Article link: How To Create Screenshots Using Oblivion 1.2

NOTE: The article is no longer being maintained on TESNexus.

The current version can be found on the CS Wiki

This tutorial will demonstrate how to create screenshots using Oblivion's built-in screenshot utility.

NOTE: Please read the Screenshots: A Basic Guideline as a prerequisite to this tutorial.

Steps

Here are the steps I follow to get a vanilla copy of Oblivion to produce screenshots:

Done Once

1. Edit Oblivion.ini which is located in C:Documents and SettingsusernameMy DocumentsMy GamesOblivionOblivion.ini
2. Find bAllowScreenShot=0
3. Change to bAllowScreenShot=1
4. Save and exit
5. If you still cannot create screenshots, it may be related to your particular video card and anti-aliasing being enabled. Once in the game, go into your video options and disable anti-aliasing (set to zero).

Repetitive Steps

1. Once in Oblivion where you want a screenshot, press ` to bring up the console and then type tm
2. Now that the HUD, menu and text are gone, you can take fullscreen pictures without clutter.
3. Take your screenshot(s) by pressing the Print Screen key. (See Food for Thought below)
4. Type ` to bring up the console and then type tm
5. Now that the HUD and menu are back, you can exit Oblivion.
6. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to Oblivion's installation folder. Default is C:Program FilesBethesda SoftworksOblivion
7. You will see .BMP files such as Oblivion1.bmp, Oblivion2.bmp, etc.
8. Right-click on a .BMP file and open with Paint which is part of Windows XP.
9. Once Paint loads the picture, click File, Save As, give it a descriptive name and change the Save as type to JPEG and click Save. Exit Paint.
10. Delete the .BMP you opened (since it was re-saved as a .JPG)
11. Repeat steps 8-10 for each .BMP file.

Source: http://lhammonds.game-host.org/obmm/tutorial_screenshots.asp

Adding the console command tfc would not be a bad idea for this tutorial. For those of you who dont know, tfc is toggle free camera. With it enabled you become a 3rd spectator in the game, meaning you can go anywhere, ignore collision, but you cant interact.

Adding the console commant tlc as well. I forgot what it stands for but it lets your character "fly" (he accually just walks but since he can walk in mid-air, it would be considered flying). Recomended when you want to take a screenshot from an upper view with no mountain or whatsoever to do it naturally. Please note that colision is disabled with tlc enabled, in other words, you pass through walls.

To disable these fonctions, simply write them again in the console menu [~] and they will dissapear.

One last note. To get your screenshot with inventory character open:

1. Open your inventory.
2. Open console menu and type tm (toggle menu)
3. The inventory tab should have dissapeared, but there still is a yellowish coloured background. To get rid of that, open the console menu [~} and close it. Voila! You got your inventory character and your background enabled.

Write tm again and exit your inventory in order to return to normal.



Appart the 3 tips above, everything alse necessary was included .

There is one possible problem you should be aware of.

If you follow all the directions in this tutorial, especially setting up your .ini file, and you still can't capture a screen shot--check the antialiasing. On at least some video cards, if antialiasing is set to a non-zero value, screen shots are not possible! If everything else is Ok and you set the dispay antialiasing option to zero, you should now be able to take screen shots.

Thanks Vince Bly, I'll update the instructions to include this check.

I think everyone is better off just using FRAPS for screenshots. Even after you get the game's own screenshot applet to work, they still look lousy.

Here's what I mean. The following screen shots were both taken using the exact same machine and video card...

First, a screenshot taken by Oblivion's own internal utility:



Not so great. She looks orange and a bit blurry.

Now, the same character taken with FRAPS:



That looks a lot clearer and better-defined to me (look at her hair).
Much better color balance, also.

The only downside to using FRAPS is that it can kill your framerates
if you leave it running all the time. It depends on how uber your
computer is. I normally only load it up when I know I'll be making
videos or taking screenies.


PS - sorry for censoring the screenshots... LOL.

The problem with that comparison is that one was taken outside, and the other inside.

Oh, and as regards the censoring:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothing

I use Fraps since disabling ASF doesnt work for me, and i think the performance hit is not noticed when it's inactive in the background and you dont take a screen or record a clip, and even tho recording makes any PC lag the lag doesnt show in the resulting .avi

Not true, Abramul... both were taken outdoors, in the Imperial City. The first shot was taken at the Arcane University and the second one (using FRAPS) was taken two minutes later in Green Emperor Way. My character ("Raven") was doing the main quest at the time.

Sounds like we need to break this up into multiple tutorials then:

1. General Guidelines/Tips for taking screenshots (all other screenshot tutorials should point to this first)
2. How to take screenshots with Oblivion's capture utility.
3. How to take screenshots with FRAPS.
4. How to take movies with FRAPS.

Any takers on the FRAPS tutorials? If so, I'll break-out the guidelines into a separate tutorial.

There are many 3rd-party screenshot programs out there and I tend to post tutorials on the most commonly available tools (usually built-in or already on the OS). For the readers that don't know, FRAPS is a screen capture utility that has a downloadable and limited "trial" version so you need to spend $$ for the full version. I believe it tags screenshots with it's logo and the movies are limited to a certain number of seconds along with the logo imprinted on it.

