[MOD/LIB 0.14+] Larger screenshots

[aaargha]

Info

• Name: Larger screenshots
• Version: 0.1.3
• Factorio-Version: 0.14.22, 0.15.1, 0.16.1, 0.16.51
• Description: Adds an interface usable by the player or another mod that takes screenshots of large areas
• Multiplayer: untested, will at best not crash when running headless
• License: http://unlicense.org/
• Release: 2017-03-27
• Download-Url: https://mods.factorio.com/mods/aaargha/ ... creenshots
• Website: viewtopic.php?f=96&t=43360
• Source: GitHub
• Category: Convenience
• Tags: console, lib, screenshot

Warning
Taking high detail screenshots of large areas will generate lots of data, use a ton of RAM and probably freeze the game for some time. Example on an i7 950 and 16GB of ram: taking a 1024x1024 tile screenshot at zoom 1 generated 1.6GB of data, indreased RAM usage by 5GB, and froze the game for about 30 sec.

Start small and remember that a 1024x1024 is 4x as much data as a 512x512 shot, plan accordingly.

Details and interface description

Allows taking screenshots of large areas using the take_screenshot command by taking multiple pictures that can then be stitched together if desired. I tried to follow the current interface of take_screenshot so as to make it easy to use one or the other. The biggest change is that instead of resolution I use tiles to define the area, the resulting resolution depends on the zoom. This mod can be used as a stand-alone from the console or by other mods through the remote interface. If you want the functionality but don't want to add a dependency to your mod feel free to include parts/all of what is provided here, I'm using the Unlicense after all.

The size of each picture can be changed in the config. Do note that increasing it further may reduce performance and significantly increase RAM usage, for the same shot.

Interface:

Code: Select all

WARNING: The resulting screenshots may be very large: a 1024x1024 (explored) tiles shot at zoom 1 is about 1.6GB
WARNING: Taking large screenshots may take a long time: a 1024x1024 tiles shot at zoom 1 froze the game for about 30 sec, and it took another 30 or so before all the pictures were finished being written to disk. Larger shots may take minutes
Warning: Taking large screenshots will cause RAM usage to spike heavily: a 1024x1024 tiles shot at zoom 1 peaked at about 5GB of additional ram usage while processing

To call from a mod:
remote.call("LargerScreenshots","screenshot", {player=…, by_player=…, surface=…, position=…, size=…, zoom=…, path_prefix=…, show_gui=…, show_entity_info=…, anti_alias=…})
To call from console as a player:
/c remote.call("LargerScreenshots","screenshot", {player=…, by_player=…, surface=…, position=…, size=…, zoom=…, path_prefix=…, show_gui=…, show_entity_info=…, anti_alias=…})

If called from the console only the person typing will get the screenshot, this is to prevent filling other players haddrives.

Take a screenshot and save it to file, multiple files will be created if needed. Size limit of each piece is 8192 (4096 with aa) to reduce memory usage (it's still a few GB extra while working)(can be changed in mod options)

Parameters
Table with the following fields:

	player :: string or LuaPlayer or uint (optional) : Center of screenshot (unless position is supplied) and who to print info to. Defaults to the one using the console or, if called by a mod, player 1 
	by_player :: string or LuaPlayer or uint (optional): If defined, the screenshot will only be taken for this player.
	surface :: SurfaceSpecification (optional): IF defined, the screenshot will be take on this surface unless player is also given.
	position :: Position (optional): Coordinates to center of screenshot, defaults to player position
	size :: Position (optional): size of screenshot in __TILES__, defaults to visible area at selected zoom
	zoom :: double (optional): Default 1
	path_prefix :: string (optional): Path to save the screenshot in, should not include file type. Suffix will be added as necessary ex: if 4 pictures are required for a square shot they will get the endings: _1_1.png, _1_2.png, _2_1.png and _2_2.png
	show_gui :: boolean (optional): Include game GUI in the screenshot? false
	show_entity_info :: boolean (optional): Include entity info (alt-mode)? false
	anti_alias :: boolean (optional): Render in double resolution and scale down (including GUI)? false

Changelog

0.1.0 Initial release
0.1.1 Updated for 0.15
0.1.2 Updated for 0.16, added surface support
0.1.3 Resolved a crash when called without player

If anyone has a chance to test multiplayer please let me know if it works.

