sorry if this video is all over the place. i originally intended it to be like a short 1 minute video to show off "haha spy can make the sniper zoom in! lol!" and end it there, but at the last minute i decided to dig a bit deeper and found other stuff (that the spy can do). this then necessitated i do the complicated explanation of how everything works and here we are. frankly i'm not sure if it's very interesting, but finishing what i started is probably better than just giving up and trashing it. some nerd shit before people point out in the comments: technically the server converts all the netvars it wants to update you on - into binary, to then send to you, so your computer would actually see a bunch of 0s and 1s then have to decode that to accessible information. the spy is technically networked as the spy to both friends and enemies, but with an extra attribute to specify his disguised class, which is why & how cheats can just ignore that and still show a player is a spy deceiving them. so the spy is actually like two distinct models at once. when the spy player model is prompted to perform a certain animation, it also gets passed to the disguise model. the above i felt was way too nitpicky, besides the point of the video and basically impossible to simplistically explain so i didn't include it. for the stuff about the player models, i also didn't want to have to explain the entire system of how tf2 animates models in general with the activities since that's just such a massive massive topic, so this is why i compromised.

-Have only 5 out of 6 bullets on your revolver -Disguise as an Engineer with a Widowmaker -Reload -Reality as we know it ceases to exist

5:21 Imagine seeing a friendly soldier with a cowmangler go behind your team to aggressively a-pose with the charging sounds before firing an enemy projectile

The Spy class is actually a tower of spaghetti disguised as a frenchman.

this makes me wish we could do more stuff as spy. actually fake reload animations, taunt, scope in with the sniper rifle, etc.

Brings me to wonder how difficult the tf2 randomizer was to develop.

4:34 imagine a scout running up to you with a crit-a-cola but instead of drinking it he just starts throwing them at you.

It would be cool if a "fake out" key bind existed for Spy to make use of these various animations while disguised.

I have been wanting to act out my disguise completely for AGES. The fact that it is technically possible makes me very excited

Heavy vibrating his gun when not revved up scares me

3:52 Heavy fears no man, but whatever you did left him trembling and panicked.

If a server plugin was made that could map animation plays to keys such as primary fire or secondary fire/scope, it would actually make Spy a little more viable. They could actually have a chance to survive aggressive spy checkers (which at this point in TF2 is everyone, since there really is no loss to shooting every teammate you see for the first time)

Seeing that red sniper produce the wrong color dot when scoped in was actually an incredible tell. It would have been super cool if Valve had implemented more ability for the spy to fake behaviors, with similar tells for perceptive players to notice.

2:24 oh that's amazing. So spy is basically deceiving the client computer of the enemy by tricking them into thinking they're whatever their disguised as. This is getting meta...

Imagine a future where the Snipers on the 2Fort battlements are actually enemy spies.

Just imagine walking up to a scoped RED sniper, hiding their dot against a wall. You look at the dot, and it's blue How amazing would that be

Spy's disguise kit can now be somewhat convincing now i think

The soldier violently convulsing while A posing when charging the cow mangler is incredible

disguise as sniper while being able to scope in sound awesome :o

would be cool if there were any commands that would display animations while you are disguised

A Spy with the wrong weapon is both the funniest and scariest thing you could see in TF2

is it just me or does the spy-disguised-as-heavy look weirdly creeped/freaked out in this video

3:53 My sleep paralysis demon

ok, now spy needs a revolver that can aim down sights so you can do the sniper scope animation while disguised

In Fatmagic's most recent video, a Spy disguised as a Scout fired a scattergun shot before undisguising and firing his revolver. I was wondering what happened. Was it accidental on his part?

"The Spy is a perfectly balanced class with no exploits whatsoever" -Gabe "Mr Valve" Newell

Idea: Prop Gun Level X Revolver + Primary and alternate fire allow you to fully fake the animations of your disguise’s current weapon (including fake bullets and projectiles). + 10% move speed increase on wearer + 20% damage reduction while disguised + Firing does not break disguise - This weapon deals no damage • The weapon can be tapped or held to accommodate the weapon your disguise is currently holding.

