Q2PRO-X 1.6 Final by ly

Demo browser and player

Project author: ly

Find recordings, seek through them, choose a player and use the director.

English edition • Q2PRO-X 1.6 Final by ly • November 7, 2026

Contents

The entries are links: click one to jump to that section.

Finding recordings and browsing the library

Network tools during playback

Recordings, the demo browser and the demo player

Where the settings live

1. Supported formats

2. Demo Browser

3. Tabs and organization

4. Playlist flow

5. Demo Player Overlay

6. Pause, seek, and keys

7. Demo volume, gun, and skins

8. MVD Director

9. Demo Analytics

10. Trail mode

11. Analytics colors

12. Demo Item Timers

13. Tracked items

14. Item timer colors

15. Demo visual cfg

16. Practical scenarios

Just watching demos

Watching an MVD duel with analytics

Studying item control

Making clean demo capture

17. The menu pages in full

17.1. Demo browser

17.2. Demo player

17.3. Demo analytics

17.4. In-demo item timers

18. The link to game statistics

19. Interface settings

POV and next-frag navigation

Contact effect sources

Appearance of specific players

Lighting preset names

Cvar Browser: complete lists and keyboard layouts

System-key behavior

Server address and Tab

External demo playback

Item animation

Server update rate

Connection and playback diagnostics

Finding recordings and browsing the library

demo and mvdplay search the current mod first, then baseq2, then other local mod directories alphabetically. Exact paths precede recursive fallback. Loose files precede archive fallback. Disconnect restores the user's game directory; demo discovery does not execute other mods' configs or require reconnecting.

demo match

demo baseq2/match

demo opentdm/match

demo --mod baseq2 __pa3Hoe/z3/z3

mvdplay --mod opentdm match

Names above are placeholders for your recordings. An explicit mod limits lookup to that directory. Use --mod to disambiguate a subfolder named like an installed mod. Basename/relative-suffix lookup covers nested folders and PAK/PKZ/ZIP recordings, including archives in subfolders. RAR/7z and archives inside archives are unsupported. OS path-length limits still apply. The first match starts immediately; extra loose copies are reported asynchronously as: Demo "z3": another match at "...". Exact demo path: /...

The browser index, All tab and search cover all mods. Current mod shows only the active directory, with no baseq2 entries mixed in when another mod is active. The packed-demo filter controls archived recordings. Above the list, Auto-update demos (cl_demo_index_autoscan) enables incremental refresh on opening; Rebuild index also works with automatic refresh disabled. Requests are not duplicated while busy. demo_index_refresh and demo_index_rebuild remain available. These controls belong to the browser, not the player.

Standard multiline menu tooltips show file, players, map, recorded mod, relative path and local file/archive time. The timestamp is not an exact match-start claim. Missing metadata remains unknown. Favorites, playlists and player details retain the selected copy's identity. Demo launch fades intro music before a separate demo music profile starts. Demo settings remain independent from normal play settings. The illustrations show the main controls; some screenshots were taken before the latest search and index controls were added.

Network tools during playback

Network God performs no network diagnostics/corrections and shows none of its HUD during DM2/MVD2 playback. Its user-selected mode is preserved. Demo playback does not qualify the next launch for automatic connection to the last server.

Recordings, the demo browser and the demo player

The demo browser organizes your recordings, while the player lets you pause, seek and change viewpoint. This guide also covers movement trails, match analysis, automatic camera selection, item timers and the separate visual profile used during playback.

Where the settings live

1. Supported formats

Main formats:

Some features work in both formats, some are MVD2-only:

sampling;

2. Demo Browser

Path:

Main settings:

The browser uses a central index:

The index is not part of the release package. It is created locally on the user's machine.

3. Tabs and organization

The modern demo browser groups demos into working views, for example:

Exact visibility depends on the discovered demos and metadata. remember tab opens the browser on the last used tab next time.

Partial/unreadable demos can be shown or hidden. Packed demos from engine-visible packs are hidden by default so the user's library is not mixed with pak contents unless desired.

4. Playlist flow

Demo browser supports selecting multiple demos and playlist behavior.

Useful actions:

Binds in Demo Player:

When a playlist is active, the demo player overlay shows the related control cluster.

5. Demo Player Overlay

Path:

Key settings:

The overlay shows playback controls, timeline, mode pills, and popup menus for several controls.

6. Pause, seek, and keys

Main binds:

Defaults:

Seek step and jump are configured separately. For long MVDs, raise jump; for short duels, keep a smaller step.

7. Demo volume, gun, and skins

cl_demoplayer_volume is a temporary volume override during demo playback.

Normal game volume is restored when playback ends.

cl_demoplayer_gun:

This is a demo-playback override. It does not change normal cl_gun.

cl_demoplayer_noskins:

This is also a playback override. It does not change normal cl_noskins.

8. MVD Director

The MVD-only director helps automatically select POV.

