This guide will go over the basics of recording and editing a Replay using the Team Fortress 2 Replay Editor. It will also explain how to publish your movie to YouTube and the Steam Community.

You will need Quicktime or Quicktime Alternative installed so you can follow along with this guide. It's required to render your replays so you can share them with other people.

• The Replay Update & FAQ
  
  
• Quicktime[www.apple.com] or
  
• Quicktime Alternative[www.free-codecs.com]

To record a replay that we can use in the editor, you'll need to find a server which supports downloadable replays. From the main menu of TF2 click on the button labelled Servers.



This will bring up the server browser. At the bottom of the browser you'll see a list of filters you can apply to your search. Make sure that "supports replays" has a check mark in the box, everything else you can set to your own personal preference.

Once you have "supports replays" checked click on Refresh All.



You should now have a list of servers which support downloadable replays. You can also tell if a server supports replays without applying a filter by looking for the film icon on the server browser.



If you are using the Simplified server list it will look like this.



Connect to the server you want to play on by double clicking it on the server browser.

Recording a replay will save footage from the point you spawn until you are killed. While you're waiting to respawn the game will also provide a prompt which let you know you can create a replay of your previous life.




By default the button to Save a Replay is F6. When you click on F6 you'll receive a popup which will ask you to give the replay a name so you can identify it later in the editor. When you're done naming your replay click Save.



If you're still alive when you save the replay you'll get a message letting you know that it will download when you die.



The time it takes to save depends on the length of the replay. Once it's done downloading you'll receive a message letting you know the save was successful.

Once you have the replay you want to use downloaded, you can begin to edit it using the Replay Editor. From the Team Fortress 2 main menu click on the button which says Replays.



Once you're on the Replays page you'll see a list of replays which you've saved from the game. They will be placed within a black box labelled Temporary Replays. If the next game update causes a discrepancy between the replay contents and the new game version your replay will be automatically deleted. This can be avoided by rendering your replay, but before we do that we want to edit it.



Find the clip that you want to use and click on the thumbnail. On the page that appears you'll have a list of information about what happened in the replay. In my example you can see that I killed three people in this replay, two were snipers and one was a Demoman. You can also see the length of the clip and what map it was filmed on.



If you're sure that this is the clip you want to edit, click on the Watch / Edit button located on the bottom bar of this page. From this same screen you can also render your unedited replay, delete it and return to the previous page.



When you click on Watch / Edit your game will begin to load the replay editor. When it's done loading the replay will begin to play.



Before the replay finishes running its course, click the Space Bar on your keyboard, which is the default key to bring up the editor. If you don't interrupt the replay before it finishes it will return you back to replay info screen.

When you click the Space Bar you'll get a screen which looks like this.



Within the editor there are four different sections of controls.

At the bottom left of the editor you'll see a set of class icons arranged by Red and Blu. Clicking on each icon will allow you to change perspective to anybody in the map. If the icon is grayed out it means they were dead at the current time in the replay.



In the middle of the screen you have playback controls.



There are seven different buttons you can click on in this section.

In Point: Clicking this button will tell the editor that this is where you want your clip to begin. This allows you to trim the start of the take so it gets straight to the action.

Out Point: Clicking this button will tell the editor that this is where you want your clip end. This allows you to trim the end of the take so you don't have excess footage.

Fast Forward: This will fast forward to the end of the replay or the Out Point if you've already set one up.

Adjustable Fast Forward: If you hold down the left mouse button on this icon it will fast forward the clip. If you hold the button down and click ALT on your keyboard it will fast forward quickly. If you hold down the button and click Shift it will fast forward slowly.

Rewind: This will rewind to the beginning of the replay or the In Point if you've already set one up.

Rewind 10 Seconds: This button will rewind the clip 10 seconds from your current point. If you have an In Point set it will not rewind past that point.

Play: This button will begin to play the replay. You can also toggle the Play by hitting the Space Bar on your keyboard. If you'd like to pause the clip you can hit the Space Bar again.


At the bottom right of the editor there are four different icons. These buttons control camera effects and positions.



Timescale: This will speed or slow down time in your clip. When you click on this button you'll receive a popup with an adjustable bar. Moving the bar more to the left will slow it down, and moving it more to the right will speed it up. Clicking on Reset will set time back to normal.



First Person Camera: This will show the first person perspective of the selected player. This is the same perspective you'll have if you were playing. This is the default mode the editor selects.



Third Person Camera: This will follow the player in an out-of-body perspective. This is similar to what the in-game kill cam looks like, but you'll be able to manipulate the angles.



Free Camera: With the Free Camera selected you can place the camera anywhere in the map. This will allow you to give your replay a cinematic look.



With the Free Camera selected you can hover over the icon to pull up a list of camera settings. Here you can lessen and increase the amount of the desired effect. You can also choose Reset to set the value back to default.

• Acceleration: This adjusts the velocity of the camera movements. If you want softer movement lower the acceleration.
  
  
• Speed: This setting adjusts how fast the camera moves.
  
  
• Fov: This will adjust the camera's Field of View and determine how much of the clip is viewable. It's very similar to a camera zoom. You can also adjust the FoV with your mouse scroller if you have one.
  
  
• Rotation Filter: This setting will change how your camera movements will look. Increasing the filter will make the movements smoother, and decreasing the filter will make them more stiff.
  
  
• Shake Amount: This setting will add a shake to the camera. Setting this to Earthquake will make the camera violently shake.
  
  
• Shake Speed: If you don't have any shake added this setting will not do anything. The Shake Speed adjusts how fast the camera shakes.
  
