[Request/Suggestion] Add a screenshot feature to OBS Studio

[Limit_Breaker]

Before everyone comes out with their pitchforks raised at me to tell me that OBS is a video capturing software, please hear me out.

So here's the deal. I was recently recording some gameplay and when I watched the output file the colors were a lot darker. I know that's most probably due to my YUV color space and range settings. While trying to fix the problem it dawned on me. Wouldn't it be a lot faster and easier if OBS had a screenshot feature? Like, I could just press a button and check how the colors look from the screenshot instead of having to record a small clips every time I want to see how the colors look. I also think it would be very convinient nonetheless. It would be way faster than pressing print screen, opening paint and then exporting the image every time I want to take a screenshot. Plese consider it and let me know what you think.

 

[c3r1c3]

While interesting there are 2 counters:
1. Like you said OBS isn't a screenshot program. You could use ShareX if you really need such a feature...
2. But really it doesn't address the underlying issue, which is that any screenshot taken is saved (at least 99.99999% of the time) in a format that demands/expects the RGB color space and Full RGB color reproduction (like png or jpeg). So unless you take a screenshot in some esoteric format, and the person has a viewer that can accurately reproduce said image the screenshot still won't look like the video recording....

If you record video in a video-esqe (i.e. YUV, not RGB) format (which you're doing when you record a MP4 file 99.99999% of the time) you need a video player that can properly reproduce what is recorded, and a display that can properly show you what the video looks like.

So if you don't have a "displayer" (video or still) that can correctly interpret the recording and an accurate display to watch it on it doesn't matter what OBS does or doesn't do. You'll NEVER be able to see it correctly.

I haven't even talked about how that even if you set everything correctly someone else with a display that isn't set correctly will still your stuff as 'messed up' (an issue that Television engineers have had to deal with since before color TV came into existence). Also if the place you send the video to (say... Youtube) doesn't interpret your footage correctly it can look messed up even though you did everything correctly...

Video is a messy world, esp. for those who only think in (full bandwidth) 'RGB' terms, and it's not getting any easier... in fact with HDR coming it's only going to get worse... much worse.

So what can you do? Not mess with settings you don't understand until you understand not only what they do, but how other places (esp. the places you plan on putting your video) interpret and deal with the settings you wish to mess with.

 

[c3r1c3]

One thing I didn't address is why the OBS preview can look different from the recorded file. The reason is faiirly straightforward:

In OBS' preview you're seeing the compositing happening on the GPU, which is usually happening in the RGB (NV12) color space, and being displayed on an RGB device (i.e. your computer monitor in RGB mode). The recording is not only compressed (i.e. possibly visual artifacts can show up), but the codec (x264) is in the YUV color space and a conversion happens, which can lead to color shifts and other such visual differences.

Also if you mess with the color space fields in OBS that means the program you use to display the recorded video will do different things to said recording to 'properly' interpret/display it. Which leads back to my statement earlier:

"So what can you do? Not mess with settings you don't understand until you understand not only what they do, but how other places (esp. the places you plan on putting your video) interpret and deal with the settings you wish to mess with."

 

[Limit_Breaker]

Alright, i understand. Thanks for taking the time you took to explain these things to me and for your advice. I appreciate it.