Windows 7 Gadwin Issue

[sevenskellington]

First off...sort of teaser/set picture?



Second...I've now upgraded to Windows 7 and am having screencapping problems.



First off let me say I do not want to have to put ANY effort into cropping and resizing my pics. I use Gadwin to take them because I can just set the program to automatically resize as I take the pictures and easily change this option whenever I want. However, now that I'm using Windows 7, Gadwin will not take pictures of the game in full-screen mode. Instead it screencaps the desktop underneath it. I can take them in windowed mode, but then I have to crop out the surrounding blue lines and task bar which I absolutely hate doing. I looked up this problem and was instructed to "disable desktop composition" for the compatibility tab on the game icon, but it did not work.

I would above all else love if there was anyway to fix Gadwin to take pictures of the game in full-screen. If this is absolutely impossible, I would like to find another screencapping program that can shoot in full-screen mode and re-size the pictures for me the very second that I take them. I hear Fraps does not do this, which is why I do not use it. I also would prefer if this were as easy as checking a box, and not involve some huge ten-step coding gymnastics. I know it's possible to do a batch file for GIMP to resize a bunch of pictures at once, but looking at what it entails make me want it to be my last resort. I'd much rather find a way to continue doing things the easy, simple way I've been doing.

Can anyone help me with this?

Comments

[sims2snfkggh.livejournal.com]

Gadwin? Never heard of that. I do what you hate to do: I just take pictures with printscreen and cut them out in Paint. It is a pretty accurate thing to do, but I never knew about programmes that could make fullscreen pictures. At first I thought it had something to do with the size you're playing in. Now I think it's just more logical that the problem is Gadwin, not The Sims 2 itself. Isn't there something in the settings you can switch?

[(Anonymous)]

I use Photoshop and printscreen. I have like a sample jpg file which is just white but in right size. I paste the printscreen copy to there and move it little bit. Then i just use my own Photoshop action which will little bit sharpen and bring more colour to the picture, but also adds my logo and makes the picture smaller.

[silverbelle1220.livejournal.com]

I think it has to do with how Windows 7 treats some programs. In order for me to be able to take screencaps, I had to right click on the game icon, go to the Compatibility tab, and check the "Disable Desktop Composition" box. After that, I was able to take screen shoots again. Hope this helps!

[morkmork.livejournal.com]

I have windows 7 and I use fraps, no problems. :shrug: Though it doesn't resize. There are probably batch editing tools that let you resize all images in a folder.

[psarotje.livejournal.com]

Dunno if it helps, but that's what I do too, and I resize with irfanview.

[drewsims.livejournal.com]

I will second that. It's not quite as painless as your old method but it is not very difficult at all.

[michabug.livejournal.com]

Yes,Windows 7 seems to hate image capture programs other than Fraps.

[dutchxfan.livejournal.com]

Same here. Take pics with Fraps and then batch resize/edit them in one go (in paint shop pro in my case, but Gimp might work as well). It's really not that much of a hassle.

[kalisasims.livejournal.com]

I take pics with Print Screen and resize in Paint. Simple and easy.

[chillyzgrrlsims.livejournal.com]

I use Fraps, and I have never had problems with that.

[strangebumb.livejournal.com]

Hi! I use a very good (let me emphasize it.. VERY GOOD) program named Zscreen, whis has loads of options of how to capture (cropshots, resizing, windowed, fullscreen etc) , and what format to save (png..) and if you want it to open them straight away in some program or perform action aaand and even as far as uploading them straight to flickr or photobucket etc.. (crop shots and resizing etc..)
Anyhow, hopefully you'll find a solution :) (because I'm a great fan and you seem to be very nice person. I like you.)

[skellington7d.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm looking it over right now and it looks very awesome. :D What you describe sounds perfect for the way I like to take my pictures.

[jane barry (from livejournal.com)]

I've heard of people having issues with Gadwin and Windows 7 but it works fine for me. I use full screen mode and I never crop the pictures. I have it set to give me an adjustable frame and I select the area I want, then it automatically resizes them all to the same width. Works without a hitch. If you can't find anything else to work, let me know and I could send you screncaps of my settings.

[abstract-pixels.livejournal.com]

Looks like Darren's mess, minus the interior decor (Olive's?).

I use Fraps and Photoshop, I've had this genius program my mum used to resize whole folders of pics. However, it doesn't work on Windows 7 :( .

[bees-universe.livejournal.com]

Actually I had this problem when I first started and I eventually figured it out cause I only play my game in windows mode :P
Click on the Gadwin Icon.
Go to 'Source'.
In the section 'Captured Area' select 'Current Window' or 'Client Window' (This will do the same thing at Current window but it will leave a silver boarder around it cause its taking a picture of the complete window. I like it personally because of the boarder).
Once you do this when you take a picture it should only take pictures of the current window you are in.

Hope this helps :)

[bees-universe.livejournal.com]

actually just only use Client Window.

[petchy-14.livejournal.com]

Regarding the screenshot [since you've hopefully found something that works!]
Cassandra's, parhaps? That's all I can think of, or maybe a Specter?

[hurricanetaylor.livejournal.com]

Yeah I had that problem with Gadwin too. You can use it in windowed mode but its a massive pain. I just gave up and use fraps. No resizing needed really. Just when you upload change the properties to 600 width and it does it automatically. :) Sorry about your screencapping pain

This is the solution! :)

[nonikk63.livejournal.com]

I had exactly the same problem and asked the question over at MTS. This is the answer I got from HugeLunatic:
"You can turn off desktop composition for the game. For the icon you start the game with Right click/properties/compatiblity, then tick the box to disable desktop composition."

Then everything was back to normal. :)

Re: This is the solution! :)

[skellington7d.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your help, but I've done that already and it didn't work for me. I have no idea why.

Re: This is the solution! :)

[nonikk63.livejournal.com]

Too bad.:( For me it didn't work to play in windowed mode (which HL also suggested), but when I turned off desktop compositon Gadwin was back to working as it did with XP. It took me a long while to get used to Windows 7 (I've had it for 2 years now) and I still think that I liked XP better.

[suaper.livejournal.com]

I have Windows 7 and I use Fraps. to resize and crop my pictures I use Photoshop CS5, I make an action and then do a batch run so it does it all automatically at a click of a button. also works for editing too, just as long as you have an action you like to use you're well away.

[tsyshadow (from livejournal.com)]

I did some looking, zscreen can't capture full screen directx programs yet. There is a free and open source alternative to FRAPS called Taski, but doesn't have the resizing option you're looking for. I can't find anything that does everything you want, sorry.

[skellington7d.livejournal.com]

Thank you for checking this out for me! I think I'm gonna go with Gadwin in windowed mode for the time being, or else figure out Z-screen's cropping functions.

[maevikinz.livejournal.com]

I just use the camera option in the game. The hotkey for it is "C", but I kind of understand why people don't like taking screenshots with the in-game camera. Afterall, it's a pretty confusing route to the Neighborhood Story-telling folder :/ I hope you find a solution.

[starling-1.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you ever solved this, but I can get Gadwin to work in fullscreen.

I set Win 7 to Basic Theme.

I went into Gadwin and disabled the visual themes and desktop composition.

I went into the shortcut for my latest EP, which is M&G, and did the same thing. That may be unnecessary, but I did it anyway. (I even did the same thing to Gamebooster.)

Anyway, it works on full screen now.