Full screen capture

[vulcan84]

Early last year I used an earlier version of Screenshot Captor and I'm sure I could capture fullscreen images. For example captures from games which ran full screen.

I recently changed my graphics card to a Nvidia GTX460 and all I get now from a full screen capture is a completely black image. Not sure if this is a limition of Screenshot Captor,  the new graphics card, or a setting.

The OS is Vista.

Any help appreciated.

Vulcan84

[mouser]

I wonder if this is your problem:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=16024.0

[vulcan84]

Thanks for the quick reply but not sure what in that thread relates to my problem so here are a few more details then you can let me know how much more information you need 

The screen shots I am trying to capture are from MS Flight SimX acceleration running full screen not windowed. Captures from windowed mode work fine.

I am not running any browser while FSX or screenshot captor is running.

I am using Avast anti-virus and with it turned off I still get just a black capture.

Screenshot Captor is set to save the grabs automatically, no 'after capture' pop-up enabled. However with that pop-up enabled it shows the captured image just as a black image and when I discard the image I am returned to a black screen, not an image of FSX.
To get FSX to display I have to switch it back to windowed mode.
Hope that gives you more clues.

vulcan84

[mouser]

here is the most important question:

does SC take good full screenshot images when ms flight sim is not running? is it ONLY flight sim that has this problem?

[vulcan84]

Hmm, interesting.

I can capture the desktop OK.

I have 2 racing sims, 1 I can capture full screen images, the other one no image at all is captured?

From the above it looks as if the problem could be FSX but no idea why the racing sim won't even capture an image!

[mouser]

programs that use full screeen accelerated graphics cannot be captured properly by normal screenshot techniques.

[vulcan84]

I've just dug up some screenshots of FSX I captured with an earlier version of SC and they are definitely full screen captures. After changing my graphics card from a Nvidia 8800GT to a Nvidia GTX460 SC only captures a black image from full screen so I guess that points to the graphics card causing the problem.

[vulcan84]

OK problem fixed 

After reading various flight sim forum posts about AA and AF settings I changed the way AA was set and I can now grab full screen images.

MSFSX has a 'AA' check box to enable AA in the sim or you can set the Nvidia graphics card to force AA.
I unticked the AA box in FSX and forced AA via the graphics card and now full screen grabs work correctly.

[mouser]

ah that's interesting..

BUT you might want to make sure that you havent disabled some fast directx graphics mode just so you can capture screenshots -- typically the thing that stops you from capturing full screen screenshots of directx applications is that directx is in a more efficient faster low-level graphics rendering mode.

[vulcan84]

Well the only thing I changed was the way AA is implemented, I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes.
I thought to try the change because some people in the flight sim thread were saying they had a black screen when switching FSX from full screen to windowed mode.
As it was a simple two step change which is easily reversed I thought I would try it. I cannot remember how I implemented AA before I changed my graphic card, maybe I had AA set by the card which is why I could capture full screen.

I haven't tried the racing sim with the new setting but that doesn't really bother me, my main grabs are of FSX.