56 replies to this topic

[greatfool1]

TROLLF'S TRICK:

Thanks. Glad to hear that ;-]
Hm, I suppose that I could try to extend your time with screenshooting even a little bit longer then
[This message is intended for all kind souls in this thread without any exceptions]

How do you like this?
For this Christmas I give you a 'gift'. The new 'secret' technique which is able to freeze the time in the game and make the snapshooting of those well-known 'magic moments' somehow easier O_^

Trollf's Holiday Recipe for freezing the time at will in Oblivion:

1. in the middle of action press ~ button to freeze the world around,
2. type tfc and press enter - that will release the camera later,
3. press SHIFT at least five times (very quick) - this action should minimize the game to taskbar and bring to front a little window with Sticky

Keys message - press cancel in that window,
4. click the Oblivion's tab on the Windows taskbar to bring back the game to full screen mode,
5. press ~ button once or twice to turn off the console - (!) after the dissapearance of the console messages don't press this button

anymore and dont's press other buttons (except movement ones) or you'll get stuck (!),
6. fly around (using normal movement buttons and mouse) and make your screenies
7. if you want to end this mode press CTRL+ALT+DEL to minimize the game and to summon Windows Task Manager window,
8. in Task Manager window under the Applications tab click on Oblivion task twice to restore the game to full screen mode and to release the

chains of frozen action - the game should return to normal...

NOTES:
- I don't know if that works on every PC,
- I don't know if that works on every Windows system,
- I don't know if the above procedure works exactly as described at any time.
- I know it works flawlessy on my machine. I have A64 3000+ / 1 GB RAM / 7600GT / WINXP SP2

So, what can I say more?
Just happy screenshooting everyone!

Here are some examples of trollf's Trick by highpressure and Floydian1:

The trick works great for me! Thanks so much for the extremely helpful info Trolf! :bowdown:
Damia 1
Damia 2

Great "confirmation" shots highpressure!!!

More regarding trollf's Trick:

Saw that post, but I haven't tried it yet due to the "instability" of my current intallation. My game crashes when something pops up and minimizes it, or at times when I exit. I'm worried my computer will explode with all the minimizing and maximizing the procedure requires. :gun::brokencomputer:

I know what you mean about some external program popping up and causing OB to apparently crash. I have found often times that OB hasn't really crashed though - it has just been exited from, so when I return and Alt or Esc, I can continue the game. But yes, sometimes it does crash, though not so much any more as I had a few mods that were causing trouble, and removed them. Also rebooting every few days has helped a lot.

i keep a open microsoft word so i can alt tab, and i use qqq in console to quit instead of long menu

sanityCheck, I've found that leaving a second program open makes minimizing/maximizing Oblivion easier and more stable. I keep a blank copy of Notepad on my desktop when I start Oblivion and rarely have a crash anymore when minimizing the game. I don't know why this is so but it worked in Morrowind and seems to work just as well (for me, at least) in Oblivion. But YMMV.

Right, this works for me too.

Though when using trollf's Trick, if you have used "ALT-Tab" to leave the program, once you return, the character's options are activated (like it is when you hit ALT in the game itself), and now OB will be frozen.

However, if I only use the StickyKeys approach (5 quick hits on the shift key), I exit OB, cancel the StickyKeys, and then return to OB readily to take my shots. I can keep OB up all day via the StickyKeys approach and return to it later, and take another shot. Using Alt-Tab to exit Oblivion, even when not using trollf's Trick, almost always results in a freeze-up of OB, if I don't return to OB within 10 minutes or so.

More regarding "trollf's Trick" and minimizing Oblivion...

Saw that post, but I haven't tried it yet due to the "instability" of my current intallation. My game crashes when something pops up and minimizes it, or at times when I exit. I'm worried my computer will explode with all the minimizing and maximizing the procedure requires. :gun::brokencomputer:

I know what you mean about some external program popping up and causing OB to apparently crash. I have found often times that OB hasn't really crashed though - it has just been exited from, so when I return and Alt or Esc, I can continue the game. But yes, sometimes it does crash, though not so much any more as I had a few mods that were causing trouble, and removed them. Also rebooting every few days has helped a lot.

i keep a open microsoft word so i can alt tab, and i use qqq in console to quit instead of long menu

sanityCheck, I've found that leaving a second program open makes minimizing/maximizing Oblivion easier and more stable. I keep a blank copy of Notepad on my desktop when I start Oblivion and rarely have a crash anymore when minimizing the game. I don't know why this is so but it worked in Morrowind and seems to work just as well (for me, at least) in Oblivion. But YMMV.

Right, this works for me too.

Though when using trollf's Trick, if you have used "ALT-Tab" to leave the program, once you return, the character's options are activated (like it is when you hit ALT in the game itself), and now OB will be frozen.

However, if I only use the StickyKeys approach (5 quick hits on the shift key), I exit OB, cancel the StickyKeys, and then return to OB readily to take my shots. I can keep OB up all day via the StickyKeys approach and return to it later, and take another shot. Using Alt-Tab to exit Oblivion, even when not using trollf's Trick, almost always results in a freeze-up of OB, if I don't return to OB within 10 minutes or so.

I wasn't sure where to put this, but since the majority of people read this I'll put it here: I can't get trolfs trick to work anymore. Its not that I can't get it to stop, I can't actually get back into the game once I hit shift 5 times, or Alt+Tab. Anyone else have/had this problem? Any suggestions on how to fix it?

Well ever since I got my 8600, in order to get it to work I've had to both click on the Taskbar slot for Oblivion as well as Alt-Tab the program after doing the whole sticky keys thing. Otherwise it would never return for me.

Hrm, can't get back in from after canceling sticky keys on the desktop? I usually just hit the minimized Oblivion on my desktop & wait some seconds, game comes back up (sometimes not frozen, though). Then once I'm done doing screenshots, that's the tricky bit for me - have to ctrl-alt-del, switch to oblivion in the task manager, *and* alt-tab to Oblivion as well.

Thanks for the tips guys, but I finally figured it out. One of my custom shaders wasn't liking the alt+tab business. It has now been dealt with and been made example of for all my other shaders.

Edited by greatfool1, 18 September 2007 - 10:51 AM.

[greatfool1]

Getting Trollf's Trick to Work - from my own experience (though I fully expect that by the time I'm done typing this, someone else will have given a more concise answer! )

First, before launching Oblivion:
1) Make sure stickykeys is turned on! For me, in Windows 200, it's Start --> Settings --> Control Panel --> Accessibility Options --> Keyboard --> Settings --> "Keyboard Shortcut" (<-- there's a box to tick right there, make sure it's ticked!)

In-game, ready to freeze the action (make sure you're in third-person view):
2 Open the console (Usually "~")
3 Type "tm" without the quotes, hit "enter" -- this toggles the menus/hud off for a nice clean screenshot
4 Type "tfc" without the quotes, hit "enter" -- this toggles the free camera, so you can swing the camera around using your regular movement keys to take shots from different angles
5 Press the "shift" key 5 times in rapid succession -- this should minimize oblivion, taking you back to desktop with a "Sticky Keys" window popped up
6 (at least for me on Windows 2000) *UNCHECK* the box in the sticky keys window that says "disable" or something like that -- this would disable the sticky keys shortcut, so that next time you tried to use the trick, it wouldn't work! Uncheck the box to leave the stickykeys shortcut set.
7 Hit "Cancel" in the sticky keys box
8 On your toolbar at the bottom of your desktop, locate the minimized Oblivion & click once on it to return to Oblivion. Be patient.
9 You should now be back in the game, with the console still up & the action still frozen. NOTE: there have been a few times for me when I've gotten the game back to find nothing frozen. If this is the case, just quickly hit the shift key five times again to retry the trick.
10 THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT - Hit *ONLY* the "~" key (or whatever it is on your keyboard) to close the console.
11 - Use the movement keys to move the camera around, and the Print Screen button to take screenshots. IF YOU HIT ANY KEYS OTHER THAN THE MOVEMENT/PRINT SCREEN KEYS AT THIS POINT, IT'S ALMOST GUARANTEED THAT OBLIVION WILL FREEZE WHEN ENDING TROLLF'S TRICK!
12 Done taking shots? Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up the windows, uh, window.
13 Click on "Task Manager"
14 In the Task Manager, Oblivion should be highlighted. Click on "Switch To"
15 FOR ME, THIS DOES NOT BRING OBLIVION BACK UP - I now hit Alt-Tab to complete the "Switch To" process.
16 Be patient. It may take a second or two for oblivion to come back up. When it does, you should be back in the action! Bring the console back up, type "tm" & "tfc" to toggle your menus/hud back on & return to the fixed camera so you have control of the action. Now finish that bad guy off!

I have successfully used this trick many times. It took a while for me to get all the steps straight so that it didn't consistently mean freezing Oblivion & having to reload. It still sometimes doesn't freeze the action, but usually redoing it immediately will do the trick, so to speak.

Woah! Wait a minute! How did you make the horse do that? You didn't explain it at all! (And how did you make the transparency?)

Transparency is easy to make but a bit tricky. It's a game glitch similar to that one with frozen time :]

When you are in TPP mode move your mouse backwards what should bring the camera down. If the camera is below the character (close to the ground) he usually quickly fades away and disappears. The point is to catch the right moment during a very short fading time by pressing ~ button. When you see your PC transparent then type tfc and fly around, try AiC stuff, etc. He should stay in this state until you type tfc again to switch to TPP mode. This trick is possible with mounts too. And sometimes the side effects may occur such as disappearance of PC's hair ;]

Another nice trick, trollf! The son of trollf's Trick, perhaps? I will put this in the SS Guides now. Thanks!

[greatfool1]

Now, take a look at these pictures:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

What kind of similarity is between these? :]

Yeah, that was me, it's very easy to use the video capture in Fraps, then just use Windows Movie Maker to extract the frame you want to use as a screenie.

Yes, it's easy with FRAPS but not that fast and comfortable to me O_o And what about the same scene where pics are taken from different angles with the same flash? :]

Ok, here's the 3rd trick of mine ;]


The story about Lightnings...
If you want to have an easy catch of lightning flash visible on your screenshots make sure that you are familiar with the 1st trick of mine (that one with frozen time). At the first step you need to setup your overall scene (NPC placement, animations etc.). After that use any weather changing mod* (or console command**) to change it to any weather where lightning flashes. Then perform those actions required to freeze the time. When the action is frozen and you can fly with camera around then wait a bit for lightning flash to occur. Sometimes it lasts a few seconds, sometimes several dozen. You must be patient ;] When this much anticipated moment will come then lightning will stroke and brighten everything and it will stay in such a state without fading O_o Now flying with camera and taking shots of still action is quite easy ;]

NOTE:
If you want to control exactly from which direction the lightning flash will brighten the scene you may want to set the position of the sun before changing the weather to thunderstrom (just wait a few hours by pressing T button - Sleep Rest Wait Any Time mod by b3w4r3 comes in handy here along with some 100% chameleon ring and 'stopcombat' console command when you want to setup the show with any enemies).


* If you have the SI expansion you may want to use this ;]
Forecaster's Will

** eg. console command for a thunderstorm weather (switches immediately):
fw 38ef1

Soul_Slayer -
With the trick of mine you can have lightning flash in ANY scene you want. All you have to do is to stop the game by pressing ~ button. So my trick IS NOT random. Far from it. You have full control here.
See this particular picture for example. It has been brightened by the flash of the lightning. Do you think I was lucky? No. Definitely not. That was intended. Can you make such screens with your method without any luck? ;]

Soul_Slayer -
With the trick of mine you can have lightning flash in ANY scene you want. All you have to do is to stop the game by pressing ~ button. So my trick IS NOT random. Far from it. You have full control here.
See this particular picture for example. It has been brightened by the flash of the lightning. Do you think I was lucky? No. Definitely not. That was intended. Can you make such screens with your method without any luck? ;]

So - we set the weather to lightning, then freeze action, then wait for the first lightning strike - then the lightning will stay?

