Screenshot Sender Alpha

[CVROY]

hmmmm odd, I have been all good ones tonight, no black pics.

[CVROY]

I'll look at the next black one I get and post the end of it.

[Flak]

Thank you Gugi

Some other things I found tonight, I want to know if anyone else has the same thing.

In AM, I get all black screenshots of every player
In TAM, I get all black screenshots of everyone on the other team.

Just happening here?

[Gugi]

I dunno... (I've got a Radeon 9800 Pro).

But it looks like there is something wrong with the screenshot from the beginning on (before it reads the file) as it does read the first 54 bytes correctly and sends them correctly.
The same is for the last 12 bytes (or? CVROY, could you please look to the end of the file and tell me, if there aren't only zeros? Thx).

--> It reads the Bitmap-Header correctly, it sends it correctly, it sends some additional information about the image (the last 12 bytes) correctly, but huge problems occur with the actual pixel information???

Another possibility is that I made a mistake in the Compression-Function, but I think there wouldn't be only zeros... And anyway, it also seems to happen on my test-resolution: 1024x768x32.
And I can't find any bugs in the code...

Or is there any know bug with huge dynamic arrays??? Or with a overtaxed replication?

[frisp]

Is the black screen related to the screenshot bug when AA or AF (can't remember which) is enabled on nvidia cards on the client side?

[CVROY]

I just recieved my first black one and then 6 in a row after that from the same player... WAH!!!!!

66 77 54 0 36 0 0 0 0 0 54 0 0 0 40 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 36 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

[Gugi]

Well, it is kind of my fault (thx Flak). It shouldn't occur very often, though.
I will fix it in the next release.

And for the black-screens: I don't know... I found another possible source of the issue: I don't wait a second or so before reading the file.

But this also doesn't fit very well as it sent the correct header... (at least in the file seXBot sent me).
Could you please look in the HTML-File if the first 54 numbers look more or less like this (just if there are any different numbers than 0):

66 77  54  0  36  0  0  0  0  0  54  0  0  0  40  0  0  0  0  4  
0  0  0  3  0  0  1  0   24  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  36  0  0  0  
0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0

(This is a normal and correct bitmap header in decimal numbers).

The rest of the file seXBot sent me consisted of zeros (except the last 12 bytes).

To me it looks like the original screenshot (on the client) is also black, then this black screenshot is read correctly.
CVROY, is your screenshot (on your PC) also black?
If not... from where does these **** zeros come???

[CVROY]

you folks may have to make folder CHMOD 777 (FTP), I had to.

[Apathy]

I'm having the same problem

Log: Opening user log ..\UserLogs\user___21_09_2007_17_44_01___1.html
Log: Failed to open user log ..\UserLogs\user___21_09_2007_17_44_01___1.html

I don't get it, other things save there from the server. It's happening on both our servers, from different hosts.

[Flak]

The Antitcc user logs are showing up, I'll have to check the server log. Thanks Sham

[Shambler]

I see the screenshots are supposed to save to /UserLogs, but ours aren't saving. Any idea why?

Perhaps the server log says something? Try searching for 'userlogs' in there.

[Flak]

I see the screenshots are supposed to save to /UserLogs, but ours aren't saving. Any idea why?

[CVROY]

I found I would only get black screens if I sent the command to get a screen from myself while attached to the server, I have received a full color screenie for every client so far otherwise. I'll report when I get the BSOD (black screen of death)

[Gugi]

...other than that if the hud isn't hugely modified its tough to tell what the shot is with the low resolution.

I already included an option (in my current dev-version) to convert the image to greyscale. Thus the filesize is only 1/3 of the original -> you can use higher resolutions (that the image is grey should be sufficent enough).
I am currently working on the implementation of Chroma-Subsampling, which allows to keep the colors, erm, more or less and reduces the filesize to 1/2.

I also want to include RLE-Compression which shouldn't be a huge problem.

I also thought of implementing the Huffman Code, but I think I would need to "hard-code" the "look-up" tree with a huge if-statement construct (which would have a size around 255 I think)

Agreed, can the resolution be raised just a little without causing any issues?

Well, it always sent the screenshot correctly in my tests, even on relatively high resolutions like 1024x748. The thing is, that the player and the server lost their connection more or less (grenades for example will spawn, but on the location the player had before taking the screenshot. I dunno if this also occurs to other player who are on the server at the same time).
This also sometimes occurs on resolutions like 120x100, but this connection-error only lasts 1 second or so then.

I am also having some issues with black ss issue. I know that a few of the cheats out there can create clean ss... might be the issue here.

Mh, I really don't know why some screenshots are black. I don't think that this an error of the mutator because it sends the header and the end of the file (the last 12 bytes which are some infos the converter uses).
And because the last 12 bytes are sent correctly I don't think that it is a network-overload-issue or something like that...
Mh, perhaps a driver-problem, or something else??


I dunno how long I need for the next release as I haven't got much time atm...

[CVROY]

I use these settings and they seem pretty good, still small file and a decent view. I would not use them on auto though.

ScreenshotWidth=200
ScreenshotHeight=150