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ETTV Viewing Guide

ETTV?

ETTV is a modification that allows anybody to spectate Enemy Territory matches without actually being on the server the clans are playing on. The purpose is so that you have have hundreds, thousands or more people all able to watch an exciting match live, without being able to interfere with it or really lag out the server.

To quickly describe how ETTV works; the match server runs the ETTV mod and relays information about it to onto another server (the broadcast or 'slave' server), where everybody else can effectively spectate the game as if they were on the match server. Even better infact - since ETTV adds extra features to improve spectating - think of it as "live demo plus".

Viewing ETTV

1. Firstly you need to have Enemy Territory with the relevant patch and relevant ETPro mod version.
   
   This is not necessarily the latest patch version for Enemy Territory - instead get the latest official version of ETPro (i.e. version x.x.0, as the third digit is non-zero for beta test versions) and patch ET with the version that ETPro is designed for. For example, with ETPro v3.1.0 then you need ET with the 1.02 patch.
   
   
2. Secondly you need to know of a match to be on ETTV, and the IP of the ETTV server's broadcasting it. ETTV.org can help you with both of these, failing that try the websites of the tournament who's games you want to watch.
   
   
3. Connecting to the ETTV server is done in the usual way: either find via a server browser, or since you already have the IP's (found in step 2), just run ET and put into console
   /connect ip.add.ress:port
   (for example: /connect 62.75.178.112:27962)
   
   Note that you can copy an IP address to clipboard (highlight and press CTRL+C) and then paste them into the console (CTRL+V). To open the console, usually it is by pressing the key under ESCape (typically ~ or `), else check your controls options.

Thats it, easy.

Controls:

Usual Function	Default Key	ETTV Function
Jump	Spacebar	puts you into free-float spectator.
Attack	LeftMouse	cycles through players.
Activate	F	spectates the player your crosshair is pointing at.
Prone + Attack	X + LeftMouse	cycles following only objective carriers
Zoom + Attack	B + LeftMouse	cycles following only spectators / shoutcasters

Some extra tips:

• To spectate a specific player through their eyes, open console and put in the command /players, and notice the player number. Now just /follow x.To release and go back to free floating spectator, just press jump. If you're new to Enemy Territory, you might find it most entertaining to follow a shoutcaster, if there is one and you know who (s)he is.
  
  
• Don't be concerned about interfering with the match, you cant. The ETTV server you join is essentially playing a live demo of the match which is actually being played on another server. You can spectate freely and talk crap with the other viewers on the same ETTV server, thats it. Chat from ETTV viewers is distinguished from chat in the match by the red "ETTV" preceding it.
  
  
• ETTV spectator chat can be hidden with the console command /tvchat off, and re-enabled with /tvchat on.
  
  
• Shoutcasts are essentially commentary on matches, broadcast over something akin to internet radio. The shoutcaster is usually someone heavily involved with the ET community and listening to the shoutcast is half the fun of ETTV. The shoutcast URL is often given on ETTV.org with the rest of the info, or on the Radio iTG schedule. Simply open the URL with WinAmp (some other audio programs work also).
  
  
• Neither ETTV and shoutcasts are totally live, there is normally a few minutes delay added so competing teams cannot have another member watching or listening in and sending them advantagous information. Typically ETTV has a longer delay than the shoutcast does, so the result is ETTV and Shoutcast out of sync.
  
  Fortunately it isnt the other way around, because you can pause WinAmp to syncronise the two. Simply listen for some event in the shoutcast (often shoutcaster will read out the time on the clock for this purpose, or you can listen for event's like 'FIGHT!' or 'dynamite planted') and immediately hit pause. When the event occurs in ETTV, hit play again. This can be easier if you view ETTV in windowed mode, also if you make a mistake and pause WinAmp for too long, reconnect to the shoutcast URL.
  
  
• I find it convenient to view ETTV in a window, only using a portion of my screen. This makes it easy to access ETTV.org to find other IP's, talk in IRC, or access WinAmp, for example, without having to quit ET or mess about with the somewhat flakey minimising. When in windowed mode, the mouse cursor is freed from Enemy Territory when you open the console, so you can access other programs.
  
  The most straightforward way to minimise is to simply press ALT+Enter. This keeps ET at the same resolution though, and hence it will take up a proportionate amount of screen - you might prefer to have the window be smaller than your desktop resolution, in which case you could either go to the options screen to change resolution or enter /r_mode 3, and then hit ALT+Enter.
  
  
• Normal cvar restrictions dont apply when viewing demos, nor do they (usually) when viewing ETTV. This is OK because you're not playing against anyone. Several leagues remove the foliage (all the grassy stuff) on Radar because it hurts performance and, some say, isnt good for competitive gaming. They have it done automatically via the server configuration - as an ETTV viewer you can remove it with console: /r_drawfoliage 0. You might want to ensure that is reset to 1 before you join a normal gameserver however.

Note: text written in italics preceded by backslash ("/cvar x") means it is a command or cvar setting to be entered into the console. To open the console, usually it is by pressing the key under ESCape (typically ~ or `), else check your controls options. With the console open, type the command into it - including the backslash - and then press Enter.

ETTV Viewer's Guide written by and © DG, www.rtcw.co.uk
Last updated 24th April 2005