) the object has changed orientation. Numbers range from positive to negative pi. The first number describes how much the object is leaning forward/backward, the second describes how the object is turned right/left, and the third describes how the object has tilted (so 0,0,1.5 would put the object on its right side). These are almost always “0,number,0.”

NEW – makes a new object of the given type. These commands are followed by other commands describing the properties of the object. Objects can be anything that isn’t static including MOBs, doors, players, and some lingering spell effects like rains. (Mission objective objects currently do not appear in demos.) For NPCs, the New command gives the NPC’s name.

DEL – destroys the object. The object number can then be re-used.

MOV – what animation the object is currently doing. Not all objects have all animations. For instance, you can’t make a door do a FEAR_A move. If you try to make an object do something for which there is no animation, your demo will give you a message box saying so then continue after you click OK. I believe all objects do have a READY move.

SEQ – I haven’t fiddled with this but I believe some objects (like computers) go through a sequence of animations. This starts that sequence and the game engine takes it from there.

CHAT – Tells who said what. Several system messages are included here, too, like who defeated a MOB and people joining the team. (Object numbers for the latter can be quite huge!) I think the first number after the chat is what channel is being used and the second is whether a player or the game itself made the chat.

Float/floatdmg – little numbers or words above an object. The first number is the object number and the second is a string of what will be there. Float shows specific messages like FloatMiss for a miss and FloatRecharging when you try to use a power that isn’t ready yet. Unfortunately, these don’t appear in demo playback right now. Floatdmg is used to float a number over the character. If you give it a positive number then the game will put a minus on the front and float it up as a red number. If you give it a negative number, it will get rid of the minus sign and float it up as a green number. (Yes, it’s a little backwards, but there it is.)

FX – A power effect is starting! This can be the power getting launched or a target undergoing an effect from the power. The name of the power is easy enough to figure out. The first number is an ID number for the effect but I have no idea what the last number is.
FXSCALE – Always 10 and 10. Making the last number too big makes the power go away but I can’t figure out what the numbers are really supposed to do.
ORIGIN ENT – The first number is the object that will be the origin of the effect. I don’t know what the second number does. If the first number is 0 then the origin is the object itself (which is pretty common).
TARGET ENT – Same as origin but this gives the target’s object number.
FXDESTROY – occurs further down in the demo when a repeating effect ends. Number is the ID number of the effect.

COSTUME – Now we’re having fun! This describes exactly how a character looks in the game. First it describes the basics of a character then it gives each part. The numbers are as follows:
<ul type="square"> [*] The first number on the Costume line is the basic model. 0 is basic male, 1 basic female, and 4 huge male. (I’m guessing 2 and 3 are big male and big female but setting this makes most of the character invisible and gives lots of move animation errors.) Note that many costume options do not exist for all models, meaning that you can not put a bikini on your huge male. (THANK YOU Devs!!!)[*] The second number is the skin color. Colors are done in hexadecimal as BBGGRR so 00ff00 is pure green and white is ffffff.[*] The third is height. 0 is average height and values can range pretty far. –99 makes the character no more than a dot and at +1000 you’ll have to zoom back to see higher than the kneecap. Graphics don’t scale up too well so don’t expect a lot from the huge characters.[*] The fourth is the athletic/muscle scale. –1 is as skinny as possible and 1 is as muscular. If you go outside this range the demo will crash.[/list]
PARTSNAME – next follows a list of several parts names describing the costume the character is wearing. Each line has three strings and two colors. The strings give exactly what costume piece is being used for this part. Early on I tried to collect all these so I could list them off in this FAQ but there are just too many. Here’s the order they come in:
1. Pants
2. Top
3. Head/Face
4. Gloves
5. Boots
6. Belt
7. Hair
8. ?
9. Upper face decoration (glasses, tiaras, and so on)
10. Chest Emblem
11. Shoulder Detail
12. ?
13. ?
14. Lower Face decoration (breathers, beards, veils….)
15. Special robot arms

Costume gets re-saved when the costume changes or the character goes into/out of supergroup mode.

There’s a mission in the game that gives you a Freakshow disguise. This is a power, not a costume change. (It used to be “FX Maintained 3 POWERS/ITEMSANDTEMPPOWERS/FREAKSHOWPARTS.FX 0” but this no longer works and my old demo now just has me running around without the disguise.)

Player - This comes before the NEW statement for the charcter recording the demo.

XLU – I have no clue what this is. These commands started up some time before launch and now no longer appear in demos.


Character Swapping

The thing folks seemed to find the most fun early on was swapping characters. You can alter a demo to, say, put all your alts into one demo then take a screenshot.

