![\"Taking](\"http:\/\/blog.pixelprophecy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2015-08-15-multiple-monitors-e1439598576136-1024x436.png\"\/)
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Ohai there! Since I am planning to record a timelapse of my gamedev for the upcoming LD#33, I thought it would be nice to take a series of screenshots for creating a nice timelapse animation afterwards. I went ahead and did some testing and ran into problems with multi-monitor setups, especially when one monitor has a different pixel density (dpi) than the other(s). This little post is my solution to the problem and provide every Windows user (even on single-screen setups) with a free solution to take screenshots at a set interval. While I tried different tools for the task at hand (screen recording via BandiCam, automated screenshot taking with boxcutter or cmdcapture, and other freeware), none was perfect or even up to the task at hand. The problem is that I am running a very uncommon setup of monitors and resolutions:<\/p>\n I spent the evening trying different programs and approaches and came up with a solid solution which doesn\u2019t even cost you anything!<\/p>\n I found the incredibly versatile command-line tool NirCmd<\/a> to be perfect for taking a screenshot of my entire desktop \u2014 yet not without tweaking. This is how I got it to work:<\/p>\n When you run nircmd.exe<\/em> from a Windows command line, you can use it to perform a plethora of tasks, not only taking screenshots, but also turning off your monitor, waiting for programs to close, and a lot more. The option I was most interested is savescreenshotfull<\/em> to save the entire screen which I thought would do the trick. Well, not quite: The bottom-part of my big screen was cut off while the screenshot was padded with a lot of black on the right:<\/p>\n The trick is not to rely on the savescreenshotfull<\/em> option for it produces erroneous results, instead use savescreenshot<\/em> which allows you to specify the coordinates and dimensions of the capture rectangle. Getting the right coorddinates was a bit tricky. Let\u2019s refer to my monitor setup again:<\/p>\n Starting from 0,0 only would capture my screens 1 and 3, because monitor 1 is set as my \u201cprimary monitor\u201d and this means that Windows\u2019 coordinate system treats it as origin. Instead I had to use the starting coordinates of -1920,0 and \u2014 presto! \u2014 that worked. Calculating the width and height of the rectangle was a matter of basic arithmetic. This was the command that worked for me:<\/p>\n Great! But how about taking a screenshot at a given interval? Glad you asked:<\/p>\n Did I mention that NirCmd has a plethora of options? It not only allows to run one option, no, you can run multiple. The attribute cmdwait<\/em> followed by an amount of milliseconds defers the following command by the given delay. Neat! In order to wait 5 seconds before taking a screenshot, just run<\/p>\n The only thing left to do was to run the command over and over until I wanted it to stop. NirCmd even has an option for that (loop<\/em> that is), but you can\u2019t say \u201crun this one in an infinite loop\u201d, so I thought I write a little batch-script for this which also lets you define the filename and saving location of the created screenshots. You know, for convenience sake In the same folder where nircmd.exe<\/em> resides, create a new text file and title it something like \u201cTake screenshot at interval.txt\u201d and copy\/paste the following block of code. Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll run you through it below.<\/p>\n It\u2019s pretty straight forward but since I\u2019m in a nice mood, I\u2019ll explain it to those of you who never really worked with batch scripts:<\/p>\n Now simply change the file extension of the text file to .bat and double click it. This will run the script and it begins taking screenshots.<\/p>\n Just click the X on the window\u2019s top corner or hit Ctrl+C to pause the script.<\/p>\n What\u2019s cool is that this doesn\u2019t cost any money and the memory footprint is very low, nircmd.exe uses around 1.5 megs of RAM on my system while running. But note that depending on how much is going on on your screen, the resulting image-sequence of screenshots can amount to several gigabytes! So make sure that you save them on a drive where you have enough space left.<\/p>\n I hope anybody still is reading because it took me quite some time to type this up! Happy jamming and all the best for the upcoming LD#33!<\/p>\n Tags: batch<\/a>, Interval<\/a>, screenshot<\/a>, script<\/a>, timelapse<\/a>, tools<\/a><\/p>","time":"August 14th, 2015 7:09 pm","title":"Taking Automated Screenshots at Intervals for Multiple Monitors (Windows)","title_was_empty":false}The Problem<\/h2>\n
![\"displays\"](\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/displays.png\")
<\/a>The Solution<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n\r\nnircmd savescreenshot file.png -1920 0 7680 2160\r\n<\/pre>\n
Taking Screenshots at Intervals<\/h2>\n
\r\nnircmd cmdwait 5000 savescreenshot file.png -1920 0 7680 2160\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/p>\n\r\n@echo off\r\nrem Set your custom options in the following four lines:\r\nset prefix=screenshot_\r\nset interval=5\r\nset extension=png\r\nset destination=G:\\temp\\screenshot\\\r\n\r\nset count=0\r\n:start\r\nrem Counts screenshot up\r\nset \/a count += 1\r\n\r\nrem Adds padding\r\nif %count% LEQ 9999 (set padding=0)\r\nif %count% LEQ 999 (set padding=00)\r\nif %count% LEQ 99 (set padding=000)\r\nif %count% LEQ 9 (set padding=0000)\r\nif %count% GTR 9999 (set padding=)\r\n\r\n:screenshot\r\nset filename=%prefix%%padding%%count%.%extension%\r\n\r\nrem Actual command to take screenshot\r\nnircmd.exe cmdwait %interval%000 savescreenshot \"%destination%%filename%\" -1920 0 7680 2160 \r\necho.%filename% saved\r\n\r\ngoto start\r\n<\/pre>\n
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Great, but how do I close it?<\/h3>\n
Closing Notes<\/h2>\n