This is very cool, not sure how actively you're developing new features like this but I wonder if it'd be possible to automatically trim to the start of matches -- similar to how P-REC started recording then. I tested uploading a pov demo (link) to the site and was actually able to see the metadata, players, logs, etc. Given the filename was from my in game tf2 recorder I was then able to look through my logs and find the equivalent STV (link) by looking at map/dates and then confirming because it shows the same players when you pull it up. But of course since I uploaded a POV demo with the in game recorder, it recorded the pregame, and that's reflected in the logs you see when the POV one is pulled up (see first link above). Basically, I'm thinking that you can probably automate the process I'm doing and look for the same players and same map and same date, and match the POV to the STV, and then automatically trim it (not sure if the POV demos with in game actually end at the end of the match config, but there should be some way to match up events and such).
TLDR: I think it should be possible to automatically trim POV demos by looking up corresponding STV demos on demos.tf, and it would be a really awesome feature if you could upload POV demos and have the site automatically trim them. If this feature would be too difficult for you to tackle I (or maybe someone else on this site, we have tons of compsci nerds lol) could at the very least look into it.
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Another feature that would be really really useful would be if it was possible to upload POV demos to demos.tf directly and have proper support for them--currently it actually shows up in the same list of STV demos and there's no clear way to distinguish them--someone could download the POV demo I linked above thinking it was an STV.
Some important features:
1. The ability to upload privately, and have it only show up under your name (currently you can filter basedd on logs you're in, but there could probably just be a separate tab for your POV demos or something)
2. The ability to share a link to a privately uploaded demo (e.g., send to admins to review, or send to submit to a frag video, jump competition, etc.)
Some simple-ish extra features that would be nice:
3. The ability for people to make their own lists, for example you could go through and select all of your match demos for a given season and organize them
4. Ability to export a list or batch download files (e.g., all of your demos from one season, or from a LAN)
Some much more complex features:
5. The ability to automatically upload from in game, similar to STV auto uploading. This one I'm not even sure if it is possible, but it would be huge because it removes the human error component (and if somebody goes away on vacation and leaves their computer, it will automatically be uploaded)
- I was thinking about doing a simple script for this to upload to google drive, but then realized well if there's already an API (docs) for demos.tf, that would be much better. Only problem was the privacy--some people likely will not want their POV demos to be public. But adding a simple privacy option I think would make this viable, and allow someone like me to test out auto upload scripts.
The motivation for this is that it would make it significantly easier for people to upload and share demos for things like RGL demo checks (see https://www.teamfortress.tv/64762/a-thank-you-letter-to-rgl for context, basically a lot of people have been punished for missing demo checks now that P-REC doesn't work).
* Currently people generally upload to google drive/dropbox/etc., but this is difficult to organize, easy to mess up sharing privileges, and often times has people uploading .zips which leads to security issues
* Currently there is no way to see metadata, or even verify it's the right demo except by opening it in game and viewing it--though it could very well be the same players on the same map but not the match, etc. My guess is admins don't even look at a large number of the demos uploaded, which is not exactly great practice, but if it was easier to see metadata and view things at a glance, they probably would more.