To do this, take a character you want to paste from one of your demos. Only copy the COSTUME and PARTSNAME commands and the initial NEW command. It should look something like this:

0 1 NEW Zloth
0 1 COSTUME 4 ffffff 23.945047 0.863297
0 1 PARTSNAME Armored armored_medieval_01 Blend 666600 00663b
0 1 PARTSNAME Armored Armor_Medieval_01 Blend 00007f 008cd4
0 1 PARTSNAME Great_Helm Great_Helm_01 None 00007f 0000d4
0 1 PARTSNAME Armored armored_medieval_01 Blend 006666 006600
0 1 PARTSNAME Big armored_medieval_01 Blend 3d3d00 990002
0 1 PARTSNAME None None None 009957 006666
0 1 PARTSNAME None None None 737373 3d0000
0 1 PARTSNAME None None None 737373 3d0000
0 1 PARTSNAME Wings_01 Wing_01a Wing_01b 3535fd 000055
0 1 PARTSNAME Armored base Scales 990002 990002
0 1 PARTSNAME Spiked spiked_01a spiked_01b 0000d4 000055
0 1 PARTSNAME None None None 737373 3d0000
0 1 PARTSNAME None None None 737373 3d0000
0 1 PARTSNAME None None None 737373 3d0000
0 1 PARTSNAME None None None 737373 3d0000

Now open the demo you want to put this character into and find the New statement for who you want to replace. Select all the costume and partsname commands (but not the NEW command) and paste over them with your character. Change the object number in each line (1 in the example) to the old character’s object number, which will still be up in the NEW command. Finally, erase the old NEW command.

Normally, that’s all there is to it. However, if the character in the demo changes costume or switches to/from supergroup mode, the character will revert.


Splicing

Cutting out parts of a demo is risky but it can be done. What gets you in trouble is when you miss NEW and DEL commands. For instance, if you cut out part of a demo and half a dozen monsters’ NEW commands along with it, your party may start fighting empty air. So when you do your cuts try to avoid cutting out NEW and DEL commands.

The easiest thing to do is cut off the end of a demo. At the end of a demo everything restarts anyway so you don’t care what commands are getting removed. Hack away!

Cutting out of the middle is harder. If your group is just standing around waiting for somebody who’s away from keyboard, though, you shouldn’t have any NEW or DEL commands. If you need to hack a lot out of the middle, try cutting until just before the main player goes into an elevator. (You can save yourself quite a bit of grief in searching for that point if somebody said something right before the player goes in. Just search for the chat message.)

Cutting out the very start can’t happen because it’s full of NEW statements. However, once those are all done you can cut just like the middle sections. Very handy if you start the demo then end up waiting around for somebody to enter. (Make sure you don’t cut out their entrance, though!)


Chats

It’s real easy to change what people say. You can fix spelling errors or, if their chat bubble is blocking out a nice view, get rid of it completely. You can cut out the line completely or, if you want to make sure you don’t mess the timing up, just make the text string empty and no text will appear. The line would look something like this:

22 4026 Chat 8 1 ""

Colors also appear right in the chat text and are easy to change or remove.

It’s also easy to add chat messages in, just follow the format of the other chat messages you see in the demo. This makes it easy to do a tutorial demo without having to pause the action to type in your informative messages. Just do what you want to do while you record then insert the chat info later.


Look! Up in the sky!!

Want to see what you missed at the end of beta? Take a demo in Atlas and replace the blimp with:

0 3248 NEW "Rikti Destroyer"
0 3248 NPC Rikti_Destroyer
(position data)
0 3248 MOV FLY_MID_POST

correcting the object number, of course.

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??? In testing the demo feature for the first time I just pressed the escape key to stop playing the demo. Maybe that's something new.

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It IS new, and it's terribly handy! Thanks T_H_X!

Yep, you can demodump at all sorts of resolutions. I sometimes dump at 2048x1536 when I want a good picture of a character. Or you can start a demodump in windowed mode at low rez then, when you get to a good part, maximize it and make bigger shots for that part.

Also, since you aren't playing and worried about frame rates, you can crank your video card's Anti-Aliasing and whatnot up. I'm not sure what game options a demo uses (it always seems to have chat bubbles on, for instance), but you can probably crank up the game details as well via the registry or just by setting them right before you quit a game session.

-demofps is also very handy. It lets you speed up and slow down how fast the demo will play. Lower numbers make it go faster. I mostly use this when doing demodump but it can also be used to speed through a demo to see what happens inside.

You can also change the time of day real easy. It's the third line in the demo and I believe it's just the hour of the day as military time. Set it to about 19 for a sunset, for instance. (Obviously time won't mean dink inside indoor missions.)

If any devs out there are looking for suggestions, it would sure be nice to be able to change perspective. Let us hit a key and have the demoreplay ignore camera instructions. Then let us move around freely. (We'll likely need a slow and precise movement speed as well as a maxxed speed to keep up with the speed demons.) Extra credit if we can re-attach the camera to any character we find!

Having the option to turn off chat bubbles would be nice, too. I can do it myself by going in with notepad but that's a bit of a pain.

P.S. The Zloth account was from beta so I had to make a new one.