Create CS:GO port

[quanticc]

Support for CS:GO is already present in the v4.x/snapshot update branch. We are still testing it behaves as expected. Additional features will be added after stability is consistent.

Can be downloaded from: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qbf8oj3301nknhr/lawena-snapshot-4.2.0-pre.2-60-g0ae61d9.zip?dl=0

Roadmap to basic functionality:

• [x] Determine the minimum commands required to record.
• [x] Discover what convars work differently in the recording process.
• [x] Build a list of static cvars: Stuff that everyone would want enabled when recording frames.
• [x] Create list of user-selectable cvars: Stuff that a user might want enabled or disabled. Add those as options within the user interface
• [x] Increase the quality using a modified graphic config
• [x] Create user interface elements for CS:GO mode
• [x] Publish a test build
• [x] Verify build and validate it with user feedback
• [x] Minor fixes and enhancements
• [x] Verify basic recording operations (video-only and audio-only passes)

Future: Further integration with SrcDemo2/VirtualDub/HandBrake for recorded frame segments will be worked on both TF2 and CS:GO after basic functionality is working.

[quanticc]

High quality config, thanks SAS41! - https://gist.github.com/iabarca/90a97dbeb9e707b7ebfb Static commands to clean the interface - https://gist.github.com/iabarca/d44956abbb5f39fa21f9 Cvars that could be user-selectable - https://gist.github.com/iabarca/32d4fa55acc4a6707ed8

[shaunidiot]

Adding on : A list of updated commands can be found here : twowordbird

The most important commands will be (last link here)

• cl_draw_only_deathnotices 1 // hide everything except the kill feed at top right
• cl_drawhud 0 //removes HUD
• crosshair 0 //removes crosshair
• voice_caster_enable 0 //disable voice caster voice in demos

Changing of skybox : sv_skyname skybox_name

List of skyboxes: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Counter-Strike:_Global_Offensive_Sky_List

Will you be creating a new branch for this, a new repo entirely or just using v4.x?

[quanticc]

I've created a branch off v4.x for now (#48)

Changes expected:

• Create a class for csgo based on this UI class possibly naming it "CSGOView" or similar.
• Due to the previous one, wiring the UI components to a csgo-equivalent of this "presenter" class that connects to the view. Much of the functionality can be reused but that can be refactored later.
• Create a configuration key class like this one but to address CS:GO values. Alternatively, we could use the same class, since it's just a bunch of static values saved there.
• Create a csgo-equivalent for this class that generates the .cfg files with the user-selectable and other movie-related cvars.

Those are mainly cosmetic changes, so the transition doesn't look like you're running TF2, but internally you could already hack the tool to run csgo on the feature branch from #48, taking advantage of the folder structure it creates under the "lwrt" folder.

Also adding that I'm most likely to work on this stuff no earlier than January 6th, where I have some spare time. If you would like to contribute I'll gladly accept your pull requests from your branch to csgo-support. Program can be run using gradlew command.

[quanticc]

In TF2 cl_drawhud is bound to a certain key as seen here. I think that behavior is ok, giving the option to choose one or another state within the game.

Crosshair is present in the UI as a checkbox. Same should happen for CS:GO. Also in TF2 there's an alias to prevent further changes to the crosshair cvar, since it might change during playback due to cvar changes getting recorded in pov demos. I'm not sure if this happens to CS:GO demos.

About cl_draw_only_deathnotices 1 I don't know what is better: (a) give the option to set it in the UI, (b) fixing the 1 value, (c) add a keybinding similar to cl_drawhud or both (a) and (c).

voice_caster_enable should definitely be in a checkbox so the user can decide whether to keep it disabled or not.

Question about skyboxes, can you change skyboxes during demo playback with that command? If not, does it work like TF2 where you can "trick" the game by replacing your own skybox with the same filenames of all default skybox files inside a custom folder?

Another question on a different matter. In TF2 I bundle a couple of HUDs where one of them offers partial elements visible, like a middle ground between killfeed-only and full hud. Is this possible to do/desired/expected in CS:GO?

Thanks for the help!

