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Clips of the Week
Do you have something nice you want to share? Some crazy single combo? Wicked sniper shots? Impossible rounds? Email them to CotW AT AQ2World DOT com. The file should be no longer than one round, and will be in the .dm2 format, your best choise is to use the program keygrip 2 to cut parts out, a tutorial will follow below. Every week we will put up a compressed file which contains the current week's most spectacular clips, together with a small textfile, so when sending your clip(s), give us the following information, for example:

Name:	mi_vs_raw-hawk_ineyes-urban2.dm2
Author:	Hawk
Map:	Urban2
From: 	M.I vs RAW - 4on4
When: 	21/05 - 2004

and name the demos accordingly. We will also reserve the right to edit the .dm2 files if necessary

Keygrip2 tutorial

1. What is Keygrip2 ?

1.1 Introduction
Keygrip2 is a demo editing tool for Quake2 demos. It can be used to edit regular quake2 demos or modifications for quake2. You can do alot of things with the program. The latest version was released sometime back in 1999. Thats 4 years ago and alot have happened to the quake2 scene since that time. Keygrip2 is the best program out there to use for editing quake2 demos, but its not that easy to use.

The point of this tutorial is to explain some things about keygrip2 and hopefully a few more people will consider to make movies. I will explain how to use this tool when making ActionQuake2 movies.

2. The Basics

2.1 - Settings
When you open keygrip2 for the first time after the installation a preferences window will pop up. Settings im using is software mode -> window mode -> resolution 400*300. Mainly cause I have problems with starting a demo in open gl via keygrip2. Im changing to open gl first when i have launched the demo. Also change +set_inmouse 0 to 1 instead. Else you need to type that command ingame to get the mouse to work. Change default gamedir to action. You can also find preferences in File -> Preferences.

2.2 - A quick example.
Open up a short demo. Lets call it blah.dm2 and lets say its 30s long.

Click View -> Demo server
Here you will see some interesting things. First of all you will see the play-record panel which is useful. Click connect. A quake2 window will pop up. Change the video options to The default binds for playback control are:

t - rewind.
y - rewind one block
u - stop
i - play
o - forward one block

A block is a certain amount of time. 1 block equals 0.1 seconds. so your 30 second long demo will be about 300 blocks long. To cut out a specific part of a demo you will use the "set in and set out buttons". At the moment I am deleting the stuff i dont want to use from a demo. So you need to mark the parts you dont want. For each marked section you need to click edit -> delete.

Now click File -> Save as and save the file. When I have edited a demo im changing the name of it to blah_e.dm2, 'e' stands for edited. Later on I add a 'c'. stands for configstrings. I add those letters to get a good structure of my demos. Because, sometimes cutting the configstrings will be messed up if you happen to place them different than they should be. And sometimes, instead of finding the errors its easier to start over with the configstrings.

If you watch your edited demo you might see some white cubes in the air or on the ground. Those cubes are modification objects such as a laser or a sniper rifle. What you need to do is to identify those objects. To do this you need to go back to your original demo and copy over some configstrings.

Configstrings will be explained later on.

2.3 - Blocktree
Blocktree speaks for itself. Its a tree including all the blocks of the currect demo. If you click View -> blocktree a new window will pop up. In each block you will find some interesting stuff, such as entity-,config-,playerinfo strings and alot more.

Its in the blocktree that you will look for configstrings to indentify your objects.

2.4 - Configstrings
If you ask yourself why some objects disapears after you have edited here's a answer. Its quite simple. When you cut a demo you will also cut the blocks from a demo. If you cut the demo from block 200-250 all those blocks will be destroyed. If one of those blocks has a configstring it will disapear. What you need to do is to find them in your original demo and copy them over to block 0 in your edited demo. Sounds weird huh ? Well, its really simple if you work with it in the smoothest way.

Configstrings identifies a certain object or a player. A configstring contains a path. For example, to indentify a sniper on the ground the string will be : models/weapons/g_sniper/

If you open your pakfile containing all your models and weapons and stuff you might find it interesting. As I mentioned before a configstring is a path to an object. The same path as in your pak files. If you for example want to edit a clanwar demo that is 20 min long you will have around 12000 blocks. If you for some reason changed weapon from Sniper to shotgun after 15 min that configstring will be in the middle of the mess, but with keygrip 2's lovely find function where you can search for a specific configstring this won't be a problem.

press edit -> find.
Change messagetype to configstring.
In the text1 box enter what you want to search for.
The path for m3 shotgun is: models/weapons/v_shotg/

And you might find it around ur 8000:d block. Just copy it over to your edited demo and caboom, problem solved.

Its quite hard to explain configstrings, but just try it out a few times and you will pickit up.

Hints:
models/weapons/g_sniper/ <- means that you identify a sniper on the ground.
models/weapons/v_sniper/ <- means that you identify the sniper you are holding.

You should look through your pak files before searching. Your work will be alot easier when you learn the paths to each item.

-

arild

Alternate version
Thanks to Masa^I found a way easier way to do a clip.

1. Open the full demo in Keygrip 2
2. Go into the demo viewer, and type /precache in the Quake 2 window
3. Find the block you want to record from
4. Write playfw;record name_of_the_demo
5. Be prepared to type stop when the interesting part is over

-

Hawk