User:WindPower/Coop walkthrough guidelines

• Download the coop walkthrough config and add it to your autoexec.cfg so that it sets the proper options
• With some sheets of paper and some duct tape, block out the left 25% and right 25% of your monitor. This will force you to keep things in the center in focus. This is because the video is split-screen, so the left and right parts of the video will be cut out in the video.
• Watch at least one chapter of the Portal 2 walkthrough or the Portal walkthrough from the p2wiki channel to observe and get a feeling for:
  • The rhythm/pace of things (take your time, do not hesitate to stand still for a moment to show something)
  • The walking movement pattern: No unnecessary steps, no jumps at all unless necessary. Walking sideways/backwards is okay when unambiguous, but never walk sideways/backwards through a portal.
  • The vision movement pattern: No unnecessary camera movements (no idle looking-around), relatively slow (no violent camera flings), try to keep a constant rotation speed across the duration of the camera movement
  • No unnecessary portals
  • No missed shots
  • No deaths
  • Take your time, take it slow. Doing things quickly both increases the likelihood of making any of the above missteps, and makes it harder for the viewer to follow the walkthrough. This is especially relevant for a coop walkthrough, where a viewer has to take two players and 4 portals into account.
• In short, the run has to be perfect and hesitation-less. It will take a lot of attempts, time, and patience to get everything right.
• Right after the chamber starts, there is usually an info panel like this. Have Atlas go near it and examine it slowly for a moment, as shown in all of the Portal walkthrough videos. While this is happening, P-body should stare at Atlas.
• Do a non-recorded test run with the partner to determine who does what and the course of action to take. Once determined, do not stray away from this sequence of action; restart the level immediately if something unexpected and not-immediately-recoverable happens
• Do not use the in-game text chat or voice chat (the config file disables those); possibility to use an external voice program if necessary, but ideally after the test run is done you should both know who does what such that additional communication is unnecessary, except for the last (long) levels
• Do not spam the tag commands; do use it for synchronization (with the 3-second timer tool) or when wanting to point out something that is relevant to both the viewer and the partner (with the eye symbol). With proper planning, The "portal symbol" tool should not be necessary.
• Use consistent demo filenames: p2c_m_n_character.dem, where:
  • m is the course number
  • n is the level number within course m
  • character is either atlas or pbody
• How to record an entire level properly:
  • Both players open their consoles and type record p2c_m_n_character. Neither player closes the console.
  • The host then types changelevel mp_mapnamehere. This causes the level to change for both players, which also closes the consoles and will start recording when loading is complete
  • Once the level is completed and the next map has loaded, both players open their console and type stop.
  • The largest file out of those produced should be the correct one to upload to the wiki. Please upload it twice:
    • Once under the name it has been recorded as (shorter, easier to manage, consistent), meant to be used for rendering; no need for a specific description/license
    • Once under the name Portal 2 Coop - Course m - Test Chamber n - Character.dem, meant to be used as download link on wiki pages, where:
      • m and n are the same as they are in the other filename.
      • Character is either Atlas or P-body (capitalized, and has a hyphen for P-body)
    • The description of the second version should be:

Portal 2 Coop - Course m - Test Chamber n walkthrough.

[[Category:Portal 2 coop walkthrough]]