CS:GO Demo Controls

One of the best features on Counter-Strike, in both Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Counter-Strike 2, is its demo viewer… but what is it? And how does it work?

Well, this is a handy tool no matter what type of player you are – whether you’re new to the game and trying to get your foot in the door or even if you consider yourself to have skills up there with the pros. No one’s perfect… and this is a tool that helps you look at your performance – and pick it apart to help you improve. You can look over your past match, look to see where you went wrong, where you can improve, think up any better strategies – and simply try to make yourself a better player overall.

So, let’s take a look at exactly how it works in this step-by-step guide – and how you can use it to fine-tune those skills!

How to Open the Counter-Strike Demo Menu

To be able to start demo recording, watching demos and taking advantage of demo playback, you need to enable the developer console… which takes just a few moments.

1. Open up the game and click on the main menu button.
2. Click on the ‘Setting’ button on the bottom left of your screen and open up the ‘Game Settings’.
3. You then need to keep scrolling through the various options until you see where it says ‘Enable Developer Console’, where you’ll need to click on the ‘Yes’ option. Then, press ‘Apply’.
4. That’s it, you’ve now enabled the developer console. It’s a good idea to bind the function to your preferred key to make it easier in the future.
5. Open up the ‘Keyboard and Mouse’ section and keep on scrolling until you see the ‘Toggle Console’. Click on that option, and you can then choose which key you want to use to open the console (most use the tilde key (~). You should make sure you don’t bind it to any other feature, as this can make it complicated.
6. Once you’re happy with your set-up, click on ‘Apply’ and you’re all set!

That’s it – the developer console has been activated, and you can then think about opening up the demo menu.

Recording A Demo

If you want to replay your gameplay, you’ll need to know how to record it first. To start recording a demo in Counter-Strike, you just need to follow these steps

1. Enable the Developer Console as per the instructions above.
2. Press the tilde key (~) or the key you chose to open the console and open the developer console
3. Once the console is open, to start recording, you need to type ‘record’ followed by a name for your demo (e.g., record match1) and then press Enter. The demo will then start recording and capture all your gameplay from that moment onward.
4. To stop recording, you’ll need to open up the console again and type stop. The demo will then be saved in your CS:GO folder.

Your recorded demos are usually automatically stored in your CS directory, normally under ‘csgo’ or ‘cs2’ in your gaming files. You’ll then be able to look at those reviews and demos later on by using the “playdemo” command (which we’ll look at next) – and you can use them to start analyzing your gameplay and refining your skills.

Opening the Demo Menu and Watching Your Demos

In order to open up the menu, just follow these steps:

1. Start your match by connecting to a server.
2. Press the ~ (tilde) button (or whatever button you used to bind the console) and open up the developer console.
3. Then, enter the console command ‘playdemo’. If you have downloaded and extracted your GOTV, you’ll be able to see all your various files on your screen.
4. Pick the demo that you want to start watching and then press ‘Enter’.
5. Your demo will start playing, and its menu will open up.
6. If you want to use any of the in-game functions, you’ll need to click on ‘F2 plus Shift’. With this, you’ll be able to skip rounds, fast forward and even watch the action in slow motion. There’s also a slider to the right of your screen that lets you play around with your playback speed.

Once you’ve done with the demo and you’ve seen what you need, you can start another demo file by clicking on ‘Load…’ and choosing the demo you want from your CSGO folded or disc.

Toggling Demo UI in Counter-Strike

That’s not the only way you can do it though! By using the CS Demo UI, you can pause, play, rewind and fast-forward your demos.

1. Bring up your console command by clicking the (~) key.
2. Enter the console command ‘demoui”.

Once this is done, you can start playing around with it as follows:

1. Load up your demo and play it.
2. If you want your demo to jump to a certain point, you’ll just need to enter the corresponding tick number. So, for example, if you want to go back 50 ticks, you could enter ‘demo_goto – 50 1’ and it will take you back 50 ticks. Conversely, if you enter ‘demo_goto 50 1’, it will take you forward 50 ticks.

The CS Cheat Menu

If you are familiar with the game, you’ll know that there’s a cheat menu, which is also very handy! Even the professional players use it!

If you want to access it, it’s very easy:

1. As usual, you’ll need to launch the game.
2. Then, you need to join a server where either you’re the administrator or start up a game against bots.
3. Open up your developer console with your bound key and enter the command ‘sv_cheats’. This will enable cheat mode until you disable it again with the command’ sv_cheats 0′.
4. You can then enter whatever cheat command you like – such as ‘host_timescale 5’ which will speed you up, or entering the ‘noclip’ cheat code which will enable the fly mode.

Although they are called cheat commands, these are actually a built-in feature of the game and are completely OK – you just can’t use them in competitive matches. That being said, if you try to use other tools or any other hacks, you could find that your account gets closed down and banned.

Other CS:GO Demo Controls and Features

The game – both in its CS:GO and Counter-Strike comes with lots of other demo functions and features – which we’ll look at next!

Printing a Demo File

You can even actually print files in Counter-Strike, although it’s not particularly hi-tech. To do this, you’ll just need to take a screenshot, which you can do as follows…

1. While you are playing your demo file, you need to open up the console.
2. Enter the command ‘bind f11 devshots_screenshot’, then press ‘Enter’ and close up the console again.
3. To take your screenshot, enter ‘F11’. Then open up the console again and enter ‘unbind f1’.
4. Start the stream on your computer.
5. From the menu, click on the ‘view’ option and then select the ‘Screenshots’ option where you should see the Uploader window coming up on your screen.
6. From here, pick Counter-Strike from all the listed game screenshots you’re looking for.
7. Hit on the option that says ‘Show on Disk’ and you’ll be taken over to the folder that has the screenshot you took.
8. You just need to right-click on it and then hit ‘Print.’

