Need Screenshot Advice

Could someone guide me to either in-game or third-party utilities to make screenshots? I find the in-game snapshot system frustrating because it automatically generates "snapshot.bmp" each time you log in, requiring you to manually change it to avoid overwriting past screenshots. There also doesn't seem to be a way to get your own avatar out of the picture. I'm also using SimCamera which unfortunately captures everything on the screen, although it does number and file the photos nicely. How do people get their screenshots with their own AV out of the picture?

I learned from Customer Service (Lee Linden) that I can put the viewer in "mouselook" and see through the avatar's eyes, and get my AV out of the picture.

HOWEVER, I find mouselook really confusing and disorienting. It careens all over the place, lurching everywhere up and down. It is hard to get it "still" to take a shot. I am still interested to hear how other people are taking more professional shots from inside the came of the scenes in the game.

You should be able to move the camera so that your avatar is outside the picture. Stand your avatar some distance away, and then alt-zoom over to the stop you want a snapshot of.

I don't use mouselook at all, but it is very easy to get your AV out of a shot.

place your mouse cursor over an object and use the alt key to move around. also try using the ctrl key or the shift key for various movements.

you can also put the mouse on yourself and use alt, ctrl and shift to move your viewpoint around.

www.hernansoft.com/captura its freeware

I like SL's screenshot capabilities. It takes out any of the UI, which is very nice. Usually, it axes any sort of floating text that may be hovering around on the screen as well. I think the exception to that is avatar names, but i've got those set to fade after a few seconds anyhow. But, if you get into a habit of naming your FIRST snapshot of the day something like 001, then the system will automatically name each subsequent snapshot taken along the lines of 001_001, 001_002, 001_003. The next day, name your first image 002, and the system will name them accordlingly.

What's more, i've never had SL overwrite any of the images i've taken. It will -always- add the XXX number after the new images. I.E - you already have 'snapshot.bmp' - the next time it takes a shot, it'll name it snapshot_001.bmp.

Of course, that's how MY computer system/SL layout works. If that's not the case for other people, i don't quite know what to say.

Just another two cents: i never use the 'upload as texture' option. The quality is much lower on those images, not to mention the cost can really climb if you are taking an entire series of images. Much easier to take them to disk, then pick and choose those which you'd like to upload to share.

I also suggest figuring out the 'alt click' feature in SL. You can most definitely take snapshots without your av in them by using this feature. Simply hold down your ALT key, and click with your mouse on what you'd like to look at. If you really get savvy with it, you can pull up the "camera controls' from the EDIT menu and have yet another level of control over your images and angles.

Good luck!

In addition to using the alt button, you can also use the alt+ctrl combo.

You can also bring up the camera controls from the view->camera controls menu. However, alt+ctrl seems easier to me

HTH!!

Ariel, no doubt Ctrl+alt is a nice thing. I use it without thinking about it now. But what you may not know is that the EDIT/Camera Controls adds yet -another- level of control on top of Ctrl+Alt. Imagine picking out your desired alt ctrl click location ... and then being able to tweak -that- by going around it in circles and moving to the left and right, up and down. Sometimes it's the perfect thing to get that 'just right' angle. It's also a very nifty extra level of control when you are trying to snap a picture of your own avatar. You don't always have to be center screen or looking straight ahead with the addition of the camera controls.

It can be a bit to get used to, but once you do --- whee fun!

An EXTRA combo of buttons which I use frequently also, is ALT+CTRL+SHIFT, this will not rotate the view, rather pan it across.

You can use a sequence of all these techniques to get some really good shots of your own avatar wthout it moving around, it's also good for regular SL photography and getting your av out of the way

I wish there was a way to pick which snapshot number SL would start at, if there are no previous pictures in a folder. It'd be nice because I have several thousand now, and I want to archive them but continue on with the numbering.

Also... off the top of my head... are there any additional hotkeys to take a snapshot? I'm using "`" but of course, the chat bar has to be closed. This can be troubling because sometimes I miss a good shot 'cuz I forgot to hit Esc and end up with "``````" instead.

Using CTRL+SHIFT+S with the chatboar open will take a picture.