Skyrim Screenshots: Steam "Save an uncompressed copy"?

[anjenthedog]

no, tbh, I lost interest. Was really hoping for some sort of authoritative take rather than pioneering (tired of pioneering), but failing that I really don't care. It's not *that important to me to chase it further than I have. If someone happens to *know* already and says what it all means, great, otherwise I've moved on. There's more to life than chasing down yet another arcane gaming detail on my own "intrepid" experimentation, At least for me.

[Gorgopis]

Kind of off the topic, but you well know your way around the forums.

 

We do not know how to embed or insert screenshots into these forum windows. Is there an obvious way to do that?

 

Thx, if you get a chance.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Gorgopis

[anjenthedog]

The only way it seems Nexus allows it anymore is to link to an offsite archive like imgur. (or other similar photo archiving sites)

 

for some reason, they started blocking direct uploads sometime late last winter or early spring.

 

at least I think so. lemme try again.... Nope, neither the standard or "advanced" upload feature works anymore.

 

So to attach a photo you have to link to an offsite archive using the picture icon below the font color and smiley face icons in the editor controls.

 

it's also possible that you can upload photos to some user area on Nexus and link to those, but I haven't chased that avenue.

 

best of luck.

 

 

[Gorgopis]

Got it!

 

THX!

[VirtualCtor]

@anjenthedog This is late, but what key are you using to take the screenshot? Normally Steam is set to F12 and Skyrim is set to the "Print Screen" key. If you aren't using the Steam hotkey, then the Steam settings will not affect you. The Steam settings will not make the Skyrim native screenshot look better.

 

If you are using the Steam hotkey, then what you see in the screenshot should look almost exactly the same as the screen. It will be exact if you view the uncompressed copy.

 

Normally Steam saves the screenshot to a special directory for use with the "Screenshot Uploader". The file that it saves is a JPG. The checkbox in the Steam settings will make Steam also save a PNG to a location that you designate. This location is set by the "Screenshot Folder" button in the settings. Normally this is set to your documents folder in Windows (C:/Users/<your user name>/Documents).

 

The PNG looks better than the JPG file due to not having compression, but it is not substantially better. The PNG is a direct copy of what you see on the screen. Note that the preview images in the "Screenshot Uploader" are always grainy. You have to go to the folder via "Show on Disk" to see the JPG or go to your Documents folder to see the PNG.

 

[Gorgopis]

Is there a way to disable the Steam Screenshot Uploader? It seems to be "on" all the time, and shows as an active process that slows shutting the PC down.

 

We do not want to log on to STEAM to disable the uploader, if we can help it.

 

Thanks for any advice.

[anjenthedog]

@anjenthedog This is late, but what key are you using to take the screenshot? Normally Steam is set to F12 and Skyrim is set to the "Print Screen" key. If you aren't using the Steam hotkey, then the Steam settings will not affect you. The Steam settings will not make the Skyrim native screenshot look better.

 

If you are using the Steam hotkey, then what you see in the screenshot should look almost exactly the same as the screen. It will be exact if you view the uncompressed copy.

 

Normally Steam saves the screenshot to a special directory for use with the "Screenshot Uploader". The file that it saves is a JPG. The checkbox in the Steam settings will make Steam also save a PNG to a location that you designate. This location is set by the "Screenshot Folder" button in the settings. Normally this is set to your documents folder in Windows (C:/Users/<your user name>/Documents).

 

The PNG looks better than the JPG file due to not having compression, but it is not substantially better. The PNG is a direct copy of what you see on the screen. Note that the preview images in the "Screenshot Uploader" are always grainy. You have to go to the folder via "Show on Disk" to see the JPG or go to your Documents folder to see the PNG.

 

Ahhhhhhhhhh . Ok. I can live with this.

 

 

a couple small clarifications as to why I was confused

 

1) I wasn't aware that there was a separate "steam" snapshot vs Skyrim's native. I presumed they were one and the same.

 

2) F12 is re-mapped on my system. As I noted, I wasn't even aware steam had a snapshot function, so I gobbled it up in my never ending struggle to find another new hokey to assign. I'll open Steam and hunt around for its hotkey selection and to set the image-save folder (for uncompressed), so that I'm not quite so 'clueless' in the future.

 

Time to see if it produces a "better" image. Normal (ie skyrim) screen shots are very low Q when any zoom is applied. Based on the granularity of my existing snapshots, they must be pushing compression right to its lower limit, since they look downright "VGA" in terms of pixelization.

 

thanks for your answers.

[anjenthedog]

Thanks again for the explanation. I enabled it (and enabled steam overlays to allow it), and sure enough F12 is now linked to the steam snapshot util. Unfortunately, even the uncompressed (png) images still seem a bit pixelated, but maybe they'll be richer for post processing.