Spectator Command Guide

[NeonLight]

Intro:

I decided to write this since there is a severe lack of anything spectator related written down. This can be used for your own pleasure or what I'm focusing this for, streaming and/or casting. Now, there are a lot of commands that you may not know of, or know what they actually do. I'll be going through each one that is actually useful. I will also continue to update this if more commands are released, you can find the change log in the next post to find exactly what was added. So lets get into it.

Spec_Goto and Spec_Pos:

This command combo, is the second best out of all of the spectator commands we currently have. What you can do with these are grab your current location, bind it and use it as a free roam camera location. I personally use this for maps that have around three major areas. I'll set up cameras in each major room, when there is no major action going on or want a nice overhead of the areas I'll use one of those. To do this you must free roam spectate into the exact area you want the camera to be. Open up your console and type in Spec_Pos. It'll produce a line that looks like (spec_goto xxxx.x xx.x xxx.x x.x xxx.xx). What you want to do next is move if you want so you can see it take effect, open up console and put in (spec_goto xxxx.x xx.x xxx.x x.x xxx.xx). You will be teleported to that exact spot that you saved earlier. It would be better if you bound the (spec_goto) part of the command so it is and easy change of camera. Here is an example if you are still confused on how it works:

YouTube

YouTube

Spec_Item:

A newly added command in the 2.46 update. This will bring you to specified entity. The best way to use this is with flag entities. When used (spec_item red_flag) you will go straight to the flag location, staring right at the flag. Now the even better part of this command, if someone is carrying the flag or whatever entity to specify, you will snap to the player. Now this can do one of three things, if you are in free roam you will jump to the player holding that entity but stay in place in the air. If you are first or third person camera on someone and use the command, you will stay in that respected view but be snapped onto the flag holder.

Spec_Mode:

This is just the commands for going between free roam, first person and third person. Though, the variables used for this command are a bit strange and I do not know why it is how it is set up but here it is. Spec_mode 0, 1 and 2 all act as if you press spacebar, you will move to the next mode in line. Spec_mode 3 is first person mode. Spec_mode 4 is 3rd person chase cam, and Spec_mode 5 is free roam. I don't personally use these commands as I can just spacebar through them, but these would be useful if you want to skin over one command, go straight ot first person, free roam and back. This does also replicate the spacebar in which if you go from spec_mode 3/4, to 5, and back, you will be on the same person as before.

Spec_Next and Spec_Prev:

There are actually already bound to your mouse buttons. Mouse1 is Spec_Next and Mouse2 is Spec_prev. Not much to say about these as they are straight forward. They cycle through the player list as you would think.

Spec_Player:

Spec_Player is a tricky command. The variables you can use are either player name or userid. You can grab the name or userid easily by typing (status) into the console. Userids will persist through map changes but if they dc and rejoin they will be assigned with a new id. So say squeek. and NeoNL were in a server, I type (status) into console to get each player's userid. NeoNL's is 88, squeek.'s is 89, to spec NeoNL you would type (Spec_Player 88 ) or (Spec_Player NeoNL). Spec_Player is an alright command but very unreliable after one match, especially if players disconnect or change names a lot. its a lot easier to just cycle through or click through the menus to get to the player that you want. This would have been much more useful of a command before Spec_Item was released as snapping to the flag carrier would be the only person you would want to go to instantly.

Outtro:

There's is only so much we can work with in FF and the Source engine. A few others and I have given a few options to put in for spectating, if you have any other suggestions please put them into this thread as it'll be an easy way to relay to the devs. If you want an example of what you can do with all of these commands (minus Spec_Item), here is a cast of a match from the last tournament.

YouTube

YouTube

YouTube

YouTube

[NeonLight]

Reserved for changelog

[XPelargos]

Did not read, but I totally support everything you do and stand for, NeoN.

Let's stream with the awesome new spectator commands sometime.

K thx.