Yeah, that was me, it's very easy to use the video capture in Fraps, then just use Windows Movie Maker to extract the frame you want to use as a screenie.

Yes, it's easy with FRAPS but not that fast and comfortable to me O_o And what about the same scene where pics are taken from different angles with the same flash? :]

Ok, here's the 3rd trick of mine ;]

The story about Lightnings...
If you want to have an easy catch of lightning flash visible on your screenshots make sure that you are familiar with the 1st trick of mine (that one with frozen time). At the first step you need to setup your overall scene (NPC placement, animations etc.). After that use any weather changing mod* (or console command**) to change it to any weather where lightning flashes. Then perform those actions required to freeze the time. When the action is frozen and you can fly with camera around then wait a bit for lightning flash to occur. Sometimes it lasts a few seconds, sometimes several dozen. You must be patient ;] When this much anticipated moment will come then lightning will stroke and brighten everything and it will stay in such a state without fading O_o Now flying with camera and taking shots of still action is quite easy ;]
NOTE:
If you want to control exactly from which direction the lightning flash will brighten the scene you may want to set the position of the sun before changing the weather to thunderstrom (just wait a few hours by pressing T button - Sleep Rest Wait Any Time mod by b3w4r3 comes in handy here along with some 100% chameleon ring and 'stopcombat' console command when you want to setup the show with any enemies).

* If you have the SI expansion you may want to use this ;]
Forecaster's Will

** eg. console command for a thunderstorm weather (switches immediately):
fw 38ef1

Very nice, trollf!! This will be a lot of fun to play with. I know the following shot took me several attempts to catch lightning in vanilla oblivion and it was definitely lucky:

**** It was a dark and stormy night as Layla slipped away to her secret hiding place high up in SkinGrad. [Dialup #1]

So now we have:

trollf's Time Trick (originally dubbed trollf's Trick due to my limited vision of any further tricks) = TTT
trollf's Invisibility Trick = TIT
trollf's Weather Trick = TWT

Hmmm, I may want to re-think some of those abbreviations, but in any case, a BIG THANKS for your further extending our screenshooting capabilities!!!!

Edit: Soul_Slayer - I personally don't use Fraps because I usually capture shots at 1600x1200 to begin with - and at 5.5MB/shot, it wouldn't take long to really use up significant hard drive space if I was doing a video shoot approach (unless there is something I am missing here about your approach).

[greatfool1]

For some reason i can't use any of the animations in Actors in Charge. I put my character in 3rd person mode, chose the appropriate animation, but nothing happens with any of them. I was able to change their facial expression. Can anyone help me? (fully updated oblivion)

Are you running Actors-in-Charge 0.8? If not, download that one, and try again. The link is in the opening post.

Are sure you have not TAI'd your character to "OFF" or anything else like that?

When you hit "Reset Animation" do you get a message that says something like this: Wait while the current animation finishes... ?

I assume you have exited the game and re-tried, etc. I also assume you are not running any other kinds of mods that might interfere with the animation scripts.

Well, if you have read everything trollf has said about it - from where you downloaded it from, his thread, and also the readme, try PMing him.

This is a good place to start for finding mods.

As for using the many animations you see. You should Download Actors in Charge, it allows you to make use of many animations originaly only available to NPCs. As well as change your character's facial expression.

You could also download Strike a Pose, but it does not have as many animations as the other one.

Also, Selbeth, regarding the Strike a Pose mod - even though all of its animations have been included by trollf in Actors-In-Charge, it also gives you companion rings which can be very handy at times, especially since not all companions seem to respond to trollf's Director's Touch spell. I know the Lucien companion (based on Vincente by Deepfreeze) does not respond to Director's Touch, whereas Neeshka does.

Dang! Wish I'd known that earlier! My companions never respond to the directors touch.

Hi Durgis. I know the Lucien companion (based on Vincente) does not respond to Director's Touch, whereas Neeshka does, and so does the new Dremora companion. Both Neeshka and Lucien respond to the Companion Rings though. (I am sure the Dremora would too, but I do not use that one. Someone told me he does respond to Director's Touch too - I think the newer companions are doing this now.)

Well, maybe that's something with mods' load order. Try load AiC last then.

Anyway, give me all of your comapnions' names, now! I'll talk to them and proceed some more drastic methods to convince them not to avoid the power of Director's Touch! Buahahahaha! *lightning flashes here*

Cool!
I never tried manipulating the load order of AiC before.

Ok, I just looked it up and MystykStar's Lucien is based on the Vincente Male companion by Deepfreeze - it is my understanding that MystykStar did not change any of the core operations of Vincente, so I believe what is true of Lucien will be true of Vincente.

So once again, I have never gotten Director's Touch to work on Lucien, though Strike-a-Pose companion rings do.

Also, Neeshka works like a charm for all Director's Touch operations. A friend told me the same about the new Dremora companion.

However, Eyja, who is not a companion, but is a reworked NPC in the Romancing of Eyja mod, only seems to do the Director's Touch invoked animation once - if first applied to Neeshka - even if Neeshka is in a looping animation - e.g., drinking from a mug. This might be fixed with a load order change because I loaded Eyja (and Lucien) long after AiC. Also, if I start the same animation on my pc (not my companion), Eyja also will do that looping animation continuously, so this is at least a work-around for the Eyja issue.

Edited by greatfool1, 03 August 2007 - 06:54 PM.

[greatfool1]

*********************** Summary**************************
There are a lot of things that can cause problems, but generally if you go to:

C:\Documents and Settings\[your login]\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion and edit the oblivion.ini file making:

bAllowScreenShot=1 (the default is 0)

this should do the trick. Then you can just hit the Printscreen button in game, and a screenshot should be stored in your

c:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion folder as a bmp-type file.

Also, if you are running XP Media Center, make sure any remote transmitters are unplugged.
*****************************************************************************

It wont allow me to take screens. I have changed what im supposed to changed, made sure AA is off, and still nothing.

If you are running XP Media Center Edition, make sure the remote receiver is unplugged before starting up OB.

