AAR Tips

[Ron Saueracker]

Going to do an AAR with Mogami when we Alpha test the big mod. Need some info as I'm a PC retard.

I've been trying to screen capture pics of map etc and can't save from the clipboard. Help!

Is there some freeware out there that I can use?

I'm asking because without some visual stimulant, AARs can be REALLY dull and with all the excellent art work effort invested in this mod (Thanks Andrew for your map efforts, Justin, Elf, Andrey, Don, Cobra, Platoonist for the aircraft and ship art efforts) it would be a disservice not to show it off.

Going to be fun and I'm sure some of you are hoping that Mogami-san kicks the crap out of the mouthy guy.[;)] Going to call it the "Clash of the Sedentary".

[Grotius]

Do you mean the combined historical mod? If so, wow, I can't wait to see how it goes! Will you be waiting for 1.5?

As for your specific question, you need some sort of image-editing software, some of which is probably installed on your PC. For example, Windows ships with Paint. I *think* Paint allows you to crop images and save them as JPEGs; someone correct me if I'm wrong. (Personally, I use Photoshop, but that's a pricey program, not worth buying just for this.) Here's my step-by-step process:

1. First, capture the image. Hit PrtScrn on your keyboard to capture a screen; alt-tab out of WITP, fire up Paint; open a new paint file (if it doesn't automatically open when the program starts); hit CTL-V to paste the clipboard into it. You should see the screenshot in your program now. If not, something's gone wrong.

2. Second, crop it and edit it. The editing program should allow you to crop it, and with WITP, you will almost always want to do this. Why? Two reasons. First, if you don't crop it, the file will be large, and you'll have to compress it more to allow it to load in a reasonable time here on this forum. Second, and more important, if you don't crop it, the image will be too "wide" for this forum, which screws up the formatting of your AAR. You really don't want that; it makes everything hard to read if you have to scroll horizontally to read every paragraph of your AAR. To avoid that, crop your images so that they're no more than 800 pixels wide. (Most users use at least 800x600 resolution.) If you *really* want to insure maximum readability, crop down to 640 pixels wide (for those users who use the lowest desktop resolution of 640x480, but I doubt there are many.)

3. Optional: Add fancy arrows and stuff. It's nice to add "football-coach" arrows and whatnot to illustrate your evil plans, but this is optional.

4. Save the file as a JPEG around 150K or less. (Do NOT save it as a .BMP; that format is generally too big.) Your aim should be to get the file size under 200KB so that the image loads reasonably quicly on this board; closer to 100K is nice for dialup users. I usually aim for less than 150K. Some image-editing programs give you control over the quality of the image and resulting file size; this is one thing I like about Photoshop. If you don't have such control, then you have to control file size through trial-and-error, using the crop process described above, and then checking on the final saved image's size in Windows explorer.

5. Upload the file. To do that, first click "Embed picture in post" below; then click "Click here to upload"; then navigate to your image; then upload it. It usually takes a minute for it to upload.

[tsimmonds]

I *think* Paint allows you to crop images and save them as JPEGs; someone correct me if I'm wrong.

"Paint" works fine.

[Roger Neilson]

If you want a free screenshot grabber that does more than print screen go to

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... fault.aspx

its designed to actauuly capture video, but has a screen and part screen grab in it - and its free - provided you have Mr Gates' XP.

Roger

[rogueusmc]

Frag uses one he said is really simple...don't remember what it is though.

[Cap Mandrake]

It is remarkably simple. No freeware needed. Simply use the "Print Scrn" button, minimize your WITP, open MS Paint, then use Ctrl V or use the pull down menu in paint and hit paste...now use the selection tool to trim it down and use save to save in jpg format required for posting.

[Ron Saueracker]

Thanks guys, I'll give it a go. The AAR is gonna be fun! Mog is a great opponent and he is well suited to test the Japanese side.

[rogueusmc]

Just be careful.

I'm playing him...he's slow to get started but I'm waiting for the @#4%^slap...lol

[Mr.Frag]

Irfanview

Lets you crop in seconds and save stuff out as jpeg with reasonable compression reduction. It uses Lanczos filtering which produces a very sharp image quality on a resize which means you can post screens without the hex lines looking horrible.