It's actually so fascinating how the Source Engine deals with these things. It's bittersweet to reflect from how much Valve neglects TF2. Spy needs more options like a scoped weapon

I can only imagine how hilarious it would be to run up to an enemy and hit them while being disguised.

Your graphics are always so nice and visually explain everything very well. This fact makes me surprised this wasn't ever added as a feature to trick enemy players as the mind games spy mains could do. Of course it would have probably taken a ton of work to add but I do hope if they ever made another TF they do try to add this.

6:10 I don't agree, the spy is definitely using that shield shounic

The buff spy needed back when not everyone and their grandma literally shot anyone at any point randomly.

For anyone who isn't aware, the sniper rifle and flareguns don't have "reload" animations; they just have a pretty long firing animation that plays for quite some time after it has fired. So disguising as a sniper and reloading your revolver won't play an animation of your disguise reloading his rifle.

This actually works well for the item idea i had for spy, a new gun idea that looks like a nerf gun with a light on the back, it would do very weak damage, like 50% less, but if used while disguised, doesnt shoot any bullets but doesnt remove disguise, meaning it allows you to fake fire and reload on command, and if you middle click, it acts as the disguises right click, lighting up the guns light to say your doing that action, i feel its an interesting way to spice up spy game play

Honestly actually learning that everything in TF2 is processed as text, sent to your computer *as text* and almost instantly is constructed into a visual state is an astounding showcase of the power of technology.

Yo, just realized that the dot at around 3:15 is still blue, that’s actually sweet

4:00 i like how heavy just stares at the camera

Now I want to see a revolver for Spy that spins up like a minigun, and it causes the Heavy disguise to spin up, too.

4:10 the heavy is bieng held at gunpoint to do this stuff lol

So the next time you see a scout aggressively swinging his drink, you know that he is a spy.

This would be really cool as an actual feature. Have a button that allows the Spy to mimic a class-specific action - on Heavy you'd rev your minigun, as Engie you'd carry a toolbox, Sniper would scope in, and so on. It'd help make disguises a bit more viable.

This is VERY VERY useful information for randomizer servers.

so what you're saying is the spy could theoretically mimic animations in disguise but as it stands can't? Imagine if they gave the enforcer a right click fake fire action like that...!

Randomizer servers are gonna get awesome!

Man starts a new sentence with every new word, makes me wonder if he ever passes the "im not a robot" test

The minigun shaking is because the rev up is a separate animation from the firing one the heavy firing animation is just two bones at the shoulder moving back and forth to create the illusion of recoil ontop of any other animation you love to see this small dev stuff beeing broken down

amazing demonstration of the spy using the rescue ranger's right click lmao

I think it'd be really neat if Spy had extra actions to help him disguise better. Things like Sniper scoping, building hauling, stuff like that.

I love the editing, the visuals are so cool to look at.

i love how the soldier charging up the mangler just T-poses and vibrates ominously

your editing has really gotten better!

3:50 I think this is because Heavy has two animations for using the minigun; the spinning up animation, and the recoil animation, which is just layered on top of the spinning up animation to make it look like Heavy is shooting. Here, Spy's disguise is unable to perform the spinning up animation, causing only the recoil animation to play.

It makes me think, what if we had a Revolver that was dedicated to mimicking actions, so it would not actually shoot but mimic left click and you could not cloak while using it because right click would mimic right click actions like scoping in. It would have longer holstering time to avoid quick backstabs after mimicking.

i love these kind of educational videos! please make more i subscribed

3:42 wow this pose looks iconic

7 Year old me playing with the toy bow from the dollar store: 4:47

I could definitely tell that shounic forgot to act human for a minute, his voice program is all off

Amazing video as always! I got excited there thinking that I could scope in with the sniper disguise in casual.

3:52 he looks so nervous 🥺

This seems like It'd be a good disguise kit buff. Or maybe a alt for it. Letting you use all the animations.

loving this 15.ai shounic voice, sounds just like the real thing!