[shaunidiot]

• cl_draw_only_deathnotices 1 I think fixing it to 1 value is a better choice. I doubt any movie makers make use of any other HUD other than the killfeed. The other HUD images consist of players alive, team's players health, weapons they are holding etc which are pretty useless and distracting as it covers the screen a lot.
• Yup, voice_caster_enable can be a option as movie makers rather get the audio from VODs as the in-game caster's voice is... just too horrible.
• I just tried changing the skybox in demo. Works well. sv_skyname forest for example. Instantly changes the skyboxes :D
• Few years back, CS:GO dev team disabled changing of HUDs (afraid of it being exploitable in competitive matches). Reddit / Dev replies. It seems that only servers (be it Valve's or community) check for validity of these client's files to match that of the official one during competitive/casual matches. I'll have a HUD test change in a while and see if I can use them during demo. Will report back soon :)

P.S: I have some broken English in there and I know it. So sorry. My English isn't that good :(

Edit: Just tried a few old HUD and CS:GO just crashes. "swf file is invalid" or some sort. Seems like some things were changed in the HUDs. Best to just disable and ignore custom HUDs editing for now. cl_draw_only_deathnotices should probably make the screen as clean as possible.

Edit 2 : Will try out POVs demo to see if crosshair changes accordingly.

Edit 3: Crosshair stays the same throughout the demo. It follows whatever the user has. Or did I do something wrong here? All I did was download a POV demo and played it. Player's crosshair stays the same as mine.

[quanticc]

Thanks for the feedback, glad to know about the skyboxes thing. I think the tool won't have much custom options to choose from then, too restricted, but it's still fine in terms of simplicity.

English is not my native language either. It's working out just fine :earth_americas:

[shaunidiot]

Sure no problem. Glad to help! I'll search for more commands along the way as you update the repository. Another command sv_ignoregrenaderadio 1 turn off radio commands when grenade is being thrown.

[quanticc]

Managed to test some stuff. I've learned a few things, there is no custom folder in CS:Go, everything must go through cfg folder, ugh.

[dubbled]

I know it's just a hassle but can't you just move the user's regular config to a backup folder and put a movie config in it's place?

[dubbled]

We should also probably add an FOV slider, or just leave it at 90.

[quanticc]

Hi, no hassle at all. I've realized that CS:GO doesn't use custom folders so, is it only the cfg folder that can contain custom content then?

Also I don't know what qualifies as a high quality config for CS:GO, do you think this file is appropiate (graphics wise)?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Edit: Basically I just want to know what kind of custom stuff you can add to the game during demo playback besides custom cfgs. For instance you can put model replacements, custom skyboxes, texture changes in TF2.

[quanticc]

Alright, it's possible to test stuff with this working version: lawena-snapshot-4.2.0-pre.2-34 (Edit: Link removed, check latest version on the first comment)

It contains the core features, now your feedback is required. Commit details are at #48

Instructions: extract, run lawena.exe and select Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Thanks @Dubbled, @SAS41 and @shaunidiot so far.

[dubbled]

I believe mat_postprocess_enable 0 should be added as well to the config.

[quanticc]

Ok, that can be added directly to recording.cfg inside lwrt/csgo/config/cfg (link). No need to bundle it in a commit yet.

[quanticc]

I've been reading this thread and applied some convars and settings to the pull request before I merged it. Files/settings are loaded correctly, but I need to test the values if they are having any effect.

Other things I've learned..

• HLAE is popular between fragvideo enthusiasts.
• Lots of graphical convars are missing, are they locked? Does HLAE contribute unlocking them?
• host_timescale 0 used in that guide, stops sounds completely.
• In TF2 you set host_timescale 0.001 to help Source Recorder capture all needed frames (when you use high fps or have low specs) and not lose quality. However in CS:GO looks like you have to use demo_timescale to do that. Will test.
• The real help will come when the TGA compiling is automated or integrated in the process, like Source Recording Tool does.

Posting here as update, I'll research about those topics and make the fixes next Wednesday.

[dubbled]

• The way I've done it with host_timescale 0 is by recording just the frames first and then going back with host_timescale 1 and using host_framerate 0 to capture the audio and video. Then when I use VD, I just enter in the FPS manually and sync the audio in Vegas to the clip.
• I also believe that HLAE unlocks some of the CVARS, even though in 1.6 even more CVARS were available to be unlocked.
• I agree with the TGA compiling being added to the tool because hand holding is necessary so that people don't mess up somewhere in the progress. IE: dubbing to a codec instead of just leaving it uncompressed.

[dubbled]

Ok, so I've attempted to record using the version you posted on the 31st, and it seems there is a problem with the recording config. Once the frames have been rendered and the wav recorded, the wav sound is glitched as if host_timescale is set to 0 instead of 1, but this is not the case as I have attempted to change to host_timescale 1 and this has not resolved the problem.

[quanticc]

Alright, but the config in that exact version was updated. Can you check updating that version to latest one (4.2.0-pre.2-37)

If you already did, files loaded into csgo are these: https://github.com/iabarca/lawena-recording-tool/tree/v4.x/lwrt/csgo/config/cfg

In particular, recording.cfg has the recording stuff. I've noticed that almost all of the commands there are not working due to being "locked" (says unknown command).

