Talk:Demo Video Creation

I just added a tutorial for Adobe After Effects, but I'm not so sure about the correct explanation of the menus, windows etc. I had to guess them, since I only own that program in german language. If someone might review and fix it, I'd be thankfully :) --p2hicy 07:05, 24 Aug 2006 (PDT)

startmovie avi function

so I found out startmovie supports creating avi files directly but you can only change video codec (audio is still PCM as before) startmovie filename avi which will bring up a video codec selection box. I found this particulary useful if you have a huffyuv (lossless video format) codec installed (like ffdshow's vfw codec). easier than dumping hundreds of targa images and the resulting avi can easily be reencoded using any video creation software. unfortunately this AVI support is still not bugfree (it says "only DIVX for now") and it sometimes crashes the game engine so you need to restart the game and try again. This must be som stability issue. Saivert 23:59, 4 Nov 2007 (PST)

I tried this recently for TF2 and it worked fine. I used startmovie testvid avi and choose Lagarith LossLess from my codec list, then loaded a pre-recorded demo. The video recorded perfectly. It might have been a fix that was added to the recorder with the newer Orangebox engine, I haven't tried this yet with the Ep1 or HL2 engines. --brandished 15:50, 31 Jul 2008 (PDT)

I've been having problems with outputting to AVI, it seems that if a video exceeds a certain size I cannot import it into Vegas or watch them. All videos that work fine have been under 2GB. I've been using the HuffYUV codec, I tried the Lagarith one and got the same problem. This is quite frustrating, a single AVI is preferable to thousands of TGA files. --fraxyl 23:32, 7 Sep 2008 (PDT)

I found out that the video actually records succefully, but that the "metadata" of the resulting video is for some reason garbled. I use Lagarith too, but I found out I had to open it with Virtualdub, make sure to set Virtualdub to save the sound/video again without rencoding it to get a video that is legible in other video editing programs. Ailure 16:06, 18 Dec 2008 (PST)

Last time I tried (late last year?), startmovie avi worked just fine for me, as long as I was in windowed-noborder mode and if I selected the CamStudio Lossless Codec (obviously CamStudio must be installed to use it, though in CamStudio itself I use x264 since the Lossless Codec has trouble with real-time capture of high-action (i.e. gaming) footage. It did not have that problem using it for startmovie avi.)... Is it merely a codec issue (in which case, using a different codec like I do would fix it), or does it not even get to that stage? I hope it does work given a different codec, since I am unable to use the Virtualdub method.
Also, for fixing metadata, you might want to try MediaCoder. It transcodes from and to most common formats (including re-encoding within the same format to compress it, since video editors like PowerDirector intentionally leave it uncompressed), and it has fixed metadata problems for me (like an .mp3 that wouldn't play, having MediaCoder reprocess it solved the issue). --WackoMcGoose 11:18, 10 November 2011 (PST)

Avi output broken by May(2010) patch

quoting from steam forum post on new error:
"AVIERR_NOCOMPRESSOR: a suitable compressor could not be found
Worked fine before the update, a week later and it's still not fixed."
...I can confirm that installing/reinstalling DivX codecs does not fix it.... --Ilr 03:55, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

startmovie output target

Could / should a note be added that states you can specify the .tga / .wav output of startmovie by enclosing the path in quotations, like startmovie "C:\lol", which would put lol0001.tga etc. on the root of C instead of the game folder? This means people rendering large passes to use a scratch drive. --Fail Medic 10:57, 16 May 2008 (PDT)

Alternatives

I think adding a section for the different options for recording in-game footage would be a good idea, I've received a lot of questions about it. I use the built in Source Recorder myself, but not everyone likes it, and it doesn't always work well on lower end hardware. I've added a list few recorders I've found below. --brandished 23:19, 11 Jul 2008 (PDT)

• CamStudio (opensource)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/camstudio/

• Windows Media Encoder

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

• Gamecam (no sound in free version)

http://www.planetgamecam.com

• FastCapPro (trialware)

http://www.ejoystudio.com/

• AviScreen

http://www.bobyte.com/AviScreen/index.asp

• CaptureFlux

http://paul.glagla.free.fr/captureflux_en.htm

• ZD Soft Recorder (trialware)

http://www.zdsoft.com/downloads.html

• Wikipedia: List of screencasting software

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screencasting_software

Doesn't Record Voice?????

I'm doing a walkthrough of a new coop map that I don't want to release yet, but when I try to playback the recorded demo, I do not hear my voice. Will my voice be in the avi output file (using the built in utility) if I choose to take that route for the production of the video? Or will it be in the .wav file that accompanies the targa sequence if I use the targa sequence as my way of "exporting" the video? I do not want to waste time by trying to export using the built in avi thing and/or the targa sequence thing. I looked through the console variables that had to do with the keywords "demo" "voice" and "mic" using the "find" command to see if there were any console variables that I would have to change in order to get the voice to work. There is only one condition with all of this: I will NOT and can NOT release this map to the public. I'm keeping it under wraps except the walkthrough videos.

I think you want something like voice_loopback. Here is a guide that may apply to your Source-based game: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1193163 Try searching for anything in that post regarding "voice" --ThaiGrocer 16:05, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Startmovie AVI Works for Mods

A composite of images showing me recording to AVI within my mod.

For my game mod, Cloned Cube, I've been having some difficulties recording videos from the game at a good format that doesn't slow down ridiculously. My mod is a Portal Mod and I have been able to record directly to AVI using the Xvid Codec. It seems that this only works on mods but not the full game. The audio is slightly off but I've gotten good results from recording with it.

You can see the result of recording with AVI right here:[1]. It however, doesn't work with Portal 2, but I'm not sure about regular Portal.

"Startmovie" & recording to another drive?

Is it possible to use startmovie for rendering into another drive, as my actual games drive can't hold that much data. I tried startmovie ../../../../../G:/mymovie and startmovie ..\..\..\..\..\G\mymovie, both of which would either do nothing or crash. -- Rainyan 19:41, 11 May 2013 (PDT)

Export to mov

It would be nice if startmovie %videoname% h264 worked with other games using Source Engine (including mods).--Lbertolotti (talk) 19:33, 17 December 2016 (UTC)