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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 7:01 PM
Default What Image Capturing Software Do You Use?
Just as the title states, what image capturing software do you use? Do you map the camera button to a key on the keyboard? Is it free, is it paid? Do you use Photoshop to edit your in-game photos, or another program?

I used to use Fraps, but now I'm on a new laptop, and looking for a program that gets the job done, has intuitive controls, and is overall better than the in-game camera. Also just curious to see what everyone else is using.

I wasn't sure whether this belonged in the Picture thread, but seeing as I'm not asking for photos, this felt more appropriate.
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#2 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 7:07 PM
I use the lightshot program. All I have to do is hit the print screen button on my keyboard and then drag my mouse from where i want the shot to start and then resize till i get everything i want into it. It even has little buttons on the outside of the captured area that lets me save the file right to where ever i want (mainly my desktop). Then i re-edit them in GIMP to get a consistent size for all of them and whatever little edits i may need to do color wise.
Link Ninja
#3 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 7:16 PM
I use the steam screenshot UI overlay screenshot feature. Steam is a free program that acts as a video game library so I added my sims 2 game to it and whenever i am in game I press F12 and it saves the screenshot to a folder on my computer.

Uh oh! My social bar is low - that's why I posted today.

Field Researcher
#4 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 7:18 PM
Gadwin PrintScreen, free version. I have it set to capture the whole screen at the click of a button and it auto-saves to a previously chosen folder in the format of my choice. It has other settings, like capturing a portion of the screen by defining the capture area with the mouse, but I don't do that as it's faster to just grab the entire desktop and crop down to the piece of the pic that I want later.

But I've found that I should have my sound on and wait until I hear Gadwin's shutter click before I try to take a another shot, or the previous one may not be saved. This might be because I save as .bmp. I can save the image in any other format after I'm done editing it.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 7:30 PM
I use Alt+PrintScreen on Windows 10
Mad Poster
#6 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 7:32 PM
A registered copy of FRAPS. Has the bonus that I don't need to crop out the title bar. Sometimes I use Dxtory instead if I had it open anyways.

I'm secretly a Bulbasaur. | Formerly known as ihatemandatoryregister

Looking for SimWardrobe's mods? | Or Dizzy's? | Faiuwle/rufio's too! | smorbie1's Chris Hatch archives
Instructor
#7 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 7:52 PM
I tried using FRAPS, but I changed it for Bandicam. I prefer it over FRAPS because you don't have to pay to save images in a format different from BMP, so they can be in a smaller size, and it works even in fullscreen mode, because it detects the program running in that mode.
Mad Poster
#8 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 8:29 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 16th Jul 2017 at 9:04 PM.
The free version of Gadwin Printscreen, since 2007-ish.
(there's a paid Pro version with an inbuilt simple editing program, but I've got Photoshop for editing).

It can be a little moody, and on my laptop it refuses to start at startup, so I have to manually turn it on, but other than that I'm quite happy with it. I've had the black screenshot problem on my two previous computers, but solved it by playing windowed (and after a short while I started preferring playing windowed, so that's not a problem).

It's possible to save in 4 different formats (jpg, png, tiff and bmp), the program saves the pictures in a folder, and assigns a name with a number counting up (Screenshot001...). You can even change the name the program uses. You can also set a printscreen button or button combination (I use shift+printscreen)

For editing, I use Photoshop CS3 on my laptop and CS4 (I think) on the stationary.
Mad Poster
#9 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 8:42 PM
I use Irfanview. The interface can be a bit clunky to figure out but it's free, takes up very little RAM and has a lot of different options for screen capture. Irfanview's screen capture function only works if you run your game in windowed mode.
Top Secret Researcher
#10 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 8:55 PM Last edited by Lili975 : 17th Jul 2017 at 5:17 AM.
Purrint
It's minimalistic, and it's free. And it's old but I like it so why change. And I didn't like anything else I tried, especially not Fraps. Purrint saves the pictures to a specific folder in the format and with the quality I want (those are my settings, but other options are available).

Taking screencaps is less of a pleasure now that I'm on a laptop under W10, because I have to play in windowed mode, and also because I need both hands to take a screencap, Fn or Alt+Print (previously I only needed the Print key). But my system is much more powerful now so I can't really complain.

Then I use CS5 to crop the pictures, edit them when needed, and of course to save them as much lighter files ("save for web & devices"), the original pngs are pretty heavy.
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#11 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 10:11 PM
I use Fraps for the most part. I also tried XSplit Gamecaster to experiment with video capture. Both free - I'm too mean to buy stuff like that. I'm not too worried about Fraps only saving in bmps since Jo pointed me towards FastStone Photo Resizer (another freebie). I edit mostly in Paint Shop Pro because that's what I'm used to but I'm trying to (make myself) use Photoshop.

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Mad Poster
#12 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 10:13 PM
FastStone Photo Resizer is pretty awesome. Just make sure to disable colour subsampling if you're converting to JPEG or you'll get nasty blotchy compression artifacts (you can especially see it around the red borders, unless you have a hack to disable them).

