Remaic studio 0.75 beta documentation

Contents

 1. Introduction
 
  1.1. What is remaic studio ?
  1.2  Remaic studio basics
  1.3. Availability
  1.4. Installation and running
  1.5. How to use remaic studio
 
 2. Tutorial
 
 3. Future enhancements

 4. Credits

1. Introduction

1.1. What is Remaic studio ?

	Remaic studio is a useful tool for proper "Quake movies." Movies that 
are shot "live" on a multiplayer server tend to have somewhat jerky camera-work.
If you use remaic studio, you can record your footage and then add the optimal 
camera-work to it later. 
	Remaic studio is composed of two parts, win32 executable and quake mod. 
The mod is used to locate cameras within the level, and to save the information 
in a text file. After you exit the mod, use the win32 application to refilm 
existing dem file with cameras you located in the level. In addition, you can 
use the application without the mod to process special script files, known to 
users of ReMaic as cam files.

1.2. Remaic studio basics

When you use the Quake engine to record a demo, it notes down the
important events in the world surrounding you. These include the
positions of other entities, the sounds that are played, and other
assorted effects. The demo also notes the direction you were looking
in. On playback, Quake remodels the world from the list of events that
it has and displays it from the recorded perspective, using the game
engine to render the scene just as if you were there for the first
time.

This means that we can change the perspective from which a demo is
seen quite easily, since the events themselves that make up the demo
are not very dependent on your perspective when you recorded it. (But
note that there is some dependency.)

When you place cameras using remaic studio, you define a trigger for each 
camera. The trigger is a rectangle-shaped region within the level, and the
camera bound to the trigger is activated when the player passes throught the 
trigger.

Remaic studio refilms a demo by checking during each frame if a playes activated
one of the camera's triggers. If he did, the asociated camera is activated. If
there is a direct line from current camera to the new one, camera will "fly"
from it's previous position to the new one, otherwise it'll suddenly "jump".

To ensure compatibility with other dem refilming tools (especially ReMaic),
remaic studio can use camera positions script, to know where and when should the
camera be. This way you can make better looking movies, but it takes much more 
time and effort. For the full explanation of all cam script's commands, please 
refer to ReMaic's manual.

1.3. Availability

The most recent version of the documentation that you are now reading
is that on the remaic studio web page. If you are reading a local copy,
and having problems, do check the current version since some updates may have 
been made since the version that you are reading. You can also check the latest 
news on remaic studio there.

Remaic studio can be downloaded as a *.zip file which contains :

 This documentation, remstud.txt.
 Remaic studio executable, "remaic studio.exe".
 The remaic studio quake mod, progs.dat.
 A set of example files: 
	e1m1.sav - positions of cameras for e1m1.bsp.
   	e1m1.dem - speed run of the level on nightmare skill that was recorder
		by Yonatan Donner, taken from quake done quicker, the movie.
	qconsole.log - information from the sav file in the format
		remaic studio can understand.

1.4. Installation and running

You should place remaic studio in a directory under quake, 
for example C:\QUAKE\DEMSTUD, and copy there the dem files you want
to refilm.
To run quake in cameras-placement mode, type
quake -game demstud -condebug +map <mapname>

1.5  How to use remaic studio

1.5.1 Using the quake mod :

While you are using the mod, the following commands are available to you :
putcamera (bound to ENTER key) places a camera at your exact location. Camera 
	looks like player's head that is looking at you all the time. One of 
	the heads is bleeding, this it the active camera you are currently 
	working on.
changecamera (bound to SPACE key) makes the camera closest to you to be the active
	camera.
delcamera (bound to BACKSPACE key) deletes the active camera.
gotocamera (bound to HOME key) moves you to camera's location and makes you look
	in the direction of the trigger.
movecamera (bound to TAB key) moves active camera to your location.
puttrigger (bound to DEL key) defines one corner of a trigger. The trigger is 
	defined by two corners of a box and looks like a rectangle full of white
	sparks. Each camera must have a trigger, and it's activated when the
	player passes the trigger.
print (bound to P key) prints all the info into the console, used to transmit 
	the information to remaic studio.
save <name> - type it in the console to save the state of cameras
load <name> - type it in the console to load the state of cameras

