[GUIDE] Viewing/Recording Counter Strike Demo's

.:{EK}:. Squall · Sat Nov 24, 2007 6:46 am

Demo's are files that contain recorded in-game action.These files have an .dem extension e.g frod.dem . Usually counter Strike players make demo's of their scrim/league matches, even demo's of KZ players breaking longjump records are very popular.

There are 2 types of Demo's:

1. POV
2. HLTV

POV (Point Of View) : These demo's only contain the footage of the player who recorded the demo. In other words you get to see the first person perspective footage of the recorder. You cannot control who you spectate in these types of demo's, but are forced rather to watch the demo recorder and whoever he spectates when he is dead in-game.

HLTV (Half Life TV) : Like its name suggests HLTV is sorta like a TV channel broadcasting a counter strike match, only differences are that its not live and that HLTV offers more controls. You can spectate anyone in these demos and there are even features like picture in picture, 1st /3rd person mode etc etc.

Recording a POV Demo:

Once your ingame(i.e counter strike has loaded and you are in a server), type ~ to bring up the console
In the console type record demoname, where demoname is the name you would like to name your demo. Choose a suitable name so that you may later find it easily , e.g meVSteam.dem
To stop recording the demo, press ~ to bring up the console and type stop

Recording a HLTV Demo:
Recording HLTV's demo require that you either connect to a HLTV server and record the demo or use HLTV Tool to connect to the server where the match is being played on and use it to record the demo, however this method only works IF you have administrative rights on the server (RCON access).

Using HLTV Server to Record Demo's: You can find various HLTV Server IP's on sites like Gotfrag.com and HLTV.org, they usually are for Professional league matches and you can use these to record demo's of your favourite teams. You connect to these servers just like normal CS servers, the procedure to record a demo is the same as POV demo's.

Using HLTV Tool To Record Demo's :Using HLTV Tool to connect and record demo's from a server is a bit more complicated. Your firstly need to connect to the server that your are playing on, this requires that you atleast have RCON access on the server since the HLTV needs the login info to connect to the server. Once connected, your are free to record the demo's. HLTV Tool offers alot of features that improve and simplify the whole process of recording demo's. A search on google for "hltv tool" will provide you with the download link.

Notes:

If you would like your voice to be recorded in your POV demo's, make sure that before starting to record the demo, type this in the console sv_voiceloopback "1"
By default demo's are recorded in the cstrike folder i.e usually
c:/program files/steam/steamapps/counter-strike/cstrike
If your demo name contains spaces make sure to use "" For instance you want to record a demo called
nuke ownage, typing record nuke ownage to record the demo would be incorrect, instead it should be written like this record "nuke ownage"

Viewing Demo's:
There are two commands used to view Demo's , viewdemo and playdemo. Playdemo is just a simple way to view demo's, whereas viewdemo offers playback controls such as fast forward, reverse, playback speed etc.
To view a demo simply type in the console playdemo demoname or viewdemo demoname where demoname is the name of the demo file e.g viewdemo 3DvsCOL.dem. You dont have to necessarily type .dem at the end, the first part of the file name is suffice.(viewdemo 3DvsCOL). To stop playback of the demo simply type STOP in the console.

Playing Demo's with ingame voice:
Sometimes Demo's contain ingame voice and when you try to play these, the voice is all garbled. to fix this:

create an offline game via New Game in the counter strike options (any map will do)
once its loaded, type ~ to bring up the console and type these 2 commands
sv_voicequality 5
sv_voicecodec voice_speex
now load the demo with the ingame voice

Notes:

Counter Strike demo's will only work if it is played in the same version of client it was recorded in. For instance, a demo recorded in a CS 1.5 server will not work in CS 1.6 or vice versa
It is recommended that before viewing a demo, start a New Game and preferbaly load the map that the demo was recorded in, this will ensure that problems like the scoreboard not showing up, demo being very laggy etc do not occur.

.:{EK}:. Squall 2007

[GUIDE] Viewing/Recording Counter Strike Demo's

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