CS:GO Demo Helper

This is a CLI tool that I use when I play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It has multiple features that help me record POV demos when I'm playing competitive matches. For information on what drove me to make this, see the background section which I've mercifully moved to the bottom of the README because there's a lot to explain.

Features

Here are the features provided by this set of tools. They can all be configured through a config.ini that you will create in the installation process.

Demo Naming Helper

This is what this toolbox was originally for. If you want to record your own POV demos and go back to them later, you need to have some sort of naming scheme to be able to find a specific demo again. I follow the naming scheme "[game mode]-[map name]-[mm-dd-yyyy]" for my demos and this tool helps automate the process by querying the game for the game mode and map name. Options for this utility can be configured in the demo_naming_helper of your config.ini file.

If you want to use this tool but use a different naming scheme, make a feature request, and I'll see what I can do to support your style of naming demos.

POV Demo Voice Recording

This allows you to record your own voice in POV demos without having to hear yourself during the recording process.

Typically, if you want your voice to be audible in your POV demos, you have to turn on voice_loopback which will make you hear yourself twice. The solution is to turn on voice_loopback but turn down the volume of your voice to 0 with the voice_player_volume command. DemoRecordingHelper automates this process and can be configured in the demo_recording_helper section of your config.ini file.

DemoPlaybackHelper is was previously responsible for unmuting the player who was muted by DemoRecordingHelper (if any). As of version 1.1.0, it is no longer necessary to keep CS:GO Demo Helper running while playing a demo. However, demos recorded with versions of this tool prior to 1.1.0 will still need CS:GO Demo Helper running to unmute your voice.

Prerequisites

All you need to install is Node.js! You can either...

1. Install using a package manager for your OS (recommended as this makes updating Node.js easier) OR
2. Download and run the Node.js installer for your OS

You'll also need to install Git if you intend to install CS:GO Demo Helper using the 2nd installation option below.

Installation

This tool should work on any OS that CS:GO runs on. Installation is just three steps, but you will need to have a teensy bit of rudimentary knowledge on how to get around the command-line on your OS.

1. Ensure Node.js and npm are installed by making sure a valid version number comes back by running node -v and npm -v. Most installs of Node.js come with npm. Installing npm is not covered by this guide. If your install of Node.js is missing it, see here.
2. Install CS:GO Demo Helper. This can be done in one of two ways. I recommend the first option because it makes it easy to update when I release a new version of this tool.
   1. Install through NPM
      1. Run the command npm i -g csgo-demo-helper
      2. You're done! You can update the tool by running the command npm update -g but you'll only need to do that when there is a new release. MAKE A BACKUP OF config.ini BEFORE YOU UPDATE AS IT WILL BE WIPED OUT ON EACH UPDATE!!!
   2. Clone this repository using Git
      1. Run the command git clone https://github.com/IncPlusPlus/csgo-demo-helper.git.
      2. You're done! It's just as simple but updates aren't guaranteed to be as smooth.
3. Run CS:GO Demo Helper once. If you installed through NPM, you can just issue the command csgo-demo-helper in your command prompt. If you cloned the repository with Git, you can double-click start.bat in the "csgo-demo-helper" folder.

After you run the tool once, you should see output like the following: (PUT SCREENSHOT HERE)

Now we need to quickly configure a few quick things.

Configuration

1. Set the netconport launch option to whatever you have set in your config.ini for the netcon_port option. Your launch options should be set to "-netconport 2121" (without the quotes) if you intend to use port 2121 for this tool to communicate with the game.
2. Set csgo_demos_folder in config.ini to the directory that sits NEXT TO the CS:GO executable (csgo.exe) on Windows. The usual location on a Windows computer was already set in the template that config.ini was created from. If you know you installed your game to a different location or drive, set the correct location there. In case you weren't sure where to find it, below are the normal default locations for your demos folder depending on your operating system. Be sure to replace "YOUR_USERNAME" with your actual username.
   1. Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo
   2. Linux: /home/YOUR_USERNAME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Counter-Strike Global Offensive/csgo
   3. Mac OS: /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Counter-Strike Global Offensive/csgo
3. Set steam_web_api_key in your config.ini by creating and getting a Steam Web API Key
4. Set steamID64 in your config.ini by looking up your steam ID with SteamID.io and copying the value called "steamID64". There should be a little red icon to the right which lets you copy it.
5. Profit!

