How to take a screenshot of the game view in Unity

Question

How do you take a screenshot of the game view without external sources like Snipping Tool or Lightshot, like to take a screenshot with the resolution i configured in my Game View window. Like i want to take a 4k screenshot for my desktop, store page or share with friends.

Hylotheism

Answer 1

Unity has a screenshot tool already. It's called Recorder and doesn't require any coding.

1. In Unity, go to the Window menu, then click on Package Manager
2. By default, Packages might be set to "In Project". Select "Unity Registry" instead
3. Type "Recorder" in the search box
4. Select the Recorder and click Install in the lower right corner of the window
5. That's about all you need to get everything set up and hopefully the options make sense. The main thing to be aware of that setting "Recording Mode" to "Single" will take a single screenshot (with F10)

Rollandrollaway

that's nice! didnt knew about that ty – Hylotheism

Answer 2

It's suprisingly easy, at the end you capture a screenshot off everything you see in the game view, if you want to dont show the ui, just disable the canvas for it.

private void Update(){
    if(Input.GetMouseButtonDown(0)){ // capture screen shot on left mouse button down

        string folderPath = "Assets/Screenshots/"; // the path of your project folder

        if (!System.IO.Directory.Exists(folderPath)) // if this path does not exist yet
            System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(folderPath);  // it will get created
        
        var screenshotName =
                                "Screenshot_" +
                                System.DateTime.Now.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy-HH-mm-ss") + // puts the current time right into the screenshot name
                                ".png"; // put youre favorite data format here
        ScreenCapture.CaptureScreenshot(System.IO.Path.Combine(folderPath, screenshotName),2); // takes the sceenshot, the "2" is for the scaled resolution, you can put this to 600 but it will take really long to scale the image up
        Debug.Log(folderPath + screenshotName); // You get instant feedback in the console
    }
}

Hylotheism

Thanks! I made it a menu item with shortcut because I only need it in the Unity editor. – Asternal

@Asternal haha, thats the first time someone trusted my code more than I do. Glad it works – Hylotheism

Answer 3

Here (this is my own website) is a video showing how I use this script, that will take a screenshot at multiple specific screen sizes. Put that on a gameObject in the scene, make sure the class name and file name of the script are the same

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

public class screenShot : MonoBehaviour
{
    // Singleton instance for easy access from other scripts
    public static screenShot instance;

    // Flag to enable/disable screenshot functionality
    public bool takeScreenshots = false;

    // Default location to save screenshots

    //Windows//
    public string screenshotLocation = "C:\\Users\\yourName\\Desktop\\screenshots";

    //Mac//
    //public string screenshotLocation = "/Users/yourName/Desktop/screenshots";


    // Array of resolutions to cycle through when taking screenshots
    public string[] resolutions;//640x480 etc;

    // Private variables for tracking screen dimensions and screenshot process
    private int width;
    private int height;
    private int screenN;
    private bool scalingScreen = false;
    private bool takingScreens = false;
    private float waitF;

    // Singleton pattern to ensure only one instance exists
    void Awake()
    {
        if (instance)
        {
            // Destroy duplicate instances
            Destroy(gameObject);
        }
        else
        {
            // Set the instance to this object and persist across scenes
            instance = this;
            DontDestroyOnLoad(gameObject);
        }
    }

    // Set screen resolution based on the provided string
    public void setXY(string _res)//separated ints with x//
    {
        // Split the resolution string into width and height
        string[] splitNs = _res.Split('x');
        width = int.Parse(splitNs[0]);
        height = int.Parse(splitNs[1]);

        // Set the screen resolution
        Screen.SetResolution(width, height, false);
    }


    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update()
    {
        // Check if screenshot functionality is enabled
        if (takeScreenshots)
        {
            // Start taking screenshots when right mouse button is pressed
            if (!takingScreens)
            {
                if (Input.GetMouseButtonDown(1))
                {
                    // Play a sound effect
                    //soundManager.sound.playSFX(26);

