Would anyone know how to do it, please? I am looking for a method which would allow me to take exactly the same screenshot from the cockpit or from external view in flight after restarting the sim. I would like to do it for comparison of various settings.

In FSX I used to pause the flight and save it. Then every time I loaded the flight, it loaded paused, I could go to the external view and and take EXACTLY the same shot as before restarting the program.

This does not work in FS2020 and FS2024, because the saved flights, even when paused, load into unpaused play. The screenshots are then never identical.

It must be possible, because various videos comparing settings requiring restart (e.g. texture resolution in FS2024 or graphics card settings) still do show identical screenshots. Thank you in advance.

I don't remember exactly how, but there is a way in msfs2020 to obtain your geological coordinates during a flight. These coordinates can be entered in the search box on the map page where you set up your flight. And used as a departure, destination, or a point added in between. As for instance, entering the coordinates of your own house obtained from Google maps, to start a flight directly over it and then fly the drone up and down the street where you live.

Thank you very much for your effort and time. It is much appreciated.

I could pick an airport and a parking spot or active runway. I would then end up on exactly the same spot. That's a great beginning.

But when I switch to drone and pick up some altitude to take the desired aerial shot (I don't neet to rotate or yaw, a general view direction would be sufficient for my purposes) the drone height/altitude would be tiny bit different in each attempt and the shots would then  not end up identical, I am afraid.

In FS2024 I would use the embedded Flight Control Replay recorder  & playback feature.  Set up your flight with a specific time and weather setting.  Record a flight, save it.  Then you can set the same flight up later, load the replay and stop it when it loads and/or rewind the replay to the very first second.  When you replay it or reload it later for replay, you can pause it at the very beginning and go take your screenshot.   It does not save the weather or time, so be sure to use a preset weather setting and known time.  A benefit is you can also replay with different weather and time settings for comparing other things.  

The below screenshots were taken in 4 different flights.  The first 3 have different graphic settings (can you guess what they might be?), the last one, a different weather and time. 

Although in FS2024 it's also easy enough to pause a flight, hit ESCAPE and go to the "Settings" stuff, and make your config changes, then resume your flight.   But if you want a known scenario to come back to many moons later, FCR can do the trick.  If a dingus like me can do it so can you.

The other tip would be that to make sure you are getting the same camera perspective between sessions, pick a couple of reference points on the ground to align the aircraft with.  In my examples below, I have the tip of the C414's nose just touching the same building down there at the airport, and the port wingtip is aligned with the beach.  More or less. 

 

Edited December 24, 20241 yr by Stoopy

Plus (although you didn't say you want to do this) you can set up a flight with a different aeroplane and then load the same recording to get a sense of how the scene would then look.... 

16 hours ago, David_CSA said:

Would anyone know how to do it, please? I am looking for a method which would allow me to take exactly the same screenshot from the cockpit or from external view in flight after restarting the sim. I would like to do it for comparison of various settings.

Do you have the AxisAndOhs app by any chance? If you do, you can use the following script package for this purpose:
(if you don't, there is a demo version that you can try this with)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0j3u4560persbyg4bklm9/Position_Save_AxisAndOhsScripts.zip?rlkey=47116p6oip7zcz2pl7jqogg75&dl=0

It has four scripts in it - two to freeze and unfreeze your aircraft in its current position, one for saving your current position to disk and finally one script to load and reset your position to the saved state.

In actual operation, you would freeze your position, save it to disk, change whatever you have to change, then (if not still frozen, for example after an aircraft change, freeze again) load the position from disk. Position file is saved to Documents\LorbyAxisAndOhs Files\position.txt

Be mindful that this freeze is not the same as Pause. The simulation is still running and the aircraft remains fully functional (=all system work, all animations can be triggered, like the gear and the control surfaces) - it just doesn't move.

Edited December 24, 20241 yr by Lorby_SI
Updated Script Package

And plus plus the FCR method also works with subbing in one o'them heelo-copters, if a body wanted to...

Edited December 24, 20241 yr by Stoopy

5 hours ago, Lorby_SI said:

It has four scripts in it - two to freeze and unfreeze your aircraft in its current position, one for saving your current position to disk and finally one script to load and reset your position to the saved state.

what a complex approach to what once was (good old MSFS 2020 times) a simple key press away: SAVE and LOAD situation.

thanks very much anyway. I do have Axis+Ohs, it just never occured to me it could do this. have check that out.

On 12/24/2024 at 10:55 AM, Lorby_SI said:

Do you have the AxisAndOhs app by any chance? If you do, you can use the following script package for this purpose:
(if you don't, there is a demo version that you can try this with)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0j3u4560persbyg4bklm9/Position_Save_AxisAndOhsScripts.zip?rlkey=47116p6oip7zcz2pl7jqogg75&dl=0

It has four scripts in it - two to freeze and unfreeze your aircraft in its current position, one for saving your current position to disk and finally one script to load and reset your position to the saved state.

In actual operation, you would freeze your position, save it to disk, change whatever you have to change, then (if not still frozen, for example after an aircraft change, freeze again) load the position from disk. Position file is saved to Documents\LorbyAxisAndOhs Files\position.txt

Be mindful that this freeze is not the same as Pause. The simulation is still running and the aircraft remains fully functional (=all system work, all animations can be triggered, like the gear and the control surfaces) - it just doesn't move.

Thank you very much. I have heard a lot of positive comments about the application! I don't own it yet, but will certainly check it.

Edited December 25, 20241 yr by David_CSA

On 12/24/2024 at 1:00 PM, Stoopy said:

And plus plus the FCR method also works with subbing in one o'them heelo-copters, if a body wanted to...

Dear Stoopy, Thank you very much!! Your FCR approach is exactly what I was looking for! Only I didn't think of using FCR for that. What a great idea!

Thank you also for demonstrating with screenshots, they speak for themselves. Perfect!

(I am afraid I would not able to tell what setting you changed as I am on holidays now hundreds of kilometers away from a decent PC and viewing on a mobile.) Thank you!

3 hours ago, David_CSA said:

Dear Stoopy, Thank you very much!! Your FCR approach is exactly what I was looking for! Only I didn't think of using FCR for that. What a great idea!

Thank you also for demonstrating with screenshots, they speak for themselves. Perfect!

(I am afraid I would not able to tell what setting you changed as I am on holidays now hundreds of kilometers away from a decent PC and viewing on a mobile.) Thank you!

You're certainly very welcome and I'm glad you like it.  Good luck and for the record I just changed the resolution the sim was running in.  Didn't want to mess with my settings much more than that. 😉👍

There is a way to see your location coordinates as you fly in 2020. But I forgot how I did this a couple years ago. Maybe it was an 3rd party app or something (flightsim.to?).