Steam Game Lags When Take New Screenshot ?

All Discussions > Steam Forums > Help and Tips > Topic Details

Tesityr 10 Oct, 2018 @ 10:46pm

Just mentioning that taking Screenshots causes almost all (most) games to 'lag' or stutter for a short moment when taking screenshots.

It is not always this way, it was not when I first installed Steam, for example. It seems to go away after a while, but then returns. Unfortunately, there is no reason or pattern to this occurrence.

I thought perhaps it was due to having a large amount of ScreeScreenshots in the Steam Userdata area (25k+), so I MOVED them to a different drive - but taking Screenshots with Steam Games still results in this short 'stutter' or 'lag' for a second, when taking Screenshots within Steam Games [with the Steam Overlay Commands].

This does not occur outside of Steam (eg. Origin, GOG, etc) - sorry to mention competitors, but this odd little 'stutter' when taking a Screenshot only occurs with Steam Games - and only when using the Steam Screenshot utility - that is, using third-party utilities to take Screenshots, this issue does not occur (eg. NVIDIA's SHARE/OVERLAY or AMD's ReLive, Bandicam, Playclaw, MSI Afterburner, etc; taking Screenshots with these programs does not cause the very short 'stutter'/lag to occur at all, it only happens with the Steam Overlay and using the Steam Hotkey for a Steam Screenshot).

It has been mentioned here in Steam Discussions before, but there were no Reponse.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/235780/discussions/0/1735465524709664710/
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/discussions/forum/1/648814843631699012/

Perhaps optimization of screenshot handling and/or screenshot handling with large numbers of screenshots can be looked at...?

< >

Showing 1-6 of 6 comments

Tesityr 15 Oct, 2018 @ 11:36am

Sorry to 'bump' the Thread, just one last attempt to see if anyone knows anything about alleviating the STUTTER that is occuring on taking a Steam Screenshot (as it does not happen with third-party game recorders and taking Screenshots in those (tested with five different ones)).

It does not happen with all games, but it does occur repeatedly with some - and again, not with other third-party screenshot/recorders... just wondering.

Thanks

Last edited by Tesityr; 19 Oct, 2018 @ 9:59am

Kor 19 Jul, 2019 @ 8:20pm

Bump

necrophyte 12 Jan, 2021 @ 6:47pm

i also suffered from this heavily and really wondered why, as with a powerful laptop and its samsung 970 1tb nvme ssd, high priority msi interrupts for storage controllers, this surely couldnt have been a performance issue.

then i remembered that in the past i tried out saving uncompressed copies of screenshots, and i assigned them a seperate folder on a different drive. though the save uncompressed copy checkbox was unticked, so this wasnt the issue, no uncompressed copies were created.

however, somehow this folder still was assigned despite no uncompressed copies were created, and when i deleted the empty folder, so no folder was assigned anymore, i now think i dont have this issue anymore. tried bursting taking screenshots and no more stuttering occured.

so, first check whether the save uncompressed copy checkbox is unticked, untick it if it is, and afterwards check whether a folder is assigned by the "select folder" button, and if yes, delete it or maybe try to unassign it or assign null, maybe itll fix it for you as well!

EDIT: you also need to make steam rebuild the screenshots.vdf file by deleting it and then after a restart of steam taking a sreenshot in any game. this way it will scan the userdata folder for actually existing screenshots and rebuild the screenshots.vdf file with them, hence it wont be bloated with already deleted/moved etc. files that do not exist anymore

Last edited by necrophyte; 22 Jan, 2021 @ 11:33am

Shadowblades 11 Dec, 2021 @ 11:35am

Originally posted by necrophyte:
EDIT: you also need to make steam rebuild the screenshots.vdf file by deleting it and then after a restart of steam taking a sreenshot in any game. this way it will scan the userdata folder for actually existing screenshots and rebuild the screenshots.vdf file with them, hence it wont be bloated with already deleted/moved etc. files that do not exist anymore

Thank you, I'm pretty sure that fixed it for me.

Avalanche 2 Sep, 2023 @ 2:27am

Originally posted by necrophyte:
i also suffered from this heavily and really wondered why, as with a powerful laptop and its samsung 970 1tb nvme ssd, high priority msi interrupts for storage controllers, this surely couldnt have been a performance issue.

then i remembered that in the past i tried out saving uncompressed copies of screenshots, and i assigned them a seperate folder on a different drive. though the save uncompressed copy checkbox was unticked, so this wasnt the issue, no uncompressed copies were created.

however, somehow this folder still was assigned despite no uncompressed copies were created, and when i deleted the empty folder, so no folder was assigned anymore, i now think i dont have this issue anymore. tried bursting taking screenshots and no more stuttering occured.

so, first check whether the save uncompressed copy checkbox is unticked, untick it if it is, and afterwards check whether a folder is assigned by the "select folder" button, and if yes, delete it or maybe try to unassign it or assign null, maybe itll fix it for you as well!

EDIT: you also need to make steam rebuild the screenshots.vdf file by deleting it and then after a restart of steam taking a sreenshot in any game. this way it will scan the userdata folder for actually existing screenshots and rebuild the screenshots.vdf file with them, hence it wont be bloated with already deleted/moved etc. files that do not exist anymore

Apologies for the necro, but deleting/moving all the screenshots + deleting the .vdf file (the latter was what I was missing) is what fixed it for me. I've been searching for a solution for ages and now I've finally found it. Thank you!

Вася 2 Sep, 2023 @ 3:11am

Thank you!

< >

Showing 1-6 of 6 comments

Per page: 1530 50

All Discussions > Steam Forums > Help and Tips > Topic Details

Date Posted: 10 Oct, 2018 @ 10:46pm

Posts: 6

Start a New Discussion

Discussions Rules and Guidelines

Report this post