I have not found another utility that uses this method of resizing, most use B-Spline which makes the hex pattern look horrible.

To use, hit Print Screen (windowed users hit Alt-Print Screen)

Open up Irfanview and Control-P (paste) the screen shot.

Ctrl-R will let you resize it down if you want or you can just drag a box around what you want and Ctrl-Y to cut out all but whats in the box.

When you have messed it up to what you want, hit S to save it, set Save type as JPG and set quality to 80%.

You now have a perfectly postable forum friendly image to post.

[Ron Saueracker]

Too big...cropping is unclear yet

[Ron Saueracker]

ORIGINAL: Mr.Frag

Irfanview

Lets you crop in seconds and save stuff out as jpeg with reasonable compression reduction. It uses Lanczos filtering which produces a very sharp image quality on a resize which means you can post screens without the hex lines looking horrible.

I have not found another utility that uses this method of resizing, most use B-Spline which makes the hex pattern look horrible.

To use, hit Print Screen (windowed users hit Alt-Print Screen)

Open up Irfanview and Control-P (paste) the screen shot.

Ctrl-R will let you resize it down if you want or you can just drag a box around what you want and Ctrl-Y to cut out all but whats in the box.

When you have messed it up to what you want, hit S to save it, set Save type as JPG and set quality to 80%.

You now have a perfectly postable forum friendly image to post.

Does it work with WIN 98 SE ?

[Mr.Frag]

Does it work with WIN 98 SE ?

Works with anything pretty much.

Here's a better link:

http://www.tucows.com/preview/194967.html

[Ron Saueracker]

Irfanview 3.95

[Ron Saueracker]

Whoooohooo! Thanks guys, you've been a great help![&o] Now I'll fiddle...

[33Vyper]

Okay Ron.....


Did I see VICTORIA ???????? on your map ?????? is this part of the Mega Mod?

And that ship class.......its crap.....must be RCN...Sans Peur...LMAO

[Ron Saueracker]

ORIGINAL: 33Vyper

Okay Ron.....


Did I see VICTORIA ???????? on your map ?????? is this part of the Mega Mod?

And that ship class.......its crap.....must be RCN...Sans Peur...LMAO

Yepper, Victoria/Esquimalt. Andrew Brown added this and a number of interior bases. Map is phenomenal!

[Grotius]

Looks like you got the hang of it. Just don't make em TOO WIDE! Never wider than 800 pixels, and to be super-safe, keep it under 640 pixels wide for users with low-rez screens. (Er, are there any users running Windows in 640x480, besides my office PC?)

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: Mr.Frag

Does it work with WIN 98 SE ?

Works with anything pretty much.

Here's a better link:

http://www.tucows.com/preview/194967.html

That's a very nice application - I like the way that it works with WitP. Thanks for the tip.

Dave Baranyi

[Mr.Frag]

Looks like you got the hang of it. Just don't make em TOO WIDE! Never wider than 800 pixels, and to be super-safe, keep it under 640 pixels wide for users with low-rez screens. (Er, are there any users running Windows in 640x480, besides my office PC?)

Thats why I love irfanview ... resize your shots to 640x480 in seconds and the quality is still there ... I've tried many capture programs, but none of them can resize and keep it looking good.

[Tristanjohn]

ORIGINAL: Ron Saueracker

Going to do an AAR with Mogami when we Alpha test the big mod. Need some info as I'm a PC retard.

I've been trying to screen capture pics of map etc and can't save from the clipboard. Help!

Is there some freeware out there that I can use?

I'm asking because without some visual stimulant, AARs can be REALLY dull and with all the excellent art work effort invested in this mod (Thanks Andrew for your map efforts, Justin, Elf, Andrey, Don, Cobra, Platoonist for the aircraft and ship art efforts) it would be a disservice not to show it off.

Going to be fun and I'm sure some of you are hoping that Mogami-san kicks the crap out of the mouthy guy.[;)] Going to call it the "Clash of the Sedentary".

Try this following link. It'll take you to some convenient screen-capture software--it's freeware. This software is especially handy to use with WitP as it automatically takes you out of that program where you're simply prompted to name the file (and save it your default directory if you want). Easy to configure and use.

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Mult ... pture.html