Screenshoots program : IV

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 12:44 pm

I used Fraps for many years with strategy games like Total War series. It is useful also for know fps. Do you use something?

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:46 pm

I use Fraps, sometimes, but Oblivion's built-in screenshot feature uses BMP format, which is lossless. You can also see your FPS on the SDT #2 and #0 pages (cmd sequence: TDT > SDT 2 or TDT > SDT 0)

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:03 am

Grabby. Light weight and only requires three clicks to function then you can snap away in .BMP or .JPG

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:01 am

I use Fraps, sometimes, but Oblivion's built-in screenshot feature uses BMP format, which is lossless. You can also see your FPS on the SDT #2 and #0 pages (cmd sequence: TDT > SDT 2 or TDT > SDT 0)

Full version of Fraps lets you use .bmp, .jpg, or .png also - and gets rid of that watermark and time limit on the videos !

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 4:23 am

Full version of Fraps lets you use .bmp, .jpg, or .png also - and gets rid of that watermark and time limit on the videos !

I have the full version. I bought it because I wanted the PNG format. I do not use it to make videos, but having that extra feature might be useful at some point. My earlier comment was only to indicate that you can do pretty well with the things mentioned in the opening post without an external utility. Fraps is definitely a neat little utility, and I do mean little.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 12:53 pm

Nope don't use one ... Just the print screen button

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:34 pm

print screen button FTW! then a few click in wrye bash to make those photos .png and were good to go

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:11 am

Fraps, full version. Its more reliable that messing with my ini and making sure I've got OB at the right settings, and it lets me take video.

Why in the world would you want to save your images as png though? A 1280x1024 Oblivion screenshot is 1.5 MB in png and 131 KB in jpg, and there is no visual difference between then.

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 12:46 am

heh i was always under the impression jpgs were larger then png's for whatever reason.. thx for the tip Lady N

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 4:24 am

PNG and JPEG both have variable compression. Any comparison of sizes needs to indicate what compression rate was used for each one, and whether the PNG was handling an alpha channel (JPEG doesn't support alpha). Lady N could probably get smaller PNGs by adjusting a setting somewhere.

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:09 am

Fraps, full version. Its more reliable that messing with my ini and making sure I've got OB at the right settings, and it lets me take video.

Why in the world would you want to save your images as png though? A 1280x1024 Oblivion screenshot is 1.5 MB in png and 131 KB in jpg, and there is no visual difference between then.

Resizability, alpha channel support

I would have kept the free version if I though the quality of the JPEG shots were the same. It is not as if my system does not have the space. I have 2500GB of space connected here, and I do not even download videos...

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 3:24 pm

Those were both fraps default settings. I could probably compress both of them, but I don't think I could make the png as small as a jpg.

I realize the value of pngs in general, but I just don't see why they would be needed in taking screenshots. You're not going to need an alpha channel, and the quality of your picture is already limited by the quality of the game image. Additionally, the image will likely be transmitted over the internet, which makes size important.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:32 pm

I use that complex bit of kit called the printscreen button. Taking videos sounds interesting though, maybe I might try some of these out.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 4:19 pm

I will take fraps again. I cant do a simply screenshot with the oblivion feature. I have the game installed in programs files folder (Steam install there) and print key does nothing.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 2:27 pm

Those were both fraps default settings. I could probably compress both of them, but I don't think I could make the png as small as a jpg.

I realize the value of pngs in general, but I just don't see why they would be needed in taking screenshots. You're not going to need an alpha channel, and the quality of your picture is already limited by the quality of the game image. Additionally, the image will likely be transmitted over the internet, which makes size important.

Both of what are default settings? I'll try JPEGs again; however, most of my game screenshots are not posted online... Anyway, my main reason for using Fraps over Oblivion's built-in screenshot feature is having the screenshots put in a directory I specify. I need my organization.

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 3:00 am

I use the PrintSCreen button. I then use Photoscape to convert the .bmp into a .jpg, which it does with no loss to image quality. And Photoscape is free!

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:23 am

The PNG screenshots I took with Fraps seem to be of higher quality than JPG screenshots I took with it. I need to do a comparison with the same screenie though. I still need to do a mass conversion of all of the files I am putting on my site, since I forgot to change Paint.NETs save format...

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:38 am

Both of what are default settings?

I was replying to ghastly's "PNG and JPEG both have variable compression," saying that I used frap's default compressions rather than cheating and using a low compression png and high compression jpg. What ya'll do in the privacy of your own computer really doesn't matter to me, I just don't like having to wait for big png's to load on my horribly slow connection.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 4:49 pm

I was replying to ghastly's "PNG and JPEG both have variable compression," saying that I used frap's default compressions rather than cheating and using a low compression png and high compression jpg. What ya'll do in the privacy of your own computer really doesn't matter to me, I just don't like having to wait for big png's to load on my horribly slow connection.

You can vary the compression in Fraps? How? I need to figure out how to do a mass lossless PNG to JPG conversion now...

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 3:41 am

You won't be able to use Oblivion's built in screenshot feature if you have AA enabled in Oblivion itself. I'm referring to the AA setting in the Oblivion menu. Most people don't use that feature anyway - if they want AA, they enable it through their video card settings, but just letting you know that if you have it enabled in Oblivion, the print screen feature won't work.