OK, tutorial time.
Here are the tricks of the screenshot trade, free of charge because you are all great guys and gals
0. Make sure that the OXPs System Redux and Debug are installed. Lately I shoot without SR, because I find I quite like the procedural planets, but still it's a good idea to have it, because of the moons it creates etc. and it looks cool anyway.
1. Assign specific roles to the ships that I want in the screenshot by editing their shipdata.plist.
2. Find systems in the eight galaxies which have nice default light and star color / quantity settings. My favorite one is Edrebi, a little anarchy in G5. This system just begs for screens. Birera in G3 is a very beautiful one too, with a blue tint in its stars, looks like a movie of sorts. There are plenty out there to choose from.
3. Increase star_multiplier_count and nebula_multiplier_count to populate the system with some nebulae and loads of stars. The last batches of screenshots I did have been made with star_count_multiplier = 20 and nebula_count_multiplier = 2.
4. Launch debug console.
5. Launch Oolite. Set shaders to full, if supported. Load up a save game in one of the prettified systems.
6. Go spaceborne and find a place that looks good enough as environment for a shot.
7. Spawn the ships you want to display. I use the built-in macro
:spawn shipRole, where shipRole is the specific role from step 1, or a self-made macro called
:sp5near shipRole, which spawns 5 ships of the selected shipRole very close to the player. :sp5near is defined as
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"sp5near" = "system.legacy_addShipsAtPrecisely(PARAM, 5, 'abs', [player.ship.position.x, player.ship.position.y, player.ship.position.z+5])";
And now the fun starts.
8. Target the ships you need to take pics of and execute the magic console command:
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player.ship.target.setAI("dumbAI.plist")
This will stop the target ship and set it to rotate. Now you can approach it to a comfortable distance for a shot.
9. Now it would be a good time to switch off the hud. Pause and press "O".
10. Once happy with the scene, watch a bit the rotating ship and pick the moment that you will take the shot. Use TAF when the right moment approaches, but make sure to switch off the FPS display before the shot.
11. Start pressing '*' rapidly a bit earlier than the actual desired moment of shot. Normally I save three or four pics for one scene. This ensures that you have grabbed the right moment in time and sometimes you find that one of the "other" shots is actually better for what you want to show.
*Advanced Tip*
12. If I really want to get funky with it, I spawn a Coriolis somewhere in the distance, target it and have the
ship.target.explode() command ready at the console. Just before taking the shot, I detonate the Coriolis and start screenshooting like mad. This creates explosions that last long enough to be able to have at least one good shot in the batch. This is how the
Cobra-Explosions-Moon shot was taken. BTW, the system in that shot is Birera and the Griff Cobra is a self-made external view, which I call 'Cinematic'. The definition for this view in case anyone would like to toy with it is
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{
view_description = "Cinematic View";
view_orientation = "0.0 0.35 1.0 0.05";
view_position = "-10.0 10.0 150.0";
weapon_facing = "FORWARD";
}
Easy, no? It is actually much simpler than it looks. Come on, have a go, you know you want to.
Oh, and before I forget, taking screenshots doesn't always have to be complicated. Sometimes it's as simple as taking a single shot while flying in space, no director's set or anything. It still looks good
not for ages and ages anyway, i'll more than likely just hang around chipping in graphics and ships for whatever crazy new OXP idea someone has on the forum.
