[VERY IMPORTANT] Segment stopping bind

Half-Life 2
1

It’s VERY important that EVERY runner uses this from now on.

bind "save ;echo #SAVE#;wait 25;stop"
This bind should be used in DWaHMoV segments to ensure smooth transitions in the Final Video.
Replace the to the key you want to use this bind on
Replace the to… (self explanatory).

[hr]

Q/A:
Q: Why do we need this bind?
A: For some reason, the start of each demo is glitched and results the camera (viewangle) being pointed in a weird direction for a few frames, and then suddenly restoring to normal. In the Final Video, to make the transitions smooth, I’m cutting out these frames (because it produces a weird jump otherwise) and that way some stuff that happens there is lost.
For example, if we don’t use this bind, the segment transitions in coast will look awful, because if I cut out the frames there’ll be a huge distance gap between demos (the flying part is glitched at the start, so either a jump or a gap). But if we use this bind I’ll be able to overlap the frames from previous demo (after the save) with the glitched frames.

Q: Isn’t this bind going to make longer demo times?
A: Yes, but since we are going to use the save that happens BEFORE demo stopping for next segment, the time after doesn’t matter.

Q: Frames =/= Ticks, how are we going to time it?
A: Timing is no longer a problem. YaLTeR updated Listdemo+ so that it finds the tick in which the “save” command was executed (only works with demos that use the bind). We can calculate the additional time caused by the bind using this really simple formula (if you can call it a formula):
10 frames = Overall tick amount - Tick amount until “save” command.

Q: I use the console to end segments, not binds. Any help for me?
A: Use the bind on the console key, like this:
bind ` “save ;echo #SAVE#;wait 25;stop;toggleconsole”
This bind will do the same as the original bind, but it’ll also open the console. All you’ll have to do is hit the console button and it’ll do the work for you.

Of course, you might want to have some sort of toggle for this, since we like to open console when not running too. Use these:
bind “bind "toggleconsole"" (toggle off) bind <key> "bind “save ;echo #SAVE#;wait 25;stop;toggleconsole”” (toggle on)
these toggles need testing yet, sorry :confused:

[hr]

THIS MIGHT BE EDITED:
I’m not forcing you to use this bind, its just for the final video sake. You can use this only on fast demos, or you can be a cool guy and use this everywhere. Just don’t forget to tell us that your demo used it :stuck_out_tongue:

Also, this MIGHT be used ONLY on segments that don’t end with map change, but in the future (after enough testing is done), you’ll probably have to put this in your game.cfg which executes on every map load (so the demos after _2 demos are not glitched too :stuck_out_tongue:
I mean, what’s the point of having _2 demos if the following demo has broken frames anyway.)

Spread this page to every runner. I gotta make sure that everyone uses this.

Thanks.

2

You should post an example of how shitty things look if this isn’t used compared to how good they do if it is. Sort of like an anti-smoking commercial ;> Then again most people in here are probably aware of this anyway since everyone has seen the EP1 run which was filled with bad segment transitions. Compare that to turreu’s canals run which got this right most of the time and the benefits should be more than obvious.

3

So, Yalter and me tested it today, in most cases the save command isnt saved to the demo. In fact,w e had a total of 1 demo where it had worked. The binds above do not ensure the save command being written to the demo. I dont know if Yalter achieved any progress on this before I left earlier today, but the command is not saved in any of the dwahmov segments, nor PDPr, nor demos saved with “save ;wait 10;stop”. I have yet to test his “exec SEDTSave; wait 10; stop”, where SEDTSave.cfg contains simply "save ".

bye, CBenni

4

I don’t see any problem with the ep1 video

5

Then you have no feeling for continuity. Just use the bind, dammit, it wont hurt anyone.

6

The last time I tried to use a bind to end a segment I deleted my save when I accidentally hit it not even 5 minutes later. I was hurt. It cut me deep.

7

It wasn’t the bind that did the damage, it was your foolishness. It was also your foolishness that pressed the button agin withot making a backup.

I can’t see why you keep arguing about this. It takes no effort to use this and it makes everything better. Is it the ticks in your cute timesheet that is important, or is it the final video?