Should also be usable in earlier versions of Factorio.

Feedback, suggestions and bug reports welcome.

[foodfactorio]

Hi, i might be taking some screenshots of my current game, and was looking around for some camera/screenshot mods, and found yours

another user made a mod here that might be handy to use with yours too:
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Rseding91/Tape%20Measure

i havent tried them yet, but it looks like Rsedings could be used to work out how large my base is (if i estimate its visual boundaries since its not really a perfect square base) but can i check with you what you think would be a good value to use?

for example i only have 4GB ram, and usually play at about 60% zoomed in. (or from zooming right in, im at about 10 mouse scrollwheel's zoomed out, of about almost 30 possible scrolls of zooming out)

i want to try and make a video at some point, as it will probably be easier to do a voice over while playing and walking around, but i need more time to sort that out so thought to take some screenshots

here are a few examples below just to show my normal level of zoom, and probably the max zoomed out level, as if there is too much on screen and too much zoomed out, it will be harder to explain the various areas, or annotate etc.

btw these were taken with print screen but hopefully with the mod it can map out my whole base boundaries with several images.

thanks for any advice
(apart from making spaghetti jokes at my spaghetti designs)

[aaargha]

Hi, i might be taking some screenshots of my current game, and was looking around for some camera/screenshot mods, and found yours

another user made a mod here that might be handy to use with yours too:
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Rseding91/Tape%20Measure

i havent tried them yet, but it looks like Rsedings could be used to work out how large my base is (if i estimate its visual boundaries since its not really a perfect square base) but can i check with you what you think would be a good value to use?

for example i only have 4GB ram, and usually play at about 60% zoomed in. (or from zooming right in, im at about 10 mouse scrollwheel's zoomed out, of about almost 30 possible scrolls of zooming out)

i want to try and make a video at some point, as it will probably be easier to do a voice over while playing and walking around, but i need more time to sort that out so thought to take some screenshots

here are a few examples below just to show my normal level of zoom, and probably the max zoomed out level, as if there is too much on screen and too much zoomed out, it will be harder to explain the various areas, or annotate etc.

btw these were taken with print screen but hopefully with the mod it can map out my whole base boundaries with several images.

thanks for any advice
(apart from making spaghetti jokes at my spaghetti designs)

I've not tried tape measure but from the description it sounds like it could be helpful, especially to try to figure out how much data will be generated. If you also need to get the coordinates for some point there is a debug option (F4) that will show the coordinates for the cursor called show_detailed_info, or something like that.

As this mod is only made to bypass the size limitation of the default take_screenshot command you may want to take a look at one of my other mods, Screenshot camera, that is made to make taking screenshots easier, works like blueprints, it is also compatible with this one if you want to shoot really large areas.

As for what zoom level to use you'll have to test which is good for you, you can use

Code: Select all

/c game.player.zoom = 1

in the console to set the zoom using the same scale the mods will, 1 is default 1:1 scale rendering.

If anything is unclear I'll be able to answer further questions today or in about 3 weeks when I get back to civilisation.

That said I hope it works out, from the pictures you've posted so far your base looks positively yummy

[foodfactorio]

thanks aaargha, i will check out your other mods too and give it a go
enjoy your holiday and hopefully i wont say aaargha when i get stuck

(btw yeah the buildings are all made from alien candy) like the fairytale stories

[foodfactorio]

btw i just posted a few images using the camera, to the Bees mod by NP here:
viewtopic.php?f=97&t=34176&start=20#p294780

(as some were quite large at 10-15MB i'm not sure if there is a limit to how much we can attach here, so just linking for now?)

[aaargha]

btw i just posted a few images using the camera, to the Bees mod by NP here:
viewtopic.php?f=97&t=34176&start=20#p294780

(as some were quite large at 10-15MB i'm not sure if there is a limit to how much we can attach here, so just linking for now?)

Glad to hear that you got it working. Yeah, the screenshots tend to get pretty large, you may want to try zooming out a bit (see mod options, 0.5 is pretty reasonable) or you can try converting them to JPEG if you don't mind the quality loss.

[foodfactorio]

ok thanks for the info - once i get as much of my current campain (and new mods) into v0.15 i will try taking lots more screens for a walkthrough but will probably do that on a new map as this one has lots of Snakes and Ladders