Clip

clip.py records a video of a driving route by replaying it into a desktop UI and capturing the result. Use it to export footage of a route without watching it live.

Setup

Install dependencies (this pulls in uv, ffmpeg, and xvfb):

tools/ubuntu_setup.sh

To clip a route from your comma account, authenticate first:

python3 tools/lib/auth.py

Public routes and --demo need no authentication.

replay and the raybig UI runtime are built automatically on first run, so expect the first clip to take a few extra minutes.

Usage

# Clip the demo route
python3 tools/clip/run.py --demo -o output.mp4

# Clip seconds 140-260 of a route, timing in the route ID
python3 tools/clip/run.py 78511c37de32c375/00000958--8cb1d3e165/140/260 -o clip.mp4

# Same, timing as flags
python3 tools/clip/run.py 78511c37de32c375/00000958--8cb1d3e165 -s 140 -e 260 -o clip.mp4

Recording happens in real time, so a 120s clip takes about 120s to produce.

Choosing a UI

-u/--ui selects which desktop UI to record. The default is c3.

python3 tools/clip/run.py --demo -u raybig -o output.mp4

c3 renders the Qt UI into a virtual Xvfb display and screen captures it with ffmpeg.
raybig runs the raylib UI, which exports its own frames straight to ffmpeg. This bypasses screen capture entirely, so it also works where a compositor hides window contents from x11grab (notably WSLg).

Note that raybig clips do not get the title, metadata, or route timer overlays that c3 clips get: those are ffmpeg drawtext filters applied during screen capture, and the raylib UI's own export path does not run them.

Options

Flag	Description
`-o, --output`	Output path, must be `.mp4` (default `output.mp4`)
`-s, --start` / `-e, --end`	Clip window in seconds; omit if timing is in the route ID
`-u, --ui`	`c3` (default) or `raybig`
`-f, --file-size`	Target size in MB (default 9, sized for Discord/GitHub)
`-q, --quality`	`high` (hevc, default) or `low` (qcam)
`-x, --speed`	Record at this speed multiple
`-t, --title`	Burn a title into the video (`c3` only)
`-d, --data-dir`	Use local route data instead of downloading
`-p, --prefix`	openpilot prefix to isolate the run

The default 9MB target suits short clips. For anything longer than about a minute, raise it (-f 250) or the bitrate drops low enough to be visibly bad.

WSL

Recording works on WSL2 under Windows 11, which supplies a display through WSLg. Use -u raybig; -u c3 relies on screen capture and can produce black frames there.

python3 tools/clip/run.py -u raybig -f 250 -o ~/clips/foo.mp4 78511c37de32c375/00000958--8cb1d3e165/140/260

Running the tool rebuilds native extensions, and this repo tracks those build artifacts in git, so the working tree ends up dirty afterwards. That does not affect running it again, it only matters when pulling:

git checkout -- . && git pull

The discarded files are rebuilt on the next run. If you have source edits you want to keep, commit or stash them instead, since git checkout -- . discards all unstaged changes.