[GAME/PERFORMANCE] How to take screenies

[Razorwing]

Find the line "bAllowScreenShot=0" in your .ini files and change it to "bAllowScreenShot=1", save and close. Next time you play you can press the Print Screen key on your keyboard to take a screenie. The .ini files you need to modify are here:
C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini
C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblvion\Oblivion.ini
(thanks to Blocky for the tip!)

Edit: drasca had this to say (reference)

First off, an overview of screenshot basics:
A) Leave anti-aliasing off for the default screenshot ability to work.

B) Screenshots are created in your install directory.

C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion

About the ini files: Uou need to change your individual userprofile .ini file, not the Oblivion_default.ini in the above install directory

If you're not seeing "Screenshot created" when you hit printscreen in-game, no screenshot is made--probably because you changed the default rather than the user.

Additionally, as noted earlier, Antialiasing prevents screenshots (though some people turn off both bloom and AA). HDR does not prevent.

Here's the default directory for user ini profiles. Make sure you're editing this one, not the install directory ini.

C:\Documents and Settings\Userneedshelp*\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini

*Insert your individual username here.


Secondly, you might find these console commands useful:

Toggle menus:

Hit ` or ~ to bring up the console, and type:

TM

and hit enter. That'll toggle the visual interface, so it doesn't get in the way of your screenshots. Repeat to bring the inteface back.

Also, toggle free camera:

TFC

Fly around for screenshots.

TAI
TCAI

These toggle AI processing and toggle combat processesing. Turns AI ability to make decisions off/on for easy snapshotting for the photo enthusiast.

Someone noted vanity mode before. That's certainly useful, and readily used once the keymap for that command is learned or reassigned through the Oblivion options menu. However Toggle flying camera (TFC) is much more powerful and will allow you to take pictures from anywhere and from any angle.

[Blocky]

yeah, for some reason Bethesda made it really hard to take screenshots. For my screenshots to work both Oblivion.ini had to have that bAllowScreenShot toggled to 1.

C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini

C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblvion\Oblivion.ini

[Razorwing]

I have toggled it in both .ini files but I'm still not able to take screenies in-game. The ones I've taken in Reich Parkeep were made in windowed mode and using a screencap program. Do I need to create a special folder or something like that?

[noremorse]

No. It saves them into the C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion folder. I don't know what the problem is. :eek:

[Razorwing]

Strange. Perhaps the game is using US keyboards as the template, and the key marked Print Screen on my keyboard isn't the same as the game thinks it should be. I'll try some different keys and see if that works.

[Axen]

Will screenshots not work if you have AA enabled?

[noremorse]

It should still work even if it's enabled. Did you try it without it on as well?

[Razorwing]

I can report that the problem, once again, turned out to be Windows x64 which has been causing me a lot of problems in various areas. Now that I'm back to using normal 32-bit Windows XP suddenly the screenshot function works. :bananarock: