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Making awesome screenshots

By CrazyRabbit

A guide on how to take some great screenshots for advertising your mod. This guide is aimed primarily at modders, but feel free to use it to impress your friends.

* Learn to remove all hud elements
* Make it so you can get in close from any angle
* Pause the most intense action for some awesome zombie killing shots.
* For Beginners or Experts.
* All keybind's included

Award

Created by

CrazyRabbit
In-Game
Battlefield™ 6 Open Beta

Category: Modding or Configuration

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

12 Nov, 2013 @ 12:04am

20 Apr, 2015 @ 2:21am

5,164	Unique Visitors
167	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

Introduction to Awesome

Keybinds

Become awesome!

Conclusion

Comments

Introduction to Awesome

Get the screenshots that matter

All too often I see screenshots that don't cut the mustard, they only cut the cheese and that stinks!

Megan Fox mod.. terrible screenshot.

What you need is something with a wow factor. In this guide you'll learn how to remove the hud elements and make your screenshots give your mod that awesomeness they deserve! Gone with the crosshairs, gone with your gun and gone with your teammates health.. where we're going, you won't need any of that!

Nick - The Walking Dead mod, awesome screenshot

Want a high angle from a distance shot that you can't get while playing? Use this guide and you'll be taking shots from any angle you need. High or low and even from inside Coach's head while you're playing as Nick!

Let's get started!

Keybinds

You can't have awesome, without keybinds

To make life simple, you can copy and paste the following into your own text document and save as... awesomescreens.cfg. BOLD makes it important, make sure you name it this or it won't work!

echo "--------------------------" echo "- Entering Screenshot Mode -" echo "--------------------------" // Save user's current game bindings host_writeconfig game_user_cmds.cfg // Settings for Screenshot mode turned on when 0 is pressed sv_cheats 1 //turn cheats on director_stop //stop director from spawning nb_stop 1 // freeze npcs in place god 1 // god mode activated cl_glow_brightness 0 //turn off glow on items and survivors etc hidehud 4 //hide hud r_drawviewmodel 0 //hide your gun noclip 1 //flymode // Toggle out of screenshot mode - turns everything back to normal bind "0" "sv_cheats 1; director_start; nb_stop 0; god 0; noclip 0; cl_glow_brightness 1; hidehud 0; r_drawviewmodel 1; exec game_mode" // Basic game and movement control defaults bind "w" "+forward" bind "s" "+back" bind "a" "+moveleft" bind "d" "+moveright" bind "e" "+use" bind "SPACE" "+jump" bind "MOUSE3" "+zoom" bind "CTRL" "+duck" bind "MWHEELUP" "invprev" bind "MWHEELDOWN" "invnext" //Learn to fly - fly through walls or floors to get the best angles bind "k" "noclip" // Toggle NPC movement - Let's tell all the NPCs to stop moving and freeze them in position alias nb_start_toggle "echo Movement Start; nb_stop 0; bind F3 nb_stop_toggle" alias nb_stop_toggle "echo Movement Stop; nb_stop 1; bind F3 nb_start_toggle" bind "F3" "nb_stop_toggle" //Kill the bots individually bind "b" "kill Ellis" bind "n" "kill Coach" bind "m" "kill Rochelle" //Take control of another bot bind "x" "sb_takecontrol Ellis" bind "c" "sb_takecontrol Rochelle" bind "v" "sb_takecontrol Coach" // Spawning and controlling Survivor Bots alias "respawn_bots" "sb_add; sb_add; sb_add; wait; wait; wait; wait; wait; wait; bot_mimic 1; wait; wait; wait; respawn; wait; wait; wait; bot_mimic 0;" alias "respawn_bot" "sb_add; wait; wait; wait; wait; wait; wait; bot_mimic 1; wait; wait; wait; respawn; wait; wait; wait; bot_mimic 0;" bind "q" "respawn_bot" // all dead bots will spawn in safe room //Warp speed captain! bind "r" "warp_far_survivor_here" //warp the survivor from the saferoom if you just spawned it bind "p" "warp_all_survivors_here" //warp all the survivors from the saferoom if you just spawned them // Add and move Infected bind "1" "z_spawn" //spawn a common infected and the rest of these are obvious bind "2" "z_spawn tank" //to remove a Special Infected just type kill tank or kill hunter etc bind "3" "z_spawn witch" bind "4" "z_spawn hunter" bind "5" "z_spawn jockey" bind "6" "z_spawn boomer" bind "7" "z_spawn smoker" bind "8" "z_spawn charger" bind "9" "nb_move_to_cursor" //tell all npcs to move to your cursor // Miscellaneous bind "F5" "jpeg" //take a jpeg screenshot which shows in your l4d2 screenshots folder //Use F12 for a Steam screenshot if you have this set by default

It's a long list of keybinds, but you don't need to learn them all. Some are advanced and some you only need when the action isn't good enough. If you want to experiment I have put comments about what each one does next to it. I will explain in the next section which ones are most important.

NOTE: You won't need to change these keybinds if they conflict with any you already have, they are only active when you press KEYPAD ENTER.

You will also need to make the game_mode.cfg in order to get things back to normal. Copy/paste the following into a new cfg file (just like the one above) and save it to the CFG folder.

Default: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Left 4 Dead 2\left4dead2\cfg

// Custom configuration file used to switch between navigation mesh editing mode and game mode. // This file is used in game mode. echo "---------------------------" echo "- Entering Game Play Mode -" echo "---------------------------" // empty current bindings unbindall // load a default set of game commands bind "1" "slot1" bind "2" "slot2" bind "3" "slot3" bind "4" "slot4" bind "5" "slot5" bind "a" "+moveleft" bind "c" "+voicerecord" bind "d" "+moveright" bind "e" "+use" bind "f" "impulse 100" bind "h" "motd" bind "m" "chooseteam" bind "q" "lastinv" bind "r" "+reload" bind "s" "+back" bind "t" "impulse 201" bind "u" "messagemode2" bind "w" "+forward" bind "x" "+mouse_menu QA" bind "y" "messagemode" bind "z" "+mouse_menu Orders" bind "`" "toggleconsole" bind "SPACE" "+jump" bind "TAB" "+showscores" bind "ESCAPE" "cancelselect" bind "SHIFT" "+speed" bind "CTRL" "+duck" bind "F1" "Vote Yes" bind "F2" "Vote No" bind "F5" "jpeg" bind "MOUSE1" "+attack" bind "MOUSE2" "+attack2" bind "MOUSE3" "+zoom" bind "MWHEELUP" "invprev" bind "MWHEELDOWN" "invnext" // load the user's game commands // replaces any of the above commands if the user had already set them. exec game_user_cmds.cfg // bind a key to awesome screenshots bind "KP_ENTER" "exec awesomescreens" // bind a key to nav_mode - change as desired bind "PGDN" "exec nav_mode" // Dev commands - unncomment and bind as desired. //bind "n" "noclip" //bind "]" "incrementvar mat_wireframe 0 2 1" //bind "\" "incrementvar vcollide_wireframe 0 1 1" //bind "F3" "director_stop" //bind "F4" "incrementvar host_timescale 1 5 1" //bind "F10" "incrementvar nb_blind 0 1 1" //bind "F11" "survivor_no_pounce_or_hang 1; god 1; director_ready_duration 0" //bind "KP_SLASH" "nb_delete_all infected"

That's all we need for the keybinds, now I can explain how we get our awesome screenshots.

Become awesome!

Preparation

Right, load up your L4D2. From here you're going to turn on whatever particular mod you want to take awesome screenshots of. For me, it will be Megan Fox (creepy old man Bill was taking voyeuristic screenshots of her and wasn't doing a very good job).

These are just BAD...

We're going to have to fix this. Let's load a map specific to this model (it replaces Zoey, so it needs to be a map from the L4D1 campaigns).

Let's load the No Mercy campaign inside a LAN game (so we can use the cheats). Type or copy/paste the following code into your console:

sv_cheats 1; sv_lan 1; map c8m1_apartment

NOTE: You must use this in a LAN game, it will not work in MP or SP without lan mode enabled.

The Road to Awesome!

Now we're in the map, we need to find the perfect location for our photoshoot. From here, we start using our keybinds. These are the order in which we'll use them.

