[TUTORIAL] Taking the best possible map screenshots

[Cameron:D]

You chuck in a bunch of point_devshot_camera entities and set them up how you want, then when you use the launch command it goes to each of them and saves a screenshot.

 

[Psy]

Would be far more convenient as a console command really.

 

[The Political Gamer]

The WeGame client works well for screen shots too.

 

[alecgorge]

in the original post it is jqeg_quality 100 not jpeg quality 100 that saves a jpeg with the name of quality

 

[Ida]

Thanks, that makes a lot more sense actually. I also updated the guide with Political's tip, and a recommendation of Dropbox. Seriously, everybody get Dropbox. It's awesome.

 

[Cameron:D]

Thanks, that makes a lot more sense actually. I also updated the guide with Political's tip, and a recommendation of Dropbox. Seriously, everybody get Dropbox. It's awesome.

Me Hosting > Dropbox

Would be far more convenient as a console command really.

Yeah, it would be.

 

[tovilovan]

cl_leveloverview 1-10 for overview pics, else some sort of strange blue fog always gets in the way even with fog disabled and so on.

 

[Pocket]

Necro was not my fault!

Is there any way to stop models from vanishing, short of recompiling with the draw distance disabled? I ask mainly for overviews.

 

[Kill_the_Bug]

Ok here are some new ones

Ok - seems like people didn't like the last set without lights, etc - don't usually do this until the end but here's a couple of new ones:

 

[Seba]

Posting pics of a map here won't get you much attention; try this thread.

 

[Kill_the_Bug]

Posting pics of a map here won't get you much attention; try this thread.

HA - well.... now that I look at the title of the thread...how the h*** did I end up here??? I clicked the WIP one and thought I got to the right spot lol will post again thanks

 

[BeaverKing]

jpeg_quality 100 solves that problem.

actually, it doesnt. it maxes out the quality, but there is still loss of pixel clarity. for example, i have a green screen map i made for all source games a while back for grabbing character renders easily, among other things. if you try to key out a jpg screenshot (even at 100 quality) the edges become blurred and grainy, making it a much longer process. with a TGA, i can just run it through keylight and select the green and hit ok. perfect cutout every time

 

[Seba]

Six month bump watch me care

I'm bumping this because lately so many threads aren't following these guidelines, especially number 1. While pictures taken from ground level look dramatic and intimidating, they don't show much of the map. Please please please try to provide as many general overview shots as possible, not ones of a hallway - that way you'll get more downloads and more immediate and generally more constructive feedback.

 

[Ida]

I went ahead and rewrote this since you bumped it, thereby exposing the atrocious grammar and sentence composition of a younger me. Also made the uploading recommendations more up to date.

 

[CafeineMan]

Hello,
I have a problem. I would like to take a screenshot of my map, but sv_cheats 1 doesn't work (nothing happens) ???
An idea ? What can I do ?

PS: sorry, it's ok (I went into mod spectator and I've hidden the HUD with the console).

 

[Another Bad Pun]

OP Wrote this in Two Thousand and Goddamn Eight

Do not necro posts

There's a difference between necroing a post for no reason and necroing a post to ask a relevant question - I think in this case it was fine.

 

[Werewolf]

Hello,
I have a problem. I would like to take a screenshot of my map, but sv_cheats 1 doesn't work (nothing happens) ???
An idea ? What can I do ?

PS: sorry, it's ok (I went into mod spectator and I've hidden the HUD with the console).

Were you doing it on a local server or dedicated server? Because if you did it on a dedicated server you might not have access to the command. If you load the map from your console ('map yourmapname') that creates a local server. Typing sv_cheats 1 won't do anything immediately until you try to use a command that is limited by sv_cheats, such as the 'noclip' command.

One way to have sv_cheats set automatically is to create a listenserver.cfg. Create a new text document in Notepad or Notepad++, put the cvars that you want to have set on startup (one per line) and save it as listenserver.cfg. Make sure it's a .cfg file not a .txt. Then just put the file in your 'common\Team Fortress 2\tf\cfg' folder. Then each and every time you load a map it will set those cvars.

This is what I have in my listenserver.cfg. You don't have to use all these commands, this is really just an example that I happen to use:

sv_cheats "1"
net_graph "1"
tf_allow_player_use "1"
mp_waitingforplayers_cancel "1"
mp_autoteambalance "0"
mp_teams_unbalance_limit "0"
mp_timelimit "0"
mp_winlimit "0"
mp_respawnwavetime "0"
mp_showrespawntimes "1"
mp_disable_respawn_times "1"

 

[CafeineMan]

Create server => my map => console => sv_cheats 1 + cl_drawhud "0" => spectator [works to].
Thanks for this, I'll try it nextime.
Perhaps, I'll take a video too. I think it's almost the same.