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Black Mamba

Member

Reputation: +1497

Registered: 2012-12-01

Posts: 4,362

Trying to solve the black screenshot problem in Windows 10

So I've been trying to find a way to make my game take screenshots while in game, but the screenshots in my ScreenShots folder are black. In addition to this, using the pb_getss command returns black screenshots in my client pb folder.

I am using Windows 10 Home, version 10.0.18362.
BF1942 is a full game installation (v1.61) from BF-League, not Origin or the SiMPLE HD version.
My PunkBuster client version is 2.110, the last stable version I believe. I do not have problems connecting to a test Internet server which uses server version 1.457 of PB, everything there seems to work but the PB screens themselves, whether they are taken client side or server-side with the !pb command.

I have tried many things to make the screenshots appear properly. The closest I got to making the PunkBuster screens appear was to get pink PB screenshots. Not much of an upgrade but still different from black screenshots.

What I have tried:

1) Turning off my antivirus: no effect
2) Turning off Administrator mode for the BF1942.exe: no effect
3) Turning off Compatibility Mode for BF1942.exe: no effect
4) Trying various Compatibility Modes: no effect, except for the folder in which local PB screenshots are saved.
5) Tried different resolutions and color depths: pink screenshots, when using 1920x1080x32 rather than 1920x1080x16. Changing the third number from 16 to 32 returns pink screenshots. So color depth seems to have a limited effect on PB screens. Nothing changes for screenshots in the ScreenShots folder.
6) Full permission are applied for the Battlefield 1942 main folder: no effect
7) Adding PnKBstrA.exe and PnkBstrB.exe to Windows Firewall as exceptions: no effect

This leads me to believe that the issue with black screenshots in Windows 10 is caused by the OS itself, although I haven't explored resetting my GFX card settings and drivers, but I doubt this is what it causing the issue. Most likely there seems to be some sort of permissions problem preventing PB and non-PB screenshots to be taken in BF1942.exe, and I don't know how to solve it.

If anyone has used Windows 10 and has successfully been able to take PB screens and normal TGA screenshots of themselves in-game, please let us know how you made it work. Thanks.

Last edited by Black Mamba (2020-09-27 07:36:55)

henk

Administrator

Reputation: +261

Registered: 2018-07-07

Posts: 324

Re: Trying to solve the black screenshot problem in Windows 10

I actually explained this already on this forum:
https://team-simple.org/forum/viewtopic … 28#p156428

henk

Administrator

Reputation: +261

Registered: 2018-07-07

Posts: 324

Re: Trying to solve the black screenshot problem in Windows 10

if someone has a webserver i can support you with a php-webpage for bf42-tga conversion to png/jpg

llzkk

Player

Reputation: +46

Registered: 2020-07-19

Posts: 76

Re: Trying to solve the black screenshot problem in Windows 10

I have a bit different problem on Win 7, where my .tga screenshot is fully transparent, although this problem is easy to fix, thanks to nice tool from microsoft called texconv Texture Tool

So maybe you should play a bit with this tool and you may be able to fix this case also

▼Hidden text

If someone wants the code (works for me) to fix .tga transparent problem:

texconv *.tga -ft PNG 

Put this code in .bat file, and then this .bat file + texconv.exe in bf's screenshots folder

ziba128

Member

Reputation: +488

Location: EaglesNest_Safe

Registered: 2012-10-14

Posts: 1,290

Website

Re: Trying to solve the black screenshot problem in Windows 10

Why do you refuse to use any program for screen capture? They all work, including Shadowplay (if you got Nvidia GPU).

Black Mamba

Member

Reputation: +1497

Registered: 2012-12-01

Posts: 4,362

Re: Trying to solve the black screenshot problem in Windows 10

I actually explained this already on this forum:
https://team-simple.org/forum/viewtopic … 28#p156428

Thanks, can you explain in more details how to invert the alpha channel? Also, would this work for PB screens?

Black Mamba

Member

Reputation: +1497

Registered: 2012-12-01

Posts: 4,362

Re: Trying to solve the black screenshot problem in Windows 10

Using the WineD3D emulator I was able to make the game take in-game TGA screens that aren’t black, but the PB screens still refuse to work. henk would you like to take a look at this? I’m sure the answer can’t be too hard to figure out.

llzkk

Player

Reputation: +46

Registered: 2020-07-19

Posts: 76

Re: Trying to solve the black screenshot problem in Windows 10

Problem with PB screenshots is nothing new, it's been discussed on many forums about different games like BF2, BF3, BF4, COD, America's Army etc etc. and usually it can be problem with the system version, drivers or other anomalies that can be hard to find or guess. Black PB screenshots were first considered as method of cheaters who wanted to hide theirs *secrets* Although as I mentioned above it turns out, that it is not actually cheaters case but deeper problem.

Last edited by llzkk (2020-09-27 20:41:11)

Arkos

Sedmin

Reputation: +2783

Registered: 2014-06-06

Posts: 7,048

Re: Trying to solve the black screenshot problem in Windows 10

...

One problem could be, if the game is installed in ProgramFiles Folder, which is highly restricted in windows 10.

You could try installing it in C:\Games\...

...

Black Mamba

Member

Reputation: +1497

Registered: 2012-12-01

Posts: 4,362

Re: Trying to solve the black screenshot problem in Windows 10

...

One problem could be, if the game is installed in ProgramFiles Folder, which is highly restricted in windows 10.

You could try installing it in C:\Games\...

...

I tried moving the game folder to a location outside ProgramFiles, PB screens are still black.

Cicero_01

Member

Reputation: +69

Registered: 2013-12-20

Posts: 111

Re: Trying to solve the black screenshot problem in Windows 10

My Windows 10 machine displays .TGA files in Picasa Photo Viewer just fine but this is an old and unsupported app that came with Picasa, also unsupported anymore. My TGAs are blank in Paint, Irfan View, GIMP and such but they do show up in VLC Media Player from www.videolan.org.
It's basically a video display app but it also works for these still shots in TGA format. I use it all the time for video but this might solve your problem.

llzkk

Player

Reputation: +46

Registered: 2020-07-19

Posts: 76

Re: Trying to solve the black screenshot problem in Windows 10

So I think, this is what I've said,  it's actually a deeper problem. I bought recently a new laptop with ryzen (vega igpu) + radeon 5500M, and screenshots are also broken on win 10, although they're not completely transparent but broken in other way. Check some screens below:

dGPU Radeon 5500M:

broken 1:

fixed 1:

broken 2:

fixed 2:

Vega iGPU:

broken 1:

fixed 1:

broken 2:

fixed 2:

On dedicated gpu you can clearly spot the difference, on the other hand on integrated gpu you may not be able to see it at first glance, although on broken screenshots some elements like HUD are slighty brighter, so that means, they're a bit transparent.