Skyrim Screenshots: Steam "Save an uncompressed copy"?

[anjenthedog]

I happen to be on steam for the first time in probably over a year now (I keep it up but offline for play but honestly don't give it any mind whatsoever, any more than I do a video or audio driver). Anyway, before logging in to download another game (final frontier fwiw), I'm double checking to make sure there's not some gotcha "autoupdate" directive to disable, and I saw a setting for snapshots I didn't realize was available for fiddling... in Steam settings, I see that the screenshot folder can be changed (didn't know that), AND.... there's a checkbox for "save an uncompressed copy"

 

So here's my question. Does checking this "save an uncompressed copy" checkbox allow me to save a better quality snapshot when using Skyrim's "native" snapshot hotkey? The normal one is really grainy.

[Gorgopis]

We dislike seeing this question unanswered, since the screenshot functions interest us.

 

Perhaps the question has sat for the reason we didn't respond: we worried over the idea of going into Steam to test your settings discovery to change the settings, because we're not confident about potential Steam update madness that might affect our game or cause us to have to go through the loading screen details-reset.

 

 

Nonetheless, we use the in-game screenshot function frequently and get some pretty good hi-res images, which we can sometimes even improve in our image-editor. The results might have something to do with the ENB modders run, and what res it's at, (2K or 4K). (We're guessing that's true?)

 

In our image editor we apply and play with such toggles as: "Reduce Noise," "detect and refine edges," "adjust curves" (histogram that alters light-to-clarity and field-of-view ratios).

 

HTH. (Hope this helps).

Edited August 15, 2022 by Gorgopis

[anjenthedog]

Hmm... Well, I don't use ENB, (although I presume I use some precast "ENB" via Vivid Landscapes) so I also don't use ENB's snapshot function or its apparently higher resolution. My snapshots use the vanilla snapshot utility at game screen res, ie 1280x1024 (or 1920x1280 or whatever it is). But again, this (ie my experience) is apparently using compressed snapshot images.

 

I was/am hoping not to have to experiment for a change. It gets a bit frustrating having to redo testing that I'm sure others have done prior, simply because someone who knows the answer doesn't want to take the 2 minutes out of their day to ***authoritatively** answer, "yes, it produces a better image" or "no, it won't make any difference whatsoever". Of course, logic dictates that that probably isn't the case, and that it's more likely that those who do know don't bother visiting these forums in the first place... In any case, it's frustrating.,

 

(BTW, I don't use ENB for much the same reason as this question went unanswered. Because I can't figure out the recipe on my own, and when I did ask for help, it went into another black hole. "figure it out yerself, ya loser" seems to be some mantra among some players. Temper down... Ok, so I just won't use it. I'll just presume my system can't handle it anyway (6G video card) and move on to more pleasant pursuits.

 

I'm intimately familiar with photo editing, (started using photo editing software in the late 1980s and have a current Photo Shop license, - primarily for astronomical imaging - have used and supported Paint dot Net since it first became available, and have a few other editors from various forays over the years), so post-processing isn't the issue here. I've played games with the snapshots to improve them, like scaling images, using sharpen and noise redux and so forth to eek out a bit more calculated res, frame stacking, etc, but it's not the same as the original un-interpolated data.

 

The question still stands, Does checking the box in Steam for uncompressed snapshot images improve image quality for the snapshot function, or does it do nothing? Some more authoritative voice ought to see this and be able to answer, whether a Nexus employ, or some affiliate like a steam rep, since I'm sure Steam at least has a passing fancy in one of the premier Mod sites for the products they manage.

 

Nonetheless, thanks for your reply. But if you have to experiment with it yourself to answer, you're in the same boat overall. I wouldn't ask someone else to run an experiment in my stead. ("Here Bob, hold this stick of dynamite for me, I'm curious what it'll do to a hand when it goes off...."), I was asking for someone who already has used the setting on their own and knows in advance what the answer is.

[Gorgopis]

We have to commiserate with unresponded (a new word) queries, because we have a few rather simple ones floating out there, that a helpful community expert could likely answer in about 23-43 seconds.

 

We're assuming that because we are not Premium members, that lack of designation may be part of, or all of, the reason we don't achieve the kind of expert feedback we hope. Understandable, but misses our individual conditions. (Could it be some users are not Premium because they simply have no funds, nor access to family credit cards?)

 

Anyway, for various reasons, none of the payment options to become Premium members suffice: as they are all vulnerable at some level to hacking, and we do know a great deal about AI vulnerabilities and about failures of encrypted financial traffic.

