Capturing Using IMAGE-ET

Getting Started

Firstly, you'd want to have everything setup properly with a separate copy of W:ET 2.60b + etpro 3.2.6

• create a new empty folder named IMAGE-ET with two subfolders named etmain and etpro
  
• copy the following files from your current game folder
  /ET.exe
  /etmain/mp_bin.pk3, pak{0-2}.pk3, cgame_mp_x86.dll, ui_mp_x86.dll
  /etpro/etpro-3_2_6.pk3, cgame_mp_x86.dll, ui_mp_x86.dll
  
• also copy into etmain custom maps such as adlernest.pk3, etc.
  
• extract the contents of image-et into IMAGE-ET
  
• optionally create a shortcut pointing to image-et.exe and add +set fs_game etpro to the target line
  
• click here to download a movie config if you don't already have one and place it in etmain

Now that everything is installed, you are set to perform your very own capture.

• create a subfolder named demos inside of etpro and place your demos in there
  
• start the game with image-et and load your demo
  
• navigate through the demo with timescale
  
• using the game console, set img_captureFps to your preferred framerate, e.g. "30"
  
• set img_motionBlur to "1" to enable motion blur
  
• set cl_avidemo to "1" to start capture and back to "0" to stop

If everything went fine, you should have ended up with a path named /screenshots/demoname/timestamp/ inside of etpro containing the captured frames.

CVAR Guide

cl_avidemo [!] toggles capture. Any non-zero value will start capture while zero will stop it.

img_captureFps [1~] sets the output framerate of captured screenshots. Put this value in virtualDUB or any other software that you may have. Commonly used values are 25 and 30 while power users will want to capture at higher framerates such as "90" or "100". Any greater value is discouraged for it will impact performance with little gain in quality.

img_demoLatency [0~999] sets the amount of latency to compensate while viewing demos by re-adjusting aim and movement. Since all demos are recorded at zero ping, everyone will benefit from using this cvar and not just high pingers. A value of "50" should give great results for most low pingers while others will have to experiment with values close to their ping. Use with caution.

img_demoSeek [~] has a dual purpose. First one is to seek to absolute server times, e.g. img_demoSeek 623572200 will in most cases instantly seek to that position. Second purpose is to seek to relative server times, e.g. img_demoSeek -1 will seek one second backwards. First use of this cvar might be a little slower due to the current implementation, but further use will seek faster, from instantly to a few seconds.

Previously, timescale were used to jump forward through demos. While this method works, it's not precise and can lead to bugs such as "flying" hats.

img_screenShakes [0~] sets the intensity of screen shakes from being hit or shot. Using a value of "0.5" will reduce screen shakes by half while zero will disable screen shakes.

img_aperture [0~] sets the f-number or the amount of blurring when depth of field is enabled. Using a value of zero will result in no depth of field while a high value will slow performance, therefore not recommended unless you have a good PC. Recommended values range from "1.0" to "3.0".

img_exposure [0~1] sets the shutter angle or the amount of blurring when motion blur is enabled. Using a value of zero will result in no motion blur while a value of one will result in maximally blurred frames. Recommended value is "1.0".

img_depthOfField [!] toggles depth of field

img_fisheye [!] toggles fisheye lens

img_motionBlur [!] toggles motion blur

img_blur_samples [1~] sets the number of blur samples when motion blur and depth of field are enabled. Higher samples will increase quality and is directly proportional to capture performance, e.g "128" samples is twice as slow as "64" but yields better quality.

img_fov_samples [1~] sets the number of subdivision samples when fisheye lens is enabled. Higher samples will increase quality but will reduce capture performance depending on the surroundings.

img_msaa_samples [1~] sets the number of samples for multisample anti-aliasing in window mode when off-screen rendering is enabled. Maximum samples and performance will be affected depending on your hardware capability. Recommended values range from "4" to "8".

img_focusDepth [0~] sets a fixed focus depth when depth of field is enabled. This cvar is useful in scripts to force focus at specific depths.

img_focusSpeed [0~] sets the speed at which focus will change when depth of field is enabled. Using high values will force instant focus.

img_focusTarget [-1~] sets a fixed target to focus at when depth of field is enabled. Targets can range from players, grenades, missiles, items, etc. A value of "-1" will default to auto-focus mode while values ranging from "0" to "63" will target specific players. Any other value will target the corresponding entity. One way to get a list of entities and their IDs is to use etpro's b_debugSnapEnts cvar. A feature to make this process easier is currently under development.

img_hdr [!] toggles high dynamic range rendering. HDRR will prevent bright and dark colors from clipping and improve contrast ratio. When in HDRR mode, any values can be used for r_mapOverBrightBits including decimals, while post process corrections such as r_gamma and r_overBrightBits are suppressed. Enabling this cvar is recommended for highest quality raws.

Off-Screen Rendering

While running the game in window mode, the default rendering is off-screen and it is important to note the benefits of such a feature. First and foremost, minimizing the game window will no longer affect capturing. Secondly, any custom resolution can be used irrespective of the physical monitor resolution. These allows a great deal of flexibility of when and how the user wants his capture to be done. One caveat of using off-screen rendering is having to manually set anti-aliasing levels through the img_msaa_samples cvar and the user is cautioned not to use values too high (16x) but just enough to make edges smooth.

High Framerate Captures

Power users will want higher framerates to use in conjunction with velocity curves in video edition softwares for reasons as varied as synching video and music to post-process timescaling even if the latter is discouraged in favor of ingame timescaling. In order to have the best quality and performance possible, it is important to set img_exposure to "1.0" and to use less img_blur_samples.