8

Also, it was foolish not to use SEDT. I wrote that thing so that doesnt happen, I dont know why nobody uses it…

I always use binds, just because it makes running more comfy, but again, that is just personal preference.

9

If the video ends up looking as good as hl2dq / ep1dq , then the ticks in the cute timesheet are more important to me.

10

Yeah, being able to properly time the run is more important to me as well. It’s all good and well to beat HL2DQ and have a nice video, it’s much nicer to know our run’s time out to 5 decimal places =P

11

ep1dq video da best 4 evar 8)

12

Timing is not a problem anymore -.-

13

It’s funny, really. What happened to

?

You wanted us to shave the most ticks off of our demos, but now it’s being contradicted with using this bind. We haven’t used this bind for the first half of the run, so why is it a major issue now? Yeah I know we’re on coast, but we’re going level load to level load essentially, so it’s useless. It should’ve been addressed and used as the recording standard before we started getting these segments (perhaps all the way back in trainstation_01), but it wasn’t.

I’ll forgive you, perhaps you posted that without reading CBenni’s post first, which basically said anything they tried with recording demos and a save, finding the save command tick didn’t work.

Now I see where Exec is finding his motivation from. Less ticks = less video time, so I’d say they’re both equally as important. Yes, I would like a smooth video, but as I said above, we already made it halfway through the run without using the bind. Why should we all of a sudden change the way the video looks? I don’t care if it’s jumpy, it only reminds people that it’s segmented, which I’d rather have anyways.

And yeah, I’d say the tick count on our “cute little timesheet” is important, you even said so yourself:

To be honest, all this fuss is making me start to wonder why we even bother sometimes. We have people who don’t run that dictate us what to do, constantly contradicting themselves in the process. It’s like American politics is infecting something that should be a fun pastime activity. I just want you to question yourself this, and this is not being selfish or egotistical, but where would dwahmov be without me? Or better yet, where would we be if we really decided to grind all the ticks we possibly could off?

I don’t care anymore. Use the bind, don’t use the bind, whatever. In the end, all the ticks that are on the demo are being counted to the final time (unless CBen and Yalter find a way to count them), and I don’t wanna fucking hear “It’s funny to know this run could’ve been done X seconds faster.”

14

OK, soo.

It was pretty hard to find out WHEN EXACTLY the save command gets saved. I havent gotten it 100% consistently, however here is how it worked (for me, everything in “<>” are user-definable; i.o.w, you can choose these yourself)

in the game:

bind <recordkey> "record <demoname>" bind <savestopkey> "exec <savecfgname>; wait 10; stop"
in .cfg:

note:

[ol][li]You HAVE to save to a subfolder. For some reason, it wouldnt take it if I saved to the default save folder[/li]
[li]This isnt working in 100% of cases, I think; however it works in most[/li]
[li]Use SEDT and its save cfg files. It makes stuff way easier. I had saves saved correctly in some of my SEDT demos, eventhough I saved with “save ; stop”. (Without wait 10)[/li][/ol]

cu, CBenni

15

This was examples about another subject. Besides, I doubt that a few ticks would change that impression if you have a great improvement.

Why don’t you use the video for the final timing as 99% of other runs are doing. If you did those X seconds faster would be from missing footage. Fair?

You don’t have to listen to me. Just mind my points and do whatever you want.

16

Aye, I respect your opinions. Sorry if it came across as a little too personal there.

So, if you like the bind, sure, use it. Personal choice really. I’m done here. Exec, good luck on the video. I have some coast_07 stuff to experiment.

17

What if you change the bind to be

Bind save blah;echo harblat;wait 3498274;stop ?

It prints “harblat” into the console everytime you press the key then, I’m not sure if it also carries over into demo recording?

Various of my portal 2 binds have echo’s to confirm that I pressed them correctly.

18

I’ll see if echo is being saved into the .dem file when I get home.

19

I should mention that there is a cvar called demo_recordcommands which defaults to 1. Since echo is a command like any other this should mean it’s stored in the demo as well.

20

Yeah that was one of the methods too, to store the “echo” command once the bind does the job.