# Playback Playing a recording brings the player back as an NPC that repeats exactly what they did. Anyone standing nearby sees them walk, fight, mine and talk, the same as the first time. ## Playing something ``` /recap play finals-round-3 ``` The NPC appears where you're standing and starts from the beginning. It disappears when the recording runs out, unless you asked it to loop. Scenes play exactly the same way, by name. Everything in the scene turns up at its own spot and its own start time. See [[Recap/Server Owners/Features/Scenes]]. On a bigger scene you'll get two messages: `Loading scene 'X'…` right away, then `Now playing 'X' (12 actors)` once everyone is ready. Small scenes skip the second one so chat stays quiet. ## Looping ``` /recap play spawn-ambience true ``` A single recording starts over when it reaches the end. In a scene, every recording loops on its own, so a short clip doesn't leave a gap while a longer one is still going. That's what keeps an ambient scene looking busy. ## While it's playing ``` /recap pause /recap resume /recap seek 30 /recap speed 0.5 ``` `seek` jumps to that many seconds in. `speed` runs it faster or slower: `2` for double, `0.5` for half, which is the one you want when you're trying to see a single hit. These only show up in tab-complete while something is actually playing, and they apply to whichever playback is nearest you. ## Stopping `/recap stop` ends the closest playback, as long as you aren't recording or hijacking something yourself. `/recap stopall` ends every playback on the server. ## A few things that might surprise you **You can't play the same scene twice at once.** Recap refuses, because stacking two copies of a busy scene can overwhelm everyone's client. Stop the first one, or wait for it to finish. **People only see NPCs within 64 blocks.** That's `playback.view-distance`, and you can change it or set it to `0` for no limit. Someone walking into range partway through sees the NPC in the right place wearing the right gear, not mid-air from the start. ## See Also - [[Recap/Server Owners/Features/Recording]], making recordings - [[Recap/Server Owners/Features/Scenes]], combining them - [[Recap/Server Owners/Features/Hijack]], fighting them