Someone asked me this on the last thread:

"How do i unplug a transmitter, can you PM me cause i don't want to spam the thread with this."

If you have a remote transmitter, it is the little box you point the remote at. Actually I guess it is called a reciever/transmitter - but in any event, if you are running XP MCE and have a remote control, just unplug the usb cable attached to the back of the little receiver box, and then start up OB.

When you are done with OB, you can just plug the USB cable back into the little box - so you can use the remote control for TV, music, etc., again.

Well, see, I dont know what your talking about. I have media center, but not something that I point the remote at. The remote doesnt want to work for me.

Maybe check the control panel and look for it in there - I am not familiar with XP MCE systems without an external receiver to pick up the remote's commands. If your system came with a remote and NO external receiver, it must have an internal receiver - and maybe this needs to be de-activated/disabled. I do know that my remote reciever if kept plugged into the computer, disallows screenshooting and console access.

Anyone else have this kind of system and issue that Kylle is talking about - who might be able to help?

Edit: Kylle - You can test for this being the problem: When you go into OB and hit the "~" key, do you enter the console? If you do, the remote is NOT the issue. If you do not, it is almost certainly the remote (as long as you have the bAllowConsole=1 set in the .ini file).

I have gone into the oblivion.ini file, changed "bAllowScreenShot=0" to "bAllowScreenShot=1", and I've checked that anti-aliasing is turned off in Oblivion's video options, and still I can't take screenshots.
Any ideas of what the problem could be guys?
-James-

If you have XP Media Center, you need to unplug the remote control transmitter before starting up OB. Hope this helps as I can't think of why else this would be happening.

I can get into the consol and do stuff, but I just cant get screens. I hit the prtscn button, but no message telling me that it was taken...

OK, that eliminates XP MCE as being a problem.

And you checked under your C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion folder to see if any bmp files are there? This is the default location for screenshots (bmp file type).

Btw, if you have the HUD turned off, the system does not notify you that a screenshot has been taken. Even with the HUD off, you can notice if it has been taken because everything onscreen goes completely still while it is being taken/saved.

You have to set it in the oblivion.ini. Something like bAllowScreenshot = 1. I don't know the exact text

Kylle assured us earlier that he has edited the correct oblivion.ini file (In Documents and Settings).

it should be in C:\Documents and Settings\[your login]\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion

Im pretty sure. I go to documents and search for ini and then edit the oblivion file that comes up.
bAllowScreenShot=1

Hmmm, maybe Kylle, you should double-check this. Make sure it is the Documents and Settings Oblivion.ini file for YOUR login.

You can verify that this is the right place if you also see a folder in there called "Saves" and within it are your saved games.
In other words, do you see:
C:\Users\Adam\Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Saves
with your various "NameOfSave".ess files?

Yep, thats exactly where Im at.

And also from the Guides:
"If you're still not able to take screenshots after changing the .ini file, check to see if you have anti-aliasing turned on in your video options. If it is, turn it off (ESC -> Options -> Video -> Anti-aliasing: OFF)"
If you are sure you did this, the next step is probably trying Fraps or the other video capture software someone suggested earlier in this thread. I am out of suggestions, though if someone else can help you, please let us know what you figured out - so I can put it into the Guides for the next time this comes up. Good luck, Kylle.

OK, one more suggestion, Kylle, and it is a long shot. When you are on your Windows Desktop or in any application other than OB, if you hit the Prt Scr key, and then go into MS Word (or some other editor) and paste (Ctrl+v), does the screenshot get pasted in? In other words, is your Prt Scr key working? Also, try Alt+Prt Scr key if Prt Scr doesn't work.

Did you make sure AA was off not just in game options but also in your videocard control panel?

Thanks, brash. A very good point.
@ Kylle - did this help you?

Seriously! I never once had a problem with screenshots being overwritten with Morrowind. While playing Oblivion I noticed that my screens would be overwritten whenever I had a CTD. For those who do not know this already, the free verson of Fraps is simply wonderful in fixing this problem. It has it's own way of labelling screenshots, and I have not had a single problem since.

I like saving my shots at 1600x1200 which turn out to be 5.5MB each for the initial bmp files. After that, I save them as jpg types, usually around 1.2 MB (1600x1200 at 100%) for the Broadband version, and 100K (1024x768 at around 50% quality) for the dialup version. But I also retain the original bmp (5.5MB) in case I need to rework it.

If I went to FRAPS and tried to do shooting using 1600x1200 wouldn't I use a very large amount of hard drive space very quickly if each shot is 5.5MB? And also, can FRAPS shoot at that resolution?

Thanks in advance!

FRAPS can do 1600x1200 but I dont understand your second question: aren't you shooting shots @ 5.5mb with the OB console anyways?

Yes, but I assumed FRAPS was like videoing - so I would end up with a whole lot of 5.5MB shots in sequence. I guess there must be a single shot mode too, eh?

Edit: Spike confirmed that FRAPS default is single shot mode.

Edited by greatfool1, 07 November 2007 - 09:57 AM.

[greatfool1]

Movies of Oblivion Characters

**********************************************

Is there a way to actually RECORD a movie in the PC version of Oblivion?

There is a free version of FRAPS http://www.fraps.com you could try. Also I can point you to a thread all about making Oblivion movies that was 100% created by Valkyrie321. http://www.elderscro...p...=513321&hl=

***********************************************
Something I should mention for anyone wanting to try a video (I will put this in the SS Guides):

A few tricks that would have saved me some time - all the girls and AF are companions (from Divine Avenger). My pc is not in it because he is the badass dude and he didn't fit in to the theme. So the trick is to start the animations in the general area you want them to dance (or doing whatever), and then have your pc out of sight just below the floor in the middle of them (using TCL, of course). This will have them less oriented in one direction or another, especially in terms of their gazing. Just be careful when you TCL and move your pc because if you go too far below the floor or elsewhere, all the companions will try to follow him and all their animations will be reset to none.

Also, there are some new emote animations that can be added to your other animation to make them look surprised, etc. (Link is in thread noted in prior post.)

Edited by greatfool1, 04 September 2007 - 08:43 AM.

