3D replay and clips

Under the 2D replay of a match, the Highlights section lists the moments found in the demo: ace, quad and triple kill, quick kills, won clutch from 1v2 to 1v5, entry kill, successful retake, ninja defuse and grenade kills. A highlight that contains others (a clutch ending in a triple kill) appears only once. Pick a player above the list to see their highlights (yours first when you have any).

When the site keeps clips for the CStonx app, the button becomes Create with the app: the app on your PC records the moment in CS2 and sends it to the match’s app clips section. Close CS2 first: the app restarts it to record the demo.

2D replay, 3D replay and first person

First person is only offered for replays generated after height and view angles started being recorded; for an older demo, regenerate the replay from the match page.

The map in 3D

With the CStonx app open on your PC, the 3D replay shows the real maps of your game directly, without importing: in the app, Clips tab, Cartes 3D (3D maps) button to convert them once. They stay on your PC. If the map stays flat, click Use the app’s maps in the 3D replay and allow the local network access the browser asks for: this browser then remembers it. Depending on the site’s configuration, the 3D replay may only use these maps: without the app, it then shows a message instead of the scene.

Valve does not allow its files to be redistributed: CStonx hosts no visual CS2 map or model. Without an import, the 3D replay shows a collision map: walls, floors, doors and windows as grey volumes, without textures, with the real obstacles for lines of sight and shots. The first time a map is opened it may take a few minutes to prepare: the flat radar is shown meanwhile, then the map appears on its own. When not signed in, the flat radar remains the fallback map (flagged on screen). For the real textures, convert the map from your own install of the game and import it in Settings → Clips → CS2 maps in 3D. It stays in your browser, on this device, and is never sent to CStonx.

1. 1

   Install the tools

   Node.js 22 or newer and Source 2 Viewer (command-line version).

2. 2

   Convert the map

   From a copy of the site: node scripts/cs2-assets.mjs --maps de_mirage --cli <path to Source2Viewer-CLI>. The output folder holds the map and a manifest.json.

3. 3

   Import the folder

   In Settings → Clips, button Import a converted folder. Every file is checked before it is stored.

Analysing an action in 3D

The tabs above the scene open the analysis tools. Every piece of information states where it comes from: attested (read from the demo), reconstructed (computed from recorded data, with a geometric assumption) or estimated (approximation).

• Shots: click a trajectory or an impact (or pick a shot in the list) for its card: weapon, tick, angles, trajectory, impacts, penetration, real and theoretical damage, data quality.
• Duel: pick a kill; the replay goes back 3 s, in slow motion, with the view, shots and damage, and you switch from one POV to the other.
• Distances and grenades: distances of the followed player, team spacing, trade distances, stops, aim changes, players in smokes and molotovs, opening a smoke in the Nade Solver.
• Annotations: text, marker, arrow or line placed in the scene for a few seconds. Private by default; only the match owner shares them. They can appear in clips and are deleted with the demo.
• Copy 3D link keeps the round, time, player, camera and duel: paste it in a Playbook comment. From a strategy, a demo analysis or a sequence, Open in 3D leads to the source round; in a map Atlas, each reference round has an In 3D link. The round comparison shows the second round as a ghost in the same scene.
• Previous / next tick steps, event jumps and speeds from ×0.1 to ×4 let you inspect a shot frame by frame.

Making a clip

1. 1

   Click Clip it

   The first time, a window offers the format (2D, 3D or first person), the camera (automatic: suited to the highlight), the resolution (720p, 1080p, 1440p when the browser can encode it), 30 or 60 frames per second and margins before and after the highlight, always within the round.

2. 2

   Remember or not

   Tick Remember my preferences so that the next clicks start right away. Configure and clip reopens the window for an exception, without changing your preferences.

3. 3

   Keep the tab open

   This clip is made in your browser, frame by frame, without any server. Progress shows the real steps (preparing, resources, rendering and encoding, finalising, upload). Closing the tab stops the clip; nothing half-done is saved.

4. 4

   Download or keep

   The file (MP4 when the browser allows it, WebM otherwise) downloads directly. If you ticked keeping, it is also sent to History → Clips.

Preferences and history

• Settings → Clips: ask for every clip or use your saved preferences, format, camera, resolution, frames per second, margins, 3D quality, layers (Show Sight, trajectories, impacts, penetration, damage, X-Ray, annotations…). These preferences follow your account on all your devices.
• History → Clips: layers used, play, download, back to the demo or the round, make again while the demo exists, delete. A clip link only opens it for people who can see your page.
• A kept clip is deleted together with its demo, according to your history retention; making a clip never extends the demo. A file already downloaded to your device is not affected.

Clips filmed by the app

• The CStonx app can also film the real game on your PC: live during a match, or from a demo. Everything is set in the app’s Clips tab; clips are only sent to the site if you chose so.
• On a match page with a demo, the App clips section lists the highlights (kill, multikill, clutch, ace). Tick the ones you want and click Create clips: the app films then uploads them, with the progress of each clip. The button only works when you are signed in, the app is open with clips enabled and the tools installed, and CS2 is closed. In Settings → Clips → Clips created by the app, choose whether to show the game HUD (health, armor, weapons, grenades, money; otherwise only the kill feed) and whether to turn on X-ray (player outlines through walls).
• App clips show on the match page and in History → Clips, in the Clips filmed by the app section, apart from the Clips made on the site (made in your browser from the replay). They are kept 30 days, except the ones you pin (10 at most), within 30 clips and 1 GB. They are only shown to people who can view your page.