1.5.2 Using remaic studio.exe

Remaic studio.exe offers you a few edit boxes to enter some data :
Workdir : in most cases, the directory remaic studio is located in.
Source file : the demo you want to refilm
Script : Namo of the cam script. Even if you want remaic studio to generate one
	for you, you must give a name (temp.cam should be fine).
There are also a few check boxes :
Generate script : If you want to make your life easy, check this box and then
	remaic studio will thake all the info it needs from qconsole.log and
	automaticly generate cam file.
Add blood : if you want to add a visualisation to the pain the player suffers,
	check this box, and you'll see "tail" of blood behind the player.
Remove centerprinted messages : If you don't want messages like "1 more to go"
	to be seen in the movie, check this box.
Centerprint time on each frame : check this box, if you want to see the exact
	time during each step of the demo, used mostly for self-checks by 
	speedrunners.

There are also other, inactive components, they are there only as a reminder of
what will be included in the next versions of remaic studio.

2. Turorial

Follow the instructions bellow to learn performing basic refilm tasks with
remaic studio.

Let's say you have a game recorder on the e1m1 level (and it's placed in remaic
studio directory and called "e1m1.dem"), and let's say you want to refilm this
recorded game into a movie.

1) run "quake -game remstud -condebug +load e1m1", to load cameras positions
   i already prepared for you.
2) use arrow keys and two mouse buttons to move around in the quake world, use
   mouse to look around (you may want to change mouse sensetivity or even
   invert it's direction to your convinience).
3) press HOME key (or, enter "gotocamera" in the console) to find the current 
   camera.
4) move away from the camera (after going to the camera, you'll be exectly 
   inside it) and try to fly around it (using mouse and the arrow keys)
5) find camera's trigger (remember, the trigger looks like a fourse field with
   white particles blinking inside it
6) relocate the trigger (using DEL key or PUTTRIGGER command) until you are
   happy with it's position. Remember, trigger should be placed on player's 
   route, in area that the camera can see well.
7) fly around looking for other cameras, if you want to see camera's trigger - 
   make that camera active using SPACE key or changecamera command.
8) repeat steps 6 and 7 until you believe the path is perfect
9) press P key or use print command to dump camera positions to the console.
10) use save command to save your work (you can overwrite e1m1.sav) and exit
    quake
11) run remake studio.exe, enter directory remaic studio is installed in,
    enter the name of the demo (e1m1) as demoname.
12) enter a name for the script file, "temp.cam" should be fine, and then check
    the "generate" box since you want remaic studio to generate the file for 
    you.
13) Check any of the "refilming options" box, as you wish, and press on the 
    "go" button.
14) exit the program, run "quake -game remstud +playdemo e1m1c" to watch the
    movie.
14) if you are unhappy with the resulting movie, enter "load e1m1" command
    and return to step 3.

3. Future enhancements

Remaic studio is yet unfinished, and the following features are planned to be
included :

* FULL support for cam files of ReMaic v.4
* opening directly sav files instead of messing with the console
* improvements of quake mod, mostly the interface.
* a better camera aproximization method
* more dem processing options (removing entities outside the FOV, etc)
* the option of combining new camera positions with existing cam file 
  (to allow user add text messages/sounds/special effects before finishing 
  placing cameras)

Remaic studio doesn't YET support following ReMaic keywords, so don't be 
surprised if it stops responding when using custom cam:

pan,turn,sound,now, and time oriented coordinates (like e1~30).
It will be fixed until remaic studio v. 1.0 is released.

4. Credits

Remaic studio was created by Priborkin Roman (warkosign@intertaxi.co.il), but
based on many existing programs :
ReMaic,  by Anthony Bailey (baileya@cs.man.ac.uk)
DemTool, by Stefan Schwoon (ssch0098@rz.uni-hildesheim.de)
AutoCam, by Yonatan Donner (ruthd@post.tau.ac.il)
LMPC,    by Uwe Girlich, author of briliant DEM documentation
(http://www.physik.uni-leipzig.de/~girlich/games/)

Quake, by id software (www.idsoftware.com)
(By the way, Quake is a registred trademark of id software)

Please let me know if there are mistakes in this file.
Send opinions/bugs reports to warkosign@intertaxi.co.il
