Capture views from a local replay, shape a camera path and play it back with animated framing and effects. Edit through the desktop or directly in the game.
Current source: 0.7.35-beta · Windows x64 · DirectX 11. Native source changes need a matching rebuilt helper. The portable app includes Python and Tcl/Tk; no separate installation is needed.
Local replays only — use at your own risk. Dolly injects a native DLL into Deadlock. Keep
-insecurein Deadlock's launch options while using Dolly. Close your Dolly editing session before launching Deadlock normally.
Quick start · Features · Guides · Compatibility · Support · Contributors
- Download the Windows x64 ZIP from Releases and extract it completely. Keep
_internalbesideDolly.exe. - Open Steam, close any running Deadlock and keep
-insecurein the game's launch options. - Run Dolly.exe, select the game executable and a local
.demreplay, then click Open replay in Dolly. - Frame a view and press Ctrl+Alt+K to capture a camera. Advance the replay before framing and capturing the next view, then use F8 to open the in-game editor and play your path.
Start the editing game through Dolly. It launches its own process with
-dev -insecure -console and refuses an already running game.
| Default shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+Alt+K | Capture a camera |
| F8 | Show or hide Dolly's in-game panels |
| F9 | Switch to Deadlock's replay controls |
| F5 | Play the camera shot |
| Backspace | Stop and restore |
Bindings can be changed under Controls; existing saved bindings may differ. See the in-game editor guide for the full workflow.
For a video walkthrough, watch the Dolly tutorial by EsteemFPS.
- Camera paths and curves. Shared desktop/in-game editing for position, rotation and aspect ratio, position tangent handles, Undo/Redo and live path guides.
- Follow and Bone Picker. Follow a replay participant with the game's camera, adjust framing, or attach a camera to a selected bone. Use the per-camera vertical-aim lock and camera-relative movement in attached preview. See the Bone Picker guide.
- Framing and depth of field. Animate aspect ratio and supported DOF controls alongside the camera path.
- Video and audio. Real-time or fixed-step exports, 30-600 FPS output settings, hardware/software H.264 or HEVC, lossless FFV1, and optional game or reconstructed audio in both modes. Reconstructed audio installs its verified extractor automatically on first use.
- Depth and layers. Paired depth masters, optional float EXRs and per-frame camera metadata, plus World, Players and Effects takes with documented layer limits.
- High-resolution stills. Plate, players-only matte and cut-out hero presets up to 8K, with optional depth within the documented readback limits.
- ReShade integration. Optional color effects and verified scene depth for compatible depth-based effects, with a bundled crosire/prod80 shader library. Extract ReShade64.dll from the setup EXE using 7-Zip; do not run the installer or install it into Deadlock for Dolly. Follow the ReShade setup guide.
- Discord Rich Presence. Show editing and export activity, a session timer and links to Dolly. Turn it off in Settings; replay names and file paths stay private. See the Discord presence guide.
- Experimental replay repair. Create a separate repair copy for a specific replay manifest problem; the original replay remains untouched. Test the copy in Deadlock because repairs are not guaranteed to work for every replay.
Start with the documentation index for all current guides.
| What you need | Guide |
|---|---|
| Setup, controls, replay preparation and recovery | User guide |
| Camera, Follow, Bone Picker, curves and saved layouts | In-game editor |
| Recording, encoders, audio and ReShade | Video and ReShade |
| High-resolution screenshots and mattes | Screenshots |
| Depth, isolated layers and capture limits | Layer export |
| Camera metadata for compositing | Camera bundle |
| Updates and interrupted-update recovery | Updating and recovery |
Native mode requires reviewed builds of Deadlock's client.dll, engine2.dll
and tier0.dll. Dolly checks the installed modules before loading its native
helper. Reviewed build definitions are published separately from releases, so a
client-only update can often be supported without downloading a new Dolly
build. See published build definitions.
Use Settings → Troubleshooting & recovery → Startup controls → Check game build to check your installation. Console (legacy) opens the manual Startup controls when selected. It can remain usable across a client-only update when its separate configuration and unlocker requirements still pass. It does not provide native recording or layers, and is not guaranteed to survive every game update. Camera compatibility does not by itself establish support for Depth or Players output. See the user guide for build checks and recovery; the maintainer reference explains compatibility review.
Dolly is in beta. High FPS and high-resolution output depend on the game, encoder and GPU; the available settings do not guarantee every workload. Fixed-step Color exports can carry game or reconstructed audio through the engine's frame-locked WAV recorder; extra layer takes stay silent. Depth, matte and replay-seeking limits are covered in the guides above.
Packaged Windows builds check the published Latest release in the background when automatic checking is enabled. The notice shows What's changed, Update now and Later; manual checks are under Settings → Updates.
Every update requires Update now. Nothing downloads or installs before that click, and Later leaves the update available. If Dolly asks you to save work or close the game, do that and click Update now again. Settings, shots and external tool paths are preserved. See updating and recovery.
Dolly also refreshes the small
published build definitions file in the background when
automatic checking is enabled. That file only adds game builds that are already
reviewed, is cached beside Dolly.exe, and never installs or runs anything.
Dolly temporarily mounts its plugins for each editing session, restores the
original gameinfo.gi after unlocker initialization and removes its generated
plugin folder when the game exits. If Dolly closes first, its cleanup helper
waits for that game process. Keep logs and recovery backups after an interrupted
session.
With Deadlock closed, use File → Recover game configuration to check an interrupted session. Configuration conflicts and unrecognized files are left intact. The user guide covers recovery and conflicting HUD mods.
Run the source editor with Python 3.10+ and Tcl/Tk:
python -m dollyThe basic source editor needs no pip dependencies; native features require the compiled Windows helper. Full regression checks and optional audio workflows need their documented dependencies. See Building for setup and the pinned Windows toolchain, and Contributing for development guidance.
SOURCE_FILES.txt defines the clean source export. Logs, personal replays,
settings and build outputs stay out of Git.
Contact @Cravvnn on Discord, join the Deadlock Editing Discord,
or report an issue.
Include the Dolly version, the action that failed and the ZIP from
Export diagnostics. If the app does not open, include
logs/Dolly_startup.log and logs/Dolly.log when available.
Review diagnostics before posting publicly; they can contain local paths and replay names.
- @ExoCalibra — Bone and Weapon vertical-aim lock and camera-relative movement in attached preview (PR #29).
- @SamuelCurrid — After Effects and USD camera exports, camera tracks and forward-seek undershoot recovery (PR #25, PR #28).
- @paralin — Linux/Proton Steam discovery, Wine mount-point handling and interrupted plugin-cleanup recovery.
- @tbhtho — in-game UI rework and saved panel layouts.
- @s34532 — custom particle effects, native confetti rain, game-only audio capture and reconstructed clip audio.
- @Hesykhia — high-resolution screenshot export with players-only mattes; update-control feedback.
See Credits for the project's creator, each contributor's work, HLAE and other references, libraries and development tools from Dolly's history.
Dolly source uses the MIT license. Bundled components retain
their own notices under third_party/ and native/vendor/. Artwork has
separate terms in assets/README.md.