Spectator TV aka auto-cycle players

[Urcscumug]

I enjoy spectating matches and I often sit back and watch as if it was a TV program. But I still have to cycle players manually. I was thinking it would be really cool if you could activate a feature that would auto-change player periodically.

What it would probably need:
* it would be a client-side mod
* would most likely need a numeric variable that holds the interval (in seconds) when the switch occurs; if it's zero it doesn't happen; if it's a non-zero value then the switch happens after that many seconds
* it would also be very cool if it would avoid players who are not currently spawned ie. those who are waiting in the spawn queue; so it only shows action play
* it could cycle players sequentially like it does when you switch manually, or it could pick at random each time it changes

The above is the minimal level that would improve the spectating a lot IMHO.

The next level would be introducing some brains into the code, to make some smart decisions. Imagine the following:
* preferring top score (kills) players more often; yes I know, killing is not the main objective and tasks such as building or basi scavenging are useful yet do not result in many kills; but this is the simplest method of choosing players to watch automatically
* when two or more players are engaged it would be very cool if the view would alternately switch between them to give us a view of the same encounter from different viewpoints
* prefer players who are closer to the enemies or enemy structures, since they're more likely to offer something interesting to view
* lock to just the aliens or just the human team
Other ideas?

[Hendrich]

So, first off you put some time into this idea, and I like it. Speccing should be just like watching TV, you should be enjoying it and awing at the players instead of floating around and being bored. This sounds similar to a mod for Quake (3?) or HL(?) that makes speccing like viewing TV, showing the players in different angles and making it more exciting then it really is.  This would be great for scrims or practices whereas people who are waiting for the game to end are just being bored then leaves the server.

Now, that being said, this mod is not necessary, but so is TremX or Arcade but we still want those mods to be available to us (Well, some of us). For those who takes this mod seriously and blab out "THIS MOD IS BAD BANHAMMER 4 1.2 GAY IDEA KTHXBAI" I see it as more of a novelty and pleasure to have, like a Hud, something that you can enjoy having for convince and I don't see Urc suggestion to implement this into v1.2 or any other client/mod/etc. Keep in mind to give the player options of viewing the game like CS, in case I either want to see some crazy angles flying about or I  want to view the player for reasons like aim-bot checking, skill observing, etc.

As for how difficult it is to code, it sounds tricky but I don't see how it could be that difficult (That being said without any coding expericne), but for the more complex ideas you put up if the coder wants the mod to be smarter, it sounds difficult.

Well, I like it, I don't see how this mod is bad, so I give it a thumbs up. The only problem is if this mod is going to be coded and how well the camera could handle tight spots or crazy interactions between the two teams in battle.

[Bissig]

Auto-cycle players leads to missing the interesting scenes. If any, there should be a (TV-)moderator/director that points out interesting scenes by activating certain players. Which brings us back to the thread where someone posted a commented video.

Of course, if some leet dev wants to chip in:

Let the auto-director follow players that are close to encounter a player from the opposite team or base.

[Amanieu]

(Only works in TremFusion)

Code: [Select]

/alias dotv "follownext; delay 5000"
/dotv
This will switch players every 5 seconds.

[Archangel]

there's also the way spectating used to work, would switch to the next person when the person you're spectating died. I had that in my Instagib mod

[Urcscumug]

Thanks, that was good feedback. I had forgotten about the Q3 thing where it show scenes from various angles, good idea. And it looks like I'm gonna have to try one of the alternative clients at some point, with stuff like this being already implemented. It's not the first mod idea I had and someone said "it's already done, just not in the default client."

Now, where was that commented video? Couldn't find it around the forum. I take a great interest in things that help Trem become a spectator sport, like I already said here.

[ACKMAN]

Good idea, I think imma try to do it as a server-side mod

Thank you

[Archangel]

no need, just get a copy of svn 966 (iirc without a patch applied, just compiled fresh, you will have the automatic spec switching)