SOLVED: Using Print Screen for Smoothing quickly. Need help/suggestions

[yarLson]

To help understand what I am about to inquire you might like to skim through this thread
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=11596.0

this is concerning my "Project Blackfan"
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=11505.0

let me say first that not smoothing these layers is not an option. After my 0.35 release I realize that a ton of these images look like absolutely crap without smoothed layers essentially nullifying the purpose of this project. It smoothing or nothing at this point.

basically I have finally found a way to carry out the smoothing layer process entirely automatically but I am having problems.

Right now it takes about 45 minutes to an hour just to smooth all the layers in a single background. This is because there is a lot of tedious manual effort. For images with tons of layers it can take up to 2 or 3 hours to get everything perfect. Using what I have discovered I can bring this time down dramatically to well within just a few minutes. The problem is that my screen isn't big enough to carry it out.

Let me now explain what I am trying to do. In the first thread that I mention above, I talk about and show that their are tiny area's of pure black that show up in Palmer and in game when the layers are smoothed, and these little black pixels must then be filled in automatically. This is what takes me an insane amount of time to fix manually. However I discovered that if I import the smoothed layers into Palmer and then print screen when the image is at its true size that I can align the image up to the layers perfectly. This allows me to run a color select of the black areas and all at once fill them in using the base image. It brings down hours of work into a single button push.

However I have a major problem. I have to print screen several times and align the image manually several times since my screen isn't big enough to show these entire images at their true pixel size. This takes a lot of time especially for the images that are something like 5360x2080 pixels. This can mean I have to print screen 8 or 9 times and then align that print 8 or 9 times. Doing this takes just as long as fixing the black areas manually so in its current state this method is absolutely useless. So here is where I need your help. Please note that I have already sent a request to Aali to include a special mod in Palmer to help me solve this but I can't rely on him to fix this for me so I need everyone's help.

Now here are some questions that have arisen in my mind at this point:
Is there some kind of hack I can run to get print screen to print more than just what shows on my physical screen? This would solve the problem.

If you run more than one monitor and you "print screen" will it print both screens or just one of the two? This will help solve the problem if it prints both screens but I'll have to go out and buy a as big a monitor as I can find which is never cheap, on top of the fact that I would need a new graphics card to go beyond my current resolution. This is not an option I'd prefer but since I plan to upgrade my machine sometime this year it may be feasible.

Is there some other way besides print screen, (ie maybe some special kind of software I have never heard of) and besides modding palmer to get what shows up in palmer to show up in photoshop in exactly the same manner? This could solve the problem

Has their ever been source code available for any version of Palmer? I am a piss poor programmer but I will at least try to include the modification myself if I can

I have a 1080p big screen TV and a dvi to hdmi cable. Is there a way I could hack my tv to have it show more than just 1920 by 1080 pixels. Say maybe 4000 x 4000? This wold solve the problem but it doesn't sound easy.

thats pretty much it for now. I am completely stumped. If I think of anything or discover anything else I will post it here. Please help me! if I can figure this out I can bring the ETA for a final release down from a year or even 2 from now to maybe about 4 or 5 months conservatively. I could potentially do it even faster than that. Smoothing is the only process that I have no way to batch as of right now. If you can help me solve this I will be flying through these backgrounds! Thank you for your time everyone.

[Kudistos Megistos]

I have a 1080p big screen TV and a dvi to hdmi cable. Is there a way I could hack my tv to have it show more than just 1920 by 1080 pixels. Say maybe 4000 x 4000? This wold solve the problem but it doesn't sound easy.

Are you thinking of doing what I think you're thinking of doing?

Because if you succeed at this, you'll be the greatest hacker in history. No, you'll be the greatest electrical engineer in history.

[sithlord48]

I have a 1080p big screen TV and a dvi to hdmi cable. Is there a way I could hack my tv to have it show more than just 1920 by 1080 pixels. Say maybe 4000 x 4000? This wold solve the problem but it doesn't sound easy.

that can be done w/ "virtual desktop" space. however idk if you can do that in windows. its possible on a *nix machine using Xorg. as you can set a displays "virtual size" to what ever you want, you will only see it as a panable desktop space. for instance if your display is 1024*768 and you set the virtual size to 1280*1024 you will always see 1024*768 worth of pixels but you will be able to pan around the entire 1280*1024 space (if that makes sence to you) might want to try this from a live disk of somekind and then you can see what i mean. this is the only way to incress the resolution beyond the devices hw limitations. (since your tv only has 1920*1080 pixels..) but again idk if you can find a similar way to do this in windows.

[Aali]

And that wont help at all since your graphics card wont render anything outside the actual display area.

I could help you with this but its not a priority at the moment.

[yarLson]

well I guess I am screwed for now. I'll just focus on the easy stuff. Thanks for the input guys.

you will only see it as a panable desktop space. for instance if your display is 1024*768 and you set the virtual size to 1280*1024 you will always see 1024*768 worth of pixels but you will be able to pan around the entire 1280*1024 space (if that makes sence to you)

yeah I understand what your saying and it just might work. Thing is there are no nix driver's for my graphics card :[ Do you know if, when printscreen is used it prints the entire panable desktop or just whats visible?

[Kudistos Megistos]

well I guess I am screwed for now. I'll just focus on the easy stuff. Thanks for the input guys.
yeah I understand what your saying and it just might work. Thing is there are no nix driver's for my graphics card :[ Do you know if, when printscreen is used it prints the entire panable desktop or just whats visible?

I don't think the printscreen program has any way of distinguishing.

In VMware, at any rate, pressing prtsc still copies everything when the window is smaller than the VM's resolution.

[yarLson]

sweet thanks for the info. I am looking into virtual desktop software right now, gonna see if maybe that will help

[yarLson]

After a ton of work getting familiar with the smoothing process I have finally decoded it and have come up with a semi automatic way filling in the little black strips. Its extremely complex so I won't bother explaining how I am doing it step by step but basically I have gotten down to where the only parts that need manual attention are the square shaped corners which is extremely easy to fix. Everything else I can now pull out automatically. It still takes some time but the important thing is that it works consistently and flawlessly. I have spent an entire day on a single image this last week just trying to fix little tiny areas manually with this new process I will be able to avoid that from every happening again. I probably wouldn't have gotten to this point without everyone's feedback and help so I just want to say thank you all so much for the support!

edit:
oops didn't mean to double post ^ I forgot I was the last one to write in here earlier today I just hit the reply button at the top of the page and started writing. My apologies.

[Kemlin]

Really, Yarlson...you're amazing. You're like a modding angel.

Are you thinking of doing what I think you're thinking of doing?

Because if you succeed at this, you'll be the greatest hacker in history. No, you'll be the greatest electrical engineer in history.

Andrew Ryan would like to have a conversation with you. Play a little golf, manipulate your actions, you know.

[yarLson]

Are you thinking of doing what I think you're thinking of doing?

Because if you succeed at this, you'll be the greatest hacker in history. No, you'll be the greatest electrical engineer in history.

I know I already solved my problems here but I totally looked over this post from kudi earlier and I just read it now. I think its funny that you mention it because electrical engineering is my major 

that is all.