I could write one up, I suppose. I've been using FRAPS for a long time. There's really not all that much to it, aside from setting it up initially. It's also important to actually buy it, as opposed to trying to get away with the trial version. No big deal... FRAPS is cheap and well worth it IMO. Once you purchase the full version, you'll no longer have any limitations or logos in your shots.

If you'd like me to write up a short guide on how to use FRAPS with Oblivion, just say the word.

Word (e.g. yes, please create a tutorial). Since the tutorial would cover a 3rd party tool, please be sure to include where to get it, how much it costs, the install procedure, any special configuration steps and then the tutorial on how to use it.

Apparently using FRAPS isn't foolproof as seen in the comments in this mod. The mod author used FRAPS to capture a video and upload the result to this site but many people could not "play" the video because of a missing codec called FPS1. People found out that installing the demo of FRAPS allowed them to view the video but this is an aweful way to do videos (requiring special codec). I assume a simple re-configuration of FRAPS to use a more commonly available codec would cure the problem but I don't know.

Tessera, If you post the tutorial on this forum, here are some suggestions based on what I've learned so far:

1) Post it using this name: "How To Create Screenshots Using FRAPS"
2) After you initially create the post, edit the post and tack on 1.0 to end of the name such as "How To Create Screenshots Using FRAPS 1.0" I recommend doing it this way because the creation of a tutorial also creates a Topic Forum and topic names cannot be edited once they are created so having 1.0 in the original name would always show up as 1.0 and look weird. Version numbers also help people to recognize if a change is made.
3) I created a "[url=http://www.tessource.net/tutorials/tutorial.php?id=47Screenshots Tips and Tricks[/url]" tutorial to be somewhat of a prerequisite to all screenshot tutorials. Please add a link at the top of your tutorial to point to it so we don't have to keep re-creating the wheel (so-to-speak) on guidelines on how the screenshots should look (bare minimum-wise).

Sounds like a plan. I'll add it to my "To Do" list.


On the subject of FRAPS and codecs...

It's not a special FRAPS codec... it's just a standard uncompressed AVI codec. I don't remember if Windows installs that particular codec by default, but it's readily available for free.

FRAPS saves videos in uncompressed AVI format, which creates very large files... but they're also very high-definition (up to 60 FPS at high resolutions). That's the way you'd want your "raw footage" to be saved, so that you can manipulate and edit it later... but I'd never leave it in raw AVI form if I intended to share it with others. The best procedure for most people to use would be to convert the AVI file into a compressed format, such as MPEG-2 or Windows Media Video (wmv). MPEG-2 would be the better quality between those two choices, but WMV files seem to work better for streaming video over the web (they load a lot faster).

Windows Movie Maker and similar utilities can be used to edit and convert AVI files made with FRAPS into WMV format. Anyway, I'll include all that stuff when I write up the FRAPS guide.

Side note: for anyone having video codec issues, I suggest searching for the K-Lite Mega-CODEC Pack. I believe it's still a free, open-source download. Once installed, it should clear up any problems with viewing raw AVI files in Windows. It includes the latest FFDSHOW decoders and just about every other audio and video codec on the planet... LOL.

How does Bink compare size-wise?

I've seen game manufacturers use BINK videos but I haven't really seen people sharing home-made videos in BINK format. I'm guessing BINK files will be larger since they were designed for games to be high-resolution and fast without Audio/Video sync problems.

Looking over the Bink site, it appears that it's designed to be low-bandwidth (video AND audio). Without actually trying a conversion, I can't really say how the size compares, though. (I was going to try using one of the Aetherius trailers, but those have been taken down)

EDIT: Now that the DM videos are back to working, I'm going to use one of them.

I haven't messed around with BINK very much, although I've had it on my hard drive for awhile now.

The only problem with BINK is that it uses a proprietary format that isn't universally recognized. So... unless the viewers on the other end have likewise installed BINK on their machines, they won't be able to enjoy BINK videos properly.

As for BINK's codec, it doesn't appear to offer any significant advantages over MPEG-2 format, so far as playback goes. If we go a step further and compare BINK to the more advanced MPEG-4 video format, it's very definitely inferior. I think the main attraction of BINK is that it puts very little strain on your system during the recording process, which might help with framerates on slower machines. The trade-off is almost always going to come down to lower pixel resolutions, accuracy in color depth and/or sync issues.

Bear in mind that I began by saying that I don't have any real experience with BINK. I'm basing my observations on the available literature.

Using one of the Dark Messiah videos, I got ~6.8 MB .bik file, compared with a ~14.4 MB .mpg file. I didn't notice any obvious decrease in quality.

Does Bink have the capability to RECORD?

As requested, I've written up a FRAPS tutorial.

Unfortunately, I can not post it. When I tried, the system informed me that I don't have permission to create new topics in this forum.


Therefore, if you'd like to read my FRAPS tutorial, you can find it on my own forums at the following link:

http://tessmage.com/tessforum/viewtopic.php?t=270

Alternatively, someone else could create the topic and simply copy that link over to it.

The tutorial is fairly comprehensive and I wrote it up in "question and answer" format, which I feel is easier to read.

FRAPS is a screen capture utility which allows you to create high-resolution videos and screenshots of your games.

Enjoy.

You don't post tutorials as a thread, you add one here and a thread will be created

Thanks Tessera, I'll post the tutorial for you.