Feature: Playable server-side demos

[Eiii]

Demos taken on the server-side would allow players to see the whole map and everything that was going on in it as opposed to just their area. This may require a new way of playing demos as well (e.g being able to fly around them in the third person).

EDIT: Updated title.

[jitspoe]

I assume you mean a method to play back server side demos, because those are already supported.

http://dplogin.com/dplogin/featurevote/feature.php?id=10006

[Eiii]

Yep. Silly little slightly-useful leftover Q2 features. (Assuming that's what it is)

[DaRkNeSS]

Will we be able to download the server side demos or just the server admins?  What exactly is a server side demo anyways?

[b00nlander]

playback of server side demos is currently not supported, as far as I can remember.  Server side demos record demos from all perspectives?   But if enabled, SOMETHING is recorded

[Eiii]

It'd be up to the server admins to provide them, unless some kind of automatic downloading post-game was done.

Here's a comparison:
Client side demos are recorded on the client's machine, so they only record the data received from the server, i.e what the client 'sees'.
Server side demos are recorded from the server's perspective- since the server knows the position of all the clients, they can all be recorded without increasing bandwidth usage at all. If one were to download and play this demo, they'd be able to see all of the action as well.

[FlaMe]

I think it would have to be up to the entirety of the match server's players

This would be the equivalent of "watching film" on a clan if you took one after a match...

idk, seems like a bad idea unless checking for hacks.

[Eiii]

It'd be up to the server owner, whether they wanted to potentially help newer players and clans or protect other clans' super-secret strategies.

[Cobo]

It'd be up to the server owner, whether they wanted to potentially help newer players and clans or protect other clans' super-secret strategies.

But what if they match in the oponent's server?

[DaRkNeSS]

So you can pretty much watch anyone like you were actually in the server and everyone had specinvited you? Or is it like an aerial view?  The only useful thing from this could possibly be catching hackers.  I don't think it would be cool to be able to watch any team's demos and see how they play their specific maps.

[Eiii]

It's exactly like playing a demo except you're not constrained to one person's view/data. I understand your concern with teams' super-secret-strategies getting out, I just don't share them.

But what if they match in the oponent's server?

Good point.

[DaRkNeSS]

It's probably hard for one like you who is not currently involved in the matching scene to understand a thing like teamwork and team strategies and the want to keep those secret within one's team.