BattleDirector User's Guide

v1.7 - March 18, 2008

The Moviemaking Process

This is an outline of the basic process used to render a movie using BattleDirector.

  1. Obtain BFR files for the movie, place in [BF2142/BF2 Location]\mods\[modname]\demos\
  2. Use Play Freecam to view the BFR and plan your camera movements
  3. Use Record Cam Track to record a track for the camera to follow when rendering
  4. Use Play Cam Track to ensure that your recorded cam track is satisfactory
  5. Use Render Video to create the video file (will take a really long time)
  6. Use Render Audio to create the accompanying sounds for the video
  7. At this point, use your favourite video editing application to combine the video and audio tracks and generate your final video.

The Main Screen

All demo files from the currently selected mod are shown in the list on the left. You can change the mod by using the dropdown menu above. The green Refresh button reloads the list of BFR files.

The camera tracks recorded for each demo file are shown below the demo file with arrows. You can select any individual track to get the available actions for that track.

Camera

Rendering

Quirks

Because BattleDirector modifies your Battlefield files while it is running, you should NEVER close BattleDirector without first completely exiting Battlefield.

As the Battlefield engine has no way of generating an audio file, BattleDirector uses a custom sound input stream to create the MP3. Before beginning audio rendering, it will ask you to change your audio input to Stereo Mix. While recording, you cannot alt-tab out of Battlefield nor use any other applications as this will interfere with the recording process.

Configuration

You need to ensure that your Game EXE Location is set properly for BFR files to show up. In BF2, it should point to BF2.exe. In BF2142, it should be set to point to your BF2142.exe (DVD edition) or BF2142Pace.exe (EA Downloader/Link edition) file in the Battlefield 2142 directory. Your BFR files should then be copied to [BF2142/BF2 Location]\mods\[modname]\demos\.

Resolution will set the screen resolution for playback and rendering. Common values are 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x1024. The Windowed checkbox will run Battlefield in a window, allowing you to easily switch to other programs while it is running.

FPS (Frames Per Second) allows you to change the speed of playback and rendering. Most movies use 25 or 30FPS.

FOV (Field of View) changes the aperture of the camera, allowing you to take widescreen movies. Rendering at a 4:1 aspect ratio such as 1620x405, the ideal FOV would be 160.

Remove Nametags will prevent nametags from being shown above soldiers during playback and cam track recording. Nametags are automatically disabled when playing back a camera track and rendering.

Soldier Profile allows you to choose which soldier you wish to use for playback/rendering. This is useful if you have a separate soldier with high-quality video settings for rendering.

Repair GameLogicInit.con should only be used if you experienced a crash while BattleDirector and 2142 were running, and you are no longer able to join Punkbuster-enabled servers. If this repair process fails, there are recent GameLogicInit.con backup files in the BattleDirector installation folder. Copy the backup to [BF2142/BF2 Location]\mods\[bf2/bf2142]\ to replace the broken file.

In-Game Controls

To control the playback of the demo file when the HUD is hidden, you will need to know the following key commands:

Exiting a Render

To gracefully exit after rendering video, open the console by pressing ` and type demo.shutdowndemo and press Enter. This will kick you back to the login screen and you can then exit Battlefield.

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