A tip for those who record demos

[cease]

Here's a tip for those who want to record demos of their gameplay with the least possible amount of efford.

I have been recording demos from games for video production and screenshots for more than 10 years from various games ... but it has always annoyed me, that Source games require you to explicitly give a filename when you ask it to record a demo. In other games demos would (like screenshots) be given a name based on timestamp.

I have seen many scripts trying to improve the situation by making the first demo a.dem, the next b.dem and so on. But still ... next time you started the game you would overwrite the demos from last time unless you had moved or renamed them.

The result always was that I forgot to start a recording and thus missed out on many amazing moments in the matches.

NEVER AGAIN !

There's a tool that has been around since 2009 that can improve the situation and automatically timestamp your demos. It can even make sure you record all games that you play (if you want it to).

The tool is SANDER (Source Auto-Named Demo Recorder) by Sander Dijkstra. You can find it on http://www.dyxtra.com/sander/. The instructions on how to use it are very simple and easy to follow.


INFO FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW WHAT A RECORDED DEMO IS
When you play a game of L4D2 you have the option of recording a demo. A demo is simply a file with the ".dem" extension that contains all the action that goes on in the game.

The usefulness of a demo is that you can replay it later and watch the game exactly as it was and use it for making videos or whatever of your gameplay.

The recorded demos are placed in your L4D2 folder with the ".dem" extension.

If you need any more info on the subject just search on Google or Youtube and you will find plenty.

[DREAMER]

Thank you very much! It works like a charm. Too sad I didnt know about this extremely useful tool before.

[J.U.S.T-I.N]

i have a problem when i playback demo my camera position angle doesnt show cutcene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wECTqkEz7nE&feature=youtu.be

[gesztenye_P U R E]

Hey man! I can't open the download link for some reason. Could you send me the file via email or something like that?

[▪●NO●▪]

Originally posted by kickapoo:

Hey man! I can't open the download link for some reason. Could you send me the file via email or something like that?

The thread is 6 years old. That tool can no longer be downloaded. I do have it in a backup, and a few more of these tools. It is not clear what you want exactly. You can just type in console "record demo", or "record monkey" ... The name behind record is up to you. You can also make a "bind key" to record your game. You can do that in different ways too. In console, or in your config.cfg put bind "F7" "record demo" or any other free key. When the game starts, press F7, and your game will be recorded.

I have seen many scripts trying to improve the situation by making the first demo a.dem, the next b.dem and so on. But still ... next time you started the game you would overwrite the demos from last time unless you had moved or renamed them.

If you know how to record a game and you want the file names to be changed automatically, the tool described above is easy. I do have better tools for doing that for L4D2, by the way.

(Edit)

If you want to record your games to use online, for example, then I recommend using external software. The .DEM files cannot be opened in other than L4D2. I use a paid version of a very stable program to capture my games, but there are many free game capture tools out there. I can recommend one that is absolutely free (open source) and you can do quite a lot with it. Google this "OBS 25.0.1".

[L0qi]

Originally posted by ▪●NO●▪:

The thread is 6 years old. That tool can no longer be downloaded. I do have it in a backup, and a few more of these tools. It is not clear what you want exactly. You can just type in console "record demo", or "record monkey" ... The name behind record is up to you. You can also make a "bind key" to record your game. You can do that in different ways too. In console, or in your config.cfg put bind "F7" "record demo" or any other free key. When the game starts, press F7, and your game will be recorded.

I have seen many scripts trying to improve the situation by making the first demo a.dem, the next b.dem and so on. But still ... next time you started the game you would overwrite the demos from last time unless you had moved or renamed them.

If you know how to record a game and you want the file names to be changed automatically, the tool described above is easy. I do have better tools for doing that for L4D2, by the way.

How's the age of the thread relevant and what's exactly not clear to you? Dude asked for a download to the recording tool. Not only you gave a half assed solution noone asked for, but also proceeded to brag about the amount of better tools you have. How helpful of you...

Originally posted by kickapoo:

Hey man! I can't open the download link for some reason. Could you send me the file via email or something like that?

Download at your own risk.
ZIP archive with the SANDER (remove the space)
http://www.mediafire .com/file/zgoaear1q7or8tw/sander.zip/file
VirusTotal scan of the EXE[www.virustotal.com]
Don't know whether it's just a ton of false positives or the EXE is truly infected. All I know is that I've been running it on startup for 3 years now. Other Steam user shared the file with me in 2017, since the main download link was (and looks like still is) broken.

[▪●NO●▪]

Realy ?

How's the age of the thread relevant and what's exactly not clear to you? Dude asked for a download to the recording tool. Not only you gave a half ♥♥♥♥♥ solution noone asked for, but also proceeded to brag about the amount of better tools you have. How helpful of you...

