"Shot" command does not respect resolution

4.11 Preview 5 Binary version.

The standard workflow for taking nice screenshots here was to do a standalone game, set the resolution to whatever you want, and then use the “shot” console command.
Screenshot resolutions were not consistent, but our 1920x1080 game was output as a 1920x874 render. A different 1920x1080 game (tested on other computer) was output as 1916x1053. A 2160x1440 game was saved as 1440x838 screenshot.

A teammate recommended using the HighResShot command instead, and it worked beautifully. A comical error, but clearly needs to be fixed.

The “Play” Advanced Settings for Standalone Game resolution also did not start the game at the correct resolution if it means anything to you.

Hello StephaBon,

The I just tested this issue on my end and am not getting the same results. Follow my steps I have provided below to see if they align with your own.

Steps

  1. Open a new or existing 4.11 preview project.
  2. Open the ‘Editor Preferences’ and notice the ‘Standalone Window Size’
  3. Set the values to your desired resolution.
  4. Press ‘Play in Standalone’
  5. Use the ‘Shot’ console command.
  6. Open your project directory and check to make sure screenshot taken, matches the window size set in the Editor preferences.

I was also able to set the resolution of the screen using the ‘r.SetRes 1920x1080f’ and then take a clear screenshot with that resolution as well.

Thank you,

Thanks for your help. I followed your steps and got my same errors.

1) Opened an existing 4.11 project converted from an old 4.8 project.

2) Opened the Editor Preferences

3) Set Standalone Window size to 1920x1080

4) Pressed Play

Note: window size was definitely smaller than 1920x1080

5) Used ‘shot’ command

Output .png file was 1600x900

6) console command "setres 1920x1080

7) console command “shot”

Output .png file was 1920x1072

8) console command “r.setres 1920x1080f”

9) console command “shot”

Output .png file was 1920x1080

These errors have happened across two computers and two projects.

So I managed to reproduce the issue you are experiencing and have entered a bug (UE-27351) for Standalone window sizes set within the Editor Preferences not displaying correctly.

This is only occurring in the 4.11 preview release as I tested the same process in 4.9.2 and 4.10.4, and the issue does not occur in either build. Fortunately, there is a simple workaround you can do so you can take the correct screenshots.

In the Editor Preferences, where it says additional parameters, enter the ‘-fullscreen’ command so that whenever you in standalone, it will render to full screen at the desired resolution. You can then use the ‘shot’ command and take a screenshot at the correct resolution as well.

Let me know if you have further questions or you need additional assistance.

Cheers,

Thanks for submitting the bug report, , but I think you’re only scratching the surface. The starting standalone window size is definitely wrong, but there is a much more serious underlying problem. And your workaround only works if I want a screenshot at the exact resolution of my monitor, which should not be a constraint.

Setting the resolution via the console command is broken, and is not consistent with screenshots. See this screencap from my console: I set the resolution to 3000x3000, but upon checking it again with an empty “setres” command, the resolution is being reported as 3000x1068. Setting the resolution again seems to override the problem, but the “shot” command still gives me a screenshot of 3000x1068.

79771-resolutioncommand.png

You’ll see in my previous post that the vertical resolution is always incorrect, being output as 1072 or 1068 whenever my desired resolution is greater than 1080.

Here’s some more wacky results:

r.setres 3000x3000f (clearly isn’t possible)

r.setres " " shows a resolution of 1296x1068 (???)

“shot” puts out 3000x1068

Setting resolution to 2160x1440 puts out a 2160x1068 screenshot. Resolutions lower than 1920x1080 seems to always be reported and exported at the correct size.

Hopefully you guys can fix this problem.

,

Is there any update on this problem? I still have this issue on 4.11.2. Setting a game to 3840x2160 and using the “shot” command outputs a screenshot at 3836x1054. This is a serious issue for companies not focusing on traditional games. I would greatly appreciate if this could get looked into.

This was verified as fixed for 4.11 for Standalone Game. The resolution can be set equal to the display resolution and it will work correctly. The -fullscreen switch is necessary to allow the entire screen space to be used, otherwise the resulting screenshot will be slightly smaller due to space taken up by the window title bar. Be sure you are in fullscreen before using the shot command.

As a side note as well, you can use the HighResSS tool to outpout a screenshot at a specific resolution as well.

Thanks,

Thanks for answering so quickly.

For the last two years I have been able to set the resolution to whatever I wanted. Was there a specific reason this ability was removed? Sounds more like a bug that popped up.

I know it sounds petty when there is a HighResShot tool, but the HighResShot tool and command are broken and do not give acceptable results. I’ve attached an image with just one example I have where SSR and AA are not good. This annoyance has been brought up many times by the community and if you need another Answerhub post for it, I’d gladly do so.

The bottom line is that we need a way to make high quality, high resolution renders. See this recent forum post where the ArchViz community is trying to find wacky workarounds: SSR / TXAA and screenshots : a solution is possible? - Rendering - Epic Developer Community Forums.

I was able to do this before with the old “Shot” command, but now I can only make renders smaller than my screen. HRST has graphical errors that need to be addressed. It even renders completely black if I use a simple console command regarding MipMapLODBias.

So the HighResShot issues are definitely known and reported. I do understand you concerns, but the behaviour now for using the shot command is to make sure your running the -fullscreen command option, after entering a resolution to make sure your screenshot renders at your expected resolution.

Cheers,

“make sure your running the -fullscreen command option, after entering a resolution to make sure your screenshot renders at your expected resolution.”

But then there is only one expected resolution I could ever have. haha. The illusion of choice.

I guess it’s not the Shot command’s fault, but it would be nice to have some sort of manual override to let us set the game resolution larger than our monitor. For now I’ll have to find some way to make the computer act like I have a 3840x2160 monitor.

OH WAIT: I just found this recent Answerhub thread about a guy having resolution problems with Matinee (which I have too) Matt says to use the -ForceRes commandline argument, but I cannot find any other mentions of it anywhere and can’t figure out how to use it. Do you know?

So a neat little trick that I learned is to use the ‘DumpConsoleCommands’ to print out a list of all the current console commands. You can copy these to a text file and sift/search through them for any useful commands you might need.