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Author
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Topic: How to get good screen-shots from sdoe?
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Sv
Pilot
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posted 08-06- 08:13 PM
   
How to get good screen-shots from sdoe?I use z, then view the bmp. But is it dithered, why??? There is less color content, is there any way to do a real screen capture from SDOE? A product that one can buy? I really wish the shots looked as good as the game does... any ideas? Thanks  ------------------
-Sv =FC=
WWI in SDOE!
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Razer
Pilot
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posted 08-06- 08:48 PM
Hypersnap is a great program, you can even set it to take pics every 20 sec or so.. I could send you mine, it's reg. IP: Logged |
Spanky the Mad Dog
Pilot
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posted 08-06- 09:52 PM
Spanky here... Mine always look fine to me
just a little dark.
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Sv
Pilot
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posted 08-06- 10:20 PM
I have seen hypersnap pics, and they are always dithered as well... is that a setting maybe? I would register it for sure if it took perfect screen shots... maybe I will go try the demo...My shots look good, just not perfect heheh  -especially look at the prop blur and stuff - missing colors! You see subtle bands of color... -Sv IP: Logged |
Mighty
General
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posted 08-06- 11:09 PM
What color depth is your desktop running in?SDOE saves out exactly what's on the screen. IP: Logged |
Sv
Pilot
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posted 08-07- 07:32 AM
Mighty,Really? I am running 32 bit color, here is a screen shot I took:  Notice the banding in the prop blur and next to the roads on the ground. This was not how it looked on the screen. Also, why can I not open the bmp files in Photoshop? I get a "File-format module can't parse file" error. So instead I open them in Paint. Paint claims that the image is a 24 bit bmp file, does this explain the missing colors? The image looks more like a 16 bit image... HOw is the best way to open these bmp files? Also I tried hypersnap, I can't get it to work! I checked the special capture button and set it to D3D - that is what I am using in the game. It says to use the scroll-lock key, but this does nothing in the game? IS there a trick? Thanks again,
-Sv IP: Logged |
DanW
Pilot
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posted 08-07- 10:59 AM
Sv, What I usually do is set my SDOE resolution up to the maximum that it can go (currently 2040-something by something)...then I take the screenshot. I open it up in PhotoPaint and the resample it down to 880x600 or whatever, apply a slight unsharpen mask effect and it looks a lot clearer. I also think it depends on what API you are using and what type of card you have. IP: Logged |
Sv
Pilot
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posted 08-07- 11:07 AM
Yes DanW, I do the same exact thing, but that does not help with the color banding. In fact, it enhances it. A slight blur would lessen the banding but would make the pic looka allot worse. See the banding even on the front fuselage area of the Albatros? This is like a 16 bit image... I have no idea why.D3D runs in the same mode as your display setting, right? So if I am in 32 bit color then D3D shoulb be too, right? Well it must be, because I do not see any banding in the game, only with the z produced screen shots. Could it be the paint program? DanW, how do you get the bmp's into Photoshop? I take a screen capture from paint. If I export as a jpf from paint it dithers even worse!!! Even at no compression... -Sv IP: Logged |
DanW
Pilot
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posted 08-07- 01:05 PM
Well, I removed MS Paint from my machine, so my default editor is Corel Photo-Paint..but you can also do it with Photoshop as well. I simply open up corel and select the screenshot I want. Stay AWAY from .jpg until you are ready to post on the web or what not. If you convert from .jpg to .bmp make sure you do it in photoshop..there are some options to reduce the compression and save image quality, but you will have a larger file size. Actually, stay away from MS Paint period..open your screenshot directly from Photoshop or Corel, then do your resampling. I think the screen capture you are doing from paint may be your problem. You can get far better results if you save the bitmap as a .jpg from within photoshop or paint. IP: Logged |
DanW
Pilot
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posted 08-07- 01:19 PM
Sv,My mistake. I tried to open a few screens from SDOE in photoshop and it said it couldn't parse the files..hmm..that's odd. I'm running Photoshop 5 (with the last patch). Do you have access to Corel PhotoPaint or Paint Shop Pro? IP: Logged |
Sv
Pilot
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posted 08-07- 01:29 PM
That is the same error that I get  So you are saying that Paint-shop pro does not degrade the bmp files like Paint does? If so I should get Paint-shop pro... I wonder why photoshop can not open those bmp files? Maybe I will try that ifranview thing... maybe it will work... Thanks,
-Sv IP: Logged |
Falck
Pilot
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posted 08-07- 01:40 PM
Does gimp open them?Ill give it a try when I get a chance. IP: Logged |
DanW
Pilot
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posted 08-07- 01:55 PM
Sv,I would try getting PSPro, then open the bitmaps...you can then see if PSP can export to photoshop native format (i forgot the extension) and then open them with photoshop that way. Or maybe even resaving them as .bmps from PSP and then trying to open them with Photoshop again. IP: Logged |
Sv
Pilot
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posted 08-07- 07:48 PM
Ok, iview works! It was a Paint limitation, thanks all for the help!-Sv IP: Logged |
Yardstick
Pilot
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posted 08-08- 04:33 AM
SV,I use PSP for everything and find it ideal for everything I do. I tried Photoshop and hated it. All I ever do in PSP is take the screen capture at 1024 x 768 (my screen res of choice), resize, adjust the gamma and add a sharpen filter once or twice. The result is very nice shots. The thing to remember is that a lot of the art work in SDOE (certainly all mine) is in 16 bit so running higher will not improve the look. ------------------
Yardstick painted this
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Sv
Pilot
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posted 08-08- 08:23 AM
Is that true Yardstick? Doesn't the video card blur the textures a bit when they are stretched? This would add more color, wouldn't it? Or is that only for cards that support anti-aliasing? Textures don't look as pixelated as one would expect when they are scaled way up, how does that happen?-Sv IP: Logged |
Mighty
General
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posted 08-08- 02:37 PM
I'm pretty sure all of our renderers run in 16-bit. The BMP we write is 16-bit, which many programs don't know how to read.IP: Logged |
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