Take screenshots whilst using a Wrapper

[rsc204 21,806]

I upgraded recently to WQHD displays and as is necessary to run SC4 in DirectX with this resolution, I am using a Wrapper for compatibility, in my case dgVoodoo2. DXWrapper is a no-go it seems, was giving me BSODs!

Anyhow, I've been using InfranView for a long time to take in-game screenshots and am very happy with it. However, today when I tried to take screenshots in-game for the first time since I installed the Wrapper, I noticed I now get a screenshot of my Windows Desktop instead of the game . Has anyone else come across similar?, any chance I might be able to get InfranView to work? Otherwise, for others using Wrappers, can you tell me any preferably open-source apps that can do this?

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Hiya Robin, @rsc204

I have used dgvoodoo for about 2 years, I didn't have this issue with dgvoodoo, whereas it happened when I tried other wrappers.

I just tested InfranView in my comp and it worked fine there (Window and Fullscreen Mode), so Maybe it's since mine is FHD? I have no idea, Anyway, here are my configurations:

Graphics Rules and Video Cards for dgvoodoo and the shortcut parameters at the bottom.

dgvoodoo's setting.

I hope @Kloudkicker don't mind me asking about this, Just think you know it better than me, Nick.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[rsc204 21,806]

Looking at your shortcut parameters, I'd hazard a guess it might be because you are using (Borderless) Windowed mode, whereas I typically use Full Screen mode, so I'll have a little play with things, if I can get borderless windowed mode running without a performance hit, that would be an acceptable solution for me. Thanks for pasting your full config, it helps to see how you've everything setup.

Thankfully my video capture software is working despite the wrapper, I actually made a video to later capture the screenshots from, but that's not a good permanent solution either.

[Flann 1,709]

You might like Greenshot !

[rsc204 21,806]

So yes, it does appear that it works in Windowed mode but not in Full Screen mode which I use. I'm a little unsure how you'd get Borderless Windowed Mode (or if you even can) with dgVoodoo.

Note, under the DirectX tab, you might want to tick "Apply Phong shading when possible", for me my shadows were all messed up before I enabled that. Here's my dgVoodoo setup:

My target when running SC4 looks like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r2560x1440x32 -intro:off -CPUCount:1 -l:"UK English"

Plus I've made sure that the dgVoodoo card is seen as a "fast card" to ensure an optimised setup. Really not looking to switch to Windowed mode, unless I can invoke the Borderless version.

Incidently, @Raymond7cn, what does the command -AutoZoomChange:enabled do?, I've never seen that before.

The same thing is happening with Greenshot, which seems like a handy utility, but it can't seem to work with the Wrapper in the middle .

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

4 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Incidently, @Raymond7cn, what does the command -AutoZoomChange:enabled do?, I've never seen that before

Oh My, It doesn't ring a bell, I couldn't recall any clue due to that blank period, whereas I did test a new version of dgvoodoo before my accident, @Cyclone Boom @Kloudkicker CB and Nick, Sorry for this, However I could only think of you who might give me this command.

4 hours ago, rsc204 said:

it does appear that it works in Windowed mode but not in Full Screen mode which I use

Hiya Robin,

It's strange, since I can capture screen in both of modes, I will give your setting a try tomorrow to see if it's related to dgvoodoo's configuration.

[Cyclone Boom 16,854]

@Raymond7cn

That's interesting, and it's a command I'm not familiar with either, but I do see reference to it in the original update for SC4 vanilla (before Rush Hour). Perhaps it refers to when there's a disaster and the game could auto zoom in to the location where it happens (similar to the "Auto Go To" game setting).

Ctrl+F for AutoZoomChange:off on the Maxis Files page and it shows up in the patch notes. This might suggest :enabled could be substituted for :on possibly.

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

@Raymond7cn I had only tested the dxwrapper. Sorry I am of no help here.

 

21 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

However I could only think of you who might give me this command

-AutoZoomChange:enabled This is new to me also, sorry.

[City_Slider 2,716]

Only one Question for between: Why should i use a Program to take a Screeny? I´m using the Print Key and it works 100%.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

@Cyclone Boom @Kloudkicker Thank you CB and Nick, Hope I can memorize it this time.

5 hours ago, City_Slider said:

Only one Question for between: Why should i use a Program to take a Screeny? I´m using the Print Key and it works 100%.

Hiya Oliver, Yes, The Print Key can solve most cases cooperates with other Graphics Editor (PS, GIMP), But I thought the work would be more efficient by using these dedicated programs (capture ceaselessly), Furthermore, You can capture some special things like mouse pointer or specific active window.

Hiya Robin, @rsc204 I have tried your configuration of dgvoodoo along with command " -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -intro:off -CPUCount:1" , I could capture shots on full screen mode.

BTW, 

On 7/20/2021 at 4:53 AM, rsc204 said:

using InfranView

I thought you were referring to "IrfanView", Right? 

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[rsc204 21,806]

8 hours ago, City_Slider said:

Why should i use a Program to take a Screeny?

