Tips for Taking Better Screenshots in All Beth Games

[KoolHndLuke]

I've been taking and posting screenshots from most Beth games for about three years now. These are some things I have learned about making them better;

 

1) Obviously, your system specs and graphics card matters a helluva lot. But, that doesn't mean that you can't still take decent or good screenshots. What I have found is that the better your fps in a game, the smoother your screenshots will look. This is due to the slower frame-rate causing more pixelation. Here is a more technical explanation- "In computer graphics, pixelation (or pixellation in British English) is caused by displaying a bitmap or a section of a bitmap at such a large size that individual pixels, small single-colored square display elements that comprise the bitmap, are visible. Such an image is said to be pixelated." - Wiki

 

 Various adjustments can be used to "tweak" your games for optimal performance such as turning off some effects that don't add much or to find and download mods that help with performance. ENBoost comes to mind and covers Skyrim, FO4, Oblivion, FNV/FO3 and many other games.

 

2) Console commands in these games are pretty universal since Beth included them in most.

 

Note that these commands are not case sensitive.

 

TFC- toggles free camera.This is used uncouple the camera from the character view and allow you to move the camera anywhere you like. There are also adjustments to the speed at which you move, but I don't remember them right now.

 

TFC 1- toggles free camera and freezes animation. Very useful when you get everything set up the way you want it! Essential even. Retype to undo.

 

TCL- toggles collision. This is used to move objects into a better position without "colliding" with other objects. In other words, one object can clip through another- like to position two characters close to each other without them sort of pushing away from each other. This can be a really tricky command mode to master since objects can be difficult to move and they physics don't always cooperate- so experiment.

 

Moveto player- move ref to player. This is especially useful for a number of circumstances. Lost a follower? Go back to an earlier save and just click on them for their ref id. Then load your new save and open the console- their ref id should still be selected. Type the moveto player command and they will appear. If they died, then you can type "resurrect" or "resurrect 1" and then the moveto command. In screenshots, I use this command to more or less position and face npcs that I have put in a pose (and maybe toggled their A.I.).

 

TAI- toggles A.I. Either globally or on a target. Typing it without a ref selected will toggle A.I. globally. Just retype to turn back on. I use this to "freeze" npcs so that they won't break pose. Note that you can use this on your player character as well, but it will also turn off any head- tracking that you may want.

 

Show timescale shows timescale.

 

Settimescale to (x)- sets the timescale to the value you type for (x). The timescale is the game clock. Usually it is set at 30 to 1, which means that 30 mins pass in game for every real minute. Now, you can set this to 1 (real time) or even 0 (I've never tried this). Say you are outside in the game world and you have the light just how you want it. Use this command to sort of freeze time. Don't forget to set it back when you are done. I usually make a save before starting a scene, then use all my commands, finish and exit the game. That way you don't accidentally screw shit up.

 

QQQ- quit the game without saving. This is useful in FO4 especially because it creates a save when you exit in survival mode- and you don't want that.

 

To be continued........

[winny257]

There is another console command "TM".
it makes everything disappear, life, endurance, mana and compass.
but this command is to be used with caution! 
because if you want to open the console again, becomes these, although available, not displayed!
on no case enter "TM" again, simple one time Arrow key upwards and confirm with Enter.
then everything should be visible again. 

[KoolHndLuke]

5 minutes ago, winny257 said:

There is another console command "TM".
it makes everything disappear, life, endurance, mana and compass.
but this command is to be used with caution! 
because if you want to open the console again, becomes these, although available, not displayed!
on no case enter "TM" again, simple one time Arrow key upwards and confirm with Enter.
then everything should be visible again. 

Thanks winny. I was going to put that in there. How about the "removeallitems" command? Eh? Ehhhh............? 

[winny257]

58 minutes ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Thanks winny. I was going to put that in there. How about the "removeallitems" command? Eh? Ehhhh............? 

this command I do not know, but it sounds like that, as if all items be removed, this includes also armor, weapons and inventory!
You know, I hate thieves, if I would use this command, then I would have to hate myself. 

[Alter Native]

I wrote a guide a while back on the technical details on how to take skyrim Screenshots that's a bit more in depth: 

 

[winny257]

21 minutes ago, Alter Native said:

I wrote a guide a while back on the technical details on how to take skyrim Screenshots that's a bit more in depth: 

 

Holy shit, far too much text, Google Translate claps his hands. 

https://skyrimcommands.com/

[KoolHndLuke]

5 hours ago, Alter Native said:

I wrote a guide a while back on the technical details on how to take skyrim Screenshots that's a bit more in depth: 

 

Oh, that's great. I didn't want to finish this anyway. 

[FauxFurry]

This ENB plug-in also helps.

http://enbseries.enbdev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&p=75209

[NitroHamlin]

I didn't really know about 'settimescale' but I do believe I could find some use for that. I took a look at that guide posted earlier and I noticed it didn't have the command 'tc' in it:

 

'TC': Toggle controls for a character or "Actor". You can use this to control characters and move into position, I believe it works for almost all creatures as well.

 

Just make sure you use the command on yourself or else you'll be controlling both the target and yourself at the same time.

[Blaze69]

35 minutes ago, NitroHamlin said:

'settimescale'

This should be "set timescale" instead. As in, "set TimeScale to x", where x is the wanted value. "TimeScale" is a Global variable, so you need to use the command for editing variables with it, i.e. "set *variable name* to *value*".

 

Also never set it to 0, because it gets stuck and won't ever change again in that game session, leaving the game time frozen and seriously screwing things up. IIRC loading a previous save will fix it, though.

Another missing command here is SGTM aka "Set Game Time Multiplier". Takes any float value between 0 and 1, where 1 is normal game speed. Makes it much easier to fine-tune for action shots when you have to pause mid-animation to get the pose you want, like for example attacking in Skyrim or firing a weapon in FO4.

 

For example, doing "sgtm 0.5" will slow down the game to half its normal speed, and it will play out in slow-motion.

 

An a little extra here, FO4 added the ModPos command, which is an easy way to change the position of an object with the console, just add the axis and the amount, and that's it. For example, "modpos z 10" will lift the object 10 units.

 

The alternative for any game that isn't FO4 is to first run a "GetPos" command to get the current coordinates and then adjust with "SetPos" by adding/substracting the desired movement to the original value, but that's obviously more of a pain.

[ASlySpyDuo]

Couple of commands I abuse and haven't been mentioned yet (unless I'm blind) are:

 

fw x - forces weather to whatever you want, including DLC and special weathers like Bloated Man's Grotto weather or Apocrypha. Full list of (vanilla) weathercodes here. I imagine there's similar lists available to other Beth games too.

 

set gamehour to x - sets the time to whatever you want. Uses 24 hour clock. Far more convenient than just waiting around for the time of the day with correct lighting but probably breaks your game if you plan on playing on that save too.

 

One that was mentioned off-hand by linking a guide is fov xx which, obviously, changes field of view. I tend to aim for 55 or lower to minimize any possibility of fisheye effect.