Taking an actual screenshot?

briankross · 19 Jun 2016, 06:41

@herb_fargus said in Taking an actual screenshot?:

@PingSpike taking a screenshot is already built into retroarch you just have to define in the retroarch.cfg which button it uses to initialise it

I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but I've been following along trying to setup the F8 key to take a screenshot (later this will be an arcade button), with no success.

I'm using lr-mame2003 (for mame) and lr-nestopia (for nes) on rPi-3, RetroPie 3.8.1.

Edited: /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg

# Take screenshot
input_screenshot = f8

# Directory to dump screenshots to.
screenshot_directory = /home/pi/RetroPie/MyScreenshots

Created directory: /home/pi/RetroPie/MyScreenshots

I noticed while playing a game using lr-mame2003, if I hit TAB I see the service menu, which has F12 as the screenshot key. After pressing F12, I'm not sure if there is a screen shot or where it might be stored.

If I go to the RGUI menu and take a screenshot through the quick menu, it kicks me out of the game. I'm not sure if there is a screen shot or where it might be stored.

Thoughts?

Floob · 19 Jun 2016, 10:41

@briankross Try holding your hotkey enable button (usually Select) and then tapping F8.

briankross · 19 Jun 2016, 17:36

@Floob said in Taking an actual screenshot?:

@briankross Try holding your hotkey enable button (usually Select) and then tapping F8.

When I do that, it kicks me out of the game (either mame or nes) and I don't see anything in:

/home/pi/.config/retroarch/screenshots

or

/home/pi/RetroPie/MyScreenshots

Floob · 19 Jun 2016, 17:59

Thats odd. Can you put a copy of your opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg on pastebin.com?

briankross · 19 Jun 2016, 18:47

@Floob said in Taking an actual screenshot?:

Thats odd. Can you put a copy of your opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg on pastebin.com?

Yes, thank you for checking it out.

/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg

dankcushions · 19 Jun 2016, 19:06


# Directory to dump screenshots to.
screenshot_directory = /home/pi/RetroPie/MyScreenshots

needs quotes. should be:


# Directory to dump screenshots to.
screenshot_directory = "/home/pi/RetroPie/MyScreenshots"

also, does the directory exists and do you have write-access?

also, i probably wouldn't use the function keys as mame already uses them for things, so every time you take a screenshot with f8 you'll be activating some mame option (i think possibly to do with frameskip).

briankross · 19 Jun 2016, 19:40

@dankcushions

Thanks, I made the change! This makes sense for directories.

Great point about the F8 key for mame games. I'll have a look for which keys may be unused, do you have a suggestion that's good for lr-mame2003 and lr-nestopia?

Permissions for the directory is 755, created by root.

dankcushions · 19 Jun 2016, 20:07

@briankross said in Taking an actual screenshot?:

@dankcushions

Thanks, I made the change! This makes sense for directories.

Great point about the F8 key for mame games. I'll have a look for which keys may be unused, do you have a suggestion that's good for lr-mame2003 and lr-nestopia?

i think 'p' is the default in retroarch, so that would be my preference :)

Permissions for the directory is 755, created by root.

755 is fine if it is owned by the pi user.. but i guess will be a problem if not.

briankross · 19 Jun 2016, 20:20

@dankcushions

I just uncommented the retroarch.cfg screenshot line and it was already set to f8. It looks like input_pause_toggle is set to p, but is commented out.

I've tried print_screen and "print_screen", neither work.

dankcushions · 19 Jun 2016, 20:22

@briankross said in Taking an actual screenshot?:

@dankcushions

I just uncommented the retroarch.cfg screenshot line and it was already set to f8. It looks like input_pause_toggle is set to p, but is commented out.

I've tried print_screen and "print_screen", neither work.

my mistake! f8 is the default key.. hmm, i dunno what i would use in that case... i take screenshots via the RGUI when i need to.

briankross · 19 Jun 2016, 20:25

@dankcushions said in Taking an actual screenshot?:

@briankross said in Taking an actual screenshot?:

@dankcushions

I just uncommented the retroarch.cfg screenshot line and it was already set to f8. It looks like input_pause_toggle is set to p, but is commented out.

I've tried print_screen and "print_screen", neither work.

my mistake! f8 is the default key.. hmm, i dunno what i would use in that case... i take screenshots via the RGUI when i need to.

When I use the quick menu from RGUI, it kicks me out of the game.

dankcushions · 19 Jun 2016, 20:29

@briankross that's very odd. anything in /tmp/runcommand.log when that happens?

all this stuff should 'just work'

briankross · 19 Jun 2016, 21:10

@dankcushions said in Taking an actual screenshot?:

@briankross that's very odd. anything in /tmp/runcommand.log when that happens?

all this stuff should 'just work'

Edit: url in pastebin.com
Here's the log.

I ran Contra (nes), pressed select + x on a SNES gamepad to reach the RGUI, quick menu, take a screenshot.

dankcushions · 19 Jun 2016, 21:14

@briankross i thought you said quick menu crashed? if it's crashing when you create a screenshot i think maybe it's that permissions problem i mentioned earlier... but not sure. IMO it would have been best to test they work in the default directories before changing them.

briankross · 19 Jun 2016, 21:19

@dankcushions said in Taking an actual screenshot?:

@briankross i thought you said quick menu crashed? if it's crashing when you create a screenshot i think maybe it's that permissions problem i mentioned earlier... but not sure. IMO it would have been best to test they work in the default directories before changing them.

Doing what I mentioned above kicks me from the game back to Emulation Station.

There were no directories set previously.

Here's the original retroarch.cfg entries:

# Take screenshot
# input_screenshot = f8

# Directory to dump screenshots to.
# screenshot_directory =

herb_fargus · 19 Jun 2016, 21:20

@briankross if you don't set the directories I think it just dumps them in the home directory.

UDb23 · 31 Jul 2016, 08:28

@herb_fargus
Screenshots taken thru RGUI are saved in the home/pi/.config/retroarch/screenshots/ folder.
I think it's default as I have never set any screeshot_directory parameter.
Just tested with lr-mame 2003 (retropie 3.8.1).

RGUI takes a screenshot of the actual game screen area; it is not including bezel (when you enter RGUI the bezel is no longer shown). Does anybody know how to get also the bezel ?

RetroResolution · 1 Aug 2016, 21:02

@UDb23 hi,
If you use raspi2png (I covered this earlier in the thread I think - it was a while ago!), it grabs the entire GPU frame buffer as a .PNG file, so you'll get everything that is on-screen.

[Edit: 4th post down in this thread, covers installing and using raspi2png]

Floob · 31 Jul 2016, 13:46

@UDb23 You can keep the bezel in RGUI with an option in there - its under the overlay section, and something like "keep overlay in RGUI"
Not sure if that will help include it in the screenshot though.

briankross · 31 Jul 2016, 13:48

Just wanted to jump in with a quick question.

Is "raspi2png" the only option if not using retroarch based emulators? (I hope I said that right!)