User:Wildgoosespeeder/sandbox

If there is anything I can do to improve this guide, such as layout or settings I never considered, please let me know! -- 17:14, 12 January 2016 (EST)

This is a guide to get the best possible screenshots for all consoles and handhelds by supplying a basic technical overview of each device. Using emulators, hardware modifications, or HDMI capture provide the sharpest screenshots possible, but it takes some know-how to achieve that level of quality. Do not use post-processing effects. Also use PNG. PNG Monster is recommended to be applied to the PNGs to reduce file size, but it is optional. Don't take a screenshot of a YouTube video (or equivalent media) because encoders that were used to create the video or the encoder used to make those videos compatible with YouTube's players use lossy compression. Don't use JPEG or GIF as they represent the content with varying degrees of inaccuracy, such as lossy compression or color loss, unless otherwise stated. If screenshots don't comply with these standards, tag images with. The screenshots present in this guide are some of the best screenshots MarioWiki have produced.

NES/Famicom/Famicom Disk System/SNES/Satellaview
256 × 224 (NTSC) or 256 × 240 (PAL)
 * FCEUX for NES/Famicom/Famicom Disk System
 * Snes9x for SNES/Satellaview

FCEUX has inaccurate code emulating the color of NTSC NES, Famicom, and Famicom Disk System games correctly. It is recommended you use the correct palette.

N64/64DD
320 × 240
 * Project64
 * Glide64 graphics plug-in (can be glitchy and less accurate with some games)
 * angrylion's RDP graphics plug-in (most accurate, less glitchy, and images tend to be 320 × 237, in the BMP file format, which is best as PNG instead)
 * Mupen64Plus (untested but noteworthy)
 * GUI recommended

Settings to more closely match real N64 hardware video out
It is common to take poor N64 screenshots. There are ways to fix that.

Expansion Pak
There are a few exceptions. The Expansion Pak increases the resolution of games that can utilize it; from the standard 320 × 240 to 640 × 480. The games covered by this wiki which support the Expansion Pak are:
 * Donkey Kong 64
 * Mario Artist: Paint Studio
 * Mario Artist: Talent Studio
 * Mario Artist: Communication Kit
 * Mario Artist: Polygon Studio
 * The 64DD boot screen

GCN/Wii
Fullscreen is 4:3 and widescreen is 16:9.
 * Dolphin (developer builds recommended over the stable release)
 * GCN
 * Minimum 640 × 480 fullscreen.
 * Super Mario Strikers can support widescreen natively. Screenshots can then be 854 × 480 minimum.
 * The game controls the aspect ratio during rendering.
 * Wii
 * Minimum 854 × 480 widescreen (recommended) or 640 × 480 fullscreen (not recommended but acceptable).
 * The console controls the aspect ratio and the game takes this setting into consideration during rendering.

Taking good quality screenshots are a bit trickier due to amateur programming that has yet to be fixed. Until that is resolved, it is often better and easier to take screenshots above 1× native. If you are displaying a 1× native image in full screen mode, such as a monitor that can display up to 1920 × 1080p, make sure that you adjust graphical settings. Otherwise blurriness due to stretching occurs. The following table is for selecting the right graphical setting when the 1× native video is being expanded and scaled properly to fit your current screen resolution setting (Windows Flag + R, rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl).

Title Screens and Cutscenes
DON'T use above 1× native for certain title screens and cutscenes because it displays a static image or pre-render video instead of live 3D models. It just pixelates the image or makes encoder artifacts more apparent. For cutscenes, it is better to try to extract these videos from the game itself than to use an emulator. If that is not possible, use 1× native and scale the emulator window appropriately in these cases. Here's examples of these cases below:

Sample Images
Dolphin may not produce exactly 4:3 or 16:9 images, such as outputs of 1,208 × 900 or 1,600 × 876 if you are using 2.5× native going fullscreen on a 1600 × 900 monitor. This is perfectly normal. Not all GameCube and Wii games utilize the entire 640 × 480 or 854 × 480 frame on real hardware.

When running the game, you may need to adjust the aspect ratio graphics setting in the emulator so that way images are stretched properly, or else distortion occurs. DON'T use the widescreen hack. DON'T edit the screenshot to accommodate the aspect ratio. Below are examples of properly stretched screenshots when set in a certain aspect ratio mode.

Wii U
An emulator exists, but it is highly alpha and isn't nearly accurate enough to be considered good for screenshot taking. It is better to use an HDMI capture device for the Wii U console and hardmod a Wii U GamePad.


 * TV
 * 1280 × 720 or 1920 × 1080
 * GamePad
 * 854 × 480

Wii U Direct Upload
If you use the built-in web browser for the Wii U, you can upload screenshots directly to MarioWiki! Images are limited to 1280 × 720 for TV and 854 × 480 for the GamePad, but in the JPEG format. This feature is only allowed if the Wii U or software permits it.

Miiverse
Screenshots uploaded to Miiverse and then uploaded to MarioWiki are acceptable but are limited to JPEG and a considerable amount of detail is lost because the image is 800 × 450.

Wii U Image Share
Wii U Image Share

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U has an Album mode that can store 1920 × 1080 JPEGs, but only if you have a compatible SD card inserted into the Wii U. Don't use the edit tools provided by the game.

Press Images
Nintendo Press uploads BMPs of the games they are promoting. Convert the BMPs to PNG.

Virtual Boy
384 × 224
 * Emulators

GB/GBC
160 × 144
 * VisualBoyAdvance 1.8.0-beta3

GBA
240 × 160
 * VisualBoyAdvance 1.8.0-beta3
 * VBA-M
 * NO$GBA (great for getting screenshots for games in Game Link Cable mode)

NO$GBA needs to have GBA Mode/Colors set to NDS-Lite in GBA mode (poppy) for correct GBA colors or else the screenshot will be dull-looking.

DS/DSi
256 × 192 Each screen
 * DeSmuME
 * NO$GBA



3DS
Emulators exist, but they are highly alpha and aren't nearly accurate enough to be considered good for screenshot taking. It is better to hardmod a 3DS.
 * 400 × 240 Top screen
 * 320 × 240 Bottom screen



Miiverse
Screenshots uploaded to Miiverse and then uploaded to MarioWiki are acceptable but are limited to JPEG. Unlike the Wii U's Miiverse pages, no shrinking occurs.

Press Images
Nintendo Press uploads BMPs of the games they are promoting. Convert the BMPs to PNG.

CD-i
384 × 280
 * MESS

The screenshot feature of MESS stretches the native resolution of the CD-i slightly vertically and adds the LCD information of the console above the captured image to produce a 384 × 310 image. It is better to take a picture of the window and crop it instead for the time being. First thing to do is make sure MESS isn't in fullscreen mode. Then set the video mode to 48:35. Then shrink the window until the emulator window doesn't want to shrink any more. Then use your preferred method to take a screenshot of the window or screen, such as Windows Snipping Tool. Then crop the picture to the native resolution (FastStone Image Viewer works well). The end result should be like the sample images in this section.