First. Digging out old threads is not officially allowed here. He / she may not have seen the thread date, or understood that the tool creator deleted it from his server. I do have the tool, but since such tools can be potentially very dangerous, I don't put it on one of my data servers just to let everyone download it. I could potentially endanger people that way.

It is unclear exactly what he / she wants to achieve. In order not to endanger him / her with potentially dangerous software, I provide other SAFE alternatives. He / she may not be aware of the many other safe alternatives. I indicate that I myself use paid software because such software is simply much faster, easier and above all safe to use. Because I realize that not everyone can or will pay for that, I give the option to use a great free program, where he / she can also do a lot more than a potentially dangerous .exe tool.

I am assuming that your link will not work here because you are trying to promote potentially dangerous software, unnecessarily but willfully trying to endanger others !!

Have a nice day.

[L0qi]

Originally posted by ▪●NO●▪:

-snap-

Show me the rule prohibiting bringing old threads back to life. As far as I'm concerned you can necro all you want as long as you stay on topic.
You know what actually is against the rules? Backseat moderating. Here's a link to the rules and guidelines. Feel free to get familiar with them.

It is unclear exactly what he / she wants to achieve.

I can't open the download link for some reason. Could you send me the file...

I wonder what this could mean?

Let's get to your alternatives:

1. do it manually and eventually get tired of recording demos
   
2. a bind that'll overwrite your previous demo if you're not careful enough
   
3. recording a video that is around 20 times bigger than an average demo and will potentially slow your PC down

But you said you have better tools for recording demos. So go ahead and tell us what you're hiding up your sleeve. I'm quite curious.

I am assuming that your link will not work here because you are trying to promote potentially dangerous software, unnecessarily but willfully trying to endanger others !!

No. My link would probably be removed if I didn't put a space in it, because it leads to MediaFire download. You'd know why, if you did minimal amount of research.
I can drop you some real malware on DropBox. Those download links aren't being removed, so their contents must be legit, right?

The threat is either dead or non-existent. I've been using SANDER for 3 years. It runs every time i turn on my machine. If it were to cause any harm, it'd probably do it by now. It earned my trust. Download at your own risk paragraph was more of a formality rather than a warning. If you're not sure about downloading it, don't. It's that easy. Any file downloaded from the internet can be potentially dangerous.
How about you actually contribute and post your VT scan of this tool? You said you have it, I don't see the reason not to do that.

And since when you're so thoughtful? Looking at your past, one would think safety of others is the last thing you'd be concerned about.

[AustrAlien2010]

Originally posted by kickapoo:

Hey man! I can't open the download link for some reason. Could you send me the file via email or something like that?

Enable developer console in the options.
Open developer console with `-key, while in-game, then type:

record filename, to start recording
stop, to stop recording
playdemo filename, to play the recording

Easy enough. You don´t need something for it.

[gesztenye_P U R E]

Originally posted by AustrAlien2010:

Enable developer console in the options.
Open developer console with `-key, while in-game, then type:

record filename, to start recording
stop, to stop recording
playdemo filename, to play the recording

Easy enough. You don´t need something for it.

Hey, I've already tried it, thank you! It's working flawlessly! :)

Originally posted by L0qi:

Download at your own risk.
ZIP archive with the SANDER (remove the space)
http://www.mediafire .com/file/zgoaear1q7or8tw/sander.zip/file
VirusTotal scan of the EXE[www.virustotal.com]
Don't know whether it's just a ton of false positives or the EXE is truly infected. All I know is that I've been running it on startup for 3 years now. Other Steam user shared the file with me in 2017, since the main download link was (and looks like still is) broken.

Thank you too! I'll try this as well. I hope it will work because it seems like an easy method. You, guys have a great day!

[[I2P]amnesia]

Originally posted by L0qi:

Originally posted by ▪●NO●▪:

-snap-

Show me the rule prohibiting bringing old threads back to life. As far as I'm concerned you can necro all you want as long as you stay on topic.
You know what actually is against the rules? Backseat moderating. Here's a link to the rules and guidelines. Feel free to get familiar with them.

It is unclear exactly what he / she wants to achieve.

I can't open the download link for some reason. Could you send me the file...

I wonder what this could mean?

Let's get to your alternatives:

1. do it manually and eventually get tired of recording demos
   
2. a bind that'll overwrite your previous demo if you're not careful enough
   
3. recording a video that is around 20 times bigger than an average demo and will potentially slow your PC down

But you said you have better tools for recording demos. So go ahead and tell us what you're hiding up your sleeve. I'm quite curious.

I am assuming that your link will not work here because you are trying to promote potentially dangerous software, unnecessarily but willfully trying to endanger others !!