Mode:

Values:

Lead time:

Debug:

next frag uses a pre-scanned frag timeline to switch before the event. A manual POV override temporarily cools the director down so it does not immediately take control back.

9. Demo Analytics

Path:

Main mode:

Style:

Time scope:

MVD/DM2:

Density/performance:

Visibility:

Commands:

10. Trail mode

Trail mode is enabled when:

Instead of an aggregate heatmap, the renderer draws per-sample dots that live for N seconds and can be connected by lines.

Settings:

trail_height_mode feet draws the trail closer to player feet while following jumps, falls, and box-to-box movement. hover_z lifts the dots slightly so they do not clip into the floor.

11. Analytics colors

Analytics colors are edited through:

Key cvars:

The menu uses preset-style color selection, like the model and item timer editors. Hex values can also be changed through console/cvar browser.

12. Demo Item Timers

Item timers show respawn timers for important items in MVD2.

Master:

World view:

Strip:

Settings:

13. Tracked items

Armor:

Powerups/items:

Weapons, off by default:

Per-item toggles:

14. Item timer colors

Item timer colors are edited through:

Adaptive mode:

When adaptive is enabled, colors can inherit from the item-highlight palette.

When disabled, manual per-item text/ring colors are controlled separately.

15. Demo visual cfg

All demo visual settings should save to:

baseq2/q2pro-x/demo_visual/q2pro-x.demo.cfg

This matters for:

The idea: a demo from opentdm, k1, xatrix, or another mod should not replace your viewing graphics just because playback temporarily entered that demo's gamedir.

16. Practical scenarios

Just watching demos

Watching an MVD duel with analytics

Studying item control

Making clean demo capture

17. The menu pages in full

17.1. Demo browser

Demo Browser

17.2. Demo player

Demo Player

17.3. Demo analytics

Demo Analytics

17.4. In-demo item timers

Demo Item Timers

18. The link to game statistics

The demo browser and game statistics read the same published snapshot of the recording library. The recording folders are walked exactly once per data generation, and every consumer — the browser, the statistics window and the intro personal-fact layer — works by querying that snapshot.

Practical consequences:

Details are in the game statistics and demo auto-statistics guide.

19. Interface settings

The browser and player settings belong to the client's interface and are described in the cvar reference. Visual viewing settings during playback are saved into a separate demo profile — see the visual profile section above and the cvars guide.

POV and next-frag navigation

The MVD2 POV list includes every participant, including the recording's local player; scroll the list if necessary. Next-frag navigation prepares the required event data when requested. Detailed diagnostic output appears only when its debug setting is enabled.

Contact effect sources

Open Main menu → Advanced Visual Effects → AVFX Detailed Settings → Local FX & Sound → Player Contact Effects → Effect sources.

These are source permissions, not masters. AVFX and Contact remain disabled by default: enable both. cl_avfx_multiplayer also permits AVFX in live MP, while cl_avfx_demo permits demo playback. Individual blood/mark/debris switches still apply. Turning Current player off does not exclude you from All multiplayer players. Live switches do not enable demos.

To view demo blood, enable demo sources and the masters, then play the recording. Seeking clears stale contacts; subsequent recorded events create new effects. No missing/PVS-excluded events are invented. Legacy events can omit attacker/ weapon information: observed cues refine the profile, otherwise the generic profile is used. Damage, physics, prediction and wire/demo formats are unchanged.

Sources belong only to Contact presets. Missing defaults are appended to old factory/user Contact profiles without resetting existing tuned values. Normal AVFX profiles and their generator do not control them. Bloody World enables all four; other factory profiles keep 1/0/0/0. Mechanical-body blood exclusions, own-blood visibility, budgets and prediction deduplication remain effective.

Appearance of specific players

Open Skins & models → Player nickname overrides. Eight slots are arranged in two rows of four. Rules operate simultaneously, persist globally across mods, and apply both in live games and demo playback.

Open a slot to edit its fields:

For example, enter tet, Domik_v_derevne, select male and claymore, choose a named colour, then Save. Only those complete nicknames receive the selected appearance, regardless of letter case.

Nickname matching is exact, not a substring or pattern search. If lists overlap, the first enabled matching slot wins; later slots are not combined with it. Renaming a player changes the match. This is local client presentation: the server and other players do not receive appearance changes from your rule.

A named model takes precedence over general model overrides. Its attached weapon model and local sexed sounds follow the same selection. Missing model/skin files retain the existing fallback; the independent named colour still works.

An explicit named colour replaces general team, model and body-part highlights for matching players. It also works with general player highlighting disabled. Inherit highlights retains the ordinary colour policy. Clearing a slot returns its players to the existing model and highlight rules.

Lighting preset names

Presets → Lighting presets contains Super Bright followed by Bright, with different sets of 38 lighting parameters. Selecting a preset applies its values; the existence of a factory preset does not change your current settings or user slots.

