Source 2 Viewer

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Screenshots and Image Export ​

Source 2 Viewer copies the 3D view to the clipboard, and saves textures, vector graphics and graphs as images. The examples use files from Deadlock.

Copying the 3D View ​

  1. Open a model, map or particle system, such as models/heroes_staging/haze/haze.vmdl_c, and frame it.
  2. Click the 3D view, then press Esc to clear the selection the click made.
  3. Press Ctrl+C and paste the image anywhere.

Haze in the model viewer of Source 2 Viewer, with the 3D view on the right and the shortcut bar at the bottom

Models are copied on a transparent background. Maps and particle systems are copied as shown, with their background.

The copy is as large as the 3D view. For a larger one, press F11 for full screen before copying.

Setting Up the Shot ​

Level of Detail ​

Set Level of Detail in the sidebar to LOD 0 to keep the most detailed version of the model when it is small in the view.

The Level of Detail list of the model sidebar, open with LOD 0 highlighted, above the Render and Display groups

Backgrounds ​

The Display group in the sidebar has Light Background, Solid Background and Show Grid. Solid Background gives a flat magenta, or green with Light Background, which is the way to get a particle effect on a flat color. Pause holds the effect still.

The Detail Level list and the Display and Playback groups of a particle tab, with Light Background and Solid Background checked and Show Grid unchecked

The copy of the fireplace fire particle system on a flat green background

Settings ​

The Video settings in Settings set Anti-aliasing, Camera FOV, Max texture size and Shadow quality. Camera FOV applies when you go back to the tab. Reopen the file after changing the others.

Maps ​

  • Turn off Tool Entities above the 3D view to hide the entity markers.
  • Save and Restore in the Camera group keep a view to come back to.
  • Map Camera moves the view to a camera placed in the map.
  • Exposure sets the brightness.

The Tool Entities button in the toolbar and the Camera group with a saved camera and the Map Camera list open with intro_camera highlighted

Saving Textures as Images ​

This example saves Haze's hero card, panorama/images/heroes/haze_card_psd.vtex_c.

  1. Open the texture and pick what to save in Channels. RGBA (Transparent) keeps the transparency.

    The texture viewer showing Haze's hero card on a checkerboard, with Channels set to RGBA (Transparent) in the sidebar

    The Channels list of the texture viewer, with RGBA (Transparent) highlighted

  2. Click Save to disk... or press Ctrl+S.

    The Save to disk button, highlighted, next to "or Ctrl-C to copy", above the texture size and the Mip level list

  3. Pick PNG Image or JPG Image, or EXR Image for HDR textures, and click Save.

    The Save an Image File dialog in a folder named Screenshots, with the file name haze_card_psd.png and the Save as type list open showing PNG Image and JPG Image

The image is saved at the full size of the texture. JPG has no transparency, so transparent parts turn black:

The saved hero card twice: on the left the PNG with its transparent background over a checkerboard, on the right the JPG with a black background

Exporting Vector Graphics ​

Panorama vector graphics (.vsvg_c), such as panorama/images/builds/citadel_build_tag_damage.vsvg_c, open in the texture viewer too.

  1. Click Save to disk....

  2. Pick SVG to save the original file, or PNG or JPG with a Resolution.

    The Export image window with Format set to PNG, Resolution set to 1024 x 1024 and Output 1024 x 1024 px

  3. Click Save and choose where to save it.

    The Save an Image File dialog with the file name citadel_build_tag_damage.png and PNG Image as the only file type

Saving Graphs ​

Animation graphs, Pulse graphs and entity I/O graphs have a Save to disk... button in the sidebar too, which saves the whole graph.

An animation graph tab of the Haze model, with the Save to disk button highlighted at the bottom of the sidebar next to the graph

This project is not affiliated with Valve Software. Source 2 is a trademark and/or registered trademark of Valve Corporation.