Recorded Tracks

[too-cool]

I would like to be able to view a track I made in-game using one of window media players, as it stands now I can only view the recorded track in the game.  Thanks  TC

[VSN_Razor]

You could record it with Fraps, Shadowplay or something similar and then replay it on your media player...

[too-cool]

OK, I'm using Fraps but was hoping that there was a way to take the track it self and convert instead of making a recording of a recorded track.  Thanks TC

there is also and issue with the file size and even converting the file to mp4 or another format the size is huge as compared to the track file.  TC

[Stoopy]

1 hour ago, too-cool said:

there is also and issue with the file size and even converting the file to mp4 or another format the size is huge as compared to the track file.  TC

 

That's because the track file is not a recording or video that can be in any way converted, since it's just a bunch of raw data that represents the aircraft position, speed and other event/action data that only means something to the IL2 program.   That's why it's so small, because that's a very efficient way to record a flight.  That's also why you can play it back after changing graphic settings and so forth, or play back a track that someone else recorded in IL2 and sent to you, and move around the outside or pan around the cockpit like you can't do in a video, because IL2 will re-render the graphics in a live setting as it chugs through the raw data, as if you were flying the plane again in a live flight.   To get it to video, you use IL2 as the rendering engine so to speak, and record it with some utility such as @VSN_Razor has mentioned.   And of course video files for most any format are much larger than simple binary data files... but at least they can be recognized and shared outside of the IL2 program such as on YouTube etc...   And the cool thing is you can choose to edit a track and pause, change views, unpause, and save as new track so that you now have a track that automatically switches to the views you set up, so you can replay it and record it to video in one go.

 

 

Edited March 23, 2020 by =[TIA]=Stoopy

[Lusekofte]

In DCS it is the same. But you can watch them and choose to jump in and fly them. So it is actually the game you see not recording as such

[Stoopy]

The track record/replay system is one of the great features brought forward from the original IL2.   Once you get used to it you really appreciate it for things like graphics tuning, etc.   When you replay a track that you recorded in a multiplayer flight, for instance, and realize you missed spotting a plane, then dink around with your graphic settings and replay the track as needed to see how to make that plane easier to spot, just doing that makes it a really useful feature.

 

I wish we could fly alongside a recorded flight as a separate aircraft during playback.  There was a utility for FSX that would record a track and let you play it back as AI traffic, so the plane you flew was then an AI plane and did exactly what you did when you recorded it.  You could record a flight starting on the runway, takeoff and do some aerobatics, land and stop the recording.  Then replay it back as AI, and be in a plane right next to it, and take off with it and do those aerobatics and land in formation.  Plus you could record that, and play it back, and then you'd have two AI airplanes flying an aerobatic routine in formation, and of course you could fly alongside them and be the third plane in formation.  I got some truly incredible screenshots and video content doing that.  That's the potential that tracks have.

 

Edited March 23, 2020 by =[TIA]=Stoopy

[DD_Arthur]

2 hours ago, 216th_LuseKofte said:

In DCS it is the same.

 

Er....not quite.  Whilst the principal is the same, in DCS the results can be....bizarre

 

 I challenge anyone with a carrier borne aircraft to produce a single, continous track of a carrier takeoff, circuit and landing.   

 

Getting run over by the Stennis is the only time I've felt uncomfortable in VR   

[Lusekofte]

I flew a perfect path in the huey among roads in a village killing insurgens and trucks and light armored vehicles. It was so perfect flying ending with a smoooth landing to collect ground forces. 
I was determined to record this so I put it on watch track and fired up shadowplay. 
And what do I see? A huey making weird manouvers over the desert sand and finally crash into a palm tree. The only one in miles I might add. 
I do not say it work, but it is the same

[WWDubya]

Also, you can reduce the size of the avi produced from fraps, by converting it in a free program called ShotCut. I use ShotCut to splice together and encode a 100GB series of fraps avi movies, and audio tracks, into a much more palateable 250MB movie.

[Stoopy]

On 3/23/2020 at 4:24 PM, =[TIA]=Stoopy said:

I wish we could fly alongside a recorded flight as a separate aircraft during playback.  There was a utility for FSX that would record a track and let you play it back as AI traffic, so the plane you flew was then an AI plane and did exactly what you did when you recorded it.  You could record a flight starting on the runway, takeoff and do some aerobatics, land and stop the recording.  Then replay it back as AI, and be in a plane right next to it, and take off with it and do those aerobatics and land in formation.  Plus you could record that, and play it back, and then you'd have two AI airplanes flying an aerobatic routine in formation, and of course you could fly alongside them and be the third plane in formation.  I got some truly incredible screenshots and video content doing that.  That's the potential that tracks have.

 

Found an old pic.... so, THIS is why we need "replay as traffic" feature!  All done in single player mode, one plane track at a time....

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by =[TIA]=Stoopy