The Best Pictures are taken in the D.a.r.k

[Schot 407]

Heya guys. Just thought I'd share a bit of my insanity so that we are on equal footing.

 

A really simple tip for any of you who will be taking various pics of Sacred. Whether it be the interface, CAs, items and whatever else this tip can ensure you are getting the best capture possible.

 

Two things are important here:

 

Firstly, I always work with .tga images that can be found in the Sacred installations "Capture" folder where all your screenshots go. The .tga files are high quality image captures so it's always best to start with those. After you've finished editing the image you can save it as a jpg, gif, png and so on. Quality can and will be maintained even after you have saved these tga images as jpg, gif, png, etc.

Please be very mindful of the filesize you are saving your image at if you plan to put them on the wiki, or anywhere for that matter. This is often overlooked and it can make people who have slow internet connections very very sad. As an example, a 1024x768 screenshot should never be more than 300kb and ideally would be 150-200kb. Always remember the lil people!

 

The second thing I do is just as significant as using tga if not more than. Whatever it is you are wanting to capture an image of it will be best captured against black. And for this I take all my pics in the dungeon of portals that is just under Havan Isle. Here's a pic of me taking a pic.

 

 

So there you go. Two of my tricks for great captures... Or maybe just proof that I truly am insane, hehe.

 

Edit: Added photoshop video tutorial

 

Here you can watch a video tutorial of how I clean up my Sacred items screenshots. Keep in mind that this tutorial is not expected to be followed by everyone since not everyone has Photoshop. Special note: I ONLY use the .tga files that go in my Sacred Capture folder. The .tga files are best quality pictures of your screenshots.

 

[gogoblender 3,070]

That's fantastic.

Schot, it looks like with all of your work, we can soon set up a sacred wiki hints page with all of your detailing on taking highest quality pics, and with all the sticky sheets you've done.

 

 

gogo

[Funkilicious 1]

Ahh thanks Schot, was looking for a guide for pics just brilliant

 

Is there a standard size that you are wanting the pics to be?

Edited October 19, 2007 by Funkilicious

[Schot 407]

Ah glad to know you've found it useful Funki.

 

As for your question I think it would be a good idea to create some standards regarding pics in the wiki so as to allow written content a healthy amount of page space. I think there may end up being one more than one standard regarding image size which will depend on the usage.

 

Can you give me an example of a pic on the wiki you would like to place so I can give some more feedback?

 

Thanx!

 

P.s.

If it is item screenshots that are cropped to show only the item and maybe its stats box then I think 30kbs in filesize would be a safe number and the dimensions should be fine as is cropped.

[Funkilicious 1]

P.s.

If it is item screenshots that are cropped to show only the item and maybe its stats box then I think 30kbs in filesize would be a safe number and the dimensions should be fine as is cropped.

 

Exactly what I had in mind, are we going a standard way with the items as in show the item within the stats box or leaving the item next to the stats box?

[Schot 407]

Ah very interesting... As far as the stats box goes I was thinking we could use the one in the following example:

Draelokk's Glooming Skull

 

The stats box you will see from that link is purely wiki code, no image at all. I was thinking when I created it that we could simply cut the item out of a screenshot and then drop it into the stats box template. What do you think about that? If you think it could be useful I could finish off that template to make it more "friendly". Haha. One of the interesting things about that stats box template is that any word inside of it could be a link to anywhere on the wiki...

 

Oh and here's a bit few more pointers about making the images if you are interested. I'm pretty sure you have it but just in case you'll need the DivX decoder/player to watch the videos in the guide below. DivX Web Player or Just the Decoder.

 

Photoshopping your Sacred Uniques, Video explanation, tips and tricks (2 videos)

[Funkilicious 1]

Thanks Schot,

 

Whatever is the general consensus, might as well set a standard from the beginning so that it is uniform and not going to look hotchpotch when it is finished, which means more time consuming editing.

 

I like the look of the stats box from the wiki code, are we also including a pic of the item too though?

[Schot 407]

Ok, I wrote out the below quote, did some fiddling with the stats box and realized this is being made far more complex than it needs to be, lol. Lets just go with simple images. The item and the stats from a screenshot will be fine I think as well as much easier to do for most than using the items template. I'll make use of the template in some other way. The stats box from a screenshot will vary in size depending on the item and in that case I would say to use whatever size it may be. No need to resize them. Have the image just to the left of its stats box like the below image. I say item outside of stats because in my experience the item doesn't always fit nicely inside the stats of a screenshot... Oh and although my image below has those nice corners it is not required, it was the only uploaded image on hand that I could think of.

 

 

 

So now we have a standard for item images:

• Format as is above, minus the frame, item to the left of stats. If you space the item from the stats box like I have then please save as transparent gif. Reason is that the background colour of the wiki skin will change in the future. PNG would look nice but the filesize would be too big so gif is the best option for this.
  
