[TF2] Lawena Recording Tool + Virtual Dub Tutorial

[Howl Pendragon]

Lawena Recoring Tool

What is it?

Lawena recording tool is a program that allows Team Fortress 2 to alter it's visual properties and change the settings to the highest possible for high definition recording.

Virtual Dub

What is it?

Virtual dub is a program that allows you to compile and compress all of the recorded frames into one .avi file along with its audio.

Tutorial

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCnkslLNOkk[/ame]

Step 1. -

Start by downloading the following programs -

1. Virtual Dub - http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/

2. Lawena Recording Tool - http://code.google.com/p/lawenarecordingtool/downloads/list

3. Easy H.246 - http://tweevo.com/easy-h-264-video-encoder/

Step 2.

Open your Lawena Recording Tool.



Change the settings to whatever you desire, depending on what you're looking to do with your video. Higher FPS and higher resolution will result in a longer recording and render time.

Step 3.

Open Team Fortress 2 using the "Start Team Fortress 2" button. This will open TF2 in a small window, so that while you are recording, you may browse the web or listen to music

When you are in TF2, open your replay or demo.

Codes to open/record demos -

record "demoname" (without quotes) - starts recording a demo with the name insterted between the quotes.

stop - stops recording a demo

startdemos "demoname" - allows you to watch a demo previously recorded

host_framerate "fps" - insert the frames per second you wish to record at inside the quotes.

startmovie "name" - starts recording the frames for your video

endmovie - stops recording frames

Above is a more difficult way of recording, but works none the less.

*ALTERNATE*

Open your replay of choice, and click "Watch and edit".

This will take you into your replay. To begin recording the replay, hit F12 at the desired location, and F12 again to stop recording.

Step 4.

Now, it is time to compile the frames recorded.

Lawena recording tool will automatically create a movie folder for you to save all of your frames in.

The default is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\*steamaccountname*\team fortress 2\tf\movie

All of your recorded frames will be saved into THIS folder.
Open Virtual Dub -






Click File>Open Video File and select the first image in the sequence.




Click Video>Frame Rate>Change frame rate to... and insert the frame rate you recorded the frames at.




Click Audio>Audio from other file> select the corresponding .wav file for the sequence



Finally, click file > save AVI > name the file what you would like and let Virtual Dub do its thing.

Step 5.

Now, it's time to compress the video.

Using Easy H.246, you will compress the avi file into a more manageable .MP4 video file.




Using the settings above, select the raw .avi file, and then select an output file and name it.

Finally, click "Start Encoding" and when the "Conversion Completed" window pops up, you're good to go

Hope you guys enjoyed the tutorial, and hopefully I can start making more tutorial contributions about video editing and recording later

Thanks a bunch for reading, please leave feedback below!

 

[Kevimaster]

RIP PLDX Recording Tool :crying:

I've been using this for a bit now, a pretty good tool

 

[Mr.Game]

Thanks for the tutorial!

... though my PC still can't handle that level of quality

 

[Howl Pendragon]

RIP PLDX Recording Tool :crying:

I've been using this for a bit now, a pretty good tool

Hmm... I've never heard of it :O I'll have to check it out.

 

[Whisker Biscuit]

Hmm... I've never heard of it :O I'll have to check it out.

As far as I know, pldx crashes on startup, so I don't think you'd want to try it out

In regards to these two steps:

Click Video>Frame Rate>Change frame rate to... and insert the frame rate you recorded the frames at.

Click Audio>Audio from other file> select the corresponding .wav file for the sequence

You could also switch them around, and select "Change so video and audio duration match". It may be more accurate, or it may not matter; I'm not sure

 

[Howl Pendragon]

Never tried that haha

 

[Kevimaster]

Yeah, I much preferred the PLDX Recording tool up until the update broke it, and PLDX no longer exists since they got bought out by Alienware so no updates to their tool will be coming. I've been using this one since the PLDX version broke.

 

[Howl Pendragon]

Well, hopefully this tutorial will help new comers to the moviemaking community and they'll post more TF2 clips