Screenshots for IL2/PF not right.

[NawlinzVoodoo]

Whenever I take a screenshot in IL2/PF, it doesn't come out. They show up in the IL2 folder, but they are corrupt. They look like a a TV with no picture, just colored 'snow'. Any one help?

My Video Card is a nVidia GeForce 7800GS 93.71 Drivers

Thanks so much in advance any help at all.

[MaXMhZ]

Could you please tell which program you use to view the screenshot?
Did you try Irfanview to take screenshots? - this can save directly in JPG format to a directory of your choise. Benefits are it's a faster process, takes less HD space, doesn't overwrite older screenshots, and you don't need to convert later on. There's a wide variety in graphics formats available too.
To determine whether it's the video card, try taking a screenshot of a normal windows display (like this forum) by pressing PrintScreen, and then pasting it into a graphics program or viewer. (Edit - paste) and see if that has the colour noise too. You could also try an older nVidea driver and see if that fixes the problem. (allways uninstall the current driver first if you decide to try another driver.

[NawlinzVoodoo]

Hey Max, I am using Photoshop 6.0 to convert the TGA's. I took a SS of the webpage and pasted it in PS and it came just fine. I will try Irfanview, before I try different drivers. Will let you know the outcome. Thanks for the help. HOOAH!

[MaXMhZ]

If the screenshot of the webpage came out OK it's not the card or drivers - that's very encouraging - you could try a screenshot of the game using PS 6 - next step would be to take a screenshot on track playback (assigning a key for quick-record would save tracks. These nettracks would be saved as quick*.ntrk in the /records/ folderand can be used online too. They will show all planes including custom skins (if enabled). A nettrack only has a little delay on start of the recording. This in contrast to screenshots which have a big delay when taken using the in-game screenshot ability that will even influence online gameplay - it's sometimes used as an exploit to make it more difficult for opponents to hit . This can be countered by lagtime and timespeed settings in conf.ini
When threatened cheaters used to take a lot of screenshots introducing lag on purpose so hits didn't register

Making nettrack recordings has a lot of benefits. They don't overwrite previously recorded tracks,You can slowdown and even pause the nettrack on playback to get the best angle for a screenshot. On playback the CPU has a lot less work to do so you could improve graphics settings too if needed and you can analyse what went on in a game using the different views (all planes are recorded).

[NawlinzVoodoo]

Ok I got it working, but it only takes 1 SS, the last one I snap. I just want SS, not movies, I never play on-line any ways.

[MaXMhZ]

Screenshots made by the game get overwritten. With every new game you start the counter is reset to "0000" re-starting the filename at grab0000.tga
There is no way around this but to make a copy of the screenshots already taken. This does not happen with screenshots made by Irfanview or with the quick-recorded tnettracks.

[NawlinzVoodoo]

No I think you misunderstod, I am talking about Irfanview, it only takes one SS. From what you are saying it should take multiple shots as you press the designated hot key during the game. Is this correct?

And this nettrack thing you keep talking about, are you talking about recording a mission as you fly it, then replay and get the SS?

[MaXMhZ]

If you save the SS using save-as-file (see Irfan's help-search "screen capture" for explanation) it will take multiple Screenshots. use the system time format in the filename as in the example.

About the nettrack quick record, yes. Record while playing, then later playback, adjust time and viewpoint as needed and take screenshots.

[NawlinzVoodoo]

Got it...getting multiple shots now. Now, the only other small question is can I change the resolution of the image? My desktop is 1280x1024. That is what I would like the images resolution to be.

Thanks so much for your patience and time Max, I do appreciate it.

[MaXMhZ]

No Problem, NawlinzVoodoo, Allways glad to help.
Sorry about rambling on about the quick-record thingy.
The screenshots you take should be in the same resolution as what the game is set to. I'm not aware of Irfanview taking screenshots in a different resolution as the desktop's. 1280x960 should be no problem. If you have a resolution of 1280x1024, do check the conf.ini file in the game's maindirectory under the [window] header at the top of the file. You can edit it with notepad or any other ascii editor, change height= and width= to other values if needed and on next run the game will be displayed in that resolution.

Be aware that 1280x1024 has a different aspect ratio than e.g. 1024x768
IL-2 series will even display wide-screen resolutions this way, but will "cut-out" the middle part of the screen and dropping aereas on the top and bottom (best seen when comparing screenshots of the in-cockpit view)
IL-2 series will not re-sample the screen because this can introduce distotion.

[Proud IL2 ACE]

Hey try this. It is what i use and screenshots come out great.
http://www.wspilots.com/index.php?page= ... le_id=2089

[MaXMhZ]

Thanks for the heads-up IL-2 Ace that looks very nice indeed.