How to Make CS:S Movies

@ Mikademius:

I had this problem once, but all my movies since have been fine. When you play the demo back does sound come out of your speakers?
 
In fraps you have to make sure that you enable audio so it records sounds during the video.
 
ZoFreX said:
@ Mikademius:

I had this problem once, but all my movies since have been fine. When you play the demo back does sound come out of your speakers?
Click to expand...
Yes...
 
O.k. after trying all these different methods I have come up with what I believe to be the best way to get very high quality, and smooth CS:S movies. This is a pretty complicated process, as oposed to using Fraps, but it will ensure the best quality and won't kill your frames when playing.

1) Go into a CS:S server, or wherever you are planning on recording your movie.

2) When you want to start recording, bring up the console and type "record <name of movie>" Example: "record cssmovie" When you want to stop redording, type "stop" in the console. Now you have made a demo of your gameplay.

3) Disconnect from the server. Now comes the part where you will record your demo. Set your resolution to 640x480, which is plenty big for a movie. You really don't want a 1280x1024 size movie on your computer; it's just overkill. Feel free to turn all the graphics settings to there max. It won't affect the speed of the movie.

4) Bring up the console. Input "host_framerate 30" This will make your movie record at a constant 30 fps, which is best for movies (unless you want a cinimatic feel, which you would input 24 instead). Then type "startmovie <name of movie>" Example: "startmovie cssmovie" Then, finally, type "playdemo cssmovie" where you type the name of whatever you called your demo. Now your demo will play out before your eyes. It will look REALLY slow, but hang in there. When it brings you back to the menu, type "endmovie" in the console.

5) Now quit out of CS:S. If you go to our CSS dir /cstrike you will now see A LOT of .tga images. This could be several thousand depending on how long your demo was. You WILL want to delete the last frames that show you back in the menu. You only want your in-game action after all. Note: Only delete frames at the end, or else the .wav file won't sync up.

6) Now open RAD Video Tools (You can dl it HERE) navigate to your cstrike dir, and highlight all the .tga's. Then click the "List files..." button. You will get a prompt, click Yes. You only want the .tga sequence, so if there are any other lines in the list, click Remove. You don't need to worry about sound just yet. Then hit "Save As..." and save your list somewhere.

7) Now click that .lst file you made in RAD VT, and hit the "Convert a file" button. This will make a .avi from the images. In the "Force" field (lol) type "30" to make sure the video plays at 30 fps. Or, if you made your movie a different frame rate, enter that instead. Make sure the "Convert Audio" tab is unchecked, since there isn't any sound yet. Now click "Convert".

8) A box will come up where you can select whatever codec you want to record to. But since we want to make a high quallity bink out of this, make sure it is set to "Full Frames (Uncompressed)". When it is done, you will have a nice, BIG, .avi.

9) Now, select the .avi movie you just made, in RAD VT, and click "Bink it!". The default settings are fine, so leave them alone unless you really know what you're doing. Click "Bink". This process will take a REALLY long time, so be patient. When I did this, my original .avi file was 1.6 gigs, and when it was done, the .bik was 24 megs!

10) We're not quite done yet. Now you have to add the .wav from the demo you recorded. So, select the .bik you just made, in RAD VT, and click the "Mix in sound" button. Import the .wav from your cstrike dir, and click "Mix".

Congradulations! You now have a high quallity bink movie you can be proud of.

Yes, I know it is complicaded, but it's all worth it for what you get in the end.

Hope that was specific enough for you all. :)
 
Sorry to double post, but I have something to say about my totorial I just posted.

Instead of taking the .lst info and making an .avi and THEN converting to a bink, you can just select the .lst, and say "Bink it!". This will save you time and hard drive space, because now you don't need to have a multi gig .avi sitting on it.
 
