Replay

For a help guide on using the Replay tool, see Help:Replay Editor.

“

There was you, very full of yourself. Then, very briefly surprised. Then, dead. Click to listen — The Sniper showing a Replay to his latest victim

”

The Replays section of the menu.

The Replay tool is a feature introduced in the Replay Update. The Replay tool enables players to record video footage of gameplay in Team Fortress 2 and edit it directly from the game client. The feature was initially added to Team Fortress 2 Beta on March 9, 2011, but was added to the full game on May 5 as the main focus of the Replay Update.

On servers that enable the feature, video replays of a player's life are recorded and saved directly onto the server. After a player dies, they can choose to download these recordings for editing within the game. The editing features enable scenes to be cut from different angles and include a variety of options including field of view and motion blur. After editing, the Replay tool allows for cut videos to be uploaded directly to YouTube.

With the introduction of the Replay tool and the Replay Update, the First Annual Saxxy Awards were announced as a contest to encourage players to create and upload videos recorded with the tool, as well as eight Replay achievements which have been added to the game.

Recording

HUD notification that appears upon replay download completion.

HUD notification that appears when recording is available.

To record replays, the player must connect to a server that has enabled the feature. A server that supports video replays can be identified by the filmstrip icon () next to the server's name in the browser list. Note that replays cannot be recorded on listen servers, i.e. local servers created through the 'Create Server' option in the main menu.

After the player has died, the recording can be downloaded by pressing F6 (default) or using the console command save_replay. A dialog window appears to confirm the name of the video (by default, it contains the map name, the date and time of the recording) and once confirmed, the recording begins to download directly from the server. After the download has completed, a notification pops up to inform the player and from there, the player can access the recording from the 'Replays' screen accessed from the main menu.

Replay menu

The Replay menu can be accessed from the button in the main menu. The screen shows all saved replays and movies. Each replay is accompanied by statistics related to that particular life, such as the class played, the player's score and kill count, and the map featured in the video. Replays can also be filtered via the search function in the menu.

Individual replays can be viewed and edited by clicking on the 'Watch / Edit' button. This loads the replay file and enables the Replay tool's editing functions for use. From the menu, the player can also save a selected replay to a movie file (for encoding options in greater detail, see Help:Replay Editor).

Replays can be deleted at any time by the player. Replays, before being encoded into movie files, exist in the Source Engine demo format (with the file extension .dem) under the directory /Steam/steamapps/common/Team Fortress 2/tf/replay/client/replays. The main limitation of replays in this format is that they are likely to become unreadable in the event of a game update. As such, before exiting the game the player is warned by a dialog message to save existing replays as movie files instead. However, once saved as a movie file, the clip cannot be edited unless using external software.

Editing

Replay Editor interface

For further editing help, see the guide at Help:Replay Editor.

The Replay tool's editing functions can be accessed by opening the replay and pressing Space (default). The editing HUD contains play, pause, rewind, and fast-forward functions and the first-person, third-person, and free camera viewing angle options. Class icons in the bottom-left corner also allow for quick identification of the whereabouts of particular players at the selected time in the video.

Editing with the Replay tool is done in takes. Each 'take' is a selection of video defined by in and out points. The player can set the in and out points (or 'start' and 'end' points) with the buttons on either side of the Play button. The three viewing angle options (first-person, third-person and free camera) can be manipulated at any time to alter the position of the camera by selecting their respective icons in bottom-right corner.

The sequence of the video between the two points including the angles can be saved as a take by clicking the icon in the top-left corner and selecting 'Save'.

Saving

Whole replays or previously-edited takes can be rendered from replay files (.dem) into movie files. In the Replay menu, the player can select the 'Save to Movie' button to bring up the Save options dialog. The filename, resolution and video quality settings can be selected in the dialog, and filesize and time to render estimates are also provided based on the current settings. Checking the 'Show Advanced Options' box displays further options including video codec, render quality, motion blur quality, and an 'Enable Glow Effect' checkbox.

The save feature supports rendering of replay files with two codecs (H.264 and MJPEG) with 5 preset resolutions (480p, 720p, 1080p, Web, and iPhone). Alternatively, the replay file can also be saved to raw files in the form of a .tga sequence and an accompanying .wav file. This method renders each frame in the video to an individual .tga file at maximum quality and renders the audio for the scene to a .wav file. The sequence and the audio file can then be encoded together using a video processing program such as VirtualDub (see Help:Replay Editor for further detail).

