What are the in-game elements that take attention away from what you're trying to get a screenshot of? These are the HUD, View Model, Arms, Rifle Scope overlay... great for gameplay, generally not attractive when you're showcasing a mod or custom map.

The solution is using Cvars, or console commands. The entire directory can be found here.

Now to begin, how do we enable the console? Open L4D2, click on Options and choose Keyboard/Mouse. There you shall find what you seek...
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Console commands generally cannot be used in ordinary gameplay because most of them are considered cheats by the game engine. In a normal online game you can, for example, turn off your crosshair using the console but that's not going to make much of a difference in your screenshots. Nope, we're going to need absolute console freedom - we need to enable cheats.

To open the console, press the ~ key (tilde a.k.a. the squiggly line)

In the text box, enter "sv_cheats 1" without quotations then press enter.

Now we will need to load a map through the console, which is also called loading a "Listen Server". Loading a map through the console allows "cheats" to be used.

Open the console and type in: map
Follow that with a space, and then use your up and down arrows to select a game map.

Alternatively, you can type in: map *
Press enter and you will be greeted with a directory of all installed game maps.

To remove the HUD type in the following cvar: hidehud 4
This will remove the HUD, crosshair, and sniper rifle scope overlay. This is useful when you'd like to showcase a new weapon mod, example below.


If you really need to get some screenshots of online play and want the HUD removed, you can do so with OMGOT's Realism mod. This mod completely removes the HUD - use it in conjunction with the console command "crosshair 0" to get some clean online screenshots or FRAPS video footage.

What if you just finished your gorgeous map and you want to get some equally gorgeous wide shots of it without arms or weapons in the way? Or you want to show off a new weapon or item, but in third-person view? We need to remove the player arms and weapon view model.

Open the console, type in: r_drawviewmodel 0

You will be greeted with a crystal clear view of the game. Now if we only could zoom in on things for close up shots...

Open the console, type in: give hunting_rifle

Press middle mouse button... That's better-




To bring the view models back, type in: r_drawviewmodel 1

or

bind toggle r_drawvgui to a key like U with the console command: bind "u" "toggle r_drawvgui"

Then you can press U toggle the UI and use the sniper rifle too zoom in. Note you also need to have sv_cheats 1 for this to work.

I. Turn off Film Grain! Go to Options -> Video and take that slider down to absolute zero.


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II. So maybe your PC isn't a beastly cutting-edge gaming machine. That's no reason to give up on high-quality screenshots. As long as you are willing to suffer some choppy framerates, your GPU can still render quality images. They key is to turn on V-Sync, or the Vertical Sync feature, which will eliminate screen tearing in your images. With V-SYNC turned on, max out every setting and prepare for a bumpy ride. Your patience will be rewarded :)

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III. Downsampling / "Upscaling" the resolution your GPU renders the game at is an excellent method to capture ultra-high resolution screenshots. By cranking up the resolution to say 3200x1800, you can capture images so clear that you can zoom into them in Photoshop and crop quality images out of the original. This is a relatively new technology, but it is widely available for high-end gaming GPU's from AMD or Nvidia using Catalyst Control Center or Nvidia Inspector respectively.

Example

So you've turned on cheats, loaded a map, typed in various cvars to clear up the viewport. But now you're running around taking awesome pics and your stupid squad follows you around the whole time. Wish we could leave them locked in the safe room...

Open the console, type in: sb_stop 1
This will freeze them in their tracks, wherever they are standing. Very handy for getting photos of custom survivor models or skins too. To get the team moving again, type the cvar in again but switch the 1 to a 0. Need to get a screenshot of a particular character? Use the cvar "sb_takecontrol zoey" if you want to become Zoey and take a shot of Louis, for example. Just replace the name in the cvar with whoever you want to become as player.

Well great, now you're all alone in a map full of zombies. Not to worry, we can make them go away and let you explore in peace.

Open the console, type in: director_stop
To get zombies back in, type in "director_start"

Now you're freed up to take gorgeous screenshots, but you can't find the item or weapon you wanted to get a screenshot of.

Open the console, type in: give
Follow that with a space, use the up and down arrows to find what you're looking for. Press enter and voila you have a pipe bomb or whatever. After pressing enter you get hungry for more... with the console open, press the up arrow followed by enter. Back and forth until you have spawned an enormous stack of 'em. You get the picture.

FINAL NOTES:

K1CHWA: to remove outline - cl_glow_blur_scale 0

Manders: type "Kick <botname>" to remove npc's.