Enforce Demo recording at least on public servers.

[FunkyHamster]

Hi all,

I propose to make the demo recording compulsory for public servers.

Reseons:
1. Allow players to report abuse and have a proof.
2. Allow players to review their games.
3. Reduce admin abuse.

Please give me your feedback and push the matter if you feel it s a good thing.

Thank you.

[Foo]

Some servers are played so much, they can't afford the bandwidth for demo recording.

[FunkyHamster]

Some servers are played so much, they can't afford the bandwidth for demo recording.

What do you mean? The demo is only downloaded if requested by the player. Do you think that some admin's have disable demos in order to ave bandwidth?

BTW, somebody know if the demo file can be further compressed?

[Billybob]

Watch what happen at the start of a lot of games on popular servers, many times the server lags because many players download a demo.

[FunkyHamster]

Watch what happen at the start of a lot of games on popular servers, many times the server lags because many players download a demo.

You have a point there. I had already noticed that. I think it might be just a matter of improving how the demo is sent. Maybe it can be sent split into several chunks and sent gradually to each player.

[V-Man]

Or this:

[SELECT ALL] Code:

alias demoreceived 0
add2conloop [if (&& (! (alive)) (! $demoreceived)) [getdemo; demoreceived = 1] []]
addcheck_msa [demoreceived = 0]

(with the help of tools.cfg of course.)

This way, you don't download the demo until the first time you die in a new game. Since people don't usually all die at the same time, this will spread out the downloads more evenly and start the download at a non-crucial time (pertaining to the individual player).

[Drakas]

Some servers are played so much, they can't afford the bandwidth for demo recording.

What do you mean? The demo is only downloaded if requested by the player. Do you think that some admin's have disable demos in order to ave bandwidth?

BTW, somebody know if the demo file can be further compressed?

Take RandumKiwi's servers for example, where the bandwidth throughput is very low: when a demo download occurs, the whole server starts lagging. That said, server maintainers shouldn't overload their resources in the first place.

And maybe a smarter upload bandwidth control mechanism would do the job for the demo sending - it's at the moment prioritised over game-play traffic, and that's why you can't play whilst downloading a demo, unfortunately.

I think that demo recording should enabled by default, but server maintainers should still have the option to: limit the bandwidth of demo downloads, and disable demo downloading in-game and instead forward them by other means, such as a web server (where bandwidth can be limited easily).

[jamz]

...disable demo downloading in-game...

This can be, sort of, done with

[SELECT ALL] Code:

-DI     //Limit the demo downloading to intermission (it doubles the intermission time if someone is downloading a demo).

Although, I must confess I haven't used it and don't know how it performs. I'm pretty sure someone on here does use it, but I can't remember who.

[Drakas]

That's interesting. But demos only finish recording after the game (including intermission) ends. So does it mean you'd have to wait until the next intermission to get the demo?

[tempest]

Looks like it. Maybe it would be a good idea to stop demo recording once intermission starts - it's useless to record that anyway...

[V-Man]

@Drakas: Yes. I visited a server that had that enabled and couldn't download any demos because the switch doesn't count map-change votes as intermissions, and everyone kept voting in new maps.

[eftertanke]

Or this:
***snipped***
This way, you don't download the demo until the first time you die in a new game. Since people don't usually all die at the same time, this will spread out the downloads more evenly and start the download at a non-crucial time (pertaining to the individual player).

Nice!

This can be, sort of, done with

[SELECT ALL] Code:

-DI     //Limit the demo downloading to intermission (it doubles the intermission time if someone is downloading a demo).

Although, I must confess I haven't used it and don't know how it performs. I'm pretty sure someone on here does use it, but I can't remember who.

Please don't do that. It's the most useless command line option currently available. Players shouldn't have to play another entire match just to download the demo. Now, if demos were recorded (that is, receivable) at the start of intermission it would be more useful, but you would also probably want to disable chat and things or you wouldn't get that data in the demo.

Obviously some kind of trade off would have to be reached.

[FunkyHamster]

-DI is confusing or buggy IMHO.