Making and Uploading a Demo

[Levichan]

For those who don't know how yet, I will explain how to make a demo and upload it for us to see.


What is a demo?

A demo is basically a video of what is seen through your eyes, from the moment you started recording and until you stop it.


Requirements:

• Obviously, some hard disk drive space;
• Access to the console;
• Knowledge of a few console commands;
• Be aware of how it works.

Gaining access to the console:

First, we will go into the options. If you're not already in the "Keyboard" tab, click it. Click on the "Advanced" button there: a window will open. Check "Enable developer console" then click on the button "OK". Restart the game to make sure the changes take effect.

Now that the console is enabled, all you need to do is press your "`" key on your keyboard to open it. It is located above the "TAB" key and to the right of the "1" key. You can open the console at anytime when the game is running.

Some users will have problems opening the console. It is currently unknown as to why, but there are ways around this. It could depend on the language of your OS, or the language the keyboard is currently using.


Starting to record a demo:

Since the most common use of a demo is to catch hackers or other villains, make sure to go into spectator mode first and change your view to first person, the target being the suspicious player.

To start recording a demo, open your console. Then type the following:

record [filename]

[filename] being the name you wish to give to the file the game will create. Executing this command will start the recording.


Stopping the recording:

To stop the recording of a demo, you need to open your console and type:

stopdemo

This will stop the recording of the demo and create the file in the following directory (by default):

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\[your account name]\team fortress 2\tf


Watching your demo:

To watch your demo, open your console and type:

playdemo [insert filename here]

Obviously, this will start the demo from the beginning.

Alternatively, you can access the "demoui" by pressing:

Shift + F2

This will open a new window that will allow you to view demos at different speeds and such.


perfui and the occlusion tool:

If you want to see through walls (if you suspect a wall hacker) during your demo, then you will have to enable the occlusion tools.

You can do this by typing:

sv_cheats 1

Then:

perfui

This will open a small window. In the pull-down menu, select "Occlusion Tool". Change the occluder visualization mode to "View occluders". Now you should be able to see through walls, sort of (more like wireframe mode).


Uploading a demo:

Demos can be uploaded at many different websites. Here's a list of a few:

• http://www.megaupload.com
• http://www.rapidshare.com

Anyway, they should ask what file you want to upload and they will ask you to select the directory where it's located. Do that and after the upload is over, they should give you a link. Copy and paste that link in your report on the forums and people will be able to download your demo for reviewing. Remember, the default directory where the demos are saved is:

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\[your account name]\team fortress 2\tf


This concludes this small guide. I hope it is useful to many and I look forward to review your reports. If something is wrong with the guide, please post in this topic. Thank you.

P.S.: To moderators, feel free to edit the thread.

[Cleavage Monkey]

Thanks Levi. That was a good recap.

[luckylpf]

Ok, a few things I did not know... thanks for posting this.

[iheartyou]

good write up minus a few errors, tild "`" is left of the 1 not right =p

after recording a demo you just have to type "stop" not "stopdemo"

Also when attempting to watch demos, instead of typing in playdemo (if you type in console "playdemo" followed by a space it will list all available demos), type in "demoui" or "demoui2" which are essential players for viewing demos. Which include load out sections as well as the usual ff,rw, stop, pause, seek functions. Differences between demoui/demoui2 is the interface, i prefer demoui.

[rk-]

Shift + F2 also works for demoui.

[Nekkris]

Nice tut.
Two things
Tilde and it's alt function is to the left of 1, not to the right.
I'm pretty sure if you just type stop in console it will halt recording a demo.
Again.. solid post <3

[fAc3bOn3s]

Very good info that will go to use Thank you.

[WiseGuy]

Watching your demo:

To watch your demo, open your console and type:

playdemo [insert filename here]

Obviously, this will start the demo from the beginning.

Shift + F2 also works for demoui.

demoui is an alternative to playdemo - but instead it opens a User Interface for dealing with demos, you can then load any demo you want and watch it at different speeds / search through it etc.

good guide for those who don't know though.

[SniperGimp]

This is quite informative. I never bothered to look up how to do this, thx.

[aSydiK]

+1 to OP. Should be stickied.