Without seeing the demo itself I can't really say much, but my best guess would be that you don't have a long enough demo. It's always a good idea to add an extra command 5-10 seconds after the last line of a custom demo to make sure everything has had time to render and whatnot. Otherwise the whole thing basically ends before it even starts, and you get that effect where they pop in and out when it loops around continuously.
Another possibility may be that you have more than one of your characters attached to the same model ID (that sounds like it if some are popping in an out). If you look at the segment of code that defines each player character in the demo, it will start with something like this:
[ QUOTE ]
0 43 NEW "Super Dude"
0 43 COSTUME 0 000000 8.516483 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873 -0.015873
0 43 PARTSNAME Tight Metallic Tribal 000000 00007f
0 43 PARTSNAME Tight Metallic Tribal 000000 00007f
etc...
[/ QUOTE ]
That number "43" is the ID number for that character and is used to identify everything in the demo associated with that character. It must be a unique number for each different character, so make sure you aren't reusing the same ID for different characters that you are pasting in.
If you want to hide the names, just take the name field for each character (0 43 NEW "Super Dude") and make the name blank (a space or nothing). It's been a while and I'm going by memory right now, but I'm ivory soap sure that works.
CoH Codex : Demo Models/FX/MOVs : Demo Info
Arc 111022: "Doctor Geist and the Scientific Method"
I'm pretty sure that works. Alternatively, you can just use the -disable2d option unless there's chat bubbles/floating numbers you want to see (or the "disable text" box if you've got zloth's demo launcher, it does the same thing).
I actually got it to work. I pretty much deleted every thing in the scene that I wasn't using I.E: NPCs, etc.
Then to make the names not pop up by removing their name from the text like this:
0 25 NEW "Toon's Name"
and switched it to
0 25 NEW
The names stop appearing and everything worked fine, however, Since I am a demo edit noob, how do I add more time, it seems that my clip is roughly 12 seconds long, how would I extend it lets say a minute? Also, It seems like when I use the "Demo Dump" function on Sloth's Demo Editor the game barely loads the characters before it crashes.
Thanks for the help so far guys, I greatly appreciate it.
Caliburst || FREEDOM
L50+ Energy/Energy Blaster (1405 (1397) Badges)
Laughter is the best medicine because you can't O.D. and the refills are free.
Let's say you want to make one character dance, then 2 seconds later a second character starts dancing. This is basically what your demo would look like (regular characters are fine, NPC's just take less space):
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>1 0 Version 2
0 0 Map Maps/blah/blah/blah
0 0 Time 9
0 CAM POS 0 0 10
0 CAM PYR 0 0 0
0 1 Player
0 1 NEW Mekkie
0 1 NPC 5th_Mek_Man
0 1 POS 0 0 0
0 1 PYR 0 0 0
0 1 MOV D_MONKEY
0 2 NEW Ghosty
0 2 NPC Signature_Ghost_Widow
0 2 POS 3 0 0
0 2 PYR 0 0 0
2000 2 MOV D_BLOCK</pre><hr />
Since the first number in every line is the time entry, your demo takes 2 seconds to finish (just as the second character starts dancing) and you really won't see much. So what you'll need to do is tack some time on by adding an extra command. Just about any command will do, I generally just have a character do a 'MOV READY' 5-10 seconds later:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>5000 2 MOV READY </pre><hr />
Note that time is in milliseconds, so 5000=5 seconds and so on. Also note that those 5 seconds start after the previous line, so your demo is now a total of 7 seconds. Just tack on whatever amount of time you want to extend the demo by.
For more on demo editing, I'd check out this basic guide. If you want to get more in-depth with demo making/editing, I'd look through this one as well.
As for your other problem, is the client actually crashing, or does it just shut down? Also, how much free hard drive space do you have? I'm not sure what the problem really is if it's only doing it during a dump (and you know the demo itself works), but maybe someone else can lend their expertise for that one.
I've been trying to do a simple demo to take a screenshot with all my characters at a bar at Pocket D. However, certain characters don't even show up and some just pop in and out, and they all have their names over their heads. I've been trying to do it just text based and using the demo edit is pretty greek to me. It's pretty tough. Can I get any pointers?
Caliburst || FREEDOM
L50+ Energy/Energy Blaster (1405 (1397) Badges)
Laughter is the best medicine because you can't O.D. and the refills are free.