 

Our chosen methods of being "Premium Members" is to make Mods and to answer such questions as we can, (safely) and investing our time to add some fun for the Community, in thanks for what we've received.

 

++

 

Meanwhile, for example, one of our outstanding questions, especially since you are a Photoshop Guru (We have the Adobe 6.0 Suite) and we are not, is a straightforward process of how to "transform" a 2D (RL) Headshot Photo into a 3D useable skinned model that can become a mesh and opened or imported into Nifskope.

 

Maybe Bodyslide has an EZ process for that?

 

Our searches have revealed little, suggesting our inability to construct really effective searches, ore else linking to pay-to-play sites, or to sites that offer tools for use only at their sites, but store the images on their "cloud." They acquire your images.

 

We would like to surprise our Skyrim-playing buds with Player characters or NPC's that look just like them!

[anjenthedog]

I meant nothing with respect to your status as a "premium member". But you did say that you'd have to experiment to find out why. Which puts you in the same boat as me. My purpose was to leverage the "expertise" of someone who already has, or who has some authority via their "daily bread" to know the answers, or who *should* alreayd know the answers, not expect someone else who's in the dark as I am to experiment for me.

[Gorgopis]

Way wordy, below.

 

So many community members have helped us with stuff that's simple, we try to help others when we might know a bit of something. [sometimes we get in trouble because we tri to help when we don't no nothin'.]

 

As you, we play SRSE in offline mode. We also have Steam set to "get our approval before updates." And we're not approving, 'cause our SRSE is real stable.

 

We long ago pinned our two STEAM screenshot folders (one is Oldrim, the other SE), to Windows Quick Access.

 

(We may have checked "Saved screenshots as uncompressed" ages ago, and now no longer remember.)

 

What we did find is that those nasty compressed, or lossy files, are saved by STEAM with .tga suffixes.

 

With a short search, we found a STEAM discussion thread where multiple responders outline methods to get STEAM (for a different game) screenshots to save as HI-Res as possible. That's where we learned the following:

 

All of our screenshots were being saved automatically but differently with F-12 as JPEGs. Not as STEAM's .tga's.

 

Maybe because we run an ENB Mod through Vortex? (Not sure how that ENB would help. It's not telling STEAM to make Hi-Res screenshots.)

 

Or maybe because we ticked the STEAM uncompressed screenshot-save box a long time ago, and now just can't remember.

 

If relevant, we run Nvidia with a compatible Hi-Res, Hi-speed monitor. (We hand-built our kinda Hi-End PC and got parts and monitor cheap at auctions at our Uni and at another nearby Uni. Sometimes Uni Tech Departments have budgets for stuff and buy it and the local Uni never really needs or asks for it, and so they sell these off. (& Uni Cop Departments have lost and found stuff up for auction, where we got a real good gaming laptop for real cheap, maybe stolen but never reclaimed!)

 

Meaning, the GE Experience overlay allows Nvidia cards to capture in-game Hi-Res screenshots, but we never use that overlay for screenshots, we just rely on the native SRSE F-12. HTH.

Edited August 17, 2022 by Gorgopis

[anjenthedog]

 

 

What we did find is that those nasty compressed, or lossy files, are saved by STEAM with .tga suffixes.

Hmm...that's weird. My compressed F12 derived snapshot images are saved in the .png format. Have been since I installed Skyrim SE (early 2019), or at least as soon as I figured out how to take a snapshot a month or so in.

 

 

[Gorgopis]

We've read that .png files create very big file sizes, compared to .jpg files. So .png should have more data, but they may affect resolution.

 

We don't know. We haven't bothered to examine media published to Nexus for SRSE, but maybe clicking on your favorites of any of those images will reveal file type, resolution, and other data?

 

Or you might try an ask on a poster's media page or mod page, the same question here?

[anjenthedog]

Yes, PNG file sizes are larger than JPG. JPG is a lossy compression format. PNG isn't. TIF format produces an even larger file. (TIF is the working format for my photo processing in Astronomical imaging, once they've been stacked and output as ... well, as another format that has to be manipulated before it gets converted to TIF, one I doubt you'll employ around here (.FIT). TGA...can't recall, since as a PC user, and not being a gamer (per say), TGA isn't a format that I encounter all too often, and definitely not one I use in graphic work.

 

As to snapshots used in mod descriptives, far as I can tell, they come in as jpgs sometimes, sometimes png, often the much newer .webx format, at least with newer mods.

 

Nah, the question belongs here. This is a Skyrim/Steam matter, not a general graphics issue.

[Gorgopis]

Any progress?