Screenshots

:( - Right, I've given up on trying to work this out myself, so I'm going to post this all over the place and try to get some feedback off you guys...

THE PROGRAM:
Its a 3D game engine thingy. I wrote it in VB6 with my mate and then we converted it to C++. Its very nice, but has to be in C++ when you start using HUGE terrains like what we are.

THE PROBLEM:
I need to be able to take screenshots and I can't. I'm guessing that games do it by blitting the game window to an area of memory and then saving it or something?

I can't just use Print Screen cos my DirectInput is in foreground (or background... well, the one that stops Print Screen anyway).
:confused:
All answers in Vis Basic or C++, I really don't mind, just so long as it works!

Thanks!

FJ

And yes, I have posted this message in tons of places. Not sure if its supposed to be in C++, VB, Games and Graphics or the API section. Maybe we should start a thread to discuss this (or maybe not).

This will save the screen as a bitmap. Hope this helps.

VB Code:

Private Declare Sub keybd_event Lib "user32" (ByVal bVk As Byte, ByVal bScan As Byte, _ 
ByVal dwFlags As Long, ByVal dwExtraInfo As Long) 
 
Private Const VK_SNAPSHOT = &H2C 
 
Private Function SaveScreen(ByVal theFile As String) As Boolean 
On Error Resume Next 
 
'To get the Entire Screen 
Call keybd_event(vbKeySnapshot, 1, 0, 0) 
 
'To get the Active Window 
'Call keybd_event(vbKeySnapshot, 0, 0, 0) 
 
SavePicture Clipboard.GetData(vbCFBitmap), theFile 
 
SaveScreen = True 
Exit Function 
End Function 
'Usage 
Call SaveScreen("C:\Windows\Desktop\shot1.bmp")