Thanks a lot guys I appreciate that you appreciate me :-D


I've been getting a lot of questions about how to make advanced replays like this, let me give you a quick rundown on how I do it

Step 1: Have an idea, I wanted to create a replay featuring weaponplay, set in some sort of drug syndicate headquarters

Step 2: Decide what elements you want in your replay. There were a few things I wanted the replay to feature:

   A shooting gun 
   Muzzleflash 
   Empty cartridges 
   Reloading the gun 
   Advanced keyframes
   Working elevator doors

Step 3: What tools do you have at your disposal? Are they enough to create the desired results? In this case I needed the following things to make a working gun and shoot multiple people:

   Modding experience 
   Knowing how to cut the replay in half and put it back together so I don't have to run through 1000+ frames every time I make an edit
   Knowing how LINVEL, ANGVEL, POS and QAT works and how to manipulate them

A way to teleport objects and players around(the latter is mostly done via script)
Time patience and motivation.

Step 4: Create the mod. If unsure about if the concepts of your replay will work on a technical level, this is the time to test it out

Step 5: Map out all the objects and make a script of the events you want in the replay on a piece of paper. This can be done before step 4 or at the same time. And looks a bit like this:


Step 6: Time to start editing Pretty straight forward, you follow your script or improvise until you run into an issue. When you inevitably do you have to rethink or try to solve the problem if that's possible. I realized soon that a segment I wanted in the replay was not going to fit into the timeframe and had to remove it not to make the replay 2000+ frames long which I never would have been managed to complete.
Hacking obviously is a big part of my replays and is integrated into the regular editing process. Shooting the gun once was done like this for example:

   Aim the gun using third person camera
   Extend wrist to simulate recoil
   Save the replay and open in notepad
   Place the muzzleflash object in front of the gun
   Leave it there and edit 2-3 frames forward (it has an upwards thrust to 
   exactly match the downwards pull of the gravity, making it float in place)
   Save the replay
   Remove the muzzleflash object
   Add the invisible bullet object on the bodypart of Uke you took aim at
   Add a thrust to the bullet object to simulate Uke getting hit using LINVEL (Linear Velocity)
   Place an empty cartridge above the cartridge hatch of the gun (this especially took a lot of time at the start)
   Add a thust to the empty cartridge using LINVEL to make it pop out of the gun
   Make the cartridge spin a bit using ANGVEL (Angular Velocity)
   Carry on with the replay

Step 7: Wrapping it up. This includes naming your new baby, cutting off excess frames, tweaking your mod(if you are unsure how this might effect your replay, only edit the coloring of objects). In this case it also included painstakingly keyframing the replay which was done like this:

   Enter first person camera, this places the cam on the exact location of Toris head
   Enter advanced freecam (2), position of the camera is still on Toris head but you can now look around freely instead of being fixated on Ukes head
   Point the camera at whatever you want in picture on that frame and press K to make a keyframe

The switch from first to third person was done by simply moving the freecam out of Toris head and then back in when I wanted to return to first person.
The hard part about keyframing were the multiple bugs and issues I came across, some of the keyframes were pointing at completely different things than I had intended and I had to manually move, cut or rewrite certain keyframes in notepad. At this moment I am not completely sure how the backend of keyframes work, I expected it to work like QAT(rotation of objects) but it is missing a parameter. If anyone has sauce on keyframes I am eager to hear it

That's it, you are done and ready to publish your replay
The whole process took 30-40 hours for this replay, but there were quite a few problems to be solved along the way and I didn't work as efficiently as I could have


Got questions or need help? Ask here or PM me