From Tactical Wiki

Natural Selection (NS) is as beautiful and, at times exhilaratingly, to observe as it is to play. At times, watching a recording of a really great game can be very satisfying. There are a few less-known client console commands that the viewer can use to watch the gameplay from otherwise-unavailable angles and viewpoints.

[edit] Camera Movement Commands

By default, NS allows only for the viewer to follow the player of his choice, viewing the action through a first- or third-person perspective. This significantly limits your viewing options. While the alternatives aren't exactly user-friendly, they're worth it if you want to move your camera around.

You might need to perform some of the following commands in a sequence other than they're presented in this article, so you might at least skim the entire article before you start with hands-on. You can always come back to this as a reference at any time.

First, you'll want to understand your spectator mode:

spec_mode:

• spec_mode 1: This is the default value and represents out-of-the-box NS demo-viewing behavior
• spec_mode 3: This detaches the camera from player-chase, allowing you to move freely throughout the map

Not until you place your client in spectator mode 3 can you use the following commands below to manipulate the direction, angle, and movement speed of the camera to get the desired angle on the action. Bind these commands to whatever keys you wish.

• +lookdown
  
• +lookup
  
• +forward
  
• +back
  
• +left
  
• +right
  

When you look left and right with those last two commands, the rate at which your camera moves is dependent on your cl_yawspeed CVAR value.

Note: with spec_mode 3, you do not use your mouse to move the camera. I think there's a way to do this with NS, but I'm not sure yet what it is. I plan to update this text when I figure it out, and I think it involves spec_mode 0.

[edit] Playback Speed Commands

You can change the playback speed of a demo while you're viewing it by using the dem_speed command. You might want to bind several values (0.25, 0.50... 2.00, etc) to different keys so you don't have to go to the console every time you want to change the speed.

[edit] HUD Clean-up

By default, NS displays on your screen a collection of data about the player and game you're observing. There's a console command you can use to -sometimes- remove that:

hud_draw

• hud_draw 1: This is the default value and represents out-of-the-box NS demo-viewing behavior
• hud_draw 0: This removes data from the screen, leaving only the top and bottom black screen borders (think "widescreen"), the bottom of which displays NS and Steam logos (they remain).

Relying on hud_draw to "clean up" your view is buggy, and it sometimes doesn't give the desired results. I've got to test more, but it seems that I have the best results by setting it to 0 immediately after starting NS, before I view the HLTV demo. I plan to add more certainty to this text after I've spent more time working with hud_draw.

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