Rendered movie files are saved to the /Steam/steamapps/common/Team Fortress 2/tf/replay/client/rendered directory. After rendering, the video can also be uploaded directly from inside the game.

Note that rendering and exporting replays requires QuickTime installed.

Uploading

The login prompt for YouTube

Replay movie files can be uploaded directly to YouTube from inside the game. Inside the Replay menu, selecting a rendered movie files appearing in the 'Saved Movies' list and pressing the 'YouTube It' button opens a YouTube login window and prompts the player to login. The player can then edit the video's title and description while it uploads.

Upon a player reaching 1,000 YouTube views, they are awarded the Frontline Field Recorder.

Uploading Replays to YouTube is currently not functional, making the Frontline Field Recorder impossible to obtain.

Server command variables

See also: Servers

replay_add_fake_replays Adds a set of fake replays. replay_block_dump_interval default: 10 The server will write partial replay files at this interval when recording. replay_buffersize default: 32 Maximum size for the replay memory buffer. replay_cache_client_ragdolls default: 0 Record ragdolls on the client during. replay_clearqueuedtakes Clears takes in the current queue. replay_data_lifespan default: 1 The number of days before cleaning up replay demos. Modifying this number will not affect the lifespan of existing replays. replay_deathcammaxverticaloffset default: 150 Vertical offset for player Deathcam. replay_debug default: 0 Show replay debug info. replay_deleteclientreplays Deletes all replays from client replay history, as well as all files associated with each replay. replay_docleanup Deletes stale session data from the fileserver. "replay_docleanup force" will remove all replay session data. replay_dofileserver_cleanup_on_start default: 1 Cleanup any stale replay data (both locally and on fileserver) at startup. replay_dopublishtest Do a replay publish test using the current setup. replay_editor_camera_length default: 15 Sets the length of the camera, which affects the editor's camera shake. Larger numbers result in greater camera shake. replay_editor_fov_mousewheel_invert default: 0 Invert FOV zoom/unzoom on mousewheel in the Replay Editor. replay_editor_fov_mousewheel_multiplier default: 5 The multiplier on mousewheel input for adjusting camera "FOV" in the Replay Editor. replay_enable default: 0 Enable Replay recording on server. replay_enableeventbasedscreenshots default: 0 If disabled, only take a screenshot when a replay is saved. If enabled, take up to replay_maxscreenshotsperreplay screenshots. replay_enablerenderpreview default: 1 Enable preview during Replay render. replay_fileserver_autocleanup default: 0 If enabled, replay_fileserver_docleanup will run automatically between rounds. replay_fileserver_host default: 0 The hostname of the Web server hosting replays. This can be an IP or a hostname, e.g. "1.2.3.4" or "www.myserver.com". replay_fileserver_offload_aborttime default: 60 In minutes, the number determines the time after which publishing will be aborted for a session block or session info file. replay_fileserver_path default: 0 If your Replays are stored at http://123.123.123.123:4567/tf/replays, replay_fileserver_path should be set to /tf/replays. replay_fileserver_port default: 80 The port for the Web server hosting replays. replay_fileserver_protocol default: 0 Can be "http" or "https". replay_flushinterval default: 15 Replay system will flush to disk a maximum of every replay_flushinterval seconds. replay_forcereconstruct default: 0 Force the reconstruction of Replays each time. replay_hidebrowser Hides Replay browser. replay_ignorereplayticks default: 0 Ignores ticks in Replays. replay_local_fileserver_path default: 0 The file server local path. For example, "c:\MyWebServer\htdocs\replays" or "/MyWebServer/htdocs/replays". replay_max_publish_threads default: 4 The max number of threads allowed for publishing replay data, such as FTP threads. replay_maxconcurrentdownloads default: 3 The maximum number of concurrent downloads allowed. replay_maxscreenshotsperreplay default: 8 The maximum number of screenshots that can be taken for any given replay.