• Use the .tga versions of your screenshots for best quality and smaller filesizes. (Note: Whenever you make a screenshot in game there are two versions created. The .jpg and the .tga TGA FTW! )
  
• filesize to be as close to 30kbs as possible while maintaining quality. Quality is priority though so if you need to go above 30 then feel free.
  
• Dimensions of item images should not overpower written content. Once they are cropped from a screenshot the size should be fine as is but use discretion.
  

I think that's all of it. Did I miss anything?

 

Cheers!

 

Wrote this originally as my post then changed my mind but couldn't bare to delete this, lol. So there!

 

A pic of the item inside the stats box would be perfect I think. I'll need to adjust the template for the stats box to allow easily allow an image to be placed inside. If you are comfortable with trying to put the image inside the stats box then feel free to give it a try. In the meantime I'll see about adjusting the template. I think now would be a good time to direct you to the two draft templates I made for this:

 

Template:Set Item

This is the first draft I created. The intention was to have people copy this code into a page and edit it as needed. They would need to type in the appropriate names and delete whatever else did not apply to the particular item.

 

Template:Set Items

A second draft of the items template. You can get a better understanding of how to use the template from this link.

 

It seems like a lot at fist I think but after a couple uses I found it would be faster than preparing images as well as the fact that it looks very clean. If it really seems like too much trouble then please say so though... Be that the case then we'' just go with cropped images for the item and the stats box.

 

I'm sorry I'm not giving you a black and white answer but I think it's important to first discover if the template I created will be useful or not.

 

Tomorrow I'll have more on the box thing but feel free to make the item images themselves if you're itching. We'll definitely use those no matter what.

[Schot 407]

Hello

 

I've updated my first post in this topic by adding a photoshop video tutorial of how I clean up Sacred item screenshots.

[dickyb88 0]

Hey Guys

 

Trying to capture some screenshots for the quests, but whenever I hit printscreen, it only saves the screen under the windows. Ie I can't get an image of the map or of the logbook. This is on Sacred 2 by the way. What is it I'm doing wrong?

 

Ta

[Erling 3]

go options and change screenshot button to something else, this way the printscreen will be normal pic of screen and not the sacred screenshot application wich removes all tools and applications from the picture.

[Arperum 3]

Or ctrl+ print screen, that should take the inventory too.

[dickyb88 0]

Or ctrl+ print screen, that should take the inventory too.

 

Ok, will try that, because changing the key that saved the screen didn't work.

 

I'll let you know!

 

Yey. It worked! Thx Arperum

Edited March 4, 2009 by dickyb88

[podgie_bear 184]

Can anyone out there tell me how on earth you can get pictures of unique items? I have tried many times ingame and they never work. It doesn't matter if the item id equiped or not, held or not, even in the stash, it is always the same. When you take a screenshot it only shows the basic screen and never shows any open menus or item descriptions that you have on screen.

 

Someone has obviously managed it or else they would not be displayed in Sacred Wiki, so apart from using a camera to physically photograph what is on my screen, how do you do it:)

[Stormwing 40]

Was wondering the same earlier. Have you tried a gem of a program called Fraps?

I just had to take a proofing screenie that I got a level 1 unique ring as a first drop of my melee Dryad.

[gogoblender 3,070]

Hey guys!

 

quickly dug this up, it's a guide (again lol) from Schot

 

gogo

[Munera 1]

Can anyone out there tell me how on earth you can get pictures of unique items? I have tried many times ingame and they never work. It doesn't matter if the item id equiped or not, held or not, even in the stash, it is always the same. When you take a screenshot it only shows the basic screen and never shows any open menus or item descriptions that you have on screen.

 

Someone has obviously managed it or else they would not be displayed in Sacred Wiki, so apart from using a camera to physically photograph what is on my screen, how do you do it?

 

o_O Press Print Screen key --> Go to Paint (oh yes paint is a wonder) --> Paste --> Save

[podgie_bear 184]

Thanks Gogo, I have got it sussed now. It was the CTRL key that I needed to get the menus into the picture.

 

Thanks Munera, I didn't know that Paint would do it. I was using a converter to change .tga to .jpg then putting it into paint to touch it up.

[Modesto Clarion 0]

Afternoon guys:)

a nice day here and im sitting in front of my computer doing nothing. isn't that great?

I was trying to upload some screen shot of my char and share the experience with u guys but now I have 2 problems...

first one is each time I took a screen shot, the status my mouse was pointing didnt show up like the status of a weapon, my personal status, equipments status, etc. any idea why this is happening? or it's because of my hardware problems?...

 

second one is I dunno how to upload picture to here... seems like need to upload my pic to somewhere on the internet and then link the link to here -.- but I dunno how

 

Ok im gonna sit here again and w8 for update

 

I need to be justified that if my char is now able to pass platinum ~ but...first thing first...I need to know how to upload the pic

[Ryanrocker 200]

Using a free image hosting site like imageshack will get the job done