[greatfool1]

I just found a nice mod that puts changing the weather for screenshots into an easy to use menu form. It looks like it only changes the defualt oblivion weather so I dont know how it would work with the weather mods that are out there. It also holds the weather the way you set it forever until you tell it to stop so dont forget to turn it off when you are done
HEAVENS WRATH WEATHER CHANGE SPELL

So if you have trouble remembering the weathers fourmID or are just lazy like me then this is the mod for you

*edit* it also seems to conflict with OOO as it adds this spell to a shop that OOO also adds stuff to.

[greatfool1]

Since you are listing useful tools for screenshots/movies here I'll post a link to my release thread for WHOOSH.

WHOOSH gives the player control over game speed from an almost stopped 2% to a hyper 200%. I think many here will find it useful for getting action screenshots. It's also a lot of fun being able to do Matrix-like slow motion.

Enjoy

[greatfool1]

Cool. You might also link to Bashed Patch: Race Info Merging. Also, Wrye Bash: Import a Face (although it's rather brief, if someone feels inclined to expand that, feel free).

Hey greatfool long time no see
I need some help regarding floydians(sp) wyre bash method
I wanted to put an npc face on one of my characters
I loaded oblivion.esm and facelibrary.esp
and set that one as active,changes my characters face,saved,opened up oblivion and selcted facelibrary.esp but my character's face is still the same
So could you tell me what im doin wrong?Also, was I supposed to create an esm of the facelibrary?
Thanks
-SC

nvm i found out how to
i contacted wyre himself
for those who would like to know ill psate what He said
"Yes, you can get an Npc's face onto your character. (Most people want to go the other way, put their pcs face on an npc.) As the readme says, wrye mash will allow you to import the face of any NPC whose editor id ends in "PC".

So, if you were duping an oblivion npc:
* open oblivion in tesscs
* find the npc. edit their EDITOR ID name so that it ends in "PC"
* click okay and save as new form.
* save as new mod "My NPC Face.esp"

Then go to bash, do face import on the save. Use the file dilaog to select "My NPC Face.esp". The npc you just created show up in the list.
Cheers,
..Wrye"
hope your as happy about this as i am

One of the annoyances of working with faces is that changing races results in sometimes unpleasant shifts in the face shape (especially annoying when the face is just right, but you really, really want a different race). One solution is the Generic Faces mod, but that has changes all NPCs, not many people use it, and it's incompatible with other mods that change races.

So I've added a new (command line only) feature to Wrye Bash that allows you to completely counteract the racial warping for vanilla oblivion faces. (You can also change an Generic Faces based face to any of the standard oblivion racial face warpings.) (Note that this does not work for Orc or beast races, which are based on different head meshes.)

For more information, see these posts: RELZ Wrye Bash and [RELZ] Facial Racial Conversion.

I've also used this to transform Kafeid's (Generic Faces based) Kae face to most of standard Oblivion Imperial heads based races (oddly, I forgot the Imperials, and not so oddly, though it would be cool, the Dremora). You'll find links to the downloadable esp at either of the links above.

(BTW, thanks to Scanti for figuring out facegen data structure and to Kafeid for Kae's face!)

For those who haven't seen it: [RELZ/BETA] Wrye Morph. Allows you to swap between multiple characters while in game. Here, have a video: Wrye Morph Demo 02.

There are a couple ways to get a specific character:
* Create a new character, then use Wrye Bash to import face+stats onto new character.
* Doppelgang another character. E.g. you might create/use companions and doppelgang them.

Keep in mind that this mod is for advanced players. Installing it is fairly difficult and I'm being crankier than usual about helping newbies. (See very large warnings on the [RELZ/BETA] Wrye Morph topic post.) Still, for advanced users, it's a pretty cool thing. Any questions should be directed to the Wrye Morph topic (but keep warnings on first topic firmly in mind.)

Edited by greatfool1, 05 April 2008 - 08:36 PM.

[greatfool1]

Complete and utter noob at taking screenshots here, but I do on other games and Oblivion is one of the most beautiful games out there, so I thought I'd attempt to make a pretty fit lass, I plan to experiment a bit more and photoshop a few pictures in the future, but for now, I kept them natural.

In the cell:
http://i73.photobuck...ScreenShot0.jpg
http://i73.photobuck...ScreenShot2.jpg

This one is a good close up and she is very nice looking - but note how the hair is clipping, and also part of her head at the top is cut off. Nice lighting.
The second shot is nicely framed, but a little too dark, imo.

Looking down at a goblin:
http://i73.photobuck...ScreenShot3.jpg

Good content. Experiment with TFC - this would have been more interesting to see the goblin's face, her profile, and less of the cave walls.

"Yes, they are real"
http://i73.photobuck...reenShot4-1.jpg

:biglaugh: Good caption, pose, and look. Maybe closer up would be better, and also note the hair clipping due to the animation with long hair.

Getting ready for a swim:
http://i73.photobuck...reenShot5-1.jpg
Advice is appreciated (and needed)

Sweet pic! One thing, the rock on the left is unnecessary - I would rather see more of her back :hubbahubba: than all that blurry rock on the left.

I hope this helps. I am no expert but I have been screenshooting for a while. Check out the Guides for many members' tips and tricks. Also, embed your captions as it looks better. Nice having you here. :goodjob:

Please note that the Guides link in my sig is to an indexed Guide, unlike the TES one linked to in the op here. I will also update the one on TES at some point though.

Layla senses trouble!

Also, RavenVW, there are many other things you can do to make a shot more interesting or realistic. For example (imo, at least) - in the shot above, I TAI'd the redhead right when she was speaking and drawing her sword - just be quick with the ~ key then TAI the character to stop their action. Some people may find this too tedious, but others of us like to fiddle with setup, etc.

Thanks for the advice, I didn't even know about the tfc and tai commands before reading your post. I'm still experimenting at the moment.

You are welcome. Do you mind if I add the above post to the Screenshooter's Guides thread as an example? That way I can reference the post for others instead of repeating myself.

