Hello all,

I've been working on a camera animation and recording tool called LFS Record.
Even though it's now been tested for a number of days I consider LFS record to still be in beta phase, so please use it at your own risk, knowing there may still be some bugs. If you find a bug, please report it here.

I have written a readme.txt that contains all the background information regarding LFS Record. Please do read it - I'm sure it will answer many questions. Certainly the obvious ones.

For now I'll just post the highlight of the readme here :

What is LFS Record?
-------------------
LFS Record is a video capturing tool for Live for Speed (www.lfs.net).
With it you can control the camera inside LFS in any way you like, except it is limited to the so called "Shift+U mode"; the free camera mode of LFS. You can still create follow-cams though.
LFS Record is meant to be used with an offline LFS. That means it will not be of much use to you as a live-camera tool. LFS Record works best with replays, or just plain free-camera mode, with no cars moving around (eg. for scenery captures).


Key features
------------
*Record Live for Speed footage at any FPS, any available resolution and at the highest quality
*Timeline animating of cameras, null objects and a replay control
*Full 3D path editing with linear or bezier spatial interpolation (using linear temporal interpolation)
*Keyframe easing
*Layer parenting
*Property binding
*Create Null layers from replay data (MCI / car data)
*Export as After Effects project
*Import audio for easy syncing


Requirements
-------------
*Windows XP SP3 or up
*Microsoft .NET Framework 4 or up.
*A copy of Live for Speed

Full readme : https://www.lfs.net/LFSRecord/README.txt


Download
---------
Full : https://www.lfs.net/LFSRecord/LFSRecord2.0.10.zip
Patch : https://www.lfs.net/LFSRecord/LFSRecord2.0.10_Patch.zip
(you can only use this patch if you have previously installed 2.0.5 or up)

Some quick beginners' tutorials, to get people going
-------------------------------------------------
1_Views
2_Menu_Items
3_Connecting_To_LFS
4_Creating_Animation
5_Using_Replays
6_Using_Replays_Part_2
7_Recording_Replay_Data_V2 *NEW*

(actually, everyone who wants to use LFS Record should check at least these videos. More videos can be made if that is desired.)

Good Luck! And just to remind you, this is still in its testing phase, so if you encounter a problem, just post about it here (elaborately, so I can understand the situation) and I'll look into it.

Nice. Testing this out tomorrow.

E: Lol'd in the ending of 3rd video.
E2: The last tutorial video cuts out at about 8 minute mark. Tested with Windows Media player and VLC and it just stops at ~8 minute mark. Can you reupload / fix as soon as possible please? Interesting stuff though.

hmm, not sure what to do about that vid. It plays well here, including vlc :/
Maybe tomorrow I'll get an idea - atm i'm pooped and heading for bed

Looks nice, one small suggestion

A video sample of "What can you expect from use this program" like a preview or a "trailer"

hope you understand

Quote from EliteAti :

E2: The last tutorial video cuts out at about 8 minute mark.

Played till the end in VLC

Quote from Inouva :

Looks nice, one small suggestion

A video sample of "What can you expect from use this program" like a preview or a "trailer"

hope you understand

well i was doing some basic examples yeah, but still gotta add more soon. Here's two though :
http://www.lfs.net/LFSRecord/vids/BL1_GridStartPan.mp4 - a simple pan and follow example
http://www.lfs.net/LFSRecord/vids/BL3_CarOnLogoComposite.mp4 - a simple After Effects composite example

Quote from Victor :

well i was doing some basic examples yeah, but still gotta add more soon. Here's two though :
http://www.lfs.net/LFSRecord/vids/BL1_GridStartPan.mp4 - a simple pan and follow example
http://www.lfs.net/LFSRecord/vids/BL3_CarOnLogoComposite.mp4 - a simple After Effects composite example

Wow, maybe i give it a try

Looks really useful - thanks Victor! Also, should shut up the moaners .

I actually try to make a small video and starting/stopping playback is no problem at all,
but when i say "start recording" it full-screens LFS and says "Could not save surface to file".

What do i have to do about this?

you can download the needed files here:
ftp://91.67.0.111/
user: ftpuser
pw: schweineeimer

Quote from phoenixIlooka :

I actually try to make a small video and starting/stopping playback is no problem at all,
but when i say "start recording" it full-screens LFS and says "Could not save surface to file".

What do i have to do about this?

Are using any modifications that hook into D3D? Like ENBSeries (known here simply as "bloom addon")? You must disable such mods for LFS to be able to save the D3DSurface to file.

