I need a good img capture program to make screenshots of a Game I'm reviewing for Mr C. They should be gif format but I haven't got any XP in this field so any suggestions would be appreciated...

Thanx

In most cases, just use the print screen button. If you want multiple caps from a single game, keep any imaging prog open while you play, then after you hit the prnt scrn button, alt+tab to the imaging prog and ctrl+v, then switch back to the game, get another cap, switch back to the imaging prog, etc. (Print screen saves the screen to the clipboard, so unless you're running a clipboard manager that allows multiple files, each new cap will replace the last one (which is why you need to ctrl+v into an imaging prog before getting a new cap).)

There are also some progs that can automate the process a bit and automatically save the image to a file whenever you hit the capture button. If you're running a game that you can't get a normal cap of because it uses glide or DX, there are some progs such as HypersnapDX that can still get caps from them. Hypersnap is shareware, the unregistered version puts a hypersnap credit on each capture you make with it, you can find it at most shareware sites or via a websearch (I don't remember the url).

Don't use Hypersnap, I hate those marks You could try Paint Shop Pro or Gimp though. Both are full-featured image creation programs which both have a screenshot function. And the second program is even free

Edited by Mr Creosote at 06:40 on September, 08th 2002

It is possible to crack hypersnap and thus not get the credit added. {Note: Cracking is illegal do so at your own risk. This post is not encouraging cracking, it is just stating that it is possible.(Hopefully this note'll get the legal crap out of the way. Feel free to edit this part of the post out if you feel it's inappropriate.)}

Depending on what's in that part of the image, you could crop the image to remove the hypersnap credit.

PSP and Gimp fit into the first option I described. While they do have built in screen cap capabilities, I find that it's much easier in a gaming situation to use the print screen button and alt+tab between the game and psp (which btw is my personal favorite imaging prog).
As far as the gimp goes, I'd stay away from it. There are many freeware imaging progs that include screencap abilities (try xnview). Gimp has a lot of features for a freeware prog, but it's nearly impossible to access any of them due to the terrible interface. Gimp has to be the most user-UNfriendly prog I've ever come across.

'Print Screen' doesn't work well for any real-time (action) games since you always only will be able to make one screenshot, get killed and then make the next screenshot.

As for Gimp, I'm using it all the time now. It's true, it took some time to get used to it, but now I actually love the multi-windowed structure! It's actually very well thought out and practical, you just have to understand it first

Freeware screencap progs-
http://www.webattack.com/freeware/gmm/fwscreen.shtml
Freeware graphics editors (most of which include screencap abilities-
http://www.webattack.com/freeware/gmm/fwgraphicedit.shtml
Freeware image viewers (again, most include screencap abilities)-
http://www.webattack.com/freeware/gmm/fwviewers.shtml


(There's another feature request for the board, automatic URL parsing.)
{edit: First link fixed, should work now.}

Edited by Cypherswipe at 07:22 on September, 08th 2002

As I told on the old board: no.

The first link is a 404 btw.

Edited by Mr Creosote at 07:15 on September, 08th 2002

1) Depends if the game can be paused or not.
2) I could have sworn the old board had auto-parsing, and my complaints were about how it functioned? Maybe not. In any case, I still think it's a useful feature. As long as there's a checkbox on the posting page for it, the poster can turn it on or off if they don't want it to function on that particular post.

3) I see the problem, it should end in shtmL not shtm, I'll fix it after I post this.

No, the old board didn't parse URLs automatically.

Thanx for all the help... The print-screen button does nothing in this particular game so that's why I needed another prog... Guess I got one now

If its a DOS game, remoot in DOS and use ScreenThief. It's one of my favorite programs ever. If in Windows, there's a small freeware utility called Clipper. You can find it on Shareware.com or elsewhere. That one makes .jpg files, but you can always convert them in Paint Shop Pro or a whole host of freeware programs.

Just tried the Clipper program. It's quite good for making several screenshots in a row, but why the hell does it create jpg images??? That's completely stupid for making screenshots...

I know, but so far it's the only free program I found that allows you do make screenshots with one click, without having to quit the game. I'd be much more happy with .bmp myself...

Yup, bmp or any other uncompressed format. But as long as you set the quality value at 100, compression losses can hardly be found after resizing the screenshot, so it's not completely useless.

I found another tool, Capture Pro, that's similar to Clipper, but it uses bmp instead of jpg. As it's just 9 KB, I attached it.

Or go here to the programmer's site:

http://members.optushome.com.au/steverichards1/products.htm

Edited by Tapuak at 21:15 on September, 08th 2002

Awesome! Many thanks, Tapuak. I'll try it out tonight .