Simples, because I take many screenshots and don't want to have to mess around "Pasting" each one and saving it after using Print Screen. What InfranView does, is allow me to set a folder where it saves images and then gives them a logical naming scheme, so I can jump into the game (or anywhere else for that matter), take a whole bunch of screenshots, then pick them up to work with them later. This is especially useful when I'm working on a tutorial or providing images for helping others with problems.

2 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

Hiya Robin, @rsc204 I have tried your configuration of dgvoodoo along with command " -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -intro:off -CPUCount:1" , I could capture shots on full screen mode.

Thanks for testing things on your setup, I have a feeling though this might be working differently because you are using Windows 10, whereas I'm still using 7. I could try opening a ticket on GitHub to see if Dege can help or at least explain this difference in behaviour. It might be related to the newer implementation of DirectX/WDDM that Windows 10 uses, or perhaps there is something screwy happening on this machine, it's been a pig since I built it. I have another very similar desktop, so I guess I should check if I am experiencing the same issue there or not.

Whilst I am very happy with my new WQHD monitors themselves, the upgrade has been a huge PITA what with one thing and another. My Mac didn't want to cooperate without an expensive Mini Display Port to Dual-DVI adaptor to connect things up. A direct DP cable worked, but the auto-switching caused issues with the TV connected to the other video output. Leading to of all things, problems with the Bluetooth signal and when switching displays, the displays often would start flickering on and off until I rebooted the Mac. The PC (Windows) has fared a lot better, but the amount of additional configuration and new issues for every game I might want to play, has me seriously considering reselling them and going back to my old Full HD setup instead. Once more I get the feeling, if I were to upgrade to Windows 10 a lot of these issues would go away.

However, I treated myself to a copy of Doom (2016) in a recent Steam sale, it's about the only game I have that 'challenges' my system right now. In fact, with everything ramped up, it's fully utilising my GTX960 (4GB OC model) and only giving me around 40-45fps. Not that this is a problem, it looks absolutely gorgeous (in a horrific way) and I'm not obsessed with frame rates, given that anything over 30fps is smooth anyhow. The point being, it's not all bad (mumble, grumble).

[CorinaMarie 29,578]

2 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

The Print Key can solve most cases ...

With that in mind, how about giving Clip2Pic a test drive, @rsc204?

It's a bare bones capture which simply keeps an eye on the Windoze Clipboard and if it detects an image, it saves it as an incremental file number. There is no installation needed. Just toss the .exe in your startup folder. There is one little drawback tho. If you are copying or cutting and pasting in an image editor, it'll steal those and save them too. I simply click its Stop button when I know I'll be doing that. And then Start it again when finished.

Additionally, Alt+PrintScreen is another way to capture only the active window.

[rsc204 21,806]

Thanks for the suggestion.

9 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

There is one little drawback tho. If you are copying or cutting and pasting in an image editor, it'll steal those and save them too.

Sounds like a deal breaker to me, that'd rather interrupt my workflow or just give me a bunch more unwanted images to weed out. I'll probably give it a try though, since I need some working solution to capture in-game. It's taken me ages to get SC4 running smoothly on this PC too.

[CorinaMarie 29,578]

1 hour ago, rsc204 said:

Sounds like a deal breaker to me, that'd rather interrupt my workflow or just give me a bunch more unwanted images to weed out.

I've been using it for about 5 years and I love the simplicity of it. When I'm going to be using PSE or GIMP, I open Clip2Pic from my taskbar and click Stop (this prevents it snagging the partial images and so there is nothing to weed out), do my image editing, then reopen Clip2Pic, and click Start. It's really not that big of a deal for how useful it is.

[rsc204 21,806]

14 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

It's really not that big of a deal for how useful it is.

I just hate change, but I'll certainly give it a go, since right now I don't have another solution that works. Again (mumble, grumble), I can adapt if I NEED to.

[CorinaMarie 29,578]

9 hours ago, rsc204 said:

I'll certainly give it a go, since right now I don't have another solution that works.

Good plan.

Ofc, I don't even know if it'll work with your wrapper situation. It's just my guess after Raymond reminded us that the regular PrintScreen function always works and so my hope is Clip2Pic gets around the problem you are dealing with.

[rsc204 21,806]

The plot thickens...

Even Print Screen is capturing my desktop and not in-game! At this point I think I'm going to file a report with the developer of the Wrapper to see if I can get some help. I'm going to give ElishaCloud's DXWrapper another go, but I was getting BSOD's using that in conjunction with an older NVidia driver which I need for compatibility reasons elsewhere!

[rsc204 21,806]

I had a chance to check this out on my second machine today and was getting the same results, which leads me to believe this is an issue with dgVoodoo2 and Windows 7. Although the fact that PrintScreen doesn't work, suggests the issue might be deeper than simply a particular game.

I was able to confirm however that dxWrapper does not have the same issue, right now that seems to be working again on my main desktop? I'm worried that the BSODs will come back, since nothing's really changed since I was experiencing problems. Plus it seems that dgVoodoo was running more efficiently, but that's always hard to verify. I will raise an issue on GitHub, perhaps it's something that can be resolved, since other wrappers don't do this.