<b>Demo recording</b>
In basically every first-person shooter, "demos" are often neglected. What are demos exactly you ask? Well, demos are basically recordings of a game. Why in the world would you want to record or view demos? Because demos are really small in size, but can be used to show off something, such as a preview of a map, how to get to a secret area, etc. Recording demos in UT allows you to also view the battle from other people's perspectives, so you can learn new moves from other players (online) and enhance you own game.
However, one of the main drawbacks is that few people actually know how to play or record demos. In almost every single first person shooter that I played (and I have played a lot), I have not used demos ever because I thought it was too complicated. With this utility released by UsAaR33, however, the process of playing and recording demos has been made much easier for UT players.
<b>You're on candid camera</b>
Using the menu, you can easily record, play, stop, and delete demos. That's the main part of the utility that most people will use. However, in this version, there are added niceties that enhance UT Demo Manager.
<b>The Additions</b>
The interface has been enhanced greatly. A picture of the map that you recorded the demo on is now shown, so you can identify easier which demo is which. There are several tabs that allow you to access each new addition.
Starting off, there is a new feature called the Demo Analyzer. What this does is it analyzes the demo before you play it, telling you every file that you will need in order to view the demo. If you don't have a file, you shouldn't play the demo. This helps a lot since it stops demos from crashing UT just because you were missing one or two files.
A Summary Generator allows you to write all the information of a demo into a text file. While this isn't very useful to the average player, it's extremely handy for people who are looking to distribute demos. Just like the readme generator for a umod file, this readme generator helps save time.
The utility now supports Multiple Paths and Auto-Recording. Multiple Paths allows you to read/write demos in other directories, and auto-recording allows you to automatically record a demo of every game you play. The latter is a great feature because if you do something extraordinary, you'll have it in demo form to show off to your friends.
<b>Demo me this, demo me that</b>
Demos are one of the most useful tools that an average player can use. UT Demo Manager just helps you access this feature more easily. In this version, UsAaR added to the utility through the interface, and the next version will be all about performance and enhancements. The only real flaw, one that is not UT Demo Manager's fault, is that when recording demos, if you are playing with weapons from other mods/mutators, the weapons do not show up. Still, that isn't too big of a problem. Hopefully this utility will make people more aware of demos so that they will become more mainstream and used to show off maps and techniques of other players.
-Peter Yu
