HELP with screenies :cry:

[Minako]

i have a question...........how can the lot of ye make such beautiful screens? i use the game feature using the .PNG option for better quality....but if i try to zoom in the images they start to get pixelated right away.....

:cry::cry::cry:

HELP!

[Gegenji]

Beyond just running settings at the max, there's quite a few folks who either touch up the screenshots in Photoshop or the like... and there's a program that quite a few run that makes the game look much more vibrant and colorful. I'm blanking on the name of it at the moment, but there's a thread or two on it, and it gets mentioned in the Screenshots thread more than once (if you're willing to dig through the 200+ pages for it :blush: ).

 

I'm sure someone who's more familiar with either method will pop in and say something soon enough, though.

[Minako]

Beyond just running settings at the max, there's quite a few folks who either touch up the screenshots in Photoshop or the like... and there's a program that quite a few run that makes the game look much more vibrant and colorful. I'm blanking on the name of it at the moment, but there's a thread or two on it, and it gets mentioned in the Screenshots thread more than once (if you're willing to dig through the 200+ pages for it :blush: ).

 

I'm sure someone who's more familiar with either method will pop in and say something soon enough, though.

 

Running sets at max

at max

MAX

:cry::cry:

now i understand why....or my pc goes boom or i get decent pictures..... *sigh*

[Gegenji]

Don't worry overly much about it. I'm sure you can manage with what settings you have now! The composition of the shot can mean just as much as the quality of it, after all! Just dive in and take those screenies.

 

Also, the program I was talking about is called SweetFX. However, I don't know how much to recommend using it if max settings alone is outside the scope. Running that makes everything much prettier, from what I've seen, but it also makes peoples' machines chug some.

[Nebbs]

So..

 

1st Understand the basics of what make a good photo, here is something from goggling and there are many

 

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2012/04/12/10-rules-of-photo-composition-and-why-they-work/

 

2nd Zoom the camera to frame the shot as best you can, you will likely crop it later so getting the most pixies on the area you want to keep means more definition

 

3rd Light - in the game try to get the well lit areas and in the day.

 

4th Take many shots, then weed out the best, discard the rest

 

That should get you the good starting point for the picture

 

 

5th Now you can process the picture

• crop to the image you want remember to leave some extra if you are going to frame
  
• apply whatever processing you want (enhance, overlays, blurring, touch ups)
  
• frame
  
• Check and redo if not happy (feel free to try different things)
  
• Post
  

Now, I like to keep things simple so all I use is Photobucket to host my pics and it has some very very basic processing options. It is browser based and slot and clunky.

 

If you want you can get many others even up to Photoshop. Check out Gimp and other OpenSorce ones.

 

I totally did photography in the 70s, loading my own film, developing it and using many chemicals

[Minako]

oh well i'll try then to keep my PC from going BOOM just for the time of a couple screenies then

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Chachan, are you thinking of SweetFX? That's what I use to make the game a little more colorful and to sharpen some of the textures.

 

...it actually looks weird without it now.

[Lady Rivienne]

Lighting is important for a good photo and the angles you take them in can make an impact. Try to take different shots and use your best one. My resolution is rather high, the video card and my hdmi gets rid of the jagged edges. Or so I believe.

 

Now, I do retouch my photos however, a lot. I brighten them up and sharpen them some. I hope this helps!

[Gegenji]

Chachan, are you thinking of SweetFX? That's what I use to make the game a little more colorful and to sharpen some of the textures.

 

...it actually looks weird without it now.

 

Yup, that's the one. Saw one of the threads for it after I posted and mentioned it in the second post. I've been kinda tempted to use it, but I hear you have to do a lot of finangling and such to get it working and I'm worried I'll break something in the process. :blush:

[Aduu Avagnar]

Chachan, are you thinking of SweetFX? That's what I use to make the game a little more colorful and to sharpen some of the textures.

 

...it actually looks weird without it now.

 

Yup, that's the one. Saw one of the threads for it after I posted and mentioned it in the second post. I've been kinda tempted to use it, but I hear you have to do a lot of finangling and such to get it working and I'm worried I'll break something in the process. :blush:

I'll chuck my settings up on google drive for people to play with. That way it shouldn't break anything and you get to play with it.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Chachan, are you thinking of SweetFX? That's what I use to make the game a little more colorful and to sharpen some of the textures.