  
• Shake Direction: If you don't have any shake added this setting will not do anything. Moving this bar all the way to the right will make the camera shake up and down, and all the way to the left will make it shake from side to side. If you set it in the middle the camera will do a mix of both.

While you're in the Free or Third Person camera you can adjust the position and angle with your mouse. In the Free camera you can move the camera as if you were playing using your movement keys. By default Z will move the camera up, and X will move it down. It's almost identical to the spectator camera.

If you're adjusting the camera position and your mouse icon goes away, you can get it back by clicking on your left mouse button once. Click again to go back to adjusting the camera angles.

You are now ready to begin editing your own replay. In this section I'll show you how I quickly edited one of my own. This video should give you an understanding of how a few of the editor controls work when put into practice.

Play around and see what you can come up with. Editing a good replay can take some time, the replay I edited in this video is rushed for demonstration purposes.


Don't forget to consistently save your work by clicking on the menu button at the top left of the replay editor and choosing Save.

When you're happy with your edited replay the next thing to do is render it so we can share it with other people. Just remember, If you later decide that you want to make a change to your edited replay once it's rendered you'll need to render it again.

Save your work and then click Escape on your keyboard if you're still in the replay editor. This will return you to the replay info screen. You should see that we have a new take at the bottom, this will be named whatever you called it in the replay editor.



Select your take by clicking on it once so it has a red outline around it. When it's selected choose Save To Movie... located at the bottom of this screen.



This will bring up popup labelled Render Replay. On this screen you'll be able to adjust the resolution your movie is rendered at, and the quality of the movie. Keep in mind the higher the resolution and quality level, the larger the file will be and the longer it will take to render.

If your replay includes voice chat from other players you're also able to remove it by unchecking the Include voice chat box.

If you'd like the game to quit automatically when the rendering process is finished check the box which says Quit when done.



Checking Show Advanced Options will bring up some additional settings. You'll be able to reduce the amount of Motion Blur and the Render Quality, and you'll also be able to change the video codec from H.264 to MJPEG-A.

The advanced options are for experienced users only. If you're unsure what any of these settings are, it's best to leave them as their default values.



When you're happy with your rendering settings click on the button which says Go.



Your replay will then begin rendering. During the rendering process you can check the box which says Enable preview to see which frame it's rendering in real time, however this will slow down the rendering process overall. You can also see how much time has elapsed and how much estimated time is left until it's complete.



All rendered moves in Team Fortress 2 are saved as a .mov and they're saved into your Team Fortress 2 folder. For most people this directory will be the following:


You can then take these video outputs and edit them further using a third party program, or just keep on to them to watch later.

If you return to the Replay page by clicking on Replay from the main menu of TF2, you'll see a new section has been added at the bottom labelled Saved Movies.



If you click on one of your saved movies you'll see an option which says Export It. This button will copy the movie from your Team Fortress 2 directory and place it in the designated folder. This saves you the time of looking through your Steam directory for the video output.

The Advanced Options menu of Team Fortress 2 holds a few settings which apply to the Replay Editor. To access the Advanced Options go to the main menu of Team Fortress 2 and click on the button labeled Adv. Options.



Scroll down the list until you reach the Replay Options category. From here you'll be able to adjust a few different settings.

• HTTP Proxy
  
  If you're behind a HTTP proxy, you'll need to specify it here. If you don't you will be unable to upload your replays to YouTube.

• Post-Death replay record time
  
  This is the amount of time in seconds to continue recording your replay after you've died. This footage can be used in your edits.

• Take event-based screenshots during replays
  
  If set, screenshots will automatically be taken, during replays, whenever something interesting happens (you kill an enemy, deploy an ÜberCharge, etc). On some graphics cards this can cause rendering hitches.

• Max screenshots per replay
  
  If event-based screenshots are enabled, this is the maximum number of screenshots that'll be taken for a single replay.

• Min time between screenshots
  
  If event-based screenshots are enabled, this is the minimum amount of time after one is taken before another one is taken (in seconds).

• Replays are viewed from the eyes of a Pyro
  
  If set, replays are viewed with Pyrovision enabled.

More information about the Advanced Options can be found by reading my guide below.

http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=146808155

When you're done rendering your movie you can upload it to YouTube straight from the game. The benefit to doing it this way is that you can earn achievements and hats based on how many views your replay has on YouTube.

From the main menu of TF2 click on the Replay button. Find your clip under the Saved Movies category and select it. On the page that comes up click on the button labelled YouTube It.



When you click the button a popup will appear which will ask you for your YouTube username and password. This information is often the same as your Google Account. If you are using the Google Application Specific Password security feature, you'll need to generate a new pass code with the application name of "tf2".

If you don't have a YouTube account you can create one by clicking Register.



Once you're logged in you'll be able to set the video title and description. You'll also be able to choose if the video is unlisted on YouTube so only people with the URL can see it. When you're done populating all of the fields click on the Upload button.



The screen will then display a progress bar which will let you know how much of the video has been uploaded.



Once the upload is complete you'll receive a confirmation popup.



The buttons on the page will have now changed. You can now click on View on YouTube which will pull up the video page, or you can click on Copy URL to copy the YouTube video link to your clipboard. Additionally the page will also now display how many views, favorites and likes it has.

Once your video is uploaded to YouTube you can then publish it to the Steam Community. This should happen automatically, but in the case it doesn't you can follow the steps listed in the guide below.

http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=181142704

If you have any questions or comments regarding this guide please feel free to leave a comment below.



You can also check out all of my other Steam Guides here.


http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=184572356
http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=183482400