                    // Initialize variables for taking screenshots
                    screenN = 0;
                    scalingScreen = true;
                    takingScreens = true;
                    Time.timeScale = 0f;
                }
            }
            // Scale the screen resolution
            else if (scalingScreen)
            {
                if (Time.realtimeSinceStartup > waitF)
                {
                    // Set the screen resolution and update wait time
                    setXY(resolutions[screenN]);//resolution will not update until the next frame//
                    waitF = Time.realtimeSinceStartup + 2f;
                    scalingScreen = false;// Stop scaling
                }
            }
            //take screenshots//
            else
            {
                if(Time.realtimeSinceStartup > waitF)
                {
                    // Capture screenshot
                    takeScreenshot(screenN);

                    // Check if more screens to capture
                    if (screenN + 1 < resolutions.Length)
                    {
                        screenN++;
                        scalingScreen = true;// Start scaling for the next resolution

                        waitF = Time.realtimeSinceStartup + 2f;
                    }
                    //finished taking screenshots
                    else
                    {
                        takingScreens = false;
                        Time.timeScale = 1f;// Resume the game
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    // Capture screenshot with a given index in resolutions array
    void takeScreenshot(int _num)
    {
        // Save the screenshot with a filename containing resolution and timestamp
        ScreenCapture.CaptureScreenshot(screenshotLocation + "\\haunt"+ resolutions[_num]+"_"+System.DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd_HH-mm-ss") + ".png");
    }

}

Kenlay

Answer 4

using UnityEngine;
using System.IO;

public class ScreenShotTaker : MonoBehaviour
{
    public Camera screenshotCamera;  // Assign the screenshot camera in the inspector
    public int screenshotWidth = 3840;  // Set desired width
    public int screenshotHeight = 2160; // Set desired height

    public void TakeTransparentScreenshot()
    {
        // Step 1: Enable the screenshot camera and set its background color to transparent
       
        screenshotCamera.gameObject.SetActive(true);
        screenshotCamera.clearFlags = CameraClearFlags.SolidColor;
        screenshotCamera.backgroundColor = new Color(0, 0, 0, 0); // Transparent background

        // Step 2: Create a high-resolution RenderTexture with transparency
        RenderTexture rt = new RenderTexture(screenshotWidth, screenshotHeight, 24, RenderTextureFormat.ARGB32);
        screenshotCamera.targetTexture = rt;

        // Step 3: Render the screenshot camera view to the RenderTexture
        RenderTexture.active = rt;
        screenshotCamera.Render();

        // Step 4: Create a high-resolution Texture2D with transparency to store the rendered image
        Texture2D screenShot = new Texture2D(screenshotWidth, screenshotHeight, TextureFormat.RGBA32, false);
        screenShot.ReadPixels(new Rect(0, 0, screenshotWidth, screenshotHeight), 0, 0);
        screenShot.Apply();

        // Step 5: Save the Texture2D as a PNG file with transparency
        byte[] bytes = screenShot.EncodeToPNG();
        string filename = Path.Combine(Application.persistentDataPath, "TransparentScreenshot.png");
        File.WriteAllBytes(filename, bytes);

        // Clean up
        screenshotCamera.targetTexture = null;
        RenderTexture.active = null;
        Destroy(rt);

        // Step 6: Disable the screenshot camera
        screenshotCamera.gameObject.SetActive(false);
      
        Debug.Log("Transparent screenshot saved to: " + filename);
    }

    // Step 7: Convert the Texture2D to Sprite
    public Sprite TextureToSprite(Texture2D texture)
    {
        return Sprite.Create(texture, new Rect(0, 0, texture.width, texture.height), new Vector2(0.5f, 0.5f));
    }
}

Bugloss

What is Doodle_Manager.instance.pen? – Harhay

Please Just Comment the Doodle_Manager.Instance.pen – Bugloss

Why is it here to begin with if it should be commented out? – Harhay