Have you ever dreamed about old-school demo effects for your latest trick? Do you need Adobe Premiere for that kind of stuff? How about fancy centerprints - you won't do it in this program. Editing *.dem files was very cool; is it impossible with *.qwd? :huh?:
We will start with a normal trick demo - e3m1box.qwd (50,525 bytes). In short, it is a recorded trick of getting to square-ssg from square by shooting an explosion box. 8)
The first tool we will try is QWDEditor II. It is a very cool program, but it's website is offline for a long time by now, so I decided to mirror the program and its effects tutorial. After copying the demo to QWDEditor directory, I ran the program and opened the file I wanted to edit (CTRL+O).
When another window pop-up, I did CTRL+O again to select the output filename. Here is how the program looks like:
As you can see, I tried to add the speed adjust effect (right click on the timeline and select Insert effect). Despite of the starting "speed up", I decided to slow down the movie. Then I wanted to add some cool fade in and fade out (150 frames each).
Finally, I added a centerprint in the 155 frame. After CTRL+S the special *.fx file was saved, which stores the information about applied effects. I also hit CTRL+W for the retouched demo to be saved. I copied it way back to /qw/demos/ and played it in FuhQuakeGL.
Here is the demo after QWDEditor II tweaks. (53,579 bytes)
Now we will want some changes in the demo's header where important information is being stored. We will use The Little Movie Processing Centre by Uwe Girlich (download lmpc330m.zip if you are using Windows - 245,900 bytes). Check out his website with cool things like the unofficial QWD format description. This program doesn't have a window interface - everything is done in command prompt and the output files are tweaked in any good textpad (I use ConTEXT). The idea of LPMC (Little Movie (...)) is to convert a QWD file to some kind of a code (look below) and to convert this semi-code to a QWD file again.
How to use the program? It's pretty simple. To convert your QWD file to a semicode use:
After altering the file, use:
Let's say that I want to change the map name and include information about demo series there. In temp.cod exists the line:
All we have to do is to change it to what we want:
We can also alter the userinfo (see below) or the serverinfo.
And so on... If we would change the mapname in a QWD demo (not semi-code), here is what we would get while playing demo:
But using the LMPC technique:
See our demo after LMPC. (53,608 bytes)
Of course, if you want to change the serverinfo's watervis value, you can use the textpad, without LMPC. This is because such change won't alter the QWD size, hence - won't cause an error. You might have probably noticed that since QWDEditor changes, our demo crashes in the end of it (host_error). Now we can rid of this, adding the ability of free camera moving and reducing the demo size extra. We have to convert our QWD to MVD using HighLander's ?id=320" class="bb-url">QWDTools. QWDTools is another command prompt utility.
The disadventage of MVD is that the spectator must see use FPP view while fading the screen for fade to work properly.
Get our finally retouched demo. (20,993 bytes; 42% of original QWD size)
We could have also reduce the demo size using Qizmo's compression (QWD to QWZ).
Okay, that's it!
Any comments/suggestions? 
Share your demo editing experience here!
We will start with a normal trick demo - e3m1box.qwd (50,525 bytes). In short, it is a recorded trick of getting to square-ssg from square by shooting an explosion box. 8)
The first tool we will try is QWDEditor II. It is a very cool program, but it's website is offline for a long time by now, so I decided to mirror the program and its effects tutorial. After copying the demo to QWDEditor directory, I ran the program and opened the file I wanted to edit (CTRL+O).
 |  | |
 | ||
 |  |
When another window pop-up, I did CTRL+O again to select the output filename. Here is how the program looks like:
| | |
 | ||
| |
As you can see, I tried to add the speed adjust effect (right click on the timeline and select Insert effect). Despite of the starting "speed up", I decided to slow down the movie. Then I wanted to add some cool fade in and fade out (150 frames each).
| | |
 | ||
| |
Finally, I added a centerprint in the 155 frame. After CTRL+S the special *.fx file was saved, which stores the information about applied effects. I also hit CTRL+W for the retouched demo to be saved. I copied it way back to /qw/demos/ and played it in FuhQuakeGL.
| | |
 | ||
| |
Here is the demo after QWDEditor II tweaks. (53,579 bytes)
Now we will want some changes in the demo's header where important information is being stored. We will use The Little Movie Processing Centre by Uwe Girlich (download lmpc330m.zip if you are using Windows - 245,900 bytes). Check out his website with cool things like the unofficial QWD format description. This program doesn't have a window interface - everything is done in command prompt and the output files are tweaked in any good textpad (I use ConTEXT). The idea of LPMC (Little Movie (...)) is to convert a QWD file to some kind of a code (look below) and to convert this semi-code to a QWD file again.
// source: QWD binary file e3m1box_qwde.qwd
sblock {
time 2:08:57.50732422h;
seq1 1;
seq2 1;
serverdata { serverversion 28;
(...)
sblock {
time 2:08:57.50732422h;
seq1 1;
seq2 1;
serverdata { serverversion 28;
(...)
How to use the program? It's pretty simple. To convert your QWD file to a semicode use:
c:\lmpc\bin>lmpc32.exe -s e3m1box_qwde.qwd temp.cod
e3m1box_qwde.qwd (QWD bin) -> temp.cod (QWD txt)
e3m1box_qwde.qwd (QWD bin) -> temp.cod (QWD txt)
After altering the file, use:
c:\Gry\Quake\_progs\lmpc\bin>lmpc32.exe -l temp.cod e3m1box_lmpc.qwd
temp.cod (QWD txt) -> e3m1box_lmpc (QWD bin)
temp.cod (QWD txt) -> e3m1box_lmpc (QWD bin)
Let's say that I want to change the map name and include information about demo series there. In temp.cod exists the line:
mapname "Termination Central";
All we have to do is to change it to what we want:
mapname "e3m1 - Termination Central\nshAmAn's trick series";
We can also alter the userinfo (see below) or the serverinfo.
string "\\name\\shÁmÁn\\*FuhQuake\\0.28\\*VIP\\6";
And so on... If we would change the mapname in a QWD demo (not semi-code), here is what we would get while playing demo:
| | |
 | ||
| |
But using the LMPC technique:
| | |
 | ||
| |
See our demo after LMPC. (53,608 bytes)
Of course, if you want to change the serverinfo's watervis value, you can use the textpad, without LMPC. This is because such change won't alter the QWD size, hence - won't cause an error. You might have probably noticed that since QWDEditor changes, our demo crashes in the end of it (host_error). Now we can rid of this, adding the ability of free camera moving and reducing the demo size extra. We have to convert our QWD to MVD using HighLander's ?id=320" class="bb-url">QWDTools. QWDTools is another command prompt utility.
c:\qwdtools>qwdtools e3m1box_lmpc.qwd
-filter_chats
-fps 24
-msglevel 4
source: e3m1box_lmpc.qwd
converting to: out/e3m1box_lmpc.mvd
average demo fps:0.0 (originally 0.0)
Done...
-filter_chats
-fps 24
-msglevel 4
source: e3m1box_lmpc.qwd
converting to: out/e3m1box_lmpc.mvd
average demo fps:0.0 (originally 0.0)
Done...
The disadventage of MVD is that the spectator must see use FPP view while fading the screen for fade to work properly.
| | |
 | ||
| |
Get our finally retouched demo. (20,993 bytes; 42% of original QWD size)
We could have also reduce the demo size using Qizmo's compression (QWD to QWZ).
Okay, that's it!
Any comments/suggestions? Share your demo editing experience here!
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