Thank you Pibborando San, for posting that tut. I will definately make myself a movie now .. *print tutorial*
 
KIller Monitor

Heh - here is my CS:S movie

it is quite long, 2.55 min.
format is MPEG, compressed with WinRAR.
.rar = 28 Mb
.mpg (inside .rar) = 36.5 Mb

name of the movie: Killer Monitor.
used fraps, cs:s, an unofficial incarnation of cs_office, and unusual physics settings. result: a lethal monitor flying around :) :monkee:

limited bandwith (mirrors more than welcome):
http://members.home.nl/jaccohendrix/Steam/Killermonitor_web.rar

PS: this was initially created as SVCD.
Software used:
- CS:S
- Fraps (demo version)
- Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 (end credits in movie are wrong: Avid kept crashing on me)
- TMPGenc Plus
 
does anyone with a 9600 xt (and fairly good system) have videos of CS:S? I want to see how well it runs. Thanks.
 
can ne 1 put a link of one of thier movies on here? so i can watch :D, if so, thx
 
I've never used the in game record demo thing to make movies, but I will definetly try it. Great tutorial and advice everyone! I've used Fraps before and was somewhat pleased. Another way I do it is to use the TV Svideo output on my video card and record directly to my digital camcorder and use the packaged software for editing and stuff. Then moviemaker or bink. I had a lot of fun with this. Unfortunately due to a recent PC catastrophe and a fresh (re)install of everything on my system I have no clips to share to back this up. Sorry.
 
Pibborando San said:
O.k. after trying all these different methods I have come up with what I believe to be the best way to get very high quality, and smooth CS:S movies. This is a pretty complicated process, as oposed to using Fraps, but it will ensure the best quality and won't kill your frames when playing.

1) Go into a CS:S server, or wherever you are planning on recording your movie.

2) When you want to start recording, bring up the console and type "record <name of movie>" Example: "record cssmovie" When you want to stop redording, type "stop" in the console. Now you have made a demo of your gameplay.

3) Disconnect from the server. Now comes the part where you will record your demo. Set your resolution to 640x480, which is plenty big for a movie. You really don't want a 1280x1024 size movie on your computer; it's just overkill. Feel free to turn all the graphics settings to there max. It won't affect the speed of the movie.

4) Bring up the console. Input "host_framerate 30" This will make your movie record at a constant 30 fps, which is best for movies (unless you want a cinimatic feel, which you would input 24 instead). Then type "startmovie <name of movie>" Example: "startmovie cssmovie" Then, finally, type "playdemo cssmovie" where you type the name of whatever you called your demo. Now your demo will play out before your eyes. It will look REALLY slow, but hang in there. When it brings you back to the menu, type "endmovie" in the console.

5) Now quit out of CS:S. If you go to our CSS dir /cstrike you will now see A LOT of .tga images. This could be several thousand depending on how long your demo was. You WILL want to delete the last frames that show you back in the menu. You only want your in-game action after all. Note: Only delete frames at the end, or else the .wav file won't sync up.

6) Now open RAD Video Tools (You can dl it HERE) navigate to your cstrike dir, and highlight all the .tga's. Then click the "List files..." button. You will get a prompt, click Yes. You only want the .tga sequence, so if there are any other lines in the list, click Remove. You don't need to worry about sound just yet. Then hit "Save As..." and save your list somewhere.

7) Now click that .lst file you made in RAD VT, and hit the "Convert a file" button. This will make a .avi from the images. In the "Force" field (lol) type "30" to make sure the video plays at 30 fps. Or, if you made your movie a different frame rate, enter that instead. Make sure the "Convert Audio" tab is unchecked, since there isn't any sound yet. Now click "Convert".

8) A box will come up where you can select whatever codec you want to record to. But since we want to make a high quallity bink out of this, make sure it is set to "Full Frames (Uncompressed)". When it is done, you will have a nice, BIG, .avi.

9) Now, select the .avi movie you just made, in RAD VT, and click "Bink it!". The default settings are fine, so leave them alone unless you really know what you're doing. Click "Bink". This process will take a REALLY long time, so be patient. When I did this, my original .avi file was 1.6 gigs, and when it was done, the .bik was 24 megs!

10) We're not quite done yet. Now you have to add the .wav from the demo you recorded. So, select the .bik you just made, in RAD VT, and click the "Mix in sound" button. Import the .wav from your cstrike dir, and click "Mix".

Congradulations! You now have a high quallity bink movie you can be proud of.

