BF3 Black PB Screenshots

[Unicornasaurus]

Hey guys,

Having some issues with the PB screenshots. They seem to go through OK, but of all the 3 that I've taken, they just show up completely black.

Anyone have any ideas what could be causing this?

[Edge100x]

In BC2, this happened when a client was running certain graphics settings, such as antialiasing. I suspect that the same would be true for BF3. I know that they were making more extensive efforts to make screenshots widely work with this game, so it's not good to hear that so many are still black.

[Unicornasaurus]

In BC2, this happened when a client was running certain graphics settings, such as antialiasing. I suspect that the same would be true for BF3. I know that they were making more extensive efforts to make screenshots widely work with this game, so it's not good to hear that so many are still black.

That's probably the case, which is concerning to hear as there's no way to manually check for hackers/cheaters.

Thanks for the response!

[Brutus]

I have tried PB screen shot on a number of different players and they are all black.

[.=QUACK=.Major.Pain]

Our screenshots are mostly good from our server.
The odd black ones, but for the most part they are good.

You can see some of ours from today http://74.201.57.240/msgpbssv.html

[TimSad]

I'm having the problems with all black PBSS as well. What I'm not understanding is how some people get all black while most others don't.

I posted my problem at PBBans.com but no one is communicating back with me to get down to the problem. I've even got all the right configs to where they should all easily come out perfectly normal...

[.=QUACK=.Major.Pain]

Sometimes it's related to the video card.
This happened to AA3 and BFBC2, but there are fixes for both Nvidia and ATI cards that will generate good screenshots.

ATI: http://aaquacks.com/forum/index.php/top ... s-for-ati/
NVIDIA: http://aaquacks.com/forum/index.php/top ... or-nvidia/

Only other reason that would happen is that the are intentionally blocking SS, so they come back black or incomplete.

We have a rule that anyone with all black screenshots and appears suspicious has to go and can return once they fixed their problem.

I tried to install a auto black screenshot kicker on our server, but for some reason it's not running at all.

[Sim]

Our screenshots are mostly good from our server.
The odd black ones, but for the most part they are good.

You can see some of ours from today http://74.201.57.240/msgpbssv.html

Did you have to setup anything on your website to view the screenshots like that?

[.=QUACK=.Major.Pain]

I download them to my unmanaged VDS and setup IIS access to allow them to appear publicly.

[Unicornasaurus]

Alright, so..I turned pb_sv_autoss on for 5 minutes to grab a screenshot from everyone in-game (32 players).

http://vanbf3.site.nfoservers.com/svss/

Now, out of the 55 screenshots I've taken in total, only about 4-5 work. Approximately 10% success rate. I must be doing something wrong, or have something configured incorrectly that's causing all of them to be black.

Either that, or it really is a driver issue on the players' side.

[.=QUACK=.Major.Pain]

Here's what I am using if you want to compare:

