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BattleRecorder

Relive your best BF2142 moments from a whole new angle! The game’s built-in BattleRecorder records your matches, and BattleDirector lets you replay them with a free camera, perfect for highlights and cinematic shots.

A replay in BattleDirector

Source: ordinary_chicken @ BF2142 Reclamation

A cinematic shot from a replay

Source: ordinary_chicken @ BF2142 Reclamation

  1. Create a Demos folder in Battlefield 2142\mods\<MOD>, where <MOD> is bf2142 for vanilla or your mod’s folder.

  2. Download and install BattleDirector from Downloads.

  3. Open BattleDirector and give its Quick Help a read.

  4. In Settings, set Game to Battlefield 2142 and Game EXE Location to your BF2142.exe.

  5. Your recordings appear in the Launcher tab once you select the right Mod.

  1. In-game, press ~ to open the console.

  2. Type demo.recordDemo NAME and press Enter. You’ll see recordingDemo if it worked.

  3. To stop, type demo.stopRecording and press Enter, or just let the match end.

  4. Your demo is saved in Battlefield 2142\mods\<MOD>\Demos.

  1. Join a server with BattleRecorder enabled.

  2. After the round, go to Community → Battle Recorder and download the demo under Bookmarks. It’s saved to Documents\Battlefield 2142\Profiles\Default\demos.

  3. Copy it to Battlefield 2142\mods\<MOD>\Demos to watch it in BattleDirector.

With the OpenSpy patches installed, demos don’t show up in the game’s own Battle Recorder library, so use BattleDirector to watch them.

  1. Start BattleDirector.

  2. In Settings, set FPS, FOV, Hide Nametags and Hide HUD to your liking, and choose your Resolution (tick Windowed if needed).

    For true widescreen, add +widescreen 1 to the second input box, along with any other launch options you like.

  3. In the Launcher tab, select the Mod the demo was recorded with, pick the demo and click Record New Track.

  4. When the map has loaded, click JOIN GAME.

  • Q opens the Play Rose for start, pause, speed and rewind. Don’t press Restart, as it breaks the recording.
  • T opens the Camera Rose to switch players, or toggle between free and player camera.

Playback

Key Action
1 Pause
2 / 6 Normal speed
3 5% speed
4 25% speed
5 50% speed
7 150% speed
8 300% speed

Camera

Key Action
Space / Shift + Space Next / previous player
Right mouse button Toggle free camera and player camera
Mouse wheel Zoom while following a player
W A S D Move the free camera
Ctrl / Shift Move the free camera down / up

Console commands

Command Action
renderer.drawHud 0 / 1 Hide / show the HUD
demo.adjustDemoFov 90 Change the FOV, try 40 - 50 for cinematic shots
demo.ShutdownDemo Exit the demo
  • BattleDirector won’t start and says “See the logfile … for details”? Install the Visual C++ 2003 runtime.
  • Player gestures (like “Thank you” from the Q menu) don’t play back.
  • Recording can pause or crash when the host player dies.
  • AVI exports usually only work in windowed mode, as fullscreen AVIs can be corrupt.
  • AVI files over 4 GB break. Keep clips small, or record with OBS instead. For example, 1520×855 (3.6 GB) works, while 1744×981 (4.1 GB) doesn’t.