how to screenshot while in a game

[hvnsent3030]

I'm trying to get a screenshot of a game, to try and solve problems. I can't get to the sniping tool while In the game, without closing out the game... which defeats the purpose. Is there a way to get a screenshot using the prt screen button ? I've tried pushing ctrl. and alt while pushing the prt sc button, but no luck.

 

[Airbot]

Think you need something like Fraps to do that.

FRAPS show fps, record video game movies, screen capture software

 

[hvnsent3030]

crap.... i ain't trying to download software that I'll only use a couple of times, at Best. There's no other way to go about it ??

 

[Airbot]

Not with the snipping tool..that I know of.

 

[TGSoldier]

Print Screen alone doesn't work?

 

[Airbot]

My bad, that does work.

 

[PooMan UK]

What game is it ? Some games have a key assigned for screen shots. eg Couter strike uses the F12 key then it saves the screen shot to a directory within the game

 

[Desslok]

What game is it ? Some games have a key assigned for screen shots. eg Couter strike uses the F12 key then it saves the screen shot to a directory within the game

YEah, like WoW uses the PrtScn button but doesn't go to the clipboard, it goes to a path under the install directory, and puts it in a format you may miss, if you are looking for BMP or JPG, etc.

 

[Seven Eleven]

Fraps is the king. it even captures Aero desktop.

 

[Ravanx]

Fraps is the king. it even captures Aero desktop.

Wouldn't a normal screenshot be able to capture Aero desktop? I'm confused by what you mentioned.

 

[whs]

For those purposes I use Jing. The advantage is that you can program Jing to a function key and when you hit the F-key, everything on the screen freezes and you get a correct shot. Plus you can make annotations, highlights, arrows, etc. on the captured shot which is not possible with the snipping tool or ptr scrn.

 

[Seven Eleven]

Wouldn't a normal screenshot be able to capture Aero desktop? I'm confused by what you mentioned.

i meant video capture.

 

[mitchell65]

Fraps is the king. it even captures Aero desktop.

Wouldn't a normal screenshot be able to capture Aero desktop? I'm confused by what you mentioned.

Screenshot captures a still screen, FRAPS and others capture the moving images (video capture) from where you can isolate a single frame of your choice.

 

[whs]

Fraps is the king. it even captures Aero desktop.

Wouldn't a normal screenshot be able to capture Aero desktop? I'm confused by what you mentioned.

Screenshot captures a still screen, FRAPS and others capture the moving images (video capture) from where you can isolate a single frame of your choice.

The problem with video capture is that it takes a lot of CPU power. And that may have a significant impact on the behavior of a game. If the game does not need a lot of CPU power, that may be fine. But otherwise you will get a significant slowdown of your game (unless you have some super CPU).
On my 2.5GHz duo core CPU, the screen capture program (video) uses about 70% of the CPU.

 

[mitchell65]

Good point. I have never played a game on a PC apart from Solitaire when it first arrived with windows 3.1 so would not appreciate that point. Getting old you see!

 

[whs]

Good point. I have never played a game on a PC apart from Solitaire when it first arrived with windows 3.1 so would not appreciate that point. Getting old you see!

LOL - I never played a game either. But it just figured that this is what would happen. And you are right, we are getting too old.

 

[Ravanx]

Wouldn't a normal screenshot be able to capture Aero desktop? I'm confused by what you mentioned.

i meant video capture.

Wouldn't a normal screenshot be able to capture Aero desktop? I'm confused by what you mentioned.

Screenshot captures a still screen, FRAPS and others capture the moving images (video capture) from where you can isolate a single frame of your choice.

The problem with video capture is that it takes a lot of CPU power. And that may have a significant impact on the behavior of a game. If the game does not need a lot of CPU power, that may be fine. But otherwise you will get a significant slowdown of your game (unless you have some super CPU).
On my 2.5GHz duo core CPU, the screen capture program (video) uses about 70% of the CPU.

Looking at the two posts I quoted, does that mean that normal computers will have difficulty capturing the Aero desktop on video due to the immense amount of CPU power required and the lack of it on average computers?

 

[whs]

Looking at the two posts I quoted, does that mean that normal computers will have difficulty capturing the Aero desktop on video due to the immense amount of CPU power required and the lack of it on average computers

I don't think so. As I stated, I have an average CPU (AMD 4800+, 2.5GHz duo core). And video capture works quite well. But I would think that you cannot play a CPU demanding game at the same time.

 

[Seven Eleven]

Looking at the two posts I quoted, does that mean that normal computers will have difficulty capturing the Aero desktop on video due to the immense amount of CPU power required and the lack of it on average computers?

just did some testing: Fraps uses ~35% of CPU when capturing Aero at 1280x1024@25fps. at lower resoultions it eats even less CPU.

 

[whs]

Looking at the two posts I quoted, does that mean that normal computers will have difficulty capturing the Aero desktop on video due to the immense amount of CPU power required and the lack of it on average computers?

just did some testing: Fraps uses ~35% of CPU when capturing Aero at 1280x1024@25fps. at lower resoultions it eats even less CPU.

Wha's the CPU?