No. My link would probably be removed if I didn't put a space in it, because it leads to MediaFire download. You'd know why, if you did minimal amount of research.
I can drop you some real malware on DropBox. Those download links aren't being removed, so their contents must be legit, right?

The threat is either dead or non-existent. I've been using SANDER for 3 years. It runs every time i turn on my machine. If it were to cause any harm, it'd probably do it by now. It earned my trust. Download at your own risk paragraph was more of a formality rather than a warning. If you're not sure about downloading it, don't. It's that easy. Any file downloaded from the internet can be potentially dangerous.
How about you actually contribute and post your VT scan of this tool? You said you have it, I don't see the reason not to do that.

And since when you're so thoughtful? Looking at your past, one would think safety of others is the last thing you'd be concerned about.

Lot of sick drama above me, had a bit of laughs. Wanted to share something to anyone who comes across this thread.

while [ true ]
do
	CURRENT=`date +"%Y-%m-%d %H-%M-%S"`
	echo "record \"$CURRENT\"" > "/run/media/amnesia/Extra/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Left 4 Dead 2/left4dead2/cfg/rec.cfg"
	sleep 5
done

It's a fairly simple and self explanatory bash script, just get's a variable of the time every 5 seconds and writes it to a file, I kept it simple so you can easily modify it however you'd like. I myself would use xdotool(a linux macro tool) to check if L4D2 is open up and if so it will start writing to that file.
After you run this you can just run the rec config by using either a bind or alias command, I use both F5 and the alias command: r for record

bind F5 "exec rec"
alias r "exec rec"

I really do appreciate there was documentation for SANDeR, I was able to sort of replicate how it works as open source code so you KNOW what it's doing. Can't get more safe than a few lines of simple code to read.

I'd prefer to call this script SANDeR-bash since it's a copy written in bash.

Have fun luv u all <3

Originally posted by ▪●NO●▪:

Realy ?

How's the age of the thread relevant and what's exactly not clear to you? Dude asked for a download to the recording tool. Not only you gave a half ♥♥♥♥♥ solution noone asked for, but also proceeded to brag about the amount of better tools you have. How helpful of you...

First. Digging out old threads is not officially allowed here. He / she may not have seen the thread date, or understood that the tool creator deleted it from his server. I do have the tool, but since such tools can be potentially very dangerous, I don't put it on one of my data servers just to let everyone download it. I could potentially endanger people that way.

It is unclear exactly what he / she wants to achieve. In order not to endanger him / her with potentially dangerous software, I provide other SAFE alternatives. He / she may not be aware of the many other safe alternatives. I indicate that I myself use paid software because such software is simply much faster, easier and above all safe to use. Because I realize that not everyone can or will pay for that, I give the option to use a great free program, where he / she can also do a lot more than a potentially dangerous .exe tool.

I am assuming that your link will not work here because you are trying to promote potentially dangerous software, unnecessarily but willfully trying to endanger others !!

Have a nice day.

Get off your high horse and show some dedication! wait, their banned... oh... ANYWAYS love to see if anyone else would love to share tools for L4D2/etc demos! Lossless(literally) recordings are the best!

[D.A.R.K.]

Do you know if there's a way to change the file save location? By default, the .dem files are saved inside the main L4D2 folder, which is a mess to find a specific .dem file because of how many things there are inside the main folder. Is there a way to change to another folder?

[kurochama]

Originally posted by D.A.R.K.:

Do you know if there's a way to change the file save location? By default, the .dem files are saved inside the main L4D2 folder, which is a mess to find a specific .dem file because of how many things there are inside the main folder. Is there a way to change to another folder?

Name the file with symbols, like "-". For example, "- demo 1". The minus symbol, when followed by space after it, will automatically be sorted on the top of the list of files when windows sorts it based on name. I usually use this kind of trick. You can also use brackets to make demo files go to the top order of the files, as brackets are also prioritized first over letters.

Btw, it's a very old thread. You should make a new thread instead of asking here.

[fran]

old thread but still relevant / useful

since pretty much every l4d campaign is max 5 rounds,i simply use 5 binds to record a demo for each round . the recording ends when the next round is being loaded so you simply press the corresponding key during the loading screen

so,for example , you bind f8 or whatever for round 1 , f9 for round 2 etc etc
you can also give the dem files specific names to avoid confusion

if anyone has a better,easier,mole elegant solution then i'm all ears

[Fizzarolli]

Originally posted by D.A.R.K.:

Do you know if there's a way to change the file save location? By default, the .dem files are saved inside the main L4D2 folder, which is a mess to find a specific .dem file because of how many things there are inside the main folder. Is there a way to change to another folder?

And now you understand why it asks to give you specific file names

[Rosa]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.