Yes, I know it is complicaded, but it's all worth it for what you get in the end.

Hope that was specific enough for you all. :)
Click to expand...


hmm I did this step by step and it worked, but the quality of the movie wasnt so great. not the picture quality, but for some reason the movie seemed to be in 'slow-mo' and the sound didnt match up at all, and it just didnt seem very smooth to watch.

Now i only deleted the last two .tga's like you said, so i dunno.

If anyone could help me out, that'd be great

thanks.
 
Geronimous said:
Heh - here is my CS:S movie

it is quite long, 2.55 min.
format is MPEG, compressed with WinRAR.
.rar = 28 Mb
.mpg (inside .rar) = 36.5 Mb

name of the movie: Killer Monitor.
used fraps, cs:s, an unofficial incarnation of cs_office, and unusual physics settings. result: a lethal monitor flying around :) :monkee:

limited bandwith (mirrors more than welcome):
http://members.home.nl/jaccohendrix/Steam/Killermonitor_web.rar

PS: this was initially created as SVCD.
Software used:
- CS:S
- Fraps (demo version)
- Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 (end credits in movie are wrong: Avid kept crashing on me)
- TMPGenc Plus
Click to expand...

lol funny movie man :D, nice quote from snatch in the begining too :D
 
Gorgon said:
thanks for the tutorial. I just made a counterStrike Movie, but its realy lagy when you record the vid clip. its so lagy when you hit f9. ???????????
Click to expand...

When you are recording a movie you have to change your resolution in-game to 800x600 or 640x480 so you get when better FPS with fraps when you hit F9.

Just a tip :naughty:
 
I think this is a better way:

I think this is a better way of recording movies, I'll just quote it in here from rage3d forum:

How to start with nothing and end up with an avi of Counter Strike Source gameplay + sound.
I just want to write this if not for anybody else then just to document it for myself. Thanks goes to |FRITZ| and hl2.net

Initialization: Any settings graphically or aurally at this point should be fine.
Enable console by going to settings -> controls -> advanced -> developer console

Tools:
- DivX 5.2 or later - It IS free; without adds, just choose DivX, not Dr. DivX or any other rubbish
- VirtualDub 1.5.10
If you have your own tools you are welcome to use those in place of this.

Step 1: In the Beginning:
Join or start the game you would like to record.

Step 2: Start Recording:
To start recording, press the tilde "~" key to show the console, type:

record <vid_name>

and then press Enter. Press ~ to get back to the game if the console is still open. Continue to play and spectate, what you see is what the demo records.

Step 3: Stop Recording:
Once finished bring up the console again and type:

stop

this will end the recording.

Step 4: Recording to disk - initial set up:
After the recording stops, disconnect from the server. To successfully record both audio and video we must the the following:
Video:
- select your desired output resolution; 640x480 is recommended.
- it would be best to set all options to highest with AA and AF set to full; recording is slow and this will hardly make any difference as most of the time is spent writing mass data to your harddrive.
NB:The files will be uncompressed TGA format meaning they will take
Audio:
- Set to stereo; it's recorded as a wave file which cannot support more than two channels.

Step 5: Recording to disk - recording process:
Bring up the console and enter the following:

host_framerate 30
startmovie <file_name>
playdemo <vid_name>

After you have pressed enter it will appear to do nothing, be patient, it is loading the map but does not give any indication of doing so, the actual rendering will be increadibly slow but depending on the resolution and length of the recording it could end up using many Gigabytes of your harddrive; don't worry this is only temporary.
NB: it won't hurt anything if you make the file_name the same as the vid_name

Once the recording has completed and you are back to the menu screen, type into the console:

endmovie

This will stop the recording process. Without it any game you join after this will be recorded also, giving awful performance, and may break the audio as well.
Quit CS:S

Step 6: Ensure files are there
Open your conter-strike source directory located at:

C:\Steam\SteamApps\<steam_profile>\counter-strike source\cstrike

The output files are stored here, you should find the following:

<file_name>####.tga - there will be many of these, 30 for every second recorded.
<file_name>.wav - check the file size, it should be higher than 1kb

If you wave recording is only 1k and doesn't play, the only cause I have found is because it was recorded in a higher than stereo mode, such as 5.1.

