Query for Snapshot Enthusiasts

Hi. Presumably everyone who takes snaps and saves them to hardrive,like myself, has noticed there are now 3 formats you can save snaps in (png, jpeg and bmp) . I always save as bmp - but has anyone else noticed that you cannot simply take snap after snap anymore because after taking one picture the save option blacks out until you actually switch through the formats.

Im wondering if this is a bug or there is some reason for this happening or maybe Im missing something.

I preferred it when you could snap after snap without the need to reset the format.

I have never had to do what you describe. Just how recently did you discover it?

If this is a 'feature' of the latest SL viewer or RC, then that's one more reason for me not to download it. I use Nicholaz's EC-h and don't have this problem (bloody good job, too, because I took about 40 snapshots in a photoshoot last night...)

i don't have that on Nicholis EC-F either..is it like that save window pops up or something? i really wouldn't mind that because it would be nice to name the shots.although i guess naming them later is really no big deal either..lol

I use the regular viewer 1.20.17. When saving to drive I only get the option of bmp, and I only have to select file destination once after logging in. Just as always. So, it must be an RC "feature" then?

It was new for current release viewer (1.21).

The RC for 1.22 does include several patches for the snapshot dialog, so it would be a good idea to try it there and see if the interface is still screwy, and maybe try to get it into JIRA before 1.22 goes final.

(edit to add: I do see Maelstrom's problem in 1.21.6, but not in 1.22 RC5.)

I save them in .png, I don't have that problem tho. When I take the first pic the box opens to ask where I want to file it and in what format, I choose, and can take pics after that with no interruption.

Ditto what Ralektra said

You may want to switch to PNG. It's a higher quality image than jpg but doesn't create 5-megabyte files (depending on your settings) as the bmps do.
You can always convert to jpg or gif when you edit your images. Overall, the bloated bmp format is pretty useless.

This.

I also use the shortcut keys to just keep snapping, so the only slowdown is the first one after each SL startup in order to tell it where to save and what to call the files.

Once png format became available, I decided to stick to it because I will upload many back to SL and the format that SL wants seems to be png -- that is how it saves textures.

ya a lot depends really what you are saving them for..
between a bitmap and a png you would not really notice a difference until you took them to the maximum resolution of the image and then higher..otherwise i doubt you would notice anything at all

Png's are nice because of the ease of working with transparency where bitmaps you need to work with alpha channles and still need to compress them after..

if you really want to save the quality of a shot you could take them as a bitmap which is total lossless and then convert them to png which can retain the original quality because you can deflate a png file kind of like putting a bitmap into a zip file..A jpeg is more like taking a picture of a picture and you have a lot of loss in that compression with no deflating..

it just depends on what you are using them for i guess..if you are going bigger resolution with your image you would want no loss or least as possible and bitmaps are nice for that.

if you are staying the same resolution or smaller pngs hold the quality almost flawless and work better on the net because of file sizez and versatility..

The only thing I use the jpg for is after cropping to upload to sites like Flickr and such. I haven't even checked in a while to see what formats will upload to those sites, so not sure it other formats would be okay. Since jpg are compressed so much, many of the photo sites probably restrict it to that to save space.

Also, if we are putting a picture in a forum post here, will it take any format other than jpg?

hmmm weird, i'm using the latest rc Second Life 1.22.5 (107013) and i noticed i'm only allowed to save as pngs whereas i'm sure i was given options before in the last official client (haven't had a chance to check). I also just noticed there is a debug setting called SnapshotFormat where you can set whether you want png, jpg or bmp if that's any help to set it to your preferred format.

i know i see Gif's on here at times because of the animations.i'm gonna try a png and see what happens right now in here lol

If you use snapshot to disk (CTRL-`) the RC only saves as .PNG.

If you use the take snapshot command (CTRL-SHIFT-S) it lets you select between formats for each shot.

The only reason I can think of to use anything but PNG when saving to your hard drive is if your photo editing software won't recognize it.

With 1.22, the routine is that "Snapshot to Disk" will use whatever format you last picked in "Take Snapshot", without asking again. To get the type choice in "Take Snapshot", you need to tick the More>> button to reveal the menu.

hahahaha it works unless i am the only one that can see it
this is over at flicker

I see it just fine.

There is an outstanding gotcha with PNG on the Web. A ton of people keep trying to make do with IE6, which does a poor job displaying PNG images that contain alpha channels, tending to show a weird smeary grey mess. Opaque PNGs, and PNGs using masking instead of the full alpha, will look OK on pretty much any browser though (and IE7 is OK with PNG alpha).

that browser always gives me trouble when i am working on a website..
i used to always forget about making it have to work with IE when i was working from firefox lol

but ya i remember before it used to be that you could show transparency in one browser and not in the other..i think that was back in IE5 maybe.i forget..it was like 5 years ago..
Not an IE fan here..i like my donuts cream filled not with the holes

i just thought of something..if we can use png here then we should be able to use transparency which means really neat siggies!!!! \0/ YAY!!!!! i hope

yay it works lol
weeeee!!!\0/!!!! lol

yes but you still have to tinker around with the format with each pic you take at least I did with the bmp format (which I use, incidently, 'cos I like to print some of my sl stuff...and I still find bmps give the best print)

Just done a little checking and it only seems to be happening with the bmp option ? could it be something to do with the resulting file size ?

it won't let you save as bitmap?what you could do is take your png into photoshop and see if you can decompress it to bmp..that should give you better quality..because png files can deflate..the only thing i am wondering is if it will deflate if it is saved as a png..
it would have to take the image at some moment before it compressed and make it lossless before it became a png i would thing..unless it is just compressing from the shot which would be lossless..lol
omg i put way too much thought into that for this time of the morning

PNG uses lossless compression. The quality is exactly the same as BMP.