problem with screenshots during startup

[NeoHippo]

This problem has to do with taking screenshots.

Given my trouble with resizing the screen resolution I was a bit reluctant the post another oddity with
gzdoom-g2.1.pre-24-g48da2f8, but maybe it will lead to a solution:

In the ini file I have these settings:

[GlobalSettings]
png_gamma=1.0
png_level=5
screenshot_dir=H:\SCREENSHOTS
screenshot_type=png
screenshot_quiet=true

[Doom.Bindings]:
h=wait 2; r_drawplayersprites 0; wait 2; screenshot; wait 2; r_drawplayersprites 1;
j=wait 2; screenshot; wait 2;
sysrq=screenshot
f10=menu_quit

Fullscreen mode

When GZDoom starts I cannot take a screenshot during the TITLEPIC, CREDIT or OPTIONS.
None of the bound keys for screenshot work.

In-game, there is no problem, except the image is very dark and I have to brighten it externally.

Windowed mode

Pressing Alt+Enter, from the fullscreen mode, presents me with the windowed but black screen.
Only the rabbit head cursor shows up.

Starting GZDoom in windowed mode, a screenshot can be taken of the TITLEPIC, CREDIT screens
with sysrq, but no screenshots from the menu or options screens.

I can, however, take a screenshot with an external program of the whole monitor screen.

Going back to fullscreen, again presents me with a black screen and the rabbit head cursor.

[Graf Zahl]

The screenshots not working in the non-game screens is because the bound keys aren't checked there. You got to report this at the ZDoom forum, it's code I don't feel comfortable messing with. (ZDoom has 2 input modes: GUI and game, GUI uses Windows high level, game uses DirectInput, and obviously in parts of the game where GUI is active, keybinds cannot be made to work. It's all a bit messy, unfortunately.)

About the darkness, the gamma is not baked into the image but stored as a separate chunk in the PNG. If your software doesn't read this, images will be too dark.

[Enjay]

I noticed that trying to take a screenshot with a Strife-style NPC dialogue open also fails (for presumably the same reason). Might be worth adding that to the bug report.

[Graf Zahl]

A Strife dialogue is just a menu, so the same restrictions apply. Not really fixable. You'd have to hardwire a specific key to the screenshot function to get around this. And the hardcoded key layout in the menu is also caused by using the GUI input method which does not handle keybinds.

[NeoHippo]

The screenshots not working in the non-game screens is because the bound keys aren't checked there.

Ah, thank you for the explanation.

I guess my memory is failing me on how I used to do this. I came across some old screenshots of mine of all the OPTIONS available in a ZDoom version at around March 2003. I remember that I substituted a black image for M_DOOM so that the options text would stand out better.

---

This made me try it again with a recent version of ZDoom.
Anyways, now I know why it does not work.

[NeuralStunner]

I think even if (G)ZDoom itself can't take a screenshot, your OS might still be able to. PrintScr still gets me usable menu screenshots via the Windows clipboard.

[Enjay]

And other techniques such as a screen capture program (FRAPS works) or nVidia ShadowPlay (if you have an nVidia card) should get what you want. It's not as convenient as having the functionality right in GZDoom itself, of course, but given that can't be done...

[NeoHippo]

Pressing PrtScrn works for me as well, but not the way I envision it should work.
Using GZDoom 2.1.pre-82-g5d032f3

In windowed mode the menu screen looks like this

No problem with that.

In fullscreen mode the menu screen looks like this

TITLEPIC but no menu

and with ZDoom 2.8pre-665-g68c4819 fullscreen mode the menu screen looks like this

I don't know what to make of that

My specs:
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Processor
8.0 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660
NVIDIA driver 344.11

I wasn't aware of Shadowplay before. Tried it out just now and won't use it again.
It screws up the order of my desktop icons.

[Enjay]

I wasn't aware of Shadowplay before. Tried it out just now and won't use it again.
It screws up the order of my desktop icons.

I haven't had it do that but the first time I used it, it did crash. I have used it successfully since though. However, most of the time I leave it disabled. I find that FRAPS and other techniques are usually quicker and easier to use but ShadowPlay is useful because it can grab stuff at times when nothing else seems to be able to.

[Blue Shadow]

and with ZDoom 2.8pre-665-g68c4819 fullscreen mode the menu screen looks like this

I don't know what to make of that

It'd seem you're not the only one who has an issue similar to that.


Peculiar...