Yeah, focus on TFC, TAI, and TCL. Note that TAI will stop the clicked upon character - once you see their Name/ID at the top of the screen, you can Toggle their AI (TAI) off/on. Probably the handiest of the commands other than TFC (and of course, TM for cosmetic purposes).

Edit: Thanks, RavenVW, for your permission.

action shots! bright ones too -
01
02
my personal fave
04
05

Those are good shots groo, you are showing much improvement. There is some good advice for you in Greatfool1's reposted examples. Try to get tighter with the camera - more close ups. Keep in mind that the most effective shot in photography and the movies is the close up. When we see a closer view we know immediately what is happening, and when we see faces and expressions we can guess what people are thinking.

In the 3rd shot that you have chosen as your personal favourite, both faces are visible, and of the five shots that you have posted, this is the closest shot you took. It is no coincidence that this is the one you liked best

Having a rest
Flirting
Action 1
Action 2
Resting (again)
Advice is always appreciated.

These shots are nicely done. A good example of being fairly tight with the camera, centring your shot, showing mostly (almost) what is important, and catching some good facial expressions
My game always freezes after doing Trollfs trick, but I just use Ctrl Alt Delete to bring up the task manager and close the game that way, then reload the game. It is a little bit of trouble, but it is worth it.

Edited by greatfool1, 08 August 2007 - 10:40 AM.

[greatfool1]

I would love to know how you did this one:

Regarding the pose itself: Both poses are in the pair pose category [Osr]. Of course it took the use of TCL, and having Andras squat (companion is very short) to pull it off. Andras actually should be standing, if the companion were taller. But I liked the way it turned out. I'm glad you like it as well...means a lot ...really!

THREAD 20
DFSL Post #8 Very nice, how did you get them to sit down? (A problem I am still having with my companions)

I modified one of the sit poses of the EFG pack. I get them to sit and then "crank" them in place using the setpos command. By the way, the ribbons and hats are from a japanese mod "Dress Hat".

Great stuff! I am adding this to the SS Guides. Thanks!

1. Thanks, Mighty River Karandras! That pose is one of the acrobatic moves from But uhhhhh... How do I say this... Oh Great and Mighty River Karandras, pray tell us your secret, for order is good and madness is better? How do you order madness, btw? I am confused now...

Thank you, I called it ordered madness because they were standing in formation yet were wearing a type of madness armor

As for how I did that, in place of using normal NPCs to wear the armor I used mannequins from Reznod Mannequins that way they wouldn't move and they didn't have the drain on the computer that NPCs do. Also, as madness armor completely covers the body and face, you can't even tell they aren't people

From DFSL:

I want to share with you a little discovery I made during my time taking screenshots. I suppose you all are familiar with the "getpos" and "setpos" (axis x, y , z) console commands? Well, there's another called "rotate" which I was told it wasn't working. WRONG. "rotate" does work, at least in the horizontal axis. Do this: open the console (~) then type "tfc" + Enter (free the camera), face your character with the camera, click on her/him, disable the IA (targeted "tai") and now type "rotate z 180" + enter and WITHOUT closing the console, "getpos z" this should give you the elevation; now without closing the console, type "setpos z -the number you just got-". Tell me what happens :grin:

So is it the mod that allows you to get the NPC's in position or the console commands? How do you get multiple PC's in a screen shot?

Pose mod's generally have touch spell activated scripts so you can make NPC's do poses. Command like setpos followed by x,y,z number can let you move around targets in space. Generally speaking if some one has 2 Player made characters in the same screenshot on of them is a Companion version of said PC. They then move them into position and pose as they would any other npc.

for example http://img20.imagesh...2000548bc0.smil I put together for apachii's new store. All the gals there are companions from DA's exellent works. Pose mods used where a combo of [OSR], [EFG], and [JOJO] So as yo usee yo ucan effect NPC's with the pose mods. You have to jump through a few more hoops for non-companion npc however. Unless you use share and recruit that lets you recruit any NPC. so yo ucan move them into position more easily. Look up "console commands" or find one of the good screenshoters guides for more tips. Hope this atleast help you get an Idea of how to set these up. I'm fairly new to the pose mod screenshot scene too.

Edited by greatfool1, 18 October 2007 - 06:23 AM.

[greatfool1]

Thanks
well , thanks for the answer but now i got another little problem..
wich (i bet i just mispelled it ) mods can someone recommend me the best ?
i mean wich "cosmetic" mod should i use ?
and what about body mod ?
i just started oblivion 3 days ago and these are ALL the mods i have so far :
-------------------------------------------
Deadly Reflex
this mystic elf race and it's hair pack
eye candy mod
--------------------------------------------
and where can i get cool outfits , and all those cool companions
how do you change their clothes/face ?
etc..etc..etc..

i know it's alot of of questions but i just dont know wich (mispelled again..) one to choose ?
sorry for so much annoying questions :embarrased:

Regarding how to make a beautiful character, look at the link in the opening post. Here it is again for your convenience:
http://www.shsforums...showtopic=26339

Get registered here and search for mods:
http://www.tesnexus.com/

Tesnexus' Top 100 is also a very cool page:
http://www.tesnexus....wnloads/top.php

For instance, since you already have the Eye Candy mod, search for Exnem and you will find various clothing.

Also Canadian-Ice Forum and SpellHold Studios are where a lot of great modders share their work.

In terms of Companions, check out Divine Avenger's site for links:
http://www1.freewebs.../divineavenger/
Once you have a companion, it should be obvious how to change its clothes.

Also, look at the Indexed Screenshooter's Guides for tips on how to use the animations to get them to pose, etc. Of course, you will need trollf's Actors-In-Charge mod for lots of animations. Here is a great animation recap thread:
http://www.bethsoft....howtopic=736468

This is just one possible "Starter's Kit" - of course, many other things could be said and recommended.

Good luck!

Edited by greatfool1, 30 September 2007 - 07:39 AM.

[RGM2]

RGM?s Tips Tricks and Thoughts on Screen Shooting

First off I need to say I am a little bit reluctant to post this, because there are a lot of other people out there who have been into screen shooting far longer than I have, and I am sure their knowledge is much greater than mine. However, I do have a few ideas on this, so I am going to put them forward.