Press KEYPAD ENTER to activate our keybind config (awesomescreens.cfg)

Pressing this one key will do lots of things at once, here is what it will do...

Turn on Cheats
Turn on God Mode
Turn off the hud elements (health bar, weapons etc)
Turn off the glow on objects
Stops the NPCs from moving
Stops the Director from spawning infected
Removes the players gun model
Activates noclip so you can fly around

NOTE: For removing L4D1 characters you can open your console and type kill Louis, Francis, Zoey or Bill for whichever character you want killed.

Find a location you want to take screenshots that looks good and is on the path the player would normally take, to make it less obvious you faked the screenshot.

Lighting is essential, lets use the lights of the police car.

Let's get our survivor bot in position by pressing

(warp_all_survivors_here)

Once in position, let's give her something to shoot by spawning some Common Infected. Press

a few dozen times in the vicinity of your character. This can be unlimited, but you want about 20-30 which is a nice little one person horde to shoot through.

You will notice the commons are just floating in the air while nb_stop is turned on, let's turn it off and let the action commence. Press

to turn nb_stop off and allow things to happen. Now, when the action starts, you can press

again to "pause" or freeze the NPCs in place.

NB: If you want to see blood/gore and all the particle effects from you guns, you need to slow time by typing host_timescale 0.1 in the console. If 0.1 is too slow, you can use any speed from 0.1 to 0.9.

You can still move, so go ahead and move your character around in noclip mode (K) and set up your camera position of where the best action is. Here are some examples I got while doing this step...

Awesome! Old man Bill has nothing on these! Action, angles, close ups, zombies, they tick all the boxes and only took 5 mins to make.

Conclusion

This is only the beginning of being awesome

Well that's pretty much it. If you think it can be more awesome, leave a comment below. If you have any questions ask them in the comments and if you think something needs to be expanded upon, leave a comment below.

Share this with your friends, or if you want to keep the secret of awesome screenshots to yourself then don't share it.

Rate it up or down if you have a preference to do so. I personally like up ratings when people put effort into helping others, I hope this helped.

Remember, if you're a modder just keep being AWESOME at what you're doing. Making mods is hard work, writing this guide was even harder work. If you want to support my mods, check out my workshop items and subscribe and rate them.

That's it, this awesome little CrazyRabbit is done.. unless there are comments to add more, then I'll be back to update once a week with all the suggestions, if any!

41 Comments

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Shakes 12 Jun, 2019 @ 5:29am

It's a good idea to give yourself one of the sniper rifles since zooming in reduces your FOV which is good for character shots.

Hatsune Miku 18 Jan, 2019 @ 6:15pm

Seems like you couldn't follow the guide

Enemy Infant Tree 16 Sep, 2018 @ 2:56pm

Dude, you straight up broke my game.
Inputing 'exec game_mode' gives me errors:

"Can't set cl_mouselook when connected
Can't set cl_mouselook2 when connected
Unknown command: chet_debug_idle"

Now I can't make my game go back to the way it was. Thanks for nothing.
DO NOT USE THIS GUIDE.

kessds 22 May, 2018 @ 9:09am

how about this?
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1392186120

CrazyRabbit [author] 29 Nov, 2016 @ 1:39pm

I think I personally used the console command anyway.

Wyld Stallyns 29 Nov, 2016 @ 1:21pm

Yeah, but this didn't work. Seems i'm not the only one either. It will work if manually activated in console by typing exec awesomescreens. Once that's done, enter and 0 start working for me.

CrazyRabbit [author] 29 Nov, 2016 @ 12:18pm

Keypad Enter turns on the configuration file awesomescreens.cfg which contains the script. The number 0 (at top of keyboard) activates/toggles the keybinds and turns on all the cheats.

Wyld Stallyns 29 Nov, 2016 @ 9:55am

This doesn't work for me. Everything triple checked. Even tried changing the default activation key from keypad enter to #. It just doesn't activate.

Matias 23 Nov, 2016 @ 4:39pm

It doesn't work

Eluée 20 Aug, 2016 @ 7:56am

Cool, thanks guys :)

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