Step 7: Making the AVI
a) Open VirtualDub.
b) Click File -> Open video file...
c) Select Image sequence (*.bmp, *.tga) from Files of type
d) Go to your counter-strike source directory and click on the first <file_name>####.tga file then click Open
e) Click Video -> Compression and chose DivX 5.x.x and set the bitrate to 1400 and you can go up or down from there.
f) Click Audio -> Wave audio and select your <file_name>.wav from the counter-strike source folder
g) Click Audio -> full processing mode; then Audio -> Compression and chose mp3 128/160/192 bit depending on your preference.

Saving the AVI
h) Click File -> Save AVI as...
choose a location to save the video, give it a name and click save.
Once it is finished minimize VirualDub and find the avi file you saved, test it out and hopefully it has all worked is is playing for you right now :p

Congratulations and
GOOD LUCK!
Click to expand...
 
Mac said:
hmm I did this step by step and it worked, but the quality of the movie wasnt so great. not the picture quality, but for some reason the movie seemed to be in 'slow-mo' and the sound didnt match up at all, and it just didnt seem very smooth to watch.

Now i only deleted the last two .tga's like you said, so i dunno.

If anyone could help me out, that'd be great

thanks.
Click to expand...


Yeah it's because you're harddrive cannot 'serve' the info fast enough, it would play properly what you need to do is get virtualdub and divx5 and experiment a little with compression, once compressed your video data will be small enough to read properly and not have lag while playing, let me know if you need any further assistance.
 
Thx for these great posts!!

Wow this is just a great lesson when you are beginning to make your first movie. I had been searching for a file what contended all of these explanations but it just doenst exist i gues. But when i found this i just registered to post a reply how great this is THX ALL :) :cheese:

oh and dont look at my english to good :p , im just a dutch guy :LOL:
 
OMG
using fraps is just like using dynamite to dig up an raptor skelett.

how about beeing smart, turn up resolution/aa/textures/effects and af and render ur movie with the "startmovie xxx" command?

sry guys, but i expected more of this forum :(

edit: okay, that guy 2 posts befor me got the same idea ...
 
NOOO! *forsees a ton of crappy clan movies flooding the sites*
 
Audiophile said:
NOOO! *forsees a ton of crappy clan movies flooding the sites*
Click to expand...

cs movies are generally not that high quality.
if u want to see real good editng/cutting go for q3defrag movies
 
It has to be said this is the worst way to make a CS video....

So much more better ways with better quality

Record a demo by typing in your console:

record filename - replace with a name of your choice

When you want to stop your demo from recording type in your console : Stop

Once you have finished recording your personal demo, Type in your console Viewdemo

or type in your console : viewdemo filename.dem

Find a bit you want to record by skipping it forward to a selected scene.

Once you are ready type in your console

Startmovie filename 40

"40" can be dependant on your gfx card and your hdd space , it will be recording at 40 frames per second

dont panic your game will go extremely laggy , this is because you are saving 40 frames per second , once you have the area you want to record type in your console : endmovie

Now close down cs : source , and open up Videomach download from ( http://www.gromada.com/ )

go to file and open , go to your cs source folder where the screenshots are located and find filename00001.bmp and hold down shift and select all the ones after it , then click open , edit at your discretion!

once u have finished editing , click file save as and pick video settings , set it to what u desire.

Now for the final step , open up an editor like video vegas or windows movie maker and import the video file in, once u have your clips you can begin making the video :)

To save as a video compiled of all your clips click file save as ;)

And voila... Happy video making
 
One question...

If you record a demo of yourself playing in first person view, is it possible to change the camera type (for example into chase cam) when playing back the demo...? Or are you stuck with the camera type you used when recording the demo in the first place...?
 
exodusuk said:
It has to be said this is the worst way to make a CS video....

