Easy screenshot tool for Civ! ScreenShotAssistant

Arphahat

Chieftain
Joined
Mar 3, 2004
Messages
59
Location
Portage, MI
Taking a screenshot can be a cumbersome process. You have to hit the "print screen" key, alt-tab to windows, start your paint program, paste, and save. If you don't take care to clear out the clipboard buffer, you may actually crash your game.

But, there is now a better way.

I wrote a utility that I call the ScreenShotAssistant. Now, to take a screenshot, you run this utility before you start Civ, decide on the naming convention and types of files you want to save, minimize and then start Civ. When you want a screenshot, simply hit the "print screen" key and the ScreenShotAssistant does the rest. It also clears the clipboard after saving the image to make sure that Civ doesn't have memory issues.

This is the first release, and I would love feedback. You can post here and on the forums at the project website, http://sourceforge.net/projects/screenassist.

EDIT: SSA 2.21 now available, with added features such as the "Generate Webpage" button, "Copy Filenames" button and the much requested "Civ 3" turn extractor. Go download now!
EDIT: SSA 2.1 now available, with added features such as the pause button and Index padding. Go download now!
 
I haven't downloaded it yet, but it sounds good :thumbsup:

Edit: My I also get it for free?
 
I've been having trouble accessing the Sourceforge site today, so I am including the Setup.exe file for download here as well.
 

Attachments

  • screenshotassistant.zip
    360.9 KB · Views: 867
absolutely wonderful!

thanks for the tool!
i've had a wierd problem with my win2k-server that print-screen didn't copy the screenshot into the clipboard.
with your tool i can finally make screenshots in the action (so maybe even in multiplaying games ;) )

thanks again!


ps, i posted this same message at sourceforge as first entry in your discussion board there ;)
 
oh, and maybe you should rename the file. setup.exe is used nearly always. why not somthing like ScreenShotAssistSetup.exe? ;)
 
well, if you really want some feature requests (the thing above is just the filename), how about having your program having an option to save the files with the year value (eg. 3450 BC, 1320 AC, etc)?

an easy solution would be to check the lastest autosave in the directory (you could find out which game is played by checking the process name: civ3.exe, civ3ptw.exe, civ3conq.exe) and using a directory listener. this method is used by ainwood's diplomacy helper.

the nicer (but much more difficult version) would be to check the memory offsets to get the year (or at least the turn-number, and then extrapolate from there). gramphos, ainwood, spiderzord or CCJ39 could maybe help you with this...

oh... but then it would have to be a seperate version for civ3... other people at sf.net probably will need it for other purposes ;)
 
I kinda thought about trying to tie it in to the actual year, but was anxious to get a working version out, so I left that for later, hoping no one would notice. :)

I like the idea of checking the memory offsets. Maybe gramphos, ainwood, spiderzord or CCJ39 would provide me with the info I need. I'll send a PM to them.

And, it shouldn't be too complicated to create seperate CIVIII release at SourceForge, so all is good. Conceivably, it could have specifics for multiple different games built in.
 
I'll use this so here's a :goodjob:
 
this is GREAT!

it is really a great tool, and it has an huge advantage: it can be used everywhere. i now use this tool to take screeshots in everygame that havent a SS bind and i also use it to take SS of my desktop and programs. thanks man, i never thought that a tool like this could be so useful.
 
plus i have a sugestion, i think that an opition like: "minimiza and put in tray" would be great, in that way we could just run it on startup and it will appear in tray, this is wonderful to if you wanna take a SS from your desktop, i wont's have a program in you taskbar but in tray.

think abou this, i think taht it's easy to do it and would be very nice!
 
another nice feature (but i don't know if it's possible):

download to different paths.
eg.
PrntScrn --> directory 1
SHIFT-PrntScrn --> directory 2
CTRL-PrntScrn --> directory 3

i'd use one for the game, one for directly to the desktop and one general purpose one... all with an own counter... it'd be great :)
 
sabrewolf, do you mean you'd like to be able to have them all available at the same time, or would it be enough to be able to switch the directory and other settings quickly?

Although it may not be obvious, currently, by creating a new setting in SSA, you can specify exactly how you want it to behave. When you install, it comes with just the "default" setting. But, you can click on the "..." button in the setting area to create a new setting. For example, I have a setting called "gotm30" that has a directory, prefix, counter and image settings which differ from my "default" setting.
 
duh... i am so stupid!!! sorry... didn't even look at that anymore... i've only been trying around with the index and the prefix ;)
 
Nah, you're not stupid; I need to include more extensive documentation for all the features. I plan on updating the help section for the next release.
 
Top Bottom