Hey everyone!
As some of you may know, I love taking breathtaking screenshots in Star Trek Online and some of you must wonder
"How did he do that?". Well this guide will help you to understand my process and teach you a short masterclass in taking advanced screenshots in Star Trek Online!
First off, lets start with the some required software to make the process a little easier.
Getting Started - Step 1
When I decide I want create a screenshot I use the
/demorecord feature in Star Trek Online. This nifty little feature is a dev tool that players have access to, in short, we can create a small .demo file by recording which instance you are in and the actions you make within the game.
This is done through the use of a few commands, but I'll get into that in a second. First you will want to download and install the Star Trek Online Demo Launcher found at this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bUs...I-KcS7mZt/view
This program makes it easier for you to access and run your demo files without having to use command line startup command in the STO launcher, which personally is a complete pain and consumes time.
Whats that I hear you ask?
"How do I make a demo recording?" Well then, lets get into it that shall we?
First off you will want to use the following command as shown in the screenshot below:
When using this command, where it says
"DEMONAME": This is what your demo will be called. For example:
/demorecord Excelsior Drydock. That will name my demo Excelsior Drydock.
Once you have typed the demorecord command into chat and pressed enter, your game will seem to load everything, your ship will appear to fly in again. Don't worry this is normal!
"How will I know I'm creating a demo?"
You will see some text of the left of the screen as show below:
I recommend you let the demo record for about 30 seconds to give you ample time when it comes to making the screenshot later. When you are ready, type this command into chat:
Now, moving on to the hard part!
Accessing the demo - Step 2
This section will teach you how to access your demo files, where they are stored and how to move the camera about inside the demo.
Remember that program linked above? You will need to open this program now. When you run it for the first time it may ask you to point it at the location of your demofiles. If it does, your demo files will be stored in a similar location to this:
E:\Program Files(x86)\Star Trek Online\Star Trek Online_en\Star Trek Online\Live\demos
Once thats done, the following window will open up:
Above is the Star Trek Online Demo Launcher. As you can see, it will show all your current demo files stored at the location we point to earlier. As you can see I have quite a few demos stored that I am using for screenshots and other projects.
In the demo window you will notice it shows you information about each demo file. Namely, when it was created, when it was last modified (opened), which map it was taken on, which server, the character it was made using and the name of the demo.
To run a demo, simply double-click the demo or single click and hit the small green play button above the demos list.
When you open a demo file it will run a new instance of Star Trek Online. When it loads in your window should look like this:
Now you want to hit the pause button at the top of the window. This will pause the demo.
To enter the free camera mode press
F2 (You may have to press a few times to enter free cam mode). To move the camera around use the
WASD keys and HOLD
right click and move the mouse to change the direction the camera is facing.
Note - If your ship appears "faded" or isn't there. Hit the play button at the top and let the demo run for about 5 seconds and pause it again.
Taking the screenshot - Step 3
Now we are ready to take our screenshot, but first we need to do some preparation to make it look the best it possibly can.
Once you have positioned the camera where you want it for your screenshot, there a 2 commands you will need to run:
Press the tilda key (
~) and this will drop down a grey console command overlay over the top of your demo. It will look this screenshot below:
As shown in the screenshot above, type the following command:
renderscale 2 and hit
enter - This command will double the resolution of your game making your game look better and textures cleaner.
When using the renderscale command, I recommend using 2 as this doubles the resolution of your screenshots. You can use higher values such as 3 (triple) and 4 (quadruple) but it will cause serious performance issues and possibly cause the game to crash.
Additionally if you want a more "
Cinematic" feel, you can use the
FOV X command. Replace X with the desired value (lower values will decrease zoom levels and vice versa). By default the FOV is 55, I recommend a value no lower than 20 for the most cinematic zoom level.
Now it comes time to take the screenshot. Using the same method above type the command: screenshot_jpg. This will create a JPEG of your screen without the U.I. It will be stored at a location similar to this:
E:\Program Files(x86)\Star Trek Online\Star Trek Online_en\Star Trek Online\Live\screenshots
Thats it! All done, you can now close the demo by hitting alt+F4.
Below is a super advanced step in the screenshotting process, it will teach how to change your ships name and registry to whatever you want it to be.
Super Advanced Stuff - Step 4
This is the super advanced section of the guide. This will teach you how to change your ships name and registry by directly editing the demofile using notepadd ++.
Before we get started make a backup of the demo file you wish to edit and save it onto your desktop just in case something goes wrong.
"How did you get your ships hull and registry to show U.S.S. Enterprise and NCC-1701-A?!"
"Are you a wizard?!"
I will teach how to do that and yes I am
To start off open up a file explorer window and find the location of your demo files. They should be stored in a similar location to this:
E:\Program Files(x86)\Star Trek Online\Star Trek Online_en\Star Trek Online\Live\demos
Don't worry this won't break your actual game. It will only edit the name and registry inside the demo.
Once you have found your demo folder, it will look like this:
Right click on the demo file and open it in a notepadd editor. I recommend notepadd ++.
Once you've opened the demo file in your preferred editor of choice. You will see a window as shown below filled with all kinds of gobbledegook we don't need to worry about.
Press
CTRL + F and go to the
Replace tab
Type your ships name in the "Find what" field and the desired ship name in the "Replace with" field.
Once you have done that hit
Replace All. It is VERY important you hit
"Replace All" otherwise it can cause your ships name and registry to not appear if done incorrectly.
To change the ships registry, it is a similar process:
Once you have followed those steps, close the replace window and save the file. You can close your editor now and run the demo file. If you have done it correctly when you run the demo file your ships name and registry should be whatever you changed it to using the steps above.
Here is an example screenshot after we've changed the ships name and registry:
That concludes the super advanced stuff! I hope you found this helpful!
Commander Solace
Starfleet Operations Personnel Officer