 

...it actually looks weird without it now.

 

Yup, that's the one. Saw one of the threads for it after I posted and mentioned it in the second post. I've been kinda tempted to use it, but I hear you have to do a lot of finangling and such to get it working and I'm worried I'll break something in the process. :blush:

I'll chuck my settings up on google drive for people to play with. That way it shouldn't break anything and you get to play with it.

 

I'm pretty happy with someone's presets from a reddit thread way back. I'll post it up when I get a chance as well. As far as SweetFX "installation" goes, it's pretty much "drop all these files into the game folder, and magic happens". I'm too lazy to try modifying the settings myself, wince I think they look pretty nice. 

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: SweetFX and some versions of Nvidia GeFore Experience HATE each other. If you get a massive spam of directx errors (that eventually load the game and everything seems fine), it's probably Geforce Experience. ...Catalyst....probably has no idea it even exists. (I mean, half the time, Catalyst isn't even sure if -it- exists. ...and makes horrible freezing issues for some people if they don't turn on the icky LOD and LOD streaming settings like me. ...crossfired R9 290s shouldn't be having issues with the game >_> /minorrant )

[Aduu Avagnar]

Chachan, are you thinking of SweetFX? That's what I use to make the game a little more colorful and to sharpen some of the textures.

 

...it actually looks weird without it now.

 

Yup, that's the one. Saw one of the threads for it after I posted and mentioned it in the second post. I've been kinda tempted to use it, but I hear you have to do a lot of finangling and such to get it working and I'm worried I'll break something in the process. :blush:

I'll chuck my settings up on google drive for people to play with. That way it shouldn't break anything and you get to play with it.

 

I'm pretty happy with someone's presets from a reddit thread way back. I'll post it up when I get a chance as well. As far as SweetFX "installation" goes, it's pretty much "drop all these files into the game folder, and magic happens". I'm too lazy to try modifying the settings myself, wince I think they look pretty nice. 

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: SweetFX and some versions of Nvidia GeFore Experience HATE each other. If you get a massive spam of directx errors (that eventually load the game and everything seems fine), it's probably Geforce Experience. ...Catalyst....probably has no idea it even exists. (I mean, half the time, Catalyst isn't even sure if -it- exists. ...and makes horrible freezing issues for some people if they don't turn on the icky LOD and LOD streaming settings like me. ...crossfired R9 290s shouldn't be having issues with the game >_> /minorrant )

Mine is kind of from reedit as well. I had to do some minor tweaking to make sure it worked

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Then I remember I have google drive. And RDP access to my gaming computer.

 

Here's the config I use. It was made for SweetFX 1.4 I think?

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5IPMSnubg4-c1lPY3B1RjVzX2s/view?usp=sharing

[Ilwe'ran]

Another topic about sweetfx : http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=7726

And I think that this topic should be move in the FFXIV section rather than "Artisan House"

[Y'lani]

I can't say I'm the greatest with screenshots, but I can say that taking a photography class and learning all of the terms helped me with pictures both in-game and out. If you want to learn what makes for a good picture, I wholely recommend a course. Now, if you're talking about photo quality in the technical term -

• Run your settings as high as you can. If your computer can't take max settings, don't try max settings. My computer is like a toaster. Works great on the lower settings, but if you push it to the max, it fizzles out sooner than later.

• Use a photo editing program. Photoshop is my personal favorite, though in my signature I am clearly not using Photoshop. Some people like Gimp, others like Instagram, but I use Imgur advanced settings because I'm cheap because it works. SweetFX isn't a photo editing program, but it makes the game gorgeous.

• Don't be afraid to mess with the unknown. See a setting you're curious about? Wondering what "white-out" is? Take a risk and try it! More than half of the time, you'll be wondering how you lived without it. My experience with this: the magic wand tool. If that magic wand tool turned out to be true magic, I would not be surprised in the slightest.

That's all the advice I have to share, and I wish you luck with your screenshots!