Best way to capture an image

What settings should Co* be set at to get the best detail for some screens? I have seen some groups of images on 1 page and want to do this for StaticThunder. I want to modify my settings for the most detailed shot I can get. Thanks. If it is easier email StaticThunder@nc.rr.com

Just turn all your settings all the way up. And set resolution to the native resolution of the display if its an LCD. If its a CRT, just go as high as possible.

You'll probably want Anti-aliasing and Anastropic filtering on (I don't remember off hand what they may be called in COH). The special effects like Depth of Field you can skip (since you may or may not need background material and you can add in DOF later anyway). Bear in mind that high quality screen shots do not equal playable framerates

The notes I've compiled:

If possible, when ever you shoot screen shots have some one else pose or play the game while you buzz around and bang off shots. A dedicated cameraman flying around in the middle of the action ALWAYS seems to get better shots. They can get better angles, frame the action better, and can position the camera more freely (if villains move, npcs get in the way- they don’t have to worry about fighting),

Cameraman Setup:

1. Make sure Anti-aliasing is enabled on your video card

2. Set your screen resolution as high as possible (see below)

3. Make sure you zoom in/out appropriately to avoid big open areas, tiny characters.

Graphics and Audio Settings

It is suggested you use these settings:

• 3d Resolution scaling – MAX

• Gamma 100% (if possible, a bit off is ok if it makes the image look better)
• Advanced Graphics Settings – ENABLED

• World Texture Quality – VERY HIGH
• Character Texture Quality – VERY HIGH
• World Detail – MAX (200%)
• Character Detail – MAX (200%)
• Max Particle Count – MAX (50000)
• FSAA – 4x
• Shadows – ENABLED
• Anisotropic Filtering – 16x
• Texture Crispness – Smooth
• Shader Quality - High
• Water Effects – High Quality
• Depth of Field Effects – Enabled
• Bloom Effects – Regular
• Bloom Amount – 100%


Always try to set up your scene so that your character is well lit by the sun or moon (to avoid the flat lit look) EVEN if your character is facing away from the camera. We want to try to give the game that 3-D look that seems to be all the rage with kids these days.

The game never looks as good in screenshots as when it’s actually being played live. You will need to bang out several “print screens” in order to capture the best frame where everything lines up and everything’s just right. I’ve found that assigning “printscreen” to my mouse in the City of Heroes keyboard configuration helps so I can bang off a succession of shots without needing to relocate my hands on the keyboard.


General Things to Pay Attention to:

There are 4 things that make up a good combat screenshot:
1. Character is in a dynamic or extreme pose making contact w/ the villain
2. sfx are in the timed correct and in the correct place accenting the hero or villain’s action
3. the villain or hero is in the correct hit reaction showing that some sort of exchange has taken place
4. Characters fill ¾ of the screen and there’s an interesting and detailed background.

Make sure that the backdrop is detailed and interesting to look at (avoid “planes of concrete”).

Make the sure foot shadows showing up in the shot (no “floating” people)

Capture animation at its most dynamic extent while still allowing the characters to be legible and not look awkward or terribly contorted

Avoid Players jutting through other players or villains intersecting other villains

Avoid scenes where there are too many tangled overlapping characters (crisp and well separated from the background)

Make sure that SFX don’t clip terrain (big cut line)

Make sure that SFX aren’t separated and “spotting” (Fire often does this as a result of low frame rate)

Make sure that SFX don’t completely obscure the character that’s casting the fx- need to tell a story and the viewer needs to understand what’s going on

Avoid Characters being backlit unless for dramatic purpose (sun of sfx behind them).

---------------

Hope some of that helps!

cheers,
Arctic Sun

Nice guide, Arctic

WOW. This is my 1st RedName response. I feel privilaged now. Thanks for all the info, I think I will be able to bang out some nice shots for myself now.

[ QUOTE ]
I’ve found that assigning “printscreen” to my mouse in the City of Heroes keyboard configuration helps so I can bang off a succession of shots without needing to relocate my hands on the keyboard.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would urge caution with this. I recall someone in PlanetSide who was complaining of lag. Come to find out, he had accidentally assigned his left-mouse-button (which is used to fire your weapon) as the Print Screen button, as well. So every time he was firing a shot, he was taking a screenshot as well. Needless to say, he wound up with thousands of screenshots, which was making his machine a little slow...

That said, as someone who takes quite a few screenshots, I'd agree that hitting your print-screen key repeatedly is a key. You never know when someone will be mid-pose, or something will be clipping, or whatever.

Make that its own thread and stickie it.

Being an avid in-game 'Screen-Shooter' (there's an understatement) I have an additional thing to add to that great check-off list you posted, and an observation to make:

* Always re-map the Screenshot Key to use the .TGA format for taking in-game screen photos, instead of .JPG (which is selected by default on new characters).

Despite the obvious quality difference using .TGA format over .JPG in the resulting Print, it also offers a quicker succession of rapid-fire screenshots because there is no additional time taken up to 'compress' each photo when the code saves them to the HD.

Now here is the observation on one of the setup statements I read:

[ QUOTE ]
• Gamma 100% (if possible, a bit off is ok if it makes the image look better)

[/ QUOTE ]

Heh. Perhaps it makes the scene better for the local viewer, but I find setting the gamma in-game control has absolutely Zero (0) effect on the actual gamma-level seen on the resulting screenshot outside of the game. It is as if setting the Gamma control affects the monitor (through the screen-driver) directly, but the routine which captures the actual in-game image totally ignores that setting and only outputs at the default raster Gamma value of the game's lighting elements.

If there is a way to bypass this fixed-value and have the in-game Gamma level /truly/ affect the resulting .TGA images (which many times appears too dark for my nighttime or indoor-mission screenshots) I would be glad to hear of it.