Unreal Engine 5 Documentation has been moved to the Epic Developer Community

Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) offers a multitude of different ways of taking in-game screenshots of your project. This document describes which tools are available for taking screenshots in UE4 and how you can use them.

Default Save Location

By default any screenshots will be saved to the following location in your project folder.

Saved\Screenshots\Windows

When you do take a screenshot, the following message will be displayed in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.

Clicking on the message will display the folder containing your screenshots.

Standard Screenshot

The standard screenshot feature is available via the console command Shot (default key binding is F9 ). It can generate screenshots at the size of the screen resolution (or window resolution if the game is running in windowed mode).

High Resolution Screenshot

The high resolution screenshot console command is a great cross-platform tool for taking very high resolution screenshots. It is capable of generating screenshots of any size that are based off of the screen resolution (or window resolution if the game is running in window mode). The high resolution screenshot console command does this by rendering the game frame multiple times, one tile at a time at full resolution, and concatenating all tiles into a single image file.

The default behavior is to take a screenshot with a resolution 4 times greater than the game resolution and create an image file in the Screenshot folder.

When running the game through the editor (PIE) or as standalone, open the command console by hitting ~ ( tilde ) and type:

HighResShot

Parameters

The HighResShot console command takes a number of optional parameters that can control how the screenshot is taken:

HighResShot filename=PATH (XxY OR Multiplier) CaptureX CaptureY CaptureW CaptureH bMaskUsingCustomDepth bDumpBufferVisualizationTargets bCaptureHDR bDateTimeAsFilename

Typing the following will take a screenshot that is twice as big as the screen resolution:

HighResShot 2

Similarly, the command below will take a screenshot at 3840 wide by 2160 high:

HighResShot 3840x2160

High Resolution Screenshot Tool

With the High Resolution Screenshot Tool (HRSST) you can specify a specific region of your viewport to use when you take a screenshot. You can also adjust the size of the screenshot and output the results of the GBuffer.

Accessing the High Resolution Screenshot Tool

You can access the HRSST by first clicking on the Viewport Options and then selecting the High Resolution Screenshot option.

Once you have selected the High Resolution Screenshot , the HRSST will be displayed on screen.

Using the High Resolution Screenshot Tool

To take a high resoloution screenshot:

1. Enable the HRSST. To do this, click on the Viewport Options , then select the High Resolution Screenshot option.

2. Once the tool has been enabled, press the Specify Region button to select a region of the editor viewport that you want to capture.

3. Adjust the Screenshot Size Multiplier to set the final size of the image file, then press the Camera icon to take the screenshot. Screenshots will be saved to Saved\Screenshots\Windows folder.

Buffer Visualizations

The HRSST can render each of the following buffers in the G-Buffer:

• BaseColor

• LightingModel

• Metallic

• Opacity

• PostTonerMapHDRColor

• PreTonerMapHDRColor

• Roughness

• SceneColor

• SceneDepth

• SceneDepthWorldUnits

• SeparateTranslucencyA

• SeparateTranslucencyRGB

• Specular

• SubsurfaceColor

• WorldNormal

To enable the HRSST to export out the G-Buffer as images, first enable Include Buffer Visualization Targets , then press the capture button. The capture folder will now contain a screenshot for each of the G-Buffers listed above.

OpenEXR Image Support

The HRSST supports exporting images in the OpenEXR image format. This enables full 16 bit color depth (HDR) export of all available intermediate rendering stages. After you click the capture button, the HRSST writes out the following buffers to the OpenEXR image format.

• BaseColor

• LightingModel

• Metallic

• Opacity

• PostTonerMapHDRColor

• PreTonerMapHDRColor

• Roughness

• SceneColor

• SceneDepth

• SceneDepthWorldUnits

• SeparateTranslucencyA

• SeparateTranslucencyRGB

• Specular

• SubsurfaceColor

• WorldNormal

To use OpenEXR image support, enable Write HDR format visualization targets , then press the capture button. The capture folder will now contain a screenshot for each of the G-Buffers listed above.

Custom Depth Mask

During the course of development, you might need the ability to capture certain objects in the game world for promotional material. However, having to manually cut out objects from the background can be both time consuming and frustrating. To help speed this process up the HRSST has an option called Use custom depth as mask , which can separate objects in the world from one another. Setting up and using this part of the tool is done by following these steps:

1. Select the objects that you want to capture. Then, in the Details panel, enable the Render CustomDepth Pass option.
   

2. Open the HRSST and select the region you want to capture. Make sure that the region you are trying to capture includes the meshes that have Render CustomDepth Pass enabled.

3. Enable the Use custom depth as mask option.

4. Take the screenshot by pressing the capture button.

5. View the screenshot by clicking on message that is displayed in the lower right hand corner of the screen.