TAS Editor 2

This is a new version of the BXT TAS editor, rebuilt from the ground up with big usability improvements and bug fixes. Watch the video introduction and getting started: https://youtu.be/zi3pw9iS1sk.

Highlights include:

• Undo/redo system which is unlimited and persistent: even after restarting your game, you can undo all the way back to the start of the TAS.
• Branches for easy comparison of different routes.
• Manual HLTAS editing through bridged file synchronized with the in-game editor in real time.
• Integration with the TAS optimizer.
• You can always edit the entire script, not just the part after the playback stop.
• No save command: all changes are automatically saved to disk as soon as you do them in-game.

TAS editor 2 commands and console variables are called bxt_tas_studio to avoid the naming collision with the BXT TAS editor. Hence, the alternative name is TAS Studio.

Video Recording with Motion Blur

Set bxt_cap_sampling_exposure to a value above 0 and up to 1 to enable motion blur. It works the same way as in HLAE and hl-capture, but very fast thanks to GPU acceleration with Vulkan.

Other Changes

• Added bxt_play_folder by @khanghugo in https://github.com/YaLTeR/bxt-rs/pull/53
• Improved demo length limit in the demo playback commands by @khanghugo in https://github.com/YaLTeR/bxt-rs/pull/59
• Made video recording fast when alt-tabbed by @khanghugo in https://github.com/YaLTeR/bxt-rs/pull/51
• Added bxt_scoreboard_remove by @khanghugo in https://github.com/YaLTeR/bxt-rs/pull/61
• Added bxt_cap_separate_start which records every demo into a separate video by @khanghugo in https://github.com/YaLTeR/bxt-rs/pull/58
• Added bxt_viewmodel_remove by @khanghugo in https://github.com/YaLTeR/bxt-rs/pull/52
• Added bxt_viewmodel_sway by @khanghugo in https://github.com/YaLTeR/bxt-rs/pull/64
• Improved CS 1.6 support in the TAS optimizer by @khanghugo in https://github.com/YaLTeR/bxt-rs/pull/50
• Added support for Cry of Fear by @SmileyAG in https://github.com/YaLTeR/bxt-rs/pull/48
• Added more patterns by @SmileyAG and @khanghugo in https://github.com/YaLTeR/bxt-rs/pull/63, https://github.com/YaLTeR/bxt-rs/pull/69
• Added bxt_remote_forbid to prevent the game from serving as a remote optimizer or TAS Studio client by @YaLTeR
• Minor improvements and fixes to video recording by @YaLTeR

New Contributors

• @khanghugo made their first contribution in https://github.com/YaLTeR/bxt-rs/pull/50

Full Changelog: https://github.com/YaLTeR/bxt-rs/compare/3.1...4.0

Thanks to @hobokenn, @SmileyAG and @mxpph for helping with this release!

TAS Brute-Force Optimizer

Added a brute-force optimizer for TASing. It works by randomly adjusting a part of the TAS and keeping better results. The optimizer can use prediction (fast but inaccurate), or multiple game instances to run the TAS.

Video explaining how to use the optimizer: https://youtu.be/ECuRruY3XLw

Documentation

All functionality, console commands, and variables are now documented. Read the documentation on the wiki page or in-game with the bxt_help command.

Other Changes

• Added bxt_cap_slowdown for recording slowed-down video without audio distortion, similar to how playdemo slowdown works.
• Added bxt_disable_loading_text to disable drawing of the LOADING line.
• Removed the TAS sound RNG fix module: it was implemented in Bunnymod XT where it belongs better.
• bxt_force_fov no longer allows values below 1.
• Replaced the profiling functionality from rust_hawktracer to tracing. Profiling is now present in all builds; start Half-Life with the BXT_RS_PROFILE environment variable set to enable it. bxt-rs will then output a trace.json file in the Half-Life folder, which you can view in Perfetto or in chrome://tracing.
• Vulkan debugging is now present in all builds and can be enabled by starting Half-Life with the BXT_RS_VULKAN_DEBUG environment variable set.
• Removed debug information from release builds as it was significantly increasing binary sizes, while not being all that useful.