I am going to assume that anyone reading this already knows how to take a screen shot, and has a reasonable knowledge of console commands, and is just looking for some ways to improve on what they are already doing. I?ll try not to rehash too much of what is already posted in the Screen Shooters Guide, but I will skim over a few things. Mostly I will stick to a few specific techniques that I use.

Pose Mods (skimming over)

One of the most commonly asked questions you see in the forums is ?what Pose Mod did you use in that picture?? Or ?where can I download that Pose Mod?? If you have never used Pose Mods before, the first one you should download and get familiar with is Actors in Charge. The reason for this is because AIC has an English language Readme file, and will be easier to learn, assuming that most people reading this cannot read Japanese. Once you learn AIC you should be able to figure out the others without any instructions.

These are the ones that I am currently using:
Actors in Charge
EFG Add Pose
JOJO effect/Standing JOJO
OSR Pose
Lain Pose
Seph?s new animations
Actors Emotions

Caution: It is possible to have your character stuck in a pose. This usually happens to me when switching back and forth between different pose mods without resetting the animation. It is less likely to happen if you reset the animation for each pose mod. Example: you strike a pose in EFG but you?re not happy with it and you want to try one of the OSR poses, Reset the animation in EFG before you select a new animation in OSR.

Tip: When working on a screen shot I always have the Pose Mods hot-keyed, it saves a lot of time.

Here are a couple of examples of posed shots with explanations on how they were done.

In the first one, I was doing a series of arena combat shots with my girl Divinity and the Gray Prince. At this point I wanted to show a beaten Prince on the ground with my character standing over him. The caption I had in mind was ?Yield or Die?. This was an easy shot to do. I used the kill command on the prince, but because he was essential he did not die, instead he only went unconscious. He lay on the ground for a few seconds and then tried to get to his feet. So as the Prince raised his head and started to pull himself up, I toggled the console and used the TAI command on him, freezing him in place. From there it was just a matter of finding the right pose for my character and then maneuvering her into position. In free camera mode I took about ten pictures from different angles. The only thing about this shot that was actually difficult was deciding which picture to post.

In this second picture I was using Floydian?s Sia character, which I got from a saved game he posted some time ago. She doesn?t look as good on my antique system as she does on Floydian?s, but she is still an amazing face to work with. I wanted to do a commando type shot where she would be attacking from behind and cutting her enemy?s throat. I was looking at all the possible poses and I couldn?t really find what I wanted. I did come across a pose that gave me another idea. I had planned on having her sticking her dagger into her enemy?s throat, but I changed it to having her holding his head in one arm and holding the dagger with the other. I used the kill command on the bandit, and as he started to fall I toggled the console and used TAI on him, holding him in place in mid fall. Next I used TCL on the bandit. This allowed me to move Sia as close to the bandit as I wanted. I then put Sia into the selected pose, and while in 3rd person I maneuvered her into position. At this point I should have been ready to take some shots, but the lighting just wasn?t good enough. The solution was to have Sia cast a light on self spell. Now she wouldn?t cast while in the pose, so I reset her animation and cast the spell. When I put her back into the pose she went into exactly the same position she had been in, in relation to the bandit. I think it worked OK, and it was an easy shot to do.

A few days later I tried with a different character to do the original idea, still couldn?t get what I wanted, but I did get something I liked.

The techniques used were the same, and of course it was easy.


Levitating Multiple Objects

There are two ways of doing this. The first way you might already know, whereby you use global TCL and walk/fly around and drop items. I believe this is covered somewhere else in the Guide, so I?m not going to get into that ? it?s pretty straight forward anyway. I want to tell you about another way of doing it, which I haven?t seen mentioned anywhere, so this might be new to you.

Using the Z-key/grab-key, position an item where you want it suspended. With the object still held in position toggle the console, click on the item to display its ID. Take note of the ID; write it down, you will need to know it later. Now type disable and the item will disappear from your screen. Close the console. At this point, even though you can?t see it, the item is exactly where you left it, still hanging in the air. Now you can repeat the above mentioned steps to float a 2nd 3rd or 4th item, or as many items as you want, taking note of the ID of each one. When you have placed all your items, toggle the console and use a global TCL (with no item selected, no ID showing at the top of the screen, type TCL). Now go back to your notes and get the ID of the first Item and type <item id>.enable example: ff013c02.enable and the item will appear exactly where you left it. Enable all your hidden items. If you are doing a serious attempt at a shot, then using the global TCL and enabling all your items should be done after you have positioned your actors; it will make it easier to avoid having your feet clipping into the floor. I haven?t done too much with this trick, other than a couple of test shots, but I think if you were willing to put the effort into it, you could get some amazing results.

A Trick Of The Light

This is an easy one. Look at the two pictures below and you will notice they were taken at the same time and the same place, but the lighting is of course different.

The first picture uses the game lighting as it is supposed to be. In the second picture the background sky is overexposed and the white on the dress is brighter. This is achieved with the force weather command. The overexposed picture isn?t necessarily better, it?s just different. If you don?t know the weather codes, here is a list:

Force Weather - FW
Paradise - 370CE
Clear - 38EEE
Cloudy - 38EF0
Default - 15E
Fog - 38EEF
Overcast - 38EEC
Rain - 38EF2
Snow - 38EED
Thunderstorm - 38EF1
Oblivion sky - 836D5
To return to normal ? ReleaseWeatherOverride

To get the over exposure, what I did was force weather to paradise, and then force it to oblivion sky.
Toggle console and type FW 370CE enter and close console. You now have paradise. Open the console again and type FW 836D5 and enter, but do not close the console. You should see the overexposed sky. If you close the console it will change to the Oblivion sky, so you have to take your shot with the console open. Clear the screen and move your curser so it is not visible, and then take your shot. Changing the weather combinations can get different types of lighting.

Setting the Global Timescale

This is something I like to do to preserve the light, so a sequence of shots will have a sense of continuity, especially useful with a nice sunset.