The console identifiers retain their original mapping: cl_lighting_preset_load_factory bright selects Super Bright; cl_lighting_preset_load_factory super_bright selects Bright.

Cvar Browser: complete lists and keyboard layouts

Open the browser with cvar_browser or its settings menu entry. All includes variables, native console commands and quick menu commands. Commands remains a separate view. Selecting a native command prefills the console; press Enter to execute. Category tabs and Favorites retain their filters.

Search checks the original text and English key positions for installed Windows keyboard layouts. Standard Russian is also supported for pasted text after a layout switch. For example, цкшеу finds writeconfig and пд_сщдщкувдшпреьфзы finds gl_coloredlightmaps. Matching is case-insensitive. The original text is kept in the search field. This maps keyboard positions; it does not transliterate words.

Russian search still works: Конф finds /конфиг and matching descriptions. Mixed input such as cl_avfx_сщтефсе_вуигп is supported. Unknown characters are not removed from the query.

System-key behavior

Open Settings → System → System key behavior, immediately after Menu settings. Settings are global across mods; all default to No and take effect immediately.

Blocking applies only while the game window is active, with either WGL or EGL. Other foreground applications keep their keyboard behavior. Ctrl+Alt+Delete is not intercepted. If Alt+F4 is blocked, the normal game menu can still be used to quit.

Server address and Tab

Type or paste only an address into an empty console prompt and press Tab.

A leading backslash may appear before connect: it is the normal console command prefix. Edit the result if needed, then press Enter. Tab itself performs no connection or DNS lookup. Ports must be 1..65535; omitted ports become 27910. Existing command, variable and alias names retain priority. Completing a command name with Tab also adds the space before its arguments.

External demo playback

Use demo with an absolute path to an existing file:

demo "O:\Demos\match.mvd2"

Quotes are needed for spaces. Far's filename-only quoting is also accepted:

demo O:\Demos\"match.mvd2"

From the Windows command line, pass the same path through +demo:

Q2PRO-X.exe +demo O:\Demos\"match.mvd2"

DM2, MVD2 and their .gz variants are supported, with Windows drive or UNC paths. The file is opened read-only and is not copied into the game directory. Required maps, models and other game resources must be available to the installed game. Missing or invalid files produce a console error.

Item animation

Online game settings → Item animation controls a small hop, squash/stretch, fall and settling for 22 pickup categories. Master and all categories default to off. Rotation remains; shadows, highlighting, bloom and reflections follow the pose. Players and held weapons are unaffected. Demo playback is supported. See Item Animation Guide for all controls.

Server update rate

Open Settings → Online game settings → Server update rate. This controls how frequently the client receives the world state, not rendering FPS. Higher server update rates deliver opponent positions and events more frequently. Game speed, movement physics and weapon firing rates remain unchanged.

Adapt to server rate (cl_serverfps_adapt) defaults to off: the client requests the classic 10 world updates per second. Enabling it allows negotiation of a higher rate and an exact time scale with compatible servers that support higher update rates. Ordinary servers retain their previous mode. Changing the setting during play sends a new request without reconnecting.

Preferred rate (cl_updaterate) defaults to Server maximum (0). The other choices are 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60. Servers supply divisors of their own rate: requesting 40 on a 60 Hz server yields 20 Hz; requesting 50 yields 10 Hz. With adaptation disabled, the saved preference is ignored but preserved. Both settings are global across mods.

Show connection state opens the console and runs protocol_info. Startup reports the saved client mode. Toggling adaptation immediately reports the client preference, followed by the actual connection rate after the server reply. A requested frequency is not reported as established before acknowledgement.

After connecting, the console prints one line with the endpoint and actual rate: [188.225.33.164:27912] Connection rate: 60 Hz. A standard connection shows 10 Hz. A requested higher rate is not considered active before server acknowledgement. Detailed information remains available through protocol_info; additional notices explain pending or unconfirmed changes. Startup and setting changes explicitly report whether support for server rates above 10 Hz is enabled or disabled.

Network God, LagHax, the port scanner and view smoothing use the negotiated time scale. Demo recordings retain the standard 10 Hz format and normal playback speed. Network God remains inactive during DM2 and MVD2 playback.

An unsupported server-assigned rate triggers a request for 10 Hz and holds world time until confirmation. No reply within two seconds ends the connection with an explanation. If an ordinary preference change is ignored, the console reports that the requested connection-rate change was not confirmed.

cl_serverfps_debug enables detailed negotiation diagnostics at 1 and disables them at 0. It is session-only and defaults to off. Normal mode and connection summaries do not require this diagnostic setting.

Connection and playback diagnostics

protocol_info distinguishes DM2/MVD playback from a live connection and live GTV. A demo is no longer described as an unfinished network connection. The new high-rate remote-player smoothing works in live play, including following another player; recorded DM2/MVD playback is unchanged.