Chrisworld
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| Guildwars Screenshots - All The info you need. |
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Guildwars Screenshots - All The info you need.
Hey guys!
There has been many questions about taking screenshots in guildwars, in the past here on AMP.
People want to know about taking BMP or JPEG pictures and how to take some pictures, before guildwars "fixes" the graphics to make the picture look good, thus hiding the graphical errors that most troubleshooters want to see.
Also- If by any chance you are using an Intel Mac with bootcamp for Windows XP/Vista and using an Apple Keyboard "F14" is your print screen button. If using a normal Windows Keyboard then you obviously have a labled Print screen Button already.
First off lets talk about taking a picture without the UI in the way.
Most people that are newer to guildwars don't know a couple handy keys you can use to take an "User Interface-less" screen shot.
You can simply hit Shift + Print Screen to take and instant one, or Control + Shift + H to toggle on or off the User Interface.
This saves much time over turning off every element of the UI in your options.
Now, to take BMP screenshots.
In This Update arenanet changed the guildwars Screenshot saves into JPEG instead of BMP to help people with hard drive space. But it caused some problems with people. People didn't know how to take BMP screens after this update, so heres a couple how-to's
Running "-bmp" command line.
Go to Start>Run> And enter your guildwars.exe path followed by "-bmp" as shown here:
Example:
"C:Program FilesGuild WarsGw.exe" -bmp
OR
Right Click on your guildwars shortcut on your desktop and add the "-bmp" command after the info placed in the Target Line
Ok. So there’s some info to get guildwars to save as BMP's but what if you want to do it quicker? But possibly lose graphics detail if you are using a very low setting in your graphics options.
You can hit print screen and then minimize guildwars and paste into MSPaint, this is because your computer is saving the picture instantly onto the RAM or "clipboard" and allowing you to Paste the object in a program.
This is very quick over using the -BMP command, it saves time and it also can help with another very valuable use mentioned in the next section.
Say you are having some serious graphical errors, and want to send a picture to a person to help you troubleshoot, but taking a print screen, "fixes" the issue for only a split sec to make the screenshot look "good".
Well heres a much easier way....over digging out your digital camera.
Simply follow the steps above when taking a screenshot with the print screen button and pasting it into MSPaint, the computer is taking a screen shot a millisecond before gw saves one into the GW Directory. This is very handy and you can get that pesky little error on picture, red handed.
Heres and example:
Most objects in guildwars appear 2-Dimensional and will always face the camera (as a 2D object usually does in a 3D game) when seen from very far away, usually a very large distance for huge objects and a smaller distance for smaller objects. It's believed that the reason this is done is to help with FPS (Frames Per Second or "Frame Rate") And of course when you move close to the object it becomes 3-Dimensional and more detailed or when you take a screenshot, guildwars will make it 3D for a split second to make the picture once again, "look good".
Here are some picture examples of what I’m talking about, taking pictures of less than perfect graphics in guildwars with the picture instantly saved temporarly to the computer's clipboard and the picture that is saved into the guildwars directory.
This is a picture taken by guildwars, in the distance you see the Sail at Elona Reach in 3D for the picture but in-game from Augury Rock it looks 2D, flat and faces the camera. Here is the picture taken by Guildwars and saved in the directory as usual guildwars will take the graphics to max, and make anything 2D, become 3D.
And here is that same pic, right after it was taken, printed from the computers "clipboard": Printed from the "Clipboard" of windows, its an instand screenshot taken by windows, rather then guildwars, going through the few seconds of maxing out graphics for a good screenshot.
Anti Aliasing
* To Make good Smooth screenshots, Use Anti Aliasing 4x (In graphics options) and Using the BMP methods as I mentioned for clean smooth pictures. (Forumite, now AkA RazoMoto mentioned to use this)
Well that’s my guide I hope this is very helpful to many users with questions about screenshots.
Chrisworld
***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***
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| 01/06/08 14:55 |
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B J W E R T
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| RE: Guildwars Screenshots - All The info you need. |
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Great stuffz, Chris!
Plenty of helpful info there, I see a bookmark coming along. ;-)
+ Cred.
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| 01/06/08 15:00 |
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The Warrior Of Timi
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| RE: Guildwars Screenshots - All The info you need. |
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This is a verry detailed guide, try posting it in the guide section
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| 01/06/08 15:01 |
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Forumite
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| RE: Guildwars Screenshots - All The info you need. |
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Also, very handy tip, for ease of Editing, turn on Anti-Aliasing 4x on in Graphics Options. Although not every videocard can run this constantly without a major drop in performance, it makes rough pixely edges more smooth, making you use that blur tool in photoshop (example) alot less and you get more smoother looking edges :)
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| 01/06/08 15:02 |
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Chrisworld
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| RE: Guildwars Screenshots - All The info you need. |
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Forumite, is it ok if i add your note to my guide but i will give you the cred by adding your name under it?
***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***
Gameamp Guides [AMP]
~ Playing Guildwars Since 3/19/06 ~ [AMP] Member since November 2007 ~ Playing Everquest II Since 7/21/07 ~
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| 01/06/08 15:04 |
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Forumite
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| RE: Guildwars Screenshots - All The info you need. |
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| QUOTE | Forumite, is it ok if i add your note to my guide but i will give you the cred by adding your name under it?
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No Problem.
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| 01/06/08 15:28 |
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Skittle Cody
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| RE: Guildwars Screenshots - All The info you need. |
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Pinned and moved to the "Trouble Shooting" section.
Buy me a giraffe <3
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| 01/06/08 16:06 |
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Chrisworld
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| RE: Guildwars Screenshots - All The info you need. |
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| QUOTE | | Pinned and moved to the "Trouble Shooting" section. |
Awesome Thanks!
Gameamp Guides [AMP]
~ Playing Guildwars Since 3/19/06 ~ [AMP] Member since November 2007 ~ Playing Everquest II Since 7/21/07 ~
Click here to Join Gameamp Guides [AMP]
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| 01/06/08 16:15 |
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