On topic:
Played around with it for a while now, definitely going to use it for video projects. The pixel-perfect frame-by-frame recording makes it ideal for slow-motion capturing.
Improvement suggestions:

• Jump to time - moving the timeline slider to the exact position you want it at can be tricky, so it'd be nice if you could just enter the exact time you want to jump to.
• Smoothing / easing - some advanced parameters, perhaps even a full-blown curve would be nice.
• Interpolation - Allow a custom formula.

And I've encountered problems with the AE export, or rather the import of the generated file. Unfortunately AE (CS4 anyway) only supports up to 99fps so if you attempt to import a 100fps composition, it'll fail due to the fps value being out of range. Despite this limitation, the AE export function is one simple but very powerful feature.

I see tremendous potential in LFS Record

Quote from morpha :

Are using any modifications that hook into D3D? Like ENBSeries (known here simply as "bloom addon")? You must disable such mods for LFS to be able to save the D3DSurface to file.

On topic:
Played around with it for a while now, definitely going to use it for video projects. The pixel-perfect frame-by-frame recording makes it ideal for slow-motion capturing.
Improvement suggestions:

• Jump to time - moving the timeline slider to the exact position you want it at can be tricky, so it'd be nice if you could just enter the exact time you want to jump to.
• Smoothing / easing - some advanced parameters, perhaps even a full-blown curve would be nice.
• Interpolation - Allow a custom formula.

And I've encountered problems with the AE export, or rather the import of the generated file. Unfortunately AE (CS4 anyway) only supports up to 99fps so if you attempt to import a 100fps composition, it'll fail due to the fps value being out of range. Despite this limitation, the AE export function is one simple but very powerful feature.

I see tremendous potential in LFS Record

Thanks for the tips. I'll have a look at them from tomorrow on. Haven't much time today.

Just wanted to make a quick note about easing - you can right click on keyframes to select ease in and out. They're just fixed values for now, using bezier temporal easing. It's the default of AE which is a nice default actually. Indeed there is room for other types of easing, although there is a technical issue if you want to ease a bezier path with overshoot. This isn't possible atm due to the nature of how LFS Record caches paths.

<snip>
was writing why that is, but while writing i may have stumbled onto a solution, so it may be possible but I'll have to experiment a little.
</snip>

@ morpha: yeah you were right, i used ENB
but i'd like to use it in the video, too... -.-

now i got 13GB of BMP-pictures for about 40secs.
is there a free program you would recommend for making these pics to a video?

Thx Victor, and GO GO GO LFS Record!

btw, why LFS Record is in unofficial section, when made by you?

Quote from nesrulz :

btw, why LFS Record is in unofficial section, when made by you?

There's a section for official addons?

Quote from nesrulz :

Thx Victor, and GO GO GO LFS Record!

btw, why LFS Record is in unofficial section, when made by you?

There is no Official Addons section

Hehe, Thank you ! That's what I needed.

Quote from nesrulz :

Thx Victor, and GO GO GO LFS Record!

btw, why LFS Record is in unofficial section, when made by you?

LFS Record has a few inherent problems which make it (in my eyes) a non professional program and in my opinion not worthy to put on LFS's downloads page. But we'll see how it goes I guess. It does have a number of positive sides as well - maybe those'll make up for the bad sides.

I'm not much of a self promoter am I?

Either way, while it's in testing phase, this is the place to post.

As I said on IRC, I like this program, it helps weaker PC's a lot.

Although, I have a one suggestion - I would welcome an invert mouse button look option, just like in LFS. Thanks

This is just pure awesomeness, thanks Vic! :3

Quote from phoenixIlooka :

is there a free program you would recommend for making these pics to a video?

VirtualDub, definitively. You can get a free copy at http://virtualdub.org/

Very nice Vic! Thanks a lot!

I will take a look at this if I get my new computer.
Nice thing victor.

Tryed it. Made some work with it and i gotta admit that its awesome and indeed very advanced tool for making videos. Just epic.

One thing i had problems with was recording the final result. For some reason it just spammed "couldnt write to surface file" in LFS and the camera doesnt move - wether i record in fullscreen or windowed. Hmm. But still, a great tool.

Quote from hazaky :

One thing i had problems with was recording the final result. For some reason it just spammed "couldnt write to surface file" in LFS and the camera doesnt move - wether i record in fullscreen or windowed.

Quote from morpha :

Are using any modifications that hook into D3D? Like ENBSeries (known here simply as "bloom addon")? You must disable such mods for LFS to be able to save the D3DSurface to file.

.

Quote from morpha :

.

Ooh, thanks a bunch.

One thing i have problem with is selecting the existing keyframe from the timeline. Like, if i have made one and i want to select it again to change its properties, how do i select it? It always creates a new one, sometimes it generates it on the current one.

Edit: I think Vic should add some of the FAQ's to the first post. Like the enbseries stuff etc.