I'm secretly a Bulbasaur. | Formerly known as ihatemandatoryregister

Looking for SimWardrobe's mods? | Or Dizzy's? | Faiuwle/rufio's too! | smorbie1's Chris Hatch archives
Née whiterider
retired moderator
#13 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 11:36 PM
Quote: Originally posted by wthrwthoutyu
Gadwin PrintScreen, free version. I have it set to capture the whole screen at the click of a button and it auto-saves to a previously chosen folder in the format of my choice. It has other settings, like capturing a portion of the screen by defining the capture area with the mouse, but I don't do that as it's faster to just grab the entire desktop and crop down to the piece of the pic that I want later.

But I've found that I should have my sound on and wait until I hear Gadwin's shutter click before I try to take a another shot, or the previous one may not be saved. This might be because I save as .bmp. I can save the image in any other format after I'm done editing it.
I think you're probably right about the delay - I have Gadwin set to save screenshots as JPG and I've never had problems with screenshots saving, although I have occasionally messed up a screenshot because I didn't wait until the "screenshot captured!" toaster had gone away before taking another (I've now turned the toaster off )

What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.
Mad Poster
#14 Old 17th Jul 2017 at 1:02 AM
I use Tiff, and my picures save within a second or two.

I did have a problem with pictures not saving at all on my old laptop, but the laptop was slow, I played in fullscreen, and turning on Gadwin didn't always "stick", so I usually took at least 3-4 pictures to be certain I got it. The 3-4 clicks per capture carried over to the stationary and lasted for a while, until I figured out that computer managed one picture just fine, as long as I waited a few seconds before changing anything for the next picture. Gadwin had an annoying habit of not running on startup, so that was usually the problem if pictures didn't save. On my new laptop running on startup doesn't work, but I can live with manual startup...

(There's a "screenshot captured" sound? Never noticed that, though maybe I don't have it turned on.)
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#15 Old 17th Jul 2017 at 1:13 AM
Quote: Originally posted by ihatemandatoryregister
FastStone Photo Resizer is pretty awesome. Just make sure to disable colour subsampling if you're converting to JPEG or you'll get nasty blotchy compression artifacts (you can especially see it around the red borders, unless you have a hack to disable them).

Yeah already did that.

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Field Researcher
#16 Old 17th Jul 2017 at 3:52 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Nysha
I think you're probably right about the delay - I have Gadwin set to save screenshots as JPG and I've never had problems with screenshots saving, although I have occasionally messed up a screenshot because I didn't wait until the "screenshot captured!" toaster had gone away before taking another (I've now turned the toaster off )


Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's it. Those bitmap full screen images are nearly 3MB each, it's no wonder it takes a couple seconds to save. But I get a good lossless image to start editing.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#17 Old 17th Jul 2017 at 6:37 AM
I use Fraps and FastStone or sometimes Gimp.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Lab Assistant
#18 Old 17th Jul 2017 at 9:02 AM
Fraps/Irfanview for me. Then I dump my images onto my school laptop with Photoshop on it and use that for editing :-D
Scholar
#19 Old 17th Jul 2017 at 10:15 AM
Greenshot. It's free and takes pics in jpg format.

Paladins/SimWardrobes downloads: https://simfileshare.net/folder/87849/
Top Secret Researcher
#20 Old 17th Jul 2017 at 12:10 PM
Fraps. I tried a couple of others but for some reason didn't like them. I edit in Photoshop.
Scholar
#21 Old 17th Jul 2017 at 1:40 PM
Fraps, free version. I learned about it here at MTS and have never bothered to find another one, cause I'm lazy.
I edit in Gimp. Cause it's got more tools than I'll ever need and it's free too.
*saving up*
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#22 Old 17th Jul 2017 at 4:36 PM
Fraps seems to be the predominant image capture software, according to those of you who have responded thus far. And GIMP seems really popular too. I actually went ahead and downloaded both last night, now I suppose I just have to take some pictures and see what I can do!
Mad Poster
#23 Old 17th Jul 2017 at 5:52 PM
I use FRAPS for "official" MTS upload/contest pictures. I occasionally use Windows Print Screen / Alt - Print Screen when I want a full-resolution picture but I can't be bothered to start up FRAPS. The rest of the time I just use the in-game "C" camera, which I have set to its maximum resolution (600 x 450). I've been in computing long enough now to remember when that was considered good!

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Mad Poster
#24 Old 17th Jul 2017 at 5:59 PM
Nothing.
I take screenshot with PrtSc key and paste it into Windows Paint. There I cut it into size I want and save as .jpg.
Mad Poster
#25 Old 17th Jul 2017 at 6:33 PM
I don't really understand why Fraps is so popular considering you can't even change the image type! I like Gadwin Printscreen myself. I used to save as .png for the quality but lately I've been saving as .jpg for ease of transfer to MTS.

I use the sims as a psychology simulator...
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