replay_mintimebetweenscreenshots default: 5 The minimum time (in seconds) that must pass between screenshots being taken. replay_msgduration_connectrecording default: 8 Duration for the message that pops up when you connect to a server already recording replays. replay_msgduration_error default: 6 Duration of error message in Replay server. replay_msgduration_misc default: 5 Duration for miscellaneous replays messages (server errors and such). replay_msgduration_replaysavailable default: 6 Duration for replays available message. replay_msgduration_startrecord default: 6 Duration for start record message. replay_msgduration_stoprecord default: 6 Duration for stop record message. replay_name default: 0 Replay bot name. replay_playerdeathscreenshotdelay default: 2 Amount of time to wait after player is killed before taking a screenshot. replay_postdeathrecordtime default: 5 The amount of time (seconds) to be recorded after you die for a given replay. replay_postwinreminderduration default: 5 The number of seconds to show a replay reminder, post-win/lose. replay_printclientreplays Prints out all client replay info. replay_printqueuedtakes Prints info for takes currently in the queue. replay_printsessioninfo Print session info. replay_publish_simulate_delay_local_http default: 0 Simulates a delay (in seconds) when publishing replay data via local HTTP. replay_publish_simulate_rename_fail default: 0 If enabled, simulates a rename failure during local HTTP publishing, which will force a manual copy & delete. replay_quitmsg_dontaskagain default: 0 The replay system will ask you to render your replays on quit, unless this cvar is 1. replay_ragdoll_dbg default: 0 Display replay ragdoll debugging information. replay_record Starts Replay demo recording. replay_record_voice default: 1 If enabled, voice data is recorded into the replay files. replay_reloadbrowser Reloads Replay data and displays Replay browser. replay_removeclientreplay Remove the Replay at the given index. replay_renderpause Pause Replay rendering. replay_rendersetting_encodingquality default: 100 Render quality: the higher the quality, the larger the resulting movie file size. replay_rendersetting_exportraw default: 0 Export raw TGA frames as a .wav file instead of encoding it as a .mov file. replay_rendersetting_motionblur_can_toggle default: 0 Allows motion blur to be toggled on or off in the Replay Editor. replay_rendersetting_motionblurenabled default: 1 Motion blur enabled/disabled. replay_rendersetting_motionblurquality default: 0 Motion blur quality. replay_rendersetting_quitwhendone default: 0 Quit after rendering is completed. replay_rendersetting_renderglow default: 0 Glow effect enabled/disabled. replay_renderunpause Unpause Replay rendering. replay_screenshotkilldelay default: 0 Delay before taking a screenshot when you kill someone, in seconds. replay_screenshotresolution default: 0 0 for low-res screenshots (width=512), 1 for hi-res (width=1024). replay_screenshotsentrykilldelay default: 0 Delay before taking a screenshot when you kill someone, in seconds. replay_sentrycammaxverticaloffset default: 10 Vertical offset from a Sentry on Sentry kill. replay_sentrycamoffset_frontback default: -50 Front/back offset for sentry POV screenshot. replay_sentrycamoffset_leftright default: -25 Left/right offset for sentry POV screenshot. replay_sentrycamoffset_updown default: 22 Up/down offset for sentry POV screenshot. replay_sessioninfo_updatefrequency default: 5 If a replay has not been downloaded, the Replay browser will update the status of a given replay on the server based on this "cv". replay_stoprecord Stop Replay demo recording. replay_test_take_save_dlg Open Replay save take dlg. replay_voice_during_playback default: 0 Play player voice chat during replay playback.

Related achievements

Replay achievements

That's a Wrap Save your very first replay. We Can Fix It In Post While watching a replay, press space bar to enter the editor. Time For Your Close-Up, Mr. Hale Render a replay into a movie. Star of My Own Show Spend some time editing a replay. Reward: Director's Vision

Home Movie Achieve 100 YouTube™ views for your movie. Local Cinema Star Achieve 1000 YouTube™ views for your movie. Reward: Frontline Field Recorder Indie Film Sensation Achieve 10,000 YouTube™ views for your movie. Blockbuster Achieve 100,000 YouTube™ views for your movie.

Update history

March 9, 2011 Patch (Beta)

• Added Replay system that allows you to edit and publish movies of your play experiences (full Mac support in the next few days)

March 10, 2011 Patch (Beta)

• Show all resolutions available when setting up a replay to render
• Added the ability to specify an output directory from the command line. Running a server with the optional parameter ‘–replayserverdir <dir name>’ will output all replay data to ‘tf/replay/<dir name>’. For anyone running multiple servers out of the same directory, you’ll want to specify a different output directory for each server. This will avoid collisions and potential issues running replay. Look for confirmation on startup – you should see something like this:
  • Using custom replay dir name: "replay/<dir name>"
• For admins who have their server(s) configured to server replay data out of a local Web server: the ‘replay_local_fileserver_path’ bug is now fixed. Even if replay_local_fileserver_path pointed to a valid directory, the server would lie and say the directory was invalid.

