How to take screenshots of GOG TSL?

[ZeldaTheSwordsman 40]

I discovered an annoying downside to the Good Old Games digital version TSL: It does the oh-so-wonderful thing of fouling up the "Print Screen" method of screenshots, turning what should have been a screenshot into a solid black block. 😡

So, how do you take a screenshot of that version?

[TamerBill 135]

If you run it through GOG Galaxy then you can take screenshots with F12.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman 40]

31 minutes ago, TamerBill said:

If you run it through GOG Galaxy then you can take screenshots with F12.

I do not run it through GOG Galaxy. Not only do I despise the very concept of running a game store client to play a game that's rightfully its own program, I use Windows 7. Per GOG's website, Galaxy is for 8 and 10.

[LoneWanderer 103]

1 hour ago, ZeldaTheSwordsman said:

I discovered an annoying downside to the Good Old Games digital version TSL: It does the oh-so-wonderful thing of fouling up the "Print Screen" method of screenshots, turning what should have been a screenshot into a solid black block. 😡

So, how do you take a screenshot of that version?

Check swkotor.ini and add the line EnableScreenShot=1 under [Game Options]

[ZeldaTheSwordsman 40]

2 minutes ago, LoneWanderer said:

Check swkotor.ini and add the line EnableScreenShot=1 under [Game Options]

Tried that, but I'm still getting a solid black block when I paste into Paint.

[LoneWanderer 103]

44 minutes ago, ZeldaTheSwordsman said:

Tried that, but I'm still getting a solid black block when I paste into Paint.

It doesn't work like that. You take screenshot, find it with .tga extension in the directory of the game, open it with Paint.NET (or other editor) and save as .jpg, .png, etc.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman 40]

14 minutes ago, LoneWanderer said:

It doesn't work like that. You take screenshoot, find it with .tga extension in the directory of the game, open it with Paint.NET (or other editor) and save as .jpg, .png, etc.

1. You could have been clearer about that to start. I assume to start the process you hit F12?

2. That is a really dumb way to handle screenshots. Why isn't it set to save them as a normal image file to start with? And furthermore, why/how did the chuckleheads at GOG screw up the standard "Print Screen" method of capture in the first place?

[Obi Wan Pere 121]

I had the same stupid problem, I got used to take screenshots running Win XP with the PrintScreen Key and pasting in the same Paint app of the O.S.

Running under Win 7, I got that "black block" you describe. It's that you don't need "paste" the image after take the screenshot.

As says @LoneWanderer the image file is placed directly in the main directory of TSL in '.tga' format and you must be sure that the option is set in the "swkotor.ini" file.

I don't think it's related with the different versions of TSL.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman 40]

18 minutes ago, Obi Wan Pere said:

I had the same stupid problem, I got used to take screenshots running Win XP with the PrintScreen Key and pasting in the same Paint app of the O.S.

Running under Win 7, I got that "black block" you describe. It's that you don't need "paste" the image after take the screenshot.

As says @LoneWanderer the image file is placed directly in the main directory of TSL in '.tga' format and you must be sure that the option is set in the "swkotor.ini" file.

I don't think it's related with the different versions of TSL.

Then maybe it's Obsidian who frakked things up?

I would tend to put the blame on either Obsidian or GOG, because the Print Screen key mehod works just fine with my copy of K1.

In any case, the image file being saved in .tga format is a very dumb decision on the part of whoever set it up that way.

[Sith Holocron 2,478]

1 hour ago, LoneWanderer said:

Check swkotor.ini and add the line EnableScreenShot=1 under [Game Options]

 

1 hour ago, ZeldaTheSwordsman said:

Tried that, but I'm still getting a solid black block when I paste into Paint.

You did do it with the spacing (or more to the point, lack of spacing) as shown in the LoneWanderer's example above? (My example in picture form follows.)

In addition, sometimes folks have better results with changing the swkotor2.ini file by moving it to the desktop, making the changes, saving it, and only then returning it to when you grabbed it.

[Obi Wan Pere 121]

1 hour ago, ZeldaTheSwordsman said:

Then maybe it's Obsidian who frakked things up?

I would tend to put the blame on either Obsidian or GOG, because the Print Screen key mehod works just fine with my copy of K1.

In any case, the image file being saved in .tga format is a very dumb decision on the part of whoever set it up that way.

I cannot assure it but I think it's more related with how each O.S. works with the images in memory when a screenshot is taken, keeping in mind that neither K1 nor K2 weren't native for O.S.'s after WinXP.

The advantage I see is that, if you have to paste the image in an app, you have to ALT - TAB or quit the game every time for each screenshot, while now you can take screenshots endless knowing that are archived in the KotOR directory. It's a matter of get used to this system ...and have an app that work with '.tga' format and can convert the file to your desired format files.

I usually work with '.bmp' format files ...so I have that dumb problem as well.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman 40]

5 hours ago, Sith Holocron said:

 

You did do it with the spacing (or more to the point, lack of spacing) as shown in the LoneWanderer's example above? (My example in picture form follows.)

In addition, sometimes folks have better results with changing the swkotor2.ini file by moving it to the desktop, making the changes, saving it, and only then returning it to when you grabbed it.

I did indeed do it with that lack of spacing. As a matter of fact, it was already there in the list so I just had to change the 0 to a 1. And opening the file, it's still a 1. So idk what even.

I also tried testing adding it to the swplayer.ini file, still no luck getting the "Printscreen + paste" method to work.

...I also just discovered something odd. Looking at the folder, it appears that with the GOG version hitting "Print Screen" saves a .tga screenshot regardless of the swkotor2.ini screenshot setting. Because there are screenshots there from my first attempts before changing the .ini file.

@Obi Wan PereI really do think it has something to do with either how Obsidian tinkered with the engine, or something GOG did, rather than it being completely a compatibility thing. Because the more standard method works fine with my copy of K1 (which is from the Best of PC collection, not a digital edition) and I know for a fact that individual programs can screw up the clipboard capture (ever try to screenshot a video played on Windows Media Player back in the XP days?)

I find minimizing with the Windows key to paste into Paint less annoying than having to convert auto-saved screenshots to a more useful format.