So much more better ways with better quality

[snip]

Once you are ready type in your console

Startmovie filename 40

"40" can be dependant on your gfx card and your hdd space , it will be recording at 40 frames per second
Click to expand...

yeah...so the better way to make a movie is to do it wrong? the original post in this thread states how to do it correctly. if you type

startmovie filename 30

in the console it will tell you you're doing it wrong. there's no need to specify the fps when starting the movie. that's where the host_framerate command comes in.

now, if you load up your demo and start making a movie without using the host_framerate paramater, it seems to record something like 10 fps by default. which is weird. i tested this by taking the tgas and using videomach changed the framerate to 10 and it played pretty close to normal speed, but very choppy, obviously.

so again...
host_framerate 30
startmovie filename

is all you need to do. hopefully that's cleared up now, so i'll post some binds i use to make the whole process easier.

my config.cfg is read-only. so any changes i make via the autoexec or userconfig are not saved when i exit the game. so here's what i do...

make a new config called demo.cfg or whatever you like and put these in it.

Code: 
bind f6 "endmovie"
bind f4 "srtmv"
alias srtmv "startmovie 1; bind f4 srtmv1"
alias srtmv1 "startmovie 2; bind f4 srtmv2"
alias srtmv2 "startmovie 3; bind f4 srtmv3"
alias srtmv3 "startmovie 4; bind f4 srtmv4"
alias srtmv4 "startmovie 5; bind f4 srtmv5"
alias srtmv5 "startmovie 6; bind f4 srtmv6"

bind f1 "host_framerate 1"
bind f2 "host_framerate 0"
bind f3 "host_framerate 30"

voice_enable 0  
hud_saytext_time 0
hideradar

this just makes it easier to capture your .tga's.

f1 = super super fast forward
f2 = normal demo speed
f3 = plays faster than normal, but needed in order to get a 30 fps movie

f4 = starts making a movie, and binds f4 to the next movie
f6 = stops capturing a movie

obviously, if you know scripting then you realize how f4 works. keep in mind if you exit CS and go to another demo and use the command again without having first removed the .tga's from your cstrike folder, then it will overwrite them with the new ones.

now you could drop console and type "exec demo.cfg" everytime but i dont bother doing that. i just copy from the demo config and paste it into the userconfig and then go make movies. then i just delete it from the userconfig when im done, and since my config is read only, the changes arent saved. (so my radar is still there, etc)

this is getting long, more in another post...
 
if you have limited hard drive space, and want to keep your .avi's i suggest using the cinepak codec. very high quality and much smaller than an uncompressed .avi.

note: i still export the tga's from videomach uncompressed, then use virtualdub to compress with cinepak

uncompressed are usually around 1.6gb per minute
with cinepak it's around 100mb per minute

with no noticeable difference in quality too. still way too high for distrubution, but you'll edit them in vegas/premiere anyway and use a divx or xvid codec later. cinepak just saves you some hard drive space.

some screenshots
uncompressed clips - 4.53gb
cinepak codec - 318mb

now cinepak is a rather slow codec. took about 45 minutes to do those 9 clips in batch mode using virtualdub. so i just set up the batch mode before i go to bed or need to go do something and start the job and let it do it's thing.

now, since source maps are usually darker, i always add brightness, especially since compressing them will darken them a bit as well. so to set up a batch mode in vdub, here's what you do

open you avi in vdub.
video > filters > add > brightness and contrast (10% brightness)
video > compression > cinepak

once you do this, all subsequent avis you open will have the same settings, so you dont have to add the brightness and pick a codec each time you open a file.

then go to file > save as and check the box to "dont run this job now..." and choose a name and save it. then open the next file and do the same thing again. after you've named all your files go to

file > job control

and you'll see the jobs you've just set up. hit start and let it do its thing.

note: you must choose a new name for your avis. because the original will be in use and not let you overwrite it. if you see my ss's i just added "-cin" to the end of each file name to let me know those are cinepak files.

anyway, this is only if have a smaller hard drive or are like me, and dont like having huge files on there when it's not necessary
 
lastly, i'll address the Fraps vs. old school debacle. i really dont care how fast your pc is, Fraps clips still look choppier to me. it's barely noticeable but if your as anal about certain things like i am, you notice it.

