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PS3 in-game screenshots
#1
If anyone who visits these boards has a PS3, maybe they know an answer to my question. Back in 2008, Sony announced a firmware update [2.5], which was supposed to add a "in-game screenshot" functionality. According to the info released at the time:

"This tool will allow everyone to capture, share and in other words, immortalize their favorite gameplay moments. This will be supported on a game by game basis. Please check back to find out which games will support this feature."

I've been playing Wipeout HD recently, and its built-in screenshot capture feature reminded me of that firmware addition. The problem is, I wasn't able to find anything about it. Since it was to be supported on a game to game basis, I figured I'd try a couple of titles and see if a screenshot feature appears once I bring up the system menu during gameplay. No dice. I'm told it works for Tekken 6, but I have the Xbox version.

Has anyone heard about this? Which games support it? I did some quick searching and all I came up with was someone mentioning that with Tekken 6 you get a "capture screenshot" in the "photo" tab of the system menu, if you bring it up in-game.
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#2
Wasn't that new functionality made available so that developers could include the feature? That's what I thought they were talking about and there was an article here complaining about why most developers don't include the feature: http://www.ps3news.com/PlayStation-3/are...t-feature/

I think it's one of those things like trophies: before the feature is mandatory, most developers don't bother adding the functionality.
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#3
(09-16-2012, 04:49 AM)Morden Wrote: If anyone who visits these boards has a PS3, maybe they know an answer to my question. Back in 2008, Sony announced a firmware update [2.5], which was supposed to add a "in-game screenshot" functionality. According to the info released at the time:

"This tool will allow everyone to capture, share and in other words, immortalize their favorite gameplay moments. This will be supported on a game by game basis. Please check back to find out which games will support this feature."

I've been playing Wipeout HD recently, and its built-in screenshot capture feature reminded me of that firmware addition. The problem is, I wasn't able to find anything about it. Since it was to be supported on a game to game basis, I figured I'd try a couple of titles and see if a screenshot feature appears once I bring up the system menu during gameplay. No dice. I'm told it works for Tekken 6, but I have the Xbox version.

Has anyone heard about this? Which games support it? I did some quick searching and all I came up with was someone mentioning that with Tekken 6 you get a "capture screenshot" in the "photo" tab of the system menu, if you bring it up in-game.

Well, most developers don't seem to support it since it isn't required. Same thing happened with trophies/achievements until they became mandatory.

Anyway, I found this list:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php...stcount=46
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#4
(09-16-2012, 04:49 AM)Morden Wrote: If anyone who visits these boards has a PS3, maybe they know an answer to my question. Back in 2008, Sony announced a firmware update [2.5], which was supposed to add a "in-game screenshot" functionality. According to the info released at the time:

"This tool will allow everyone to capture, share and in other words, immortalize their favorite gameplay moments. This will be supported on a game by game basis. Please check back to find out which games will support this feature."

I've been playing Wipeout HD recently, and its built-in screenshot capture feature reminded me of that firmware addition. The problem is, I wasn't able to find anything about it. Since it was to be supported on a game to game basis, I figured I'd try a couple of titles and see if a screenshot feature appears once I bring up the system menu during gameplay. No dice. I'm told it works for Tekken 6, but I have the Xbox version.

Has anyone heard about this? Which games support it? I did some quick searching and all I came up with was someone mentioning that with Tekken 6 you get a "capture screenshot" in the "photo" tab of the system menu, if you bring it up in-game.

Well, most developers don't seem to support it since it isn't required. Same thing happened with trophies/achievements until they became mandatory.

Anyway, I found this list:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php...stcount=46
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#5
(09-16-2012, 10:37 AM)Senk Wrote: Well, most developers don't seem to support it since it isn't required. Same thing happened with trophies/achievements until they became mandatory.

That's too bad. I actually found some other info on NeoGAF [in a thread with a near identical title], but not this list, so thanks. I'll keep looking for one that's more up to date. Meanwhile, I'll try Echochrome and some of the games I own. I don't think I have the patience to check them all.

This feature should be mandatory as well. If there's anything I've always wanted, it's a feature that lets you capture clean in-game shots. Tekken Tag for the PS2 was the first game I remember having this. It was one of my very first games on the PS2, and it wasn't until much, much later, when I was able to access the contents of the memory card on a PC, when I realized the game was actually saving jpeg's.

Now, the consoles are basically PCs, supporting external storage devices. How hard can it be to implement universal png saving? I'm not a fan of the jpeg, because of its lossy compression.

By the way, are there capture cards that can capture directly from HDMI? I know there is a couple of devices that can record video via a component cable, but I'm not using component all that much, except for the Wii and, occasionally, PS2 [RGB seems to work a bit better, so I'm using that].
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#6
(09-16-2012, 05:54 PM)Morden Wrote:
(09-16-2012, 10:37 AM)Senk Wrote: Well, most developers don't seem to support it since it isn't required. Same thing happened with trophies/achievements until they became mandatory.

That's too bad. I actually found some other info on NeoGAF [in a thread with a near identical title], but not this list, so thanks. I'll keep looking for one that's more up to date. Meanwhile, I'll try Echochrome and some of the games I own. I don't think I have the patience to check them all.

This feature should be mandatory as well. If there's anything I've always wanted, it's a feature that lets you capture clean in-game shots. Tekken Tag for the PS2 was the first game I remember having this. It was one of my very first games on the PS2, and it wasn't until much, much later, when I was able to access the contents of the memory card on a PC, when I realized the game was actually saving jpeg's.

Now, the consoles are basically PCs, supporting external storage devices. How hard can it be to implement universal png saving? I'm not a fan of the jpeg, because of its lossy compression.

By the way, are there capture cards that can capture directly from HDMI? I know there is a couple of devices that can record video via a component cable, but I'm not using component all that much, except for the Wii and, occasionally, PS2 [RGB seems to work a bit better, so I'm using that].

Well, this card was recommended a few years ago. (http://www.amazon.com/Avertv-Definition-...815&sr=1-2)

Also, it's not about the difficulty of implementing the feature. Okay, well with Sony that might be a reason. Typically, it's just that the developers are under a fair amount of pressure to get a working prototype finished to run by the publisher. From there, they've got to focus on ironing out as many issues as possible with the game such as slowdowns on consoles and logic errors. Unless they've finished work ahead of schedule or they've been told to implement the feature, I doubt it's high on their lists.
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#7
(09-17-2012, 09:30 AM)Senk Wrote: Also, it's not about the difficulty of implementing the feature. (...) Unless they've finished work ahead of schedule or they've been told to implement the feature, I doubt it's high on their lists.

That's why I'd like to see this type of feature getting implemented on the console side, independently of the software code. I remember when I got my first TV tuner card, with composite and s-video input. I had a blast taking screenshots and making videos from all possible games. It's like that first time you were able to record an audio sample to a wav file that took up a large chunk of your HD.

I did some game writing in my time, both for magazines and websites, and I always wanted to have my own, clean screenshots. Nowadays, you can solve this with emulation - for older platforms at least - but X360 and PS3, and even the first Xbox, are problematic. Sure, you can install a dev bios on your modded console and it works, at least for Xbox, and X360, but I only have one 360 now, and I'm not messing around with it, since the warranty is long gone.

Oh well ... I just thought that maybe I'm missing something with the PS3 screenshot thing. Turns out it's the feature that's missing altogether.
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