To change the time scale to match real life time, type set timescale to 1 setting the time scale to 0 should stop the passing of time, but I prefer to set it to 1 as it gives it a very natural feel. To revert to normal game time set timescale to 30.

Using Low Graphics Settings to change the look of your shot

This is simple. Open your video options and adjust the view distance and the faders. Reducing the view distance can give you a more spacious or surreal looking world.




Easy Action Shots

There are a lot of ways to do action shots, but one of my favorites is to just sit back and let the game do all the work. This will work best if you are using a mod like companion share and recruit, but you can do it without. What you are doing here is creating a clone of yourself and letting the clone do the fighting, you just play the role of cameraman.

Before you clone your character you need to exorcise some inventory control. Strip your character of everything except for what you would want your clone to have access to. Put all the extra stuff in a safe chest or sack. It is very important that your clone not have any pose mod rings. If your clone puts on a pose mod ring he/she will be stuck in that pose until you remove the ring. You can give your clone extra health or skills using the console. Examples: Setav health 500 or setav blade 100

Here are a couple of shots I took using this technique.

Unfortunately these pictures were taken in low resolution because I was actually playing the game at the time, but I liked them anyway.
Here is the sequence of events:
1 Entered the Tomb and played it straight until the fight started
2 Used global TAI to hold everyone in place
3 Removed all undesirable items from my inventory
4 Cloned my character using player.createfullactorcopy 1
5 Raised my clone?s disposition to my character moddisposition 14 100
6 Recruited my clone as a companion using Share and Recruit`
7 Moved my character to a secluded corner where I would be out of the way
8 Cast invisibility on myself so my body would not be seen
9 Went into free camera mode and moved the camera to where I could get a good view of the action
10 Released the global TAI and let them fight

At various times in the fight I toggled the camera to freeze the action. If it looked like I had something interesting, I saved the game and initiated Trollfs trick. Then I moved around the frozen scene and took shots from different angles. When I was done I used the task manager to exit Oblivion Ctl-Alt-Delete. I then removed the shots I had just taken and put them in a new folder. This was to protect them from being overwritten, because when you exit the game abnormally there is a good chance that your ini file will not be updated, which could cause your screens to be overwritten.

Presentation

By presentation I mean how you show you screens to other people. There is not much I can say about this because it is really a matter of personal taste. Some people just post a list of numbered shots, while other people write captions or stories to support their post. It doesn?t really matter what you do in that regard, somebody wont like it, but others will.
Important things are to preview your post and make sure your links are working. A spell checker is a good idea as well. Keep an eye on your file size. Larger file sizes take longer to download, and that is an easy way to turn people off. Do direct links to your pictures so that the viewer doesn?t have to look at all the advertising and pop-ups that come with so many of the web hosts. I can tell you this, if I get a pop-up when I click on your first link, I won?t click on your second link, and your picture doesn?t have to download in 5 seconds, but I need to see that it is in fact downloading. If I click on a link and it just hangs, maybe because your website is slow, or maybe because you posted a file that is close to a megabyte or more in size, well I?m not going to wait forever, and I suspect I am not the only one.

Getting Comments On Your Post

Careful what you ask for, you might get them. So many times I have seen new posters asking for a critique of their work. Some people will take this as a license to be hurtful. Even if someone is not trying to be hurtful, that won't stop it from hurting. I try not to give critical comment on anything anymore. It?s too easy to be misunderstood. I?m sure I have given what I considered to be constructive comment, and had my words totally misinterpreted. With my own pictures I am sometimes relieved not to get comments; comments require a reply, or the person who commented may feel slighted. I?m not a chatty outgoing person in real life, so it?s not easy for me to do that on the net.

But if you want comments, and you post often enough, you will get them. Keep in mind, if you don?t get a comment on a post, it doesn?t mean that nobody clicked on your pic, or that nobody liked it. I?ve seen hundreds of shots that I thought were amazing, and I never commented on them. Not everyone is inclined to comment, or in the right frame of mind to put the effort into communicating what they think. In the end you have to post pics because it?s what you want to do. If you like the shot you posted, that is what matters. To sum things up, here is one more pic from me. It is one of my favorites. It has been seen by thousands of people and has never been commented on. Other pics in the same series were commented on, but not this one, even though I thought It was the best.

The caption here would read, ?We?re done here, I?m finished with you?. Did the fact that nobody commented on it mean that nobody liked it? I don?t know, but I liked it and I still do, and in the end that is what counts.

One last thing, if you discover new tricks or new ways of doing things, share them here on this thread. Remember, other people shared their ideas with you.

[greatfool1]

When Books Attack
When Books Attack 2
When Books Attack 3

Accidentally overstuffed the Bookshelves in the CS. So once their collision kicked in they all started pushing each other out of the way. End result: A bookshelf spitting out books.

Very clever, Ryu!

[greatfool1]

A very cool trick from Spike:

Denesta in ghost form
"Feel free to come in."

"But you wont be leaving."

It is done the same as the ghost NPCs in the game such as the Nightmother. "player.saa 0.01" and "player.pms 00b9932" 00b9932 is the ID for the ghost effect shader.

"player.pms 00b9932" - Oops that is 000B9923

PMS stands for "PlayMagicShaderVisuals" it is just a short cut so you don't have to type the whole thing out. What it does is place a shader effect on the target.You can find those in the CS if you load the Oblivion.esm.

The ID number you need is hidden by default so you need to slide this divider to the right by clicking and dragging.

Then use the listed Forum ID of the effect you want to add it to the player.


As for SAA that stands for SetActorAlpha. This can be any number between 1.0 and 0.0. 0.0 is completely transparent(invisible) and 1.0 is completely solid.

Hope that helps

(Note: Click on the above images to make more legible.)

Edited by greatfool1, 21 April 2008 - 08:17 AM.

[Dusty77]

This is a good thread, there's lots of useful info here. I noticed the user who started it has been offline since '09, but if you're reading, thanks for making an epic thread.

Edited by Dusty77, 27 April 2010 - 03:25 PM.

[Rainpick]

Вчера с друзьями сидели в кафе, как раз обсуждали, а сегодня тут на сайте наткнулся. К чему бы это?