I'm going to change host_timescale to demo_timescale: https://github.com/iabarca/lawena-recording-tool/blob/v4.x/lwrt/csgo/config/cfg/recbindings.cfg#L63

Also defaulting host_timescale to 0

That might solve it. Thanks

Edit: line 63, not 64

[quanticc]

Updated to 4.2.0-pre.2-42 of snapshot branch, reflecting above changes.

O keybind toggles between host_timescale 0 (Lawena default) and host_timescale 1

[dubbled]

Ok, 4.2.0-pre.2-42 has solved the no audio problem. I was able to record with host_timescale 1 and have no demo bugs. Here is a 60 fps H.264 render.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXWIu3WdgdU

[dubbled]

OK! I've done some more testing after a little bit of a hiatus and I've decided a couple of things should be changed to make the tool easier to use:

• The game should always launch with the default of host_framerate 0. This makes navigating the demo to the point where you want to start your recording much easier. Once the start recording binding is pressed, the bind should automatically run the command host_framerate x where x is the selected recording framerate in the tool, and then begin recording. EDIT: See #53, I believe I have fixed this.
• The start recording binding (default P) should only record tga files. See next bullet point for an explanation.
• Since the demo sounds seem bugged in GO even with host_timescale .001, there should be another bind (maybe [ would work) that would record audio only with host_timescale 1, host_framerate 0 and startmovie x wav. The user could then sync the audio to the clip manually until a better solution is found.

[quanticc]

Awesome, glad to have you back.

The suggestions are great but I'm not sure if startmovie can be used to do video-only or audio-only passes. I know that if you ignore the video and audio parameter, it just uses tga/wav by default. Have you confirmed that startmovie x wav works?

At the moment, the only way I know to avoid wasting disk space by doing two passes would be using SrcDemo2.

[dubbled]

I have confirmed that you can use startmovie x wav. Run just startmovie and check out the output to look at the other options. We can also use startmovie x tga to do video only.

[quanticc]

Perfect. I'll be adapting the record bindings to allow for video-only and audio-only segments. Thanks

[quanticc]

Okay, pushed a couple commits, latest version is now 4.2.0-pre.2-59. It should allow recording of video only and audio only segments using F1 and F2 respectively.

Also added a way to remember game selection to avoid choosing game each time.

Edit: Made some corrections

[dubbled]

Sounds good. Two things:

• When recording audio, the host_framerate cvar automatically changes to the selected framerate in the tool. This should stay zero so the audio records at real time.
• The Skybox option can be re enabled. Here is the skybox list for CS:GO. The command sv_skyname can change the sky in the demo. Not sure how you would want to implement this. The skybox will not change in the demo if the command is run at game launch. Instead maybe the skybox command could be run when recording with P or with F1. I do not think there is a way to run a cfg at demo start.

[quanticc]

• Fixed and pushed.
• CS:Go handles skyboxes differently. In TF2 you actually have to replace the files using the same name as the default ones, so that mechanism in the app won't be useful for Global Offensive. I could add a toggle bind to rotate through each skybox, but I would have to compile a name list. Can you check if I'm missing some of them, since I'm sure not all of them are detailed in that website after I've found out about vertigoblue_hdr

bind F4 toggle sv_skyname cs_baggage_skybox_ embassy italy jungle office sky_cs15_daylight01_hdr sky_cs15_daylight02_hdr sky_cs15_daylight03_hdr sky_cs15_daylight04_hdr sky_dust vietnam vertigoblue_hdr

[dubbled]

I believe the skybox issues could be sorted using the same method as the recording framerate. Since the TF2 and CS:GO functionality are separate (from what I understand) wouldn't it be possible to do lines.add("sv_skyboxname " + skybox);?

[dubbled]

I'll clarify. If there is a specific skybox selected in the drop down, do lines.add("alias startrecording "demo_timescale 0.001; recframerate; bind P stoprecording; sv_skyboxname " + skybox"); to recbindings.cfg. If the skybox is set to default, just leave out the skybox part.

[quanticc]

I thought you could change skyboxes during the demo playback. Is that correct?

[dubbled]

You can.

[quanticc]

At the moment I think It's not practical to extract the official vpks to get the skybox files and show preview images for the user to select, since the selected skybox can be modified in-game using sv_skyname command (this is not possible in TF2). I think a toggle (or group of aliases) to rotate between all available skyboxes should be enough.

[quanticc]

I pushed something to cover the skybox changing. Therefore I'm closing this since the basic functionality is available and working relatively fine. Next step will be adding the VirtualDub integration.

Further improvements or fixes to the cs:go version are going to their respective issues.