Code: Select all

;Auto Generated by PunkBuster Server
;   Some of the following settings may not apply,
;   consult manuals at evenbalance.com for full documentation
pb_sv_MsgPrefix "PunkBuster Server" //[PB Message Prefix (default=^3PunkBuster Client)]
pb_sv_MaxDlRate 4 //[KB/sec requested per file (default=4)]
pb_sv_MaxConDls 1 //[Concurrent downloads (default=1)]
pb_sv_KickLen 2 //[Minutes (default=2)]
pb_sv_CvarFreq 6 //[# of range checks per minute]
pb_sv_CvarLogging 1 //[1=Reg. Log, 2=Var Log, 3=Both, 0=Neither]
pb_sv_CvarWalk 1 //[0=disabled, 1-4=Walk through obtained Cvar lists]
pb_sv_CvarUserPulse 99 //[Frequency to auto-send CvarUser (minutes)]
pb_sv_CvarChangedPulse 99 //[Frequency to auto-send CvarChanged (minutes)]
pb_sv_CQC 1 //[0=No, 1=Yes (default=1)]
pb_sv_LogSync 0 //[0=No, 1=Yes (default=0)]
pb_sv_SsFloor 1 //[Low screenshot filename serial #]
pb_sv_SsCeiling 2500 //[High screenshot filename serial #]
pb_sv_SsCmd "" //[Filename of system command to run after screenshots]
pb_sv_SsWidth 400 //[Requested pixel width of remote screenshots]
pb_sv_SsHeight 204 //[Requested pixel height of remote screenshots]
pb_sv_SsXpct 50 //[Percentage across screen for remote screenshots]
pb_sv_SsYpct 50 //[Percentage down screen for remote screenshots]
pb_sv_SsSrate 1 //[Sample Rate for remote screenshots]
pb_sv_SsDelay 0 //[Maximum delay client waits before capturing screenshot]
pb_sv_SsPath "" //[Path where remote screenshots are saved]
pb_sv_AutoSsFrom 300 //[Min # of seconds to wait before requesting next ss]
pb_sv_AutoSsTo 900 //[Max # of seconds to wait before requesting next ss]
pb_sv_AutoSs 1 //[0=No, 1=Yes (default=0)]
pb_sv_ssLogging 3 //[1=Reg. Log, 2=SS Log, 3=Both, 0=Neither]
pb_sv_ssTimeout 0 //[Seconds]
pb_sv_Sleep 60 //[# of Milliseconds (default=60)]
pb_sv_PowerMin 10 //[Power Points]
pb_sv_PowerDef 1 //[Power Points]
pb_sv_PowerKickLen 5 //[Minutes (default=5)]
pb_sv_HttpPort 9034 //[Port #]
pb_sv_HttpAddr "74.91.114.118" //[External IP Address]
pb_sv_HttpRefresh 30 //[Seconds]
pb_sv_HttpKey "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" //[Key]
pb_sv_HttpMaps "" //[Map list (separate by spaces)]
pb_sv_ScoreKick 0 //[Min score (negative)]
pb_sv_ChangePeriod 999 //[Seconds]
pb_sv_ChangeMax 1 //[Max name changes allowed]
pb_sv_DupNameGrace 0 //[Seconds]
pb_sv_AutoUpdBan 1 //[0=No, 1=Yes (default=0)]
pb_sv_ExtChar 1 //[0=No, 1=Yes (default=0)]
pb_sv_GuidRelax 0 //[1=UNKN, 2=WRONGIP, 4=DUP (add desired values)]
pb_sv_RconReload 0 //[0=No, 1=Yes (default=0)]
pb_sv_HttpMapsPath "" //[Path where maps are loaded from in WebTool]
pb_sv_HttpColText1 "FFFFFF" //[Text Color #1 in WebTool (default=FFFFFF)]
pb_sv_HttpColText2 "0000FF" //[Text Color #2 in WebTool (default=0000FF)]
pb_sv_HttpColBack1 "000000" //[Background Color #1 in WebTool (default=000000)]
pb_sv_HttpColBack2 "808080" //[Background Color #2 in WebTool (default=808080)]
pb_sv_HttpColLine1 "FF0000" //[Line Color #1 in WebTool (default=FF0000)]
pb_sv_HttpColLine2 "0000FF" //[Line Color #2 in WebTool (default=0000FF)]
pb_sv_HttpColMsg "FF0000" //[Message Color in WebTool (default=FF0000)]
pb_sv_HttpShowGuid 0 //[0=No, 1=Yes (default=0)]
pb_sv_Restrictions 1 //[0=No, 1=Yes (default=1)]
pb_sv_FileWhitelist "" //[Folder Filename Filename ... Filename]
pb_sv_EmptyName 0 //[0=No, 1=Yes (default=0)]
pb_sv_LogFloor 1 //[Low log filename serial #]
pb_sv_MinName 0 //[Min Characters in Player name (default=0)]
pb_sv_MaxName 0 //[Max Characters in Player name (default=0)]
pb_sv_LanMask "" //[IP Address Mask for LAN Players (default=)]
pb_sv_Lan 0 //[0=No, 1=Yes (default=0)]
pb_sv_UpdateGrace 600 //[Seconds to wait before Update Failure kick]
pb_sv_NoGuidGrace 1 //[Seconds to wait before No GUID kick]
pb_sv_AliasFn "" //[Filename (default="pbalias.dat")]
pb_sv_AliasAutoLoad 0 //[0=No, 1=Yes (default=0)]
pb_sv_AliasMax 0 //[Max # of Aliases to track for each PB GUID]
pb_sv_AliasMaxEnforce 0 //[0=No, 1=Yes (default=0)]
pb_sv_load pbsvlog.cfg //load remote logging settings (if pbsvlog.cfg exists)

I removed other content which doesn't apply.

[Unicornasaurus]

Alright, so I seem to be having more success with them now. The only thing is that they're so small I almost can't tell what I'm looking at!

I've tried pb_sv_ssheight and pb_sv_sswidth, but it doesn't seem to reflect on the actual screenshots. My sample rate is set to 1 at the moment.

[.=QUACK=.Major.Pain]

There is a max height and width for bf3, but I can't recall what it was.

The SSrate = 1 only has to do with pixels.
A higher number means it captures more pixels making clearer SS's but makes larger file sizes and may lead to introducing bits of lag on SS capture.

[Unicornasaurus]

Ahh ok. Makes sense.

Is there any limit to the number of PB SS's kept? I'm up to 3400 right now, and would like it to purge the ones after 2500-3000 or so.

[TimeX]

There isn't a limit, so that will keep climbing. You could manually delete any older screenshots you want gone, though.