Why are screenshots so much darker than seen on the screen

[Oldjim 154]

This may have been asked before but I didn't find it

Whenever I take a screen shot I always have to lighten in to make the detail visible and looking at other posts it seems I am not alone in seeing this effect

 

I suppose the next question is - can this be fixed

[AluminumHaste 996]

Because screenshots don't include the in game gamma value. Everything is taken at 1.

If you need to have that included, use FRAPS and have FRAPS take the screenshot, that should be the same as what's on your screen.

[AluminumHaste 996]

r_gamma set to 2.

 

TDM screenshot command:

 

 

FRAPS screenshot:

 

[Bikerdude 3738]

The issue with frabs is its causes an overhead which slows down the game.

[AluminumHaste 996]

It shouldn't if you turn off the overlay and disable the FPS monitor.

[AluminumHaste 996]

Yeah makes no difference.

 

With fraps not running:

 

 

With FRAPS running:

 

[Spooks 669]

I've definitely noticed it too, my anecdotal evidence is that they look fine once I enter fullscreen viewing of a screenshot (e.g. with windows photo viewer slideshow) it appears the correct gamma again. So it could be an optical illusion based on the fact that the darks are so dark they get hidden if there's bright pixels around them, like when they're framed inside a browser window or the like.

 

edit: VV I have my gamma set to 1 so that can't be it.

Edited July 9, 2016 by Spooks

[AluminumHaste 996]

No need for anecdotal evidence, as I posted proof of concept screenshots a few posts up.

There IS a difference, I used a gamma of 2 just to easily illustrate the differences. But most players only push a small amount of extra gamma. For me r_gamma 1.2 is more than enough.

That won't really be that visible in screenshots.

[demagogue 1198]

In any event, the in-game screenshot doesn't perform its job properly unless it's capturing the same image the player sees on screen, so it should be fixed to do that. It's not the most critical bug, but still something worth putting in the tracker to get to.

[AluminumHaste 996]

You could file a tracker for it for sure. I personally like the way it works. When editing screenshots in Photoshop, I like to start with a normal screenshot and tweak it myself.