March 11, 2011 Patch (Beta)

• Fixed ‘save all’ crash in replay browser
• Fixed ‘save movies now, then quit’ crash

March 18, 2011 Patch (Beta)

• Movies upload to YouTube now contain a ‘match’ tag, which includes a unique ID for the round during which the replay was saved
• Added check-box on the advanced settings dialog to enable/disable the glow effect while rendering replays (default is disabled)
• Bug and crash fixes

March 21, 2011 Patch (Beta)

• Added "replay_printsessioninfo <full path>" command for server admins to monitor session files, aid in debugging problems

March 23, 2011 Patch (Beta)

• UI now saves the "last directory" used for exporting a movie
• Added a specific error message when trying to upload a movie to YouTube that cannot be found
• Fixed a bug where replay recording would stop after feigning death

March 24, 2011 Patch (Beta)

• Fixed audio and video sync issues
• Fixed a crash when replay filenames exceeded a certain length
• Fixed start-up issues related to library files

April 26, 2011 Patch (Beta)

• Fixed audio sync issues on the Mac

May 5, 2011 Patch (Replay Update)

• Added the Replay feature: http://www.teamfortress.com/replayupdate
  • Known issue with Mac replay rendering being blurry will be fixed in the next update
• Added 8 new Replay achievements and 2 achievement items

May 6, 2011 Patch

• Fixed a bug that caused Mac replay renders to be blurry

May 9, 2011 Patch

• Replay publishing system will try to do a rename for local HTTP mode but will manually copy and delete the file if the rename fails, which can happen if the source and destination are on different volumes.
• Fixed replay data cleanup system, which cleans up stale data at the end of each round. This asynchronous operation can be explicitly invoked by executing a replay_docleanup command on the server.
• Removed unused convar, replay_cleanup_time.

May 10, 2011 Patch

• Fixed a server lockup during data cleanup
• Fixed a viewmodel fov bug during rendering
• Renamed the ConVar replay_demolifespan to replay_data_lifespan

May 12, 2011 Patch

• Added a new command line parameter -replay that will increase maxplayers by 1 at startup and automatically execute replay.cfg for the server
• Fixed another bug that caused Mac replay renders to be blurry
• Fixed a bug where Replay FTP offloading was not using replay_fileserver_offload_port
• Improved detection of Replay server config problems
• Replay is automatically disabled on servers if the Replay publish test fails
• Saved Replay movies that were exported as TGA's/WAV will report more descriptive errors if YouTube(TM) upload or "Export" is attempted

May 18, 2011 Patch

• Fixed server crashes related to replays and new items

May 19, 2011 Patch

• Fixed the third-person camera options dialog not displaying correctly in the Replay performance editor.

May 25, 2011 Patch

• Fixed a few server crashes caused by the replay system.

June 15, 2011 Patch

• Fixed some server replay publishing bugs
• Added a new ConVar replay_fileserver_offload_aborttime

June 17, 2011 Patch

• Fixed a servercrash caused by the replay system.

July 22, 2011 Patch

• Fixed a Linux dedicated server crash caused by the Replay director
  • Crash would happen whether the server was capturing Replays or not

July 26, 2011 Patch

• Client
  • Added basic/rough render queue for internal use to increase replay output for relaunch trailer
  • Block files are now deleted on replay reconstruction (i.e. viewing), to conserve disk space
  • Unneeded block files are now cleaned up automatically on startup
• Server
  • Fixed fileserver cleanup
  • Any time replay_fileserver_offload_hostname is modified, the corresponding IP is resolved and cached, if possible. This fixes a crash, as well as failed publishing due to "unresolved hostname" errors.
  • Added a fileserver IP lookup test to replay publish test
  • Setting replay_enable to 0 now halts recording and does cleanup automatically, the way replay_stoprecord does. This fixes a crash that would occur when replay_enable was set to 0 and a changelevel was executed.
• Replay temp directories automatically cleared on startup on both client and server
• Memory management improvements

July 27, 2011 Patch

• Fixed a couple of replay issues

July 29, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Mac-only replay editor crash.

