Automatic clientside demo recording

[DESTROYGIRL]

Description

Server cvar to make clients automatically record demos like in the comp plugin for OG

Toolchain

• Windows MSVC VS2022

Linked Issues

• fixes Match demo recording #223

[AdamTadeusz]

Should clients be able to control whether the server can start and stop recordings? If I'm playing on a device short on storage I imagine I don't want every random server I join to force me to record a demo. Also If I do want a demo but I have my own naming convention, this would stop my recording in favor of the new recording.

[DESTROYGIRL]

I thought about this but I wasn't really sure, in current tournament play you have to record clientside demos or else you're breaking a rule.
Servers don't use this outside of pugs / comp, if a pub server has this switched on permanently then its probably a bad server and you should stop playing on it.
It's also worth noting that this doesn't actually restrict control from the client, they can still stop a recording at any time, and if they have their own naming convention its easy to go back and rename as the names have map, timestamp, etc

So having the option probably wouldn't hurt outside of people unintentionally breaking tournament rules. Maybe it's a question for orga

[AdamTadeusz]

I don't really see how a client side recording is helpful if the server already records the match as well, is it like to check if a person was lagging or something? It's not easy but the files aren't really encrypted or anything so I wouldn't trust a demo that someone sent me to check whether they are cheating or not.

But if the ANP tourney guys want it then perhaps this should be a client side convar with the FCVAR_USERINFO flag instead, and server side we have a convar that restricts a competitive game from starting until all competitors have enabled the client side convar. Obviously as you said that still means a user can just type stop in the console once a match has begun since this system wasn't really made for what its being used for here.

[Rainyan]

Should clients be able to control whether the server can start and stop recordings? If I'm playing on a device short on storage I imagine I don't want every random server I join to force me to record a demo. Also If I do want a demo but I have my own naming convention, this would stop my recording in favor of the new recording.

It might be a good idea to have a client-side cvar for turning this feature off, and have it be outside the FCVAR_USERINFO data, so servers cannot coerce players to enable the recording. This way, players are free to disable the autorecord if they so choose, but then it's on their responsibility to remember to record for important games like tournaments etc.

[DESTROYGIRL]

Added a client toggle, default enabled

[AdamTadeusz]

Was the intention for every round to be recorded separately?

An 8 round game on ntre_oilstain_ctg generated 8 separate demos.

[AdamTadeusz]

Also can we make a demos folder and put these in there?

[AdamTadeusz]

Also gitignore that folder and its contents, and maybe just demo files anywhere in general

[DESTROYGIRL]

Was the intention for every round to be recorded separately?

Oops, no that was an oversight