my specs

p4 2.4ghz 800mhz fsb
p4p800
Nvidia TI4400 128mb
1 gb pc3200
80gb Seagate SATA hd

certainly nowhere near top of the line, but it's pretty quick. and again, i can use Fraps and they come out ok, but i prefer doing it the old way. the biggest reason is the sound. my onboard sound makes Fraps clips sound like crap, whereas the .wav file you get doing it the old way is as good as the actual in-game sound.

so on to the testing. i captured a scene using Fraps and doing it the old way. to the untrained eye, virtually no difference. but to the trained eye, you will see the Fraps clip just doesnt flow as well as the one done using .tga's. but the Fraps clip would still be perfectly acceptable for distribution. i mean it's not that choppy, in other words.

both scenes were done at
640x480
AA = 6x
AF = 2x
texture = high
models = high
shader = high
shadow = high
water = reflect all

and both were compressed with xvid on a 1 pass @ 3000 bitrate. i left out the sound because it wasnt necessary, just to make them smaller as well. both had a brightness of 10% added, and the Fraps clip comes out a little brighter than the other. this is because the Fraps compressor tends to brighten it a little by itself.

2 test clips - 30mb

Fraps version was 2.2.5.

now if you record at 800x600 you'll probably have even more "choppiness" too. so keep that in mind.
 
Okay, I have a problem.....

I do everything exactly as these tutorials are telling me, but when i type 'playdemo <name>' it says "Loading..." in the bottom-right, waits maybe 15 seconds, then gives me that noise like "Shit! An error!", and then CS just closes completely.

Has anyone else had this problem and/or does anyone know how to fix it??

Thanks in advance.... (Yeah, I thanked you, so you HAVE to help me...)
 
is there a console command to slow down the spectator's speed? I haven't been able to find one, and the spectator camera moves at frickin lightspeed.
 
I have a little question...i downloaded the FRAPS demo, and when I tried to record the video in CS:S, my framerate dropped down to 3 FPS...this doesnt make for a very exciting video...The comp i used-
P4 3.0 Ghz
512 MB Ram
Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB
Sound Blaster Live 24bit

Is there something wrong with what im doing?
 
Fraps-For better for worse?

G'Day i am Rambo from Team-747. team-747 is a new clan and i am the CL. I have made a video using fraps (the only way i know) my specs are as follows: 2.0Ghz Athlon
ATI Radeon 9800 pro
And a load of other stuff that makes no sense at all to me. this has been the result of my pathetic efforts: this is my site www.Team-747**** i am an amatuer at videoing but fraps has served me well. p.s my clan used to be called J@N so that explains why at the start of the video it sais J@n presents.


p.s.s watch in size 100% or 50% not 200% because web format makes the quality really shoddy, oh and there is sound so ave ya speakers on. sorry if i am babbling :( but i dont post on forums much. please send me some feedback on the site and the video, also if anyone has any good free customiziable web hosting services please inform me at My-Email because (freewebs kinda sucks)
 
~Testament~ said:
I have a little question...i downloaded the FRAPS demo, and when I tried to record the video in CS:S, my framerate dropped down to 3 FPS...this doesnt make for a very exciting video...The comp i used-
P4 3.0 Ghz
512 MB Ram
Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB
Sound Blaster Live 24bit

Is there something wrong with what im doing?
Click to expand...

I have a 2.4C overclocked to 3ghz, plus GF4ti.

I find that Fraps gives me problems like that IF I run the game in my 'normal' gameplay video resolution. If I set game video resolution to 8x6(or better, 640x480) when I know I'm going to be recording, the framerate stays fine. This is assuming you are recording at 'fullsize' setting like I am(25fps).

Hope this helps.
 
Rambo again. the link in my last post didnt work, it wont let me put the tk site so heres my other one Try This
 
Rambo, try using Putfile for your (under 10mb) videos. Right now, at your link, I'm only getting 1.1KB dload speed. Even for a 3.4mb video that is too slow.
 
if you guys want to stop that shitty lag when recording with fraps while you play, then try this:
-record a demo if you playing (without fraps)
-play back the demo (this time using fraps to record)
 
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