Screenshot question

[MetricKerbalist]

Hi KSP colleagues,

When I take a screenshot, I click F12.  I have KSP through Steam, and I learned where my screenshots are saved.

But here is my question.  After I press F12, a quick popup appears saying "Aerodynamic Forces Overlay: Enabled," and then the next time it says "Aerodynamic Forces Overlay: Disabled."  One way or the other, the screenshot gets taken and saved.

So, please, what do these messages mean?  Do they have anything to do with Steam?

Thank you.

Stanley

[king of nowhere]

that's because of conflicting key bindings.

aerodynamic forces overlay, when enables, shows aerodynamic forces. as in, when you are in an atmosphere, you'll see red lines stretching behind your parts to show drag, and if you have a plane the wings will project blue lines to show lift, and propellers will have purple lines too. it can have some uses for optimizing planes, though having lines from multiple parts overlap, with most of them being inside your vehicle and thus invisible, means that you rarely will be able to get any meaningful information out of it.

i suspect you've been taking screenshots only in space, and for this reason you see nothing.

i solved this problem by changing the aerodynamic forces overlay key from f12 to f8, a key that is not assigned to anything else.

[MetricKerbalist]

Hi @king of nowhere,

Could you please tell me how I change the F12 key to F8.  I am sure that it is somewhere in the settings, but I don't want to goof something up.

Thank you.

Stanley

[MetricKerbalist]

Hi @king of nowhere,

I found the F12 key assignment, and managed to change it to F8.  I did a screenshot experiment, and I no longer got that popup message.

Thank you for explaining that I needed to change the binding.  That put me on the right track.

Stanley

[jimmymcgoochie]

F12 is a Steam screenshot, but F12 also toggles the aero forces overlay in KSP. If you want to take screenshots inside KSP, press F1- KSP's own screenshot system will save the screenshots inside KSP/screenshots rather than in Steam's folders.