As long as you’ve properly connected your printer (and have enough ink), you’ll get your printed shot.

Changing the View in Counter-Strike Demo

You can also change the view in your demo, which can be helpful – and there are all sorts of options available, including flight mode.

You just need to follow these steps:

1. As usual, open up the developer console by clicking on the button you bound it to (usually ~)
2. If you haven’t enabled the developer console already, you can do so by following the steps we looked at earlier on this page.
3. Then you can enter the console command ‘demoui’ or ‘demoui2’ to start playing your demo. You could also use the ‘Shift plus F2’ command.
4. Click on the ‘Load…’ button and decide what demo file you want to playback.
5. As soon as the replay begins, hold down the space key – and your camera will switch to flight mode.

You also have other options – like changing the viewpoint of your camera:

1. Hold down the ‘Drive…’ button, and you’ll launch the ‘Camera Drive mode’.

To control your camera, you just need to move your mouse over to the demo viewport while holding down the left button. Then, you can move around your keyboard. You can press A or D to go left or right or W and S to move up and down. You can also slow it down using the shift button.

The Issues With the Counter-Strike Demo Viewer

There’s no doubt that this is a great addition to the game – and incredibly useful for all types of players. However, it’s not the most advanced function we’ve ever come across – and it could do with a bit of a spruce up. The main problem with it is the way that it reads demo files.

Whenever you want to make any changes, your game will need to replay the entire demo – which means that you have to wait for your program to scan the demos whenever you play them. This basically means that the fast-forward and rewind options are a bit slower. So, although you don’t have to watch all your demos from the start, you will have to wait for it to load up.

There is also an issue with the demo viewer interface, as it locks you out of the other parts of the CS UI. If you have the UI running, you won’t even be able to switch between players. Although this doesn’t seem like a massive deal – it can be pretty annoying!

Conclusion: A Great Way To Build Those Skills

So, you hopefully know everything you need to know about using the CS Demo viewer and some of the various other features that are on offer. It’s not perfect – and there are definitely some improvements that could be made, but it really is incredibly easy to use and it can be incredibly helpful – letting you check out your performance, try and figure out your player weaknesses – and hopefully help you to build on it.

After you have looked through your demos, you’ll be able to have a proper idea of what parts of your game are working well – and what is letting you down… what is basically getting you (and/or your team) killed. What’s more, you don’t have to watch through the whole thing again… you can skip forward, rewind, pause and even slow-down the video so that you don’t miss one single important detail.

So, give it a go – start recording, replaying – and see if you can become an even better player!

FAQs

How Do I Open The CS Developer Console?

Before doing anything in the game, you need to know how to open the developer console. However, it’s very quick and easy. You just need to launch the game and open the settings menu. From there, look through the options until you find the ‘Enable Developer Console’ option and toggle it to Yes. That will activate the console.

How Can I Change My Bind Key for the Console?

To change the key you have bound the console to, open up the ‘Keyboard and Mouse’ tab and find ‘Toggle Console’. Click on it and then decide which key you want to bind your console to. Then, press Apply and close your settings.

What is the ‘startmovie’ Command?

The startmovie command is the command you need to use to record gameplay footage either as image files (frames) or as an uncompressed video. You’ll usually need to follow this command by the name of the file that you want to save and your preferred frame rate. For example, you could enter startmovie myvideo 60 – and it will begin recording at 60 frames per second.

Once you’ve finished what you want to record, you can stop it by using the ‘endmovie’ command. You can then compile these recorded frames into a video using third-party software – so it’s great for high-quality recording of gameplay or frag movies.

Where Are My CSGO Demos Saved?

There are various different locations where your demo files might be saved. They’ll usually be saved in your CS directory – and unless you have altered your installation path, they should be found here: C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo\replays\. If you don’t find what you’re looking for here, you can create a folder in which to save any future demos. You can also find saved demo files by going into Steam and right-clicking on Counter-Strike, choosing ‘Properties’, then ‘Local Files’ and then CS. Hopefully, that will take you where you need to be.

If you have FACEIT or EASA demos, they’ll be wherever you saved them when you downloaded them. However, before watching them, they’ll have to be unpacked first by using a suitable program like 7Zip.

How Do I Open a Counter-Strike Demo Files

Like most things in the game, to open a Counter-Strike demo file, you’ll first need to enable your developer console. Once this has been done, opening up a demo file is pretty straightforward. You’ll need to type the command ‘playdemo’ into the console and press enter. All of the available files will then be shown – as long as you have properly downloaded and unzipped the one you’re looking for. Then, choose the demo that you want to play and click on enter. Your demo should then start playing, and you can use the menu to start modifying the play back. If you want to access the in-game playing functions, simply use the Shift and F2 combination – and you’ll be able to start playing, pausing, rewinding, fast-forwarding and slowing down the video as much as you want.

What are The Most Popular Demo Controls in Counter-Strike?

Some of the most popular demo controls you might want to use in Counter-Strike are:

• playdemo [demo name]: Plays your chosen demo file.
• demoui: Opens up the demo playback UI and lets you do things such as pause, rewind, fast-forward, etc.
• Shift + F2: Toggles the demo UI menu.
• demo_pause and demo_resume: Pauses and resumes your demo file.
• demo_goto [tick]: Jumps to your specified tick number in the demo.
• sv_cheats 1; host_timescale [value]: This will adjust your demo speed – where 1 is the normal speed, and higher values speed it up, and lower values slow it down.

All of these commands help you have the best control over your demo – and help you get from it exactly what you need.