How-To: Screen Captures Made Easy
Getting better screen shots in any game or sim

A very simple and effective way to get a screen capture in FS involves a shareware graphics program called Paint Shop Pro, available at www.jasc.com. Version 4 works just fine and is very simple to use, however only the latest version, which is much larger, is available at the Jasc website. PSP 4.14 is a 3 meg download and is available at many websites that offer shareware - here are a few:

Once you have PSP installed, screen captures are very simple:

  • Start FS and PSP. From the PSP top menu: Capture > Start.

  • Hit F11 at any time while in FS -- but don't use differential braking :=]

  • In PSP, save the resulting TIFF image as a JPEG, at the screen size you need.

That's all...

To take it further:

  • Don't bother trying to do a screen capture in FS when not in 3D mode. It will look terrible.

  • There is a small DLL available that will change the default purple sky in FS to a lovely blue. It makes flying around in the daytime a real pleasure, and improves screen shots a great deal. It's called Blue Skies.

  • Try to think like a photographer, and get some light on your subject. If the angle of the sun isn't right, then change the heading of your aircraft, or change the time of day. Try 10 AM or 2 PM. You'd be surprised how much difference it makes when there is some sunlight hitting the side of the aircraft you wish to get a screen capture of. It's even more surprising how 9 out of 10 people never give it a thought.

  • PSP will probably default to TIFF format when saving your screenshot. Just use your favorite graphics editing program, PSP, Photoshop, etc, to resample (not resize) the TIFF to a reasonable pixel width like 500. For a thumbnail, make a duplicate of the image and save at 200 pixels wide. Then save the TIFF to JPG format. Use the default level of compression at first, then increase and repeat the process, watching for the image to start to degrade. When it starts to look bad, back off a bit. Note that saving a JPEG image over and over, degrades the image each time. Save to JPEG as the final step.

  • Don't use GIF (256-color) format. The file size will almost always be larger than JPG (important for websites), and jaggies will ruin the image. Since FS only uses 256 colors, what difference will saving the file as a JPEG make, you may ask?

    When you make your screen capture, PSP will grab it at the screen resolution specified in your FS preferences, which is probably 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768. Since you will very likely want to make this image smaller for display on a website, you will have to reduce the pixel width of the screen shot by resampling the image to a smaller screen size, say 640 pixels across. It is this resampling process that smooths out the image - extra colors are introduced in a process similar to anti-aliasing, which tends to smooth out jagged edges and gives the screen capture a much nicer overall look. GIFs can't hold extra colors, however, so resampling is not an option. Make your changes in TIFF format and then save to JPG if you want to put the image on the Internet.

    If you already have a GIF, or absolutely have to have a GIF, and wish to make it smaller, or want to put text on it, convert the GIF to a 24-bit color format like JPEG, make your changes, and convert back to GIF. Converting a GIF screen shot to JPG won't help picture quality but it won't make it a whole lot worse. Don't bother trying to upsample (make the pixel width larger).

  • If you are trying to make a screen shot smaller and it gets all out of proportion, make sure the Preserve Aspect Ratio box is checked. If you have entered a new pixel width but the height doesn't change, click with your mouse in the height box to automatically change it.

  • Don't be afraid to brighten up the screen shot a bit. Try increasing the contrast and boosting saturation until the image starts to look punchy. Try not to overdo it - change the brightness on your monitor while observing the results.

  • Sharpen the image, but not so much that you start to see bright outlines around objects and edges.

If you want to do a real nice screen shot that will look even better than the actual FS screen did, try this (needs Photoshop, Corel Photo-Paint or other high-quality image editor):

  • While in FS slew mode, arrange the aircraft so that it is at an angle which produces the least amount of jaggies. You can even eliminate jaggies completely this way.

  • Do a screen shot using PSP, with your FS resolution at 1024. Save as TIFF.

  • Run Photoshop and open the TIFF. Zoom out to 50%.

  • Use PSP to do a screen capture of the Photoshop screen with the 50% zoomed TIFF. Save as TIFF.

  • Open the new TIFF with Photoshop. It may be a little smaller than you want but will look very nice and smooth. Adjust levels, change color balance, etc to your heart's content. You will wish FS could look this nice all the time...

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