August 2, 2011 Patch

• Fix a bug where the increased_maxplayers server tag was being set when the 25th internal player slot was added for replay.

August 18, 2011 Patch

• Fixed a replay render bug where .wav files did not get written for raw TGA/WAV export

October 13, 2011 Patch (Manniversary Update & Sale)

• New dramatic editing tools were added to help players make replays more dramatic.

October 17, 2011 Patch

• Fixed a server crash that occurred when running both SourceTV and Replay.

November 7, 2011 Patch

• Fixed a client crash in the replay editor

January 26, 2012 Patch

• Fixed a demo/replay playback crash

January 27, 2012 Patch

• Fixed a bug with the Replay icon in the server browser

February 23, 2012 Patch

• Fixed dedicated server console spew related to the Replay client and viewangles
• Fixed some instances of corrupted text when the save_replay key isn't bound

March 28, 2012 Patch

• Updated YouTube replay publishing functionality to automatically include a link to the uploader's Steam Community profile

July 23, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Replay/SourceTV clients getting kicked when quickplay servers hibernate

September 4, 2012 Patch

• Added replay_name ConVar to set the name of the replay bot

October 17, 2012 Patch

• Fixed a common "FindModel" crash for replays

November 29, 2012 Patch

• Fixed seeing an error model when watching replays with missing models

February 1, 2013 Patch

• Fixed uploading replays to YouTube™ on Linux

May 20, 2013 Patch

• Removed replay.cfg from depot and added replay_example.cfg to avoid clobbering user's replay.cfg

October 29, 2013 Patch

• Fixed the camera target not always being visible when using the replay editor

October 15, 2015 Patch

• Fixed a security issue related to the replay system (thanks to Nathaniel Theis and Zemnmez for this report)

Bugs

• Saving a replay movie with the TGA/WAV option only saves the .tga image sequence. The audio stream does not save as the game appears to have problems creating the .wav file:

WaveFixupTmpFile( '.mytempwave.WAV' ) failed to open file for editing
Unable to rename d:\games\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\.mytempwave.wav to d:\games\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\replay\client\rendered\movie_path\audio.wav!

• • It is possible to work around this bug by manually saving an empty .wav file (signed 16 bit, stereo, 44100kHz) named ".mytempwave.wav" to the user /Steam/steamapps/common/Team Fortress 2/tf location with a WAV file editor. The workaround needs to be performed each time a movie needs to be saved.
• Some viewmodels may appear incorrect or not appear at all in first-person mode. Some particle effects may also not be rendered.
• Replays which take place in maps with more than one light source may appear overlit if the last map played has uniform lighting.
• Upon creating, editing, and watching a Replay and then joining a match, no in-game text chat or voice commands are displayed until the player opens the text chat box.
• The Administrator's responses in a Replay treat RED as the ally and BLU as the enemy, regardless of the Replay owner's team.
• Ragdolls in a Replay may fall or move differently each time the Replay is viewed and/or edited.
• The replay can be uploaded to a YouTube account before the account has an upload channel configured. After the upload finishes, a message indicating a connection problem is displayed.
• Kills made by Sentry Guns belonging to the Replay's owner are not counted on its statistics.
• Occasionally, if the owner of the Replay uses a Dead Ringer during its length, the Replay ends when their feign death activates.
• Sometimes, slowing down or speeding up time and changing the view to first person, then changing the time again, the speed stays the same as if the time was not changed. Changing the view to third person or freecam usually fixes the problem.
• Critical hit sound cues are not played in Replays.
• If a replay starts while a Heavy has his Minigun spun up, he appears to not have it spun up even though it still fires albeit with a glitchy sound.
• When using slow motion, the backstabbing action is out of time and the victim dies and with a delay the knife action is played.
• Recording in Pyrovision and then watching a replay in Pyrovision can reverse bodies and point them in the opposite direction, with their weapon firing the way it did on recording.
• Switching from third person view to first in the Replay edit tool can make the active weapon disappear for a second and then appear.
• Occasionally, decals (Conscientious Objector, Photo Badge, Sprays, etc.) and paints do not appear in replays.
• Since YouTube's API is no longer updated in Team Fortress 2, users can no longer log in to upload a replay to YouTube.
• The replay system does not work on Workshop maps due to how Workshop maps are named.

See also

• Replay Editor

External links

• How do I create a Team Fortress 2 replay? – Steam Support