Character screenshots

dweomerknight · April 2017

I haven't done this in a very long time but back in the early days of the game it was possible to take a screenshot of your character, in a variety of poses, even when you aren't currently logged in with that character. I don't remember how to do this anymore and maybe it isn't possible anymore. But if it is I'd like to be reminded how to do so. Can anyone help?

markhawkman · April 2017

that was probably a feature of the old Atari website. I know I used to be able to do that in STO.

flyingfinn · April 2017

My Character.
Gone with the CHAMPedia.
And it didn't work that well.
There was even a smart phone app....

raighn · April 2017

flyingfinn said:
My Character.
Gone with the CHAMPedia.
And it didn't work that well.
There was even a smart phone app....

still wish they could have got it working again...

doctordna · April 2017

There is a woman I know, who dabbles in GIMP and uses it to get poses on her Neverwinter characters that are otherwise impossible. I will ask her for an example or a tutorial this weekend. Another possibility (albeit a harder solution) is to dump your 3D model into program such as Poesr, Daz 3D, or Blender and render your custom screenshot within that environment. Once again, I don't know how they do this myself, but have 2 friends who have shown me amazing results. I will return with the answers this weekend.

nextnametaken · April 2017

You should be able to use demo_record for this. Start here, a lot of good links about demo_record have been removed from the forums, but you can maybe dig around in Neverwinter or STO forums for more info/tutorials.

Essentially you can make a minimal demo file by simply doing /demo_record and then immediately do /demo_record_stop, then edit the name of the current stance in that file, there are a bunch of animations you can't use in game but can be accessed in the demo file if you know the name of the resource. It's a text file, easy to read/edit. To make it easy to edit your own character, record someplace alone so you don't include details for thirty other characters.

flyingfinn said:
My Character.

I just found a clone of that for my account on an old hard drive. It may still be possible to produce some of that material using console commands.

doctordna · April 2017

I got this reply from a friend who does the 3D screen shots.

Hey Simon, the programs require a lot of work but here is the ones you need to download;
"Blender 3D" at blender.org is free to use, while 3DS has a trial offer it is never really "free".
"3D Ripper DX" extracts all models currently displayed on the screen. This program won't harm or effect the game, instead it pulls the 3D mesh and textures from the current frame of the DirectX.

1. Install and run "3D Ripper DX".
2. Add the game to the menu and launch it from Ripper.
3. You can grab your model from the character select using F12 (capture key).
4. Quit the game and exit the Ripper.
5. Launch Blender and import the mesh from the OBJ files.

After that it is up to your "artistic" skills to edit. I also can recommend several YouTube video tutorials for you:

- Old XP demo using Halo
- Long video using GW2
- Blender 2.7 short to the point

Also thanks @nextnametaken for the information about demo captures. I will have to try that in the near future.

EDIT: Update

Wendy explained this to me on the phone and I gave it a try. To make a new position she said, you capture images from different angles and then composit them using GIMP or Photoshop. The head is taken off the first image (A) the character is at roughly 45 degree angle. The torso and arm is taken for frame (B) and the waist down is frame (C).

It took me a few hours but here as you can see I got Doctor DNA to look over his left shoulder.

doctordna · April 2017

nextnametaken said:
You should be able to use demo_record for this. Start here, a lot of good links about demo_record have been removed from the forums, but you can maybe dig around in Neverwinter or STO forums for more info/tutorials.

Essentially you can make a minimal demo file by simply doing /demo_record and then immediately do /demo_record_stop, then edit the name of the current stance in that file, there are a bunch of animations you can't use in game but can be accessed in the demo file if you know the name of the resource. It's a text file, easy to read/edit. To make it easy to edit your own character, record someplace alone so you don't include details for thirty other characters.

I gave this a shot last night. I plan to do more this weekend, but you can get some good actions shots using an external screen capture program. I am still learning how to use the camera paths but so far you can hit [F2] to unlock the camera and using RMB along with WASD keys fly about within the paused scene. Then position the camera to take a great shot. Also there is a 3rd party "front end" called demolisher that helps remove some of the unwanted clutter. This software just shortcuts the need of having to run long command lines from the prompt. You can also render all the frames in the scene as still images.

nacito · April 2017

~~The problem im having with Blender atm is that it doesnt add up the textures correctly~~
nvm I have managed to get used to the software now

nothing a bit of learning cant do

doctordna · April 2017

I don't use the Blender or other 3D programs that much either, I seldom have the time. Also since my OS is not using DirectX, capturing it would never work for me. However I did manage to figure out the reprogram for the camera from demo playback. Still a "messy job" but a lot easier than learning an entire 3D editing program. I will edit this post later to add some screen shots and examples.

EDIT: Images

By pausing the playback, you can press [F2] and move around in the scene using RMB and WSAD keys.

Character screenshots

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