Forums > MobyGames > Can't grab a screenshot
St. Martyne (3648) on 5/4/2008 9:56 AM · Permalink · Report
I was trying to make some shots of Die By The Sword. Unfortunately I can't make it work. All the shots I make result in the following mess:
I tried various grabbers - HyperSnap, QuickCapture and MWSnap. None of which seems to work.
Any help?
GAMEBOY COLOR! (1990) on 5/4/2008 12:38 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
I can heartily reccomend those two. But, if that still doesn't work, try hitting the printscreen button, then go to paint and click "paste" in "edit". Oh, and if you're using Grabby, make sure to run it in force 24 bit mode, or you'll have a wierd cut off like this .
Edit- If you're using Grabby, make sure to use bitmap as the file format. You'll get some awsome screenshots. It should look like this .
GAMEBOY COLOR! (1990) on 5/4/2008 1:14 PM · Permalink · Report
I meant just TAKE it in bitmap. Resave it in png later when you get ready to submit it. Saving it with the right file extension doesn't work. It only worked once for me.
St. Martyne (3648) on 5/4/2008 7:41 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
[Q --start Yearman wrote--]Did you try it with Grabby or Fraps? [/Q --end Yearman wrote--]
Well, I would but they don't really suit me. FRAPS is watermarking shots while Grabby seems to have no flexible manual grabbing.
Steely Gaze (208) on 5/4/2008 8:03 PM · Permalink · Report
What do you mean by FRAPS is watermarking your shots? I use it quite frequently, and it doesn't do that for me. Do you by chance have the FPS timer turned on?
DJP Mom (11333) on 5/4/2008 8:37 PM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start Yearman wrote--] [Q2 --start DJP Mom wrote--]I think the free version leaves watermarks [/Q2 --end DJP Mom wrote--]
Only on video captures, not on screenshots. [/Q --end Yearman wrote--] Ah! And all this time I haven't been using it! smacks forehead
St. Martyne (3648) on 5/4/2008 8:48 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Yep. I've mistaken it with HyperSnap. And, it does get the job done. Still, I don't like FRAPS for saving in BMP format only.
Anything else? Freeware is preferable.
GAMEBOY COLOR! (1990) on 5/4/2008 9:13 PM · Permalink · Report
I still say Grabby. I never thought it was limited, but it's always reliable. Version 3 is the one you should get.
tarmo888 (5258) on 5/19/2008 12:16 AM · Permalink · Report
BMP is a fastest method of dumping a screenshot. i use it all the time, even on games that support making screenshots to JPG. after playing a game, i go to screenshots folder, delete boring ones and use IrfanView batch conversion to get them into JPG format.
remember to disable color subsampling and use quality over 90.
GAMEBOY COLOR! (1990) on 5/19/2008 3:45 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
If you're going to convert screenshots, why not go PNG ? It looks infinitely better than JPEG. On another note, it would be nice if Moby Games allowed bitmap screenshots. Although, I suppose it would eat up hard drive space pretty quickly.
robotriot (9015) on 5/19/2008 4:46 PM · Permalink · Report
The problem with BMPs is that they're not only a waste of space (PNGs have identical quality at much lower file size, thus saving harddrive space and valuable bandwidth), but browsers often have trouble displaying them in the browser window from my experiences. So it's kind of inconvenient, if you have to download the screenshot first to your computer, and then open it in an image viewer.
GAMEBOY COLOR! (1990) on 5/19/2008 7:19 PM · Permalink · Report
Well, I still prefer bitmap for my personal screenshot storage. Plus it's an easy format to edit.
Игги Друге (46653) on 5/20/2008 5:46 PM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start DANIEL HAWKS ! wrote--]Well, I still prefer bitmap for my personal screenshot storage. Plus it's an easy format to edit. [/Q --end DANIEL HAWKS ! wrote--] Edit in a hex editor or what?
Игги Друге (46653) on 5/20/2008 5:55 PM · Permalink · Report
That's the only case where I can imagine an uncompressed format such as BMP to be easier to edit than other formats.
Servo (57070) on 5/20/2008 9:12 PM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start chirinea wrote--]Now you've got me imagining someone editing an image directly messing into its binary code... [/Q --end chirinea wrote--] you get used to it. I don't even see the code any more. All I see is blonde, brunette, redhead...
tarmo888 (5258) on 5/22/2008 6:22 AM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start Servo wrote--] [Q2 --start chirinea wrote--]Now you've got me imagining someone editing an image directly messing into its binary code... [/Q2 --end chirinea wrote--] you get used to it. I don't even see the code any more. All I see is blonde, brunette, redhead... [/Q --end Servo wrote--]
you are goood
tarmo888 (5258) on 5/20/2008 2:20 AM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start DANIEL HAWKS ! wrote--]If you're going to convert screenshots, why not go PNG ? It looks infinitely better than JPEG. On another note, it would be nice if Moby Games allowed bitmap screenshots. Although, I suppose it would eat up hard drive space pretty quickly. [/Q --end DANIEL HAWKS ! wrote--]
I use PNGs only for images that have 256 colors or less. PNGs are bigger than JPG and if you have color subsampling disabled and quality over 90 on JPG, there is really no difference. There are some hi-res PNGs on Mobygames that make me very frustrated. They load slow on whatever connection you have and they don't fit into window.
We should have Flickr like functionality (or something similar) on Mobygames, no picture should be displayed larger than 1024*768 on screenshots area, but there should be link for design-less new window with original screenshot (for registered users).
Also, letting search engine crawlers have a easy access for hi-res pictures is not a smartest idea. It is wise to let them crawl some kind of sizes, because it will bring lot of users, but they will sometimes burn bandwidth limits faster than users do.