Usage

1. Run the tool! If you cloned with Git, pick option 2. If you installed through NPM, you can do either (run the command where csgo-demos-helper or which csgo-demos-helper to find the scripts mentioned below).
   1. Open a terminal or command prompt window and run the command csgo-demo-helper
   2. Run one of the start scripts by double-clicking it. If you're on Windows, double-click start.bat. If you're on Linux, I'm sure you can figure it out.
2. Launch Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (you can launch the game and run the tool by using "start-and-run-game" instead of just "start")
3. Open the in-game console and type dh help and press enter. There should be enough information printed in there to get you started.

FAQ

1. Do I risk getting a VAC ban by using this tool?
   1. No. Everything this tool does is kosher. The only way this tool interacts with CS:GO is by writing to and reading from the in-game console, a process that players do all the time.
2. How do I set my launch options
   1. See this article from Steam's support page

Background (This is mostly blather, but you can read it if you like)

This section is just drivel about the woes of someone who wants to use demos as well as how and why I've created this monstrosity. It's more detailed than necessary, but you should read this before asking questions like "Why not do X to solve Y instead of the solution used in this repo?" unless I've had a truly stupid oversight.

On occasion, I make YouTube videos out of the f u n n y m o m e n t s and cool frags that have happened in the games I've played. I tend to record the event using ShadowPlay after the fact. However, if I want to get higher-quality footage or slow something down, I'll record footage of the demo itself.

GOTV Demos

After playing a competitive game on official Valve Matchmaking servers, players can download a "demo" of the match ( These will be called GOTV demos from here on). GOTV demos allow the player to watch the entire game recreated in the engine as recorded by the server. GOTV demos also allow players to spectate anybody's perspective or take any perspective not bound to a player ("freecam").

Problems

There are two problems that come with Valve's GOTV demos:

1. They are recorded as 32-tick despite the fact that the server runs at 64 ticks. This often causes visual artifacts and events that occurred in the match may not show up properly or at all during demo playback. For example, a really cool flickshot, during demo playback, can end up looking like you never even looked in the enemy's direction. I really wish valve didn't do this but that's a different plate of cookies for a different glass of milk.
2. They don't record voice chat

POV Demos

POV demos are demos recorded by the player themselves with the command record [DEMO_NAME] in the in-game console. These solve both the problems listed in the GOTV Demos section aren't free of trouble.

Problems

1. No freecam. POV demos record only the perspective of the player (this can't and won't be resolved by these tools).
2. Your own voice will not be recorded. Although you will see an indicator for your name whenever you had been talking during the game, you will not hear your voice as the data has simply not been recorded.
   1. There is a workaround to allow your own voice to be recorded in a POV demo. If you set the Cvar voice_loopback to 1, your voice will be included in the demo. The drawback to this is that you hear what you say which is irritating for two reasons.
      1. Whenever you talk in-game, you'll hear a slightly delayed, somewhat low-quality version of yourself talking as well. I've gotten used to this, but it's always been irritating.
      2. ShadowPlay clips (or whatever you might use for an "instant replay" recording solution) will record your voice from your microphone and from the loopback the game is providing. Making speech really difficult to understand in a video.
3. You have to name these demos yourself which means you need to come up with some sort of system to organize their names

Solution

I originally made this tool just to solve problem 3 with POV demos by making a program that would automate the "[game mode]-[map name]-[mm-dd-yyyy]" demo naming scheme I had been manually following for years.

I had sort of accepted that I'd just always hear double when recording a POV demo. After doing some research, I discovered that I could also create a solution to problem 2. I would still have to use voice_loopback 1 to record my own voice but using the command voice_player_volume, I could adjust the volume of everybody who would be audible to me when playing a game including myself. This would be a bit of a chore to do before every match, so I implemented an automated solution to this.

The one last issue to solve was actually created by voice_player_volume solution itself. The Cvar demo_recordcommands is set to 1 by default. This means that the command to mute myself will be run again when playing the demo back. The voice data for myself will be in the demo, I will just have to unmute myself every time. To remedy this, DemoRecordingHelper echoes a special message into the console after muting the player that DemoPlaybackHelper will pick up on when playing the demo back and know who to unmute. In hindsight, I probably could do the mute operation before starting the recording. This would skirt around the edge case that a user has demo_recordcommands set to 0. Maybe I'll do that in the future. At least there's a solution at the moment.