Some quick guidelines, because I've started repeating myself trying to keep people in line.
1. If you're posting a fan comic, or any image, please keep the swearing to a bare minimum. I will allow a few swear words, but the forum rules forbid bad language and I shouldn't let people get around this by posting it in comics instead.
2. Please don't resurrect old topics. Before you post, check the date of the last post. If its a few months old, chances are the topic has stopped being updated (comics) or the creator isn't checking for criticism any more (movies). Don't post if links are broken, either. Let it die.
3. This is more of a recommendation than a rule. Don't make movies using basic footage of you killing people, because unless the kills are especially spectacular (M79 shots across the map) or skilled (punching people to death in the middle of a ctf match), people will find it boring. Instead of downloading the movie they could just enter a soldat server and recreate the movie. Be creative with your ideas and come up with an original movie.
4. I'm no comic artist, but I've noticed certain traits in 'good' comics recently. In some strips, the dialog is harder to read than others, especially when some 'speech' is automatically read before others and you end up reading it in the wrong order. Here are some tips for making a comic that should make it much more readable.
- In a new frame, have the speech for the first speaking character as near to the top left corner as possible. People read a book from left to right and top to bottom, so you naturally look for text in the top left.
- Have the next section of speech lower and to the right of the first.
- The next speech should be left again, just underneath the first one.
- If 2 or more speeches are spoken by the same character, join up the conversation with lines.
Here is an example I quickly drew to demonstrate:
Yeah, those some leet comic skillz
Before I start off my post, I'd like to direct you to two valuable locations that you can use for further reference:
Anyway, I made a bit of a tutorial on demos as well. Here it is. ;D
Step One: Demo ConfigurationsThere are two ways of taking demos, ever since Soldat version 1.2.1. The first way is the old fashioned way; press F8 to start a demo and press F8 again to stop and save it. The second way is a new feature to Soldat and offers numerous configurations. We call this the Auto-Recording feature. Auto-Record does just what its name says, it constantly records, but only saves the last [number of seconds here] seconds of your action once you press F8. So let's say that you have Auto-Record on, and you just had a beautiful shot or a hillarious moment. Well, all you'd have to do is press F8, and now you have it recorded! Here's how to configure your auto-record settings.
First off, turn auto-record on:
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Secondly, configure the amount of time your demo saves:
Step Two: Record DemosAs I said before, there are two different ways to record demos. While on normal recording mode, you must press F8 to start recording, and F8 again to stop recording and save your demo. This is what your screen should look like:
On another note, while on auto-recording mode, Soldat will start recording on its own as soon as you enter a game. This is what the screen should look like then:
Step Three: Viewing DemosThere are also two ways to view demos. One way is to open Soldat and click on the Join Game tab. From there, type the name of your demo in the IP box, type 0 in the port box, leave the Password box blank. Click on Request Game, and Soldat will play your demo for you. Example:
IP: autodemo32
Port: 0
Password:Another way to view your demos is:
We've had quite a few people asking how to play the demos they have recorded. For that there is the excellent Diamond Demo Player created by Pr0ger.
Extract the file in to the Soldat Directory and run it from there. Most people then create a shortcut to it on their desktop.
That's about it. Fin.
