Can someone with a big PC screen help me take high-resolution screenshots of my city in SC3K?

[SimCityHawk 194]

So, as the title says. I currently play this game on a shitty laptop with a small resolution screen. The game only works for my screen at a resolution of 800x600.

I have seen some impressive SC3-photos in here with high resolution, even HD quality, and I can also see that you guys can take screen shots that captures a lot more of the city.

So, I was wondering if someone out there who plays SC3 in high-res would like to help we out with a couple of screenshots of my city? I will send you my city file and show you on the map where the pictures should be taken.

Thanks!

[VetinarisClerk 271]

There are several patches that allow you to play the game in HD. GOG has one.

Save the original .exe, such as SC3U_orig.exe - you might need it to keep using BAT!

Run the patch and open the game. Chose the maximum available resolution. The game will reload. Repeat this step if necessary. I Had to reload twice to get to HD.

Once in HD, line up your shot and click print-screen. Then alt-tab into Paint or whatever image processing program you use. Paste the caption on a blank canvas and save image.

After playing in HD, if the BAT won't run, you'll need to switch back to the origingal exe.

Game to BAT:
1 - SC3U.exe -> SC3U_hd.exe
2 - SC3U_orig -> SC3U.exe
3 - run BAT (will be in native resolution)

BAT to game:
1 - SC3U.exe -> SC3U_orig.exe
2 - SC3U_hd -> SC3U.exe
3 - run game (will stay in HD)

If you accidentaly run the original again, it will revert to native definition, and you'll have to rename and reload again, but it's not a big deal.

Hope this helps.

 

[VetinarisClerk 271]

If you can't run HD, I can take the pictures.
I'd need the city file, the targe coordiantes, and what the coordiantes point to, as a check.
I'll take the pictures and... Can I mesage you a picture? Upload it to an archive?

 

[SimCityHawk 194]

@VetinarisClerk Thanks for your response. I'm aware that its possible to use these patches. However, I'm not sure it will work for me since I'm only using a small laptop. The most common resolution for a laptop is in the 1400 x 1000 range, or even less. And whenever I try to change to a higher resolution (not patch, but through the  actual "vanilla" option in-game), the game screen only fills out 1/3 of the laptop screen, so it is in no way satisfactory. Therefore, I would assume that a large desktop computer with a screen showing a 1900 x 1200 would be the optimal way of achieving HD resolution? I'm thinking that having a desktop panel screen is a prerequisite for having a succesful HD experience all together?

But heck, its worth trying.

 

[VetinarisClerk 271]

@SimCityHawk No problem.

If you can't run HD, let me know and I'll take the snapshots for you and post them here.

[SimCityHawk 194]

18 minutes ago, VetinarisClerk said:

@SimCityHawk No problem.

If you can't run HD, let me know and I'll take the snapshots for you and post them here.

It doesn't seem to work for me with the HD patch. So I'll send you a message some time soon with the information  Thanks!

[TogaMasterJohn 711]

There is a native screenshot tool in the game, but sadly it does not seem to support widescreen screenshots. The in-game tool makes pretty nice pictures, but for good quality widescreen, you may want to use a different program to take screenshots with (there are several good ones out there).

I tested out the in-game screenshot tool under Linux with Wine (SC3KU from GOG with their HD-patched executable), running the game at 1280x720 (720p; as that was the highest resolution I could get without the game crashing). As I was taking some screenshots of the game for some of my friends, I could only get a maximum screenshot of 1024x720. The game is either hard coded to 1024 on the horizontal axis or something else was causing it to cap at 1024.

I haven't tested it out on other machines (with Windows or Linux) using the HD-patched executable to verify it, though.