The first half explaining the server information finally made me understand why connection issues result in people walking in place, rather than just freezing. The players are in the state of walking, but because of the connection issue my computer doesn't get any new information about their location or if they've stopped walking, so it just keeps playing the walking animation.

3:51 The poor man is freezing with nothing but a t-shirt in the middle of winter

So you are saying that the disguise breaking is coded into each spy weapon? My Dolly sense is tingling...

Imagine how cool this would be as a concept, obviously downgraded to some compacity. There could be a unique disguise kit that makes cloaking has a 50% additional drain, but if you're disguised as a Heavy or Sniper, Spy can M2 while disguised as those classes to mimic the actions they would do, which would add a whole new way to trick your enemies and going in for a kill on them.

Would be cool if they made a 5th item slot of an item that helps give him better acting to play with. A bag-o-tricks with animations to play with for certain classes, and also for some universal ones. For example, reload animations would be easier to do on demand(and even select the reload length depending on some weapons) without needing your revolver to have been shot just first.

The fact that he spends so much effort just to tell us how stuff works, bugs, strats which we probably wouldn't think about it makes him a chad and he deserves tons of respect for that

0:15 but how do you scope in without cloaking

why does he sound AI generated in this video

spy is keeping this channel alive

The blu dot on red sniper's scope got me good

Imagine if Spy can mimic melee swing animations Scoping as sniper Prefire with heavy's minigun This sounds great on paper but overpowered in execution Im thinking now if the devs tried experimenting with it and they never complete this mimic "feature" And they forgotten to disable the reload animation(which can be possible)

shounic is slowly turning into an AI reading voice, why did you speak in such a weird way in this video?

I think it's cool how a disguised spy with the huntsman who's allowed to fire looks super convincing- if not for the team-accurate arrow trail.

Heavy staring at me while jiggling his gun gives me funny feelings.

can i have a burger

this is amazing not even gonna lie idk why i enjoyed this so much

I think spy should be able to fake fire his disguise's weapon (maybe use the oft-forgotten special attack button the Vaccinator used to use to cycle resistances) and reload when already loaded to make disguises more convincing.

This makes a lot of sense, thinking about the whole Hot Rod flippy thing with the sapper

This is really cool info for randomizers actually

Ok, going to listen to "spy sings like a boss" after this vid

spy disguises so good he even tricks the computer into telling the other players that he is a friendly.

It's really great that I get know about this just now when I already quitted playing the game.

All this talk of increasing spy viability when I spy check everything that moves within 100 meters of my kabooty.

My man's out here becoming his very own text to speech xD

somehow that image of a level 1 just sitting there with a spy holding the rescue ranger and aggressively A-posing in the background is funny to me

That was a missed opportunity to make spy gameplay more immersive

Spy Scout throws his Bonk in disgust

I really like your stuff I'm guessing you work really hard on research thank you for me not bored

It’s amazing how fast the client and server process the information

I've been waaiting for a video on this for so long. I want spy to be able to mimic attacking ingame.

love how your videos make me think deeper and explain things I would never even think about. Im not sure if you have addressed it or not but I was wondering what is the longest melee weapon? And what is the fastest a character can run? For longest weapon my guess would be either the whip or the skullcutter. The whip because it can hit behind and in front of the soldier. For fastest a baby face blaster scout, drinking crit a cola or a soldier with 1hp, escape plan equipped after blowing a conch would have to be in the top 2. At their top speed would being hit by a soldiers whip make them run even faster? Just a few questions I had and you are the only one I know who would know or could find out. Thanks for doing what you do and sharing it with us:)

spy is secretly the source spaghetti monster

The spy with the parachute. I don't know why that made me laugh, but it did.

3:52 heavy when he sees a sniper at distance

Heavy's shaking minigun just makes me think Heavy saying "Wot was that Sasha? Yu smell sandvich?"

3:55 Heavy be like: "I fear no man... But that thing... It scares me"

god, this is so interesting that the tf2 spaghetti just works even if it is a spaghetti

3:58 bro is just cold, get him a blanket

Fun video! Thanks for uploading!