Unity 2017.3.0f3 bug - ScreenCapture.CaptureScreenshotAsTexture() converts as transparent to sprite

Not sure if I've found a Unity 2017.3.0f3 bug after a few hours of debugging where the uncertainty turned out to be how this new screenshot to texture method does not produce a sprite that loads on a UI Image -

1. Texture2D tex = ScreenCapture.CaptureScreenshotAsTexture();
2. Assign that tex to a uiimage.sprite
3. Note that the UI image sprite disappears...

 

I'm seeing this as well, but with a RawImage. The area covered by the RawImage is completely transparent, showing the camera's clear instead of an image. But when I use ImageConversion to write it as a PNG, the image is fine.

I'll try to make a sample.

Edit: This is on an iOS 11 beta, iPhone 6S.

 

Here you go. This recreates the problem on iOS, and when run in the macOS editor.

 

Done. I hope it helps!

 

I ran into this same issue on Windows with Unity 2017.4.0f1. Issue 991764 is reported as fixed in 2018.2.

Following the lead of @jdessart_current, I found this workaround works for me until they patch it in all versions:

Code (CSharp):

1. Texture2D tex = ScreenCapture.CaptureScreenshotAsTexture();
2. ImageConversion.LoadImage(tex, ImageConversion.EncodeToPNG(tex)); //BUG workaround

or

Code (CSharp):

1. Texture2D tex = ScreenCapture.CaptureScreenshotAsTexture();
2. tex.LoadImage(tex.EncodeToPNG()); //BUG workaround

There may be a more efficient way but this is sufficient for me for now.

 

Thank you. Apparently, I missed finding that update when looking last night. Tunnel vision I guess. I don't see a reference to any screenshot fixes in that version but I'll give it a try when the team is ready to move on it.

 

Yep, 2017.4.1f1 fixes the primary issue... but a lingering issue I didn't mention yesterday still exists. Something is amiss in color conversions. I'm building a 2D game primarily with meshes and the meshes with alpha colors don't screenshoot correctly. The alpha grays, for example, (the shadows) blend as alpha orange in the UI and as alpha light blue when saved to PNG. So, in other words, the alpha colors are being filtered to thier full-red, half-green, no-blue, and full?-alpha parts in the UI; and to their no-red, half-green, full-blue, and full?-alpha parts in file saves. Or, something like that. I have alpha colors in a texