CommunityFortress

The goal of this blog post is to provide Valve Software with a clear outline of changes we as a community would like to see implemented in regards to demo playback, filmmaking, and SourceTV capabilities for spectators and shoutcasters. I will be starting with the requests that should be easier to implement, before looking at more long term issues. Some of these requests are copied from my previous article published Late October 09. These are stated again here simply for the sake of completeness even though some of these requests have been acknowledged by Valve and are scheduled to be implemented. Please tack on your thoughts on needed changes in the comment section. (i r newb. Edits made to reflect realit. Also, shoutout to Decap, I added a note in the article from him)

CVar change requests:

SV_SpecSpeed and SV_SpecAccelerate
  These two CVars are currently locked at the default values of 3 and 5 respectively, and cannot be changed unless SV_Cheats is set to 1. While restricting the upper limits of these settings might be a necessary precaution against ghosting, I cannot see a reason to restrict players from being able to lower these values. There might be a coding issue here, with the SV indicating that it is a server wide setting, but adjusting this code structure will also enable other changes.
  Allowing players to alter the settings for these CVars would enable shoutcasters to slow down the speed of their free look camera, resulting in smoother overviews of the action. This is clearly demonstrated in the differences between the external views of TGBF.tv or Pwnage.tv and CommFT's eXtv series. My post-production approach of eXtv enables me to use these two cvars in co-ordination with sv_cheats 1 and match my floating camera to the speed of a scout. Alongside a turbo button, which enables the camera to speed ahead of players, a much better floating viewpoint can be utilized. My turbo script which I use to catch up to the action also displays the speed and accelerate values I use:
alias "+turboboost" "sv_specspeed 2; sv_specaccelerate 4.5"
alias "-turboboost" "sv_specspeed  1.25; sv_specaccelerate 3.5"
bind "shift" "+turboboost"

cam_collision 2/sv_specnoclip 0
cam_collision 1 is the CVar which sets the thirdperson camera to try and avoid clipping through walls. A setting not currently available that could be implemented either through allowing a "2" setting or a whole different cvar, sv_specnoclip, would allow this feature to carry over to the regular spectator ghost camera. Turning NoClip off for spectators would be a further boost to shoutcasters and accidentally clipping into a wall while using the free camera ruins your image. Casters and movie makers could bind a button to toggle the clip cvar so that the capability to fly through walls is still preserved. It would be great to turn it off though.

getpos/setpos
   As a spectator the ability to use these commands would enable pre-set cameras, a very beneficial tool for shoutcasters. With the use of an easy to write script, a shoutcaster could very easily utilize the getpos command to set a camera point and the setpos command to return to that camera point. These settings could be saved in per-map cfg files or put together on the fly within a couple minutes time before the match. This could be used to create a variety of camera positions that can easily be cycled through. With 10 buttons 2 cameras could be assigned to each Control Point in a 5-CP map. On top of Shoutcasters using these cameras as pre-set points to cover the different CPs, these commands would also be very helpful to movie makers who wish to emulate smoothing with their sourceTV demos. 
   Right now, these commands require sv_cheats 1 but on top of that can not even be used during demo playback. There is the concern about utilizing these commands to more effectively ghost during a live match, but the 2 minute delay of STV completely negates that. Spectators are not allowing in server during competitive matches, and players on the Red and Blu teams can be restricted through other cvars. The capability of when these commands can be used needs to be adjusted, but it doesn't seem like it would take a lot of work to enable a very beneficial change.

Demo Processing

   tf_playergib 0 and cl_autoreload 0 are two commands that film makers sometimes wish they could turn off. cl_autoreload, while a godsend to players, can make for some really irritating animations. tf_playergib 0 could turn off player gibs, instead forcing all frags to end in ragdolls. Once a demo is recorded, changing playergib does not stop the recording from gibbing players. While disabling gibs post-recording isn't a crucial feature, allowing filmmakers to process a demo to remove unsuccesful reload animations would be very very cool. The demo could be run through a process which checks to see if a reload was un-succesful, in which case that particular reload animation would not even be initialized the next time the demo is played. This certainly might require a little more work than it would be worth, but maybe such a feature could be rolled into other modifications made to the whole demo system.
   After all, if a way to process and update demos could be made, then there would be hope that demos filmed during previous versions of TF2 could be updated to be viewed in the most current version. (err... I guess I was mistaken about it. Haven't faced this issue a whole lot, and I think changes maybe were made after initial implemntation. Either way, setting cl_autoreload 0 smoothes out your demos)

Time Scrubbing and gototick

Valve has already mentioned they are planning on implementing time scrubbing for demos. Hopefully utilizing the gototick command to skip far ahead into a video will also be included. (ack. Disable multiocore rendering and omg gototick works beautifully! This eases my Psyche incredibly.)

Player Quick Switch

The ability to quickswitch between players while utilizing the advanced spectator hud has been broken since it's implementation. Personally I have only gotten it to work once. This is surely already on the to-do list.

 Smoothing in SourceTV Demos

Smoothing, which is the way to position a camera in-game and move it through pre-programmed positions, is the best way to perform complex camera work within a source engine game. It can be a lot of work but the results are worth it. Currently it is impossible to use the smoother tools in a SourceTV demo. Considering that’s the format most match demos are in, it’s a frustrating no-go. Being able to smooth in SourceTV demos would allow movie makers to use complex camera work to record action from top level matches.

From Decap regarding smoothing: "Smoothing needs to be able to change the angle of the camera as well, like when you press alt or whatever in source filmmaker"

Ghostviewing a POV demo

 Another issue that is a fix on the way for, is viewing a demo recording of your own POV from an external camera. Currently this doesn’t work as your demo doesn’t contain information of events happening half-way across the map. Even with players missing from areas you cannot see, it would still be a fantastic tool to be able to record your self from an external perspective. It would enable players to be their own actors on a local server instead having to secure a server and film a friend.
 Valve discussed players being able to obtain a demo file from a server after a glorious kill streak. It only makes sense that these demos will have the full information and can be spectated externally, which would be great. For POV demos filmed by the player themselves an external view would allow for better footage to be produced, even if other players disappear as they drift from the recording player.

Speccing during Pause

 One more small but beneficial change, would be to allow the player to move their spectator camera while demo_pause is in effect. Currently you can click through which player you are following and change camera modes, but if you are in free camera mode you are stuck in place. Allowing players to move while the demo is paused would help demo recorders immensely. Since you can’t move the camera while the game is paused, you have to be setup well ahead of time. With the lack of time scrubbing, this can be pretty frustrating. This issue should be easy to fix in co-ordination with the other problems.

Source Film Maker

Oh em gee. Source Film Maker is amazing. Valve unintentionally included this tool in the original Beta version of TF2 that was released to the community. While some film makers have known about this for a long time, it only entered general knowledge recently. With the Source Film Maker, TF2 Machinima makers have some very powerful tools at their disposal. Unfortunately its a little buggy and is incompatible with any of the newer content. Nonetheless, some very hilarious videos made with SFM have started to appear. Valve needs to release this tool to the public, but knowing Valve they aren't going to do so until it is complete. It's surely a lower-priority item for them, but the sooner they release it, the sooner the large community of TF2 Machinima makers can utilize the power of Source Film Maker.

(Decap also threw in his thoughts on the following: "can you also put being able to change the fov while watching a demo and for viewmodels on stv demos to be normal numbers ...like if you watch stv and your viewmodel_fov is 54 itll look like 70")