This isn't mod-related but nonetheless a technical subject.

Whenever I play EF online, I like recording my matches to eventually save some of them as a souvenir for later. Currently, I am trying to build a movie out of the TGA files that are generated when using the cvar "cl_avidemo". Unfortunately, the outcome is not convincing at all: once I key in the console "cl_avidemo 1", the demo suddenly plays faster and jerky and logically the movie built out of it is of the same flavour

Thus, my question is: does anyone know a decent way to make a good movie? My system is pretty sinewy (Athlon XP 1800+ on a MSI KT4-Ultra motherboard, RAM 256Mb, GeForce4-MX) so I don't think this is a processing power issue.

Thanks for your feedback.

cl_avidemo causes the demo to run jerky because the game then has to make screenshots all the time, and that requires a relatively large amount of processing time, because everything has to be written to the hard disk as well. A way to solve this problem can be to change your video setting to a very low resolution, which shouldn't be a problem because the video your trying to make will probably be a low resolution anyway to keep the file size limited.
A way to do this without changing your video setting all the time is by using efrecorder. It's a freeware proggy that allows the recording, playback and organisation of ef demos in an easy way. It also has the option to play a demo in a low resolution for avi creating purposes, without permanently changing your config (so if you play the game the next time, your settings are the same as before the recording).

Hope this helps.

I'd use a bmp2avi program (search for "bmp2avi" on google) to "glue" all the .tga files together. I know it says bmp, but the freeware one out there (really basic DOS one) will allow you to use tga files as well. It is a lot faster than Animation Shop and doesn't hog memory (like Animation Shop).

Yeah Animation Shop is time consuming.

EFRec is available at EFFiles, natch.
http://www.effiles.com/file.info?ID=851

I made 2 movies and I'm quite happy with them.
First of all, cl_avidemo isn't a switch but the amount of screenshots you want taken. I used cl_avidemo 25 (and a heavily adapted autoexec with eye candy settings and cool binds).
Next you would have to import the screenshots in a program. I used VirtualDub for my first movie but QVM (Quake Video Maker) for the second. This program is much easier to use!!

Quake Video Maker

You would also need a sound editing program that makes for instance MP3's. Actually, there are loads of programs that can be used for movie making.

Another helpful site:
Own-age

Good Luck!

Thank you very much fellows: you make me happy . Actually, I had completely misinterpreted the role of the "cl_avidemo" cvar, in that I thought it was only a true/false switch. Quake Video Maker is also a *very* useful program.

MiXeD (about EFRec): "It also has the option to play a demo in a low resolution for avi creating purposes, without permanently changing your config"

Where it is hidden?? Besides, I cannot manage to make it work properly: when I try to record a demo using the defined key, EF complains about an unknown command "g_synchronousclients". Anyway, I already had 3 bound keys for that purpose which is enough 4 me.

Thanks to your advises, here is my method to quickly build a movie:

1/. Edit "hmconfig.cfg" to define recording keys:

       // screenshot generation at 25 fps in 512x384
       bind KP_LEFTARROW "r_mode 2;vid_restart;com_maxfps 25;cl_avidemo 25"
       // stop process; restore initial video config (1024x768 here)
       bind KP_RIGHTARROW "cl_avidemo 0;com_maxfps 200;r_mode 6;vid_restart"

NB: I play EF in a window because of a unresolved gamma issue when playing in fullscreen one (too dark); so, if you play in the latter mode, it might be convenient to add to the first bind line "r_fullscreen 0"

2/. Build the movie out the screenshots using Quake Video Maker. Pretty straightforward

3/. Watch the result!

For the sound, it shouldn't be too hard to add some to it thanks to the the "full-duplex" functionality of todays sound boards.


Again, thank you all.

There's two cvars you can change to fix the gamma problem. One of them is r_overbrightbits (can't remember the other one).

Last movie I was involved with, by the time we were finished we had added 13 layers of sound.

Actually there are more cvars to change the contrast on screen.
My settings for this are:
seta r_mapOverBrightBits "1.2"
seta r_overBrightBits "1.2"
seta r_gamma "1.2"

When capturing screenshots, make another cfg file for this and put a fixed r_mode 6 in it, so you don't lose time by switching resolutions.

Some other useful settings:
seta cl_noprint "1"
seta g_subtitles "0"
This prevents messages from being printed (don't forget to change them back when playing!!! or you will not be able to read chats).

Easy to use demo recording script (for some reason EFRec gives me errors every time I use it):
bind kp_del vstr demotoggle
set startdemo "g_synchronousClients 1;vstr demonumber;g_synchronousClients 0; set demotoggle vstr stopdemo"
set stopdemo "stoprecord; vstr democycle; set demotoggle vstr startdemo"
set demo_1 "record demo_1; set demonumber vstr demo_2"
set demo_2 "record demo_2; set demonumber vstr demo_3"
set demo_3 "record demo_3; set demonumber vstr demo_4"
set demo_4 "record demo_4; set demonumber vstr demo_5"
set demo_5 "record demo_5; set demonumber vstr demo_6"
set demo_6 "record demo_6; set demonumber vstr demo_7"
set demo_7 "record demo_7; set demonumber vstr demo_8"
set demo_8 "record demo_8; set demonumber vstr demo_9"
set demo_9 "record demo_9; set demonumber vstr demo_10"
set demo_10 "record demo_10; set demonumber vstr demo_11"
set demo_11 "record demo_11; set demonumber vstr demo_12"
set demo_12 "record demo_12; set demonumber vstr demo_13"
set demo_13 "record demo_13; set demonumber vstr demo_14"
set demo_14 "record demo_14; set demonumber vstr demo_15"
set demo_15 "record demo_15; set demonumber vstr demo_16"
set demo_16 "record demo_16; set demonumber vstr demo_17"
set demo_17 "record demo_17; set demonumber vstr demo_18"
set demo_18 "record demo_18; set demonumber vstr demo_19"
set demo_19 "record demo_19; set demonumber vstr demo_20; echo ^1ONLY ONE DEMO BEFORE THE OLD DEMOS WILL BE OVERWRITTEN!"
set demo_20 "record demo_20; set demonumber vstr demo_1"
set demonumber vstr demo_1
set demotoggle vstr startdemo

If you hit the dot ( . ) on the numeric keypad, you will start a demo. Hit it again and it stops. After you played the game, rename the demos!!! They can be found in baseef/demos folder. If you don't they will be overwritten if you record in a new game.


To record the avi's I used these binds:
Bind F1 "cg_drawtimer 0;cl_noprint 1;cg_draw2d 0;wait;cl_avidemo 25"
Bind F2 "cg_drawtimer 1;cl_noprint 1;cg_draw2d 1;cl_avidemo 0"

Adjust these settings to your liking ;)
In short, my usual cfg file is adapted to record demo's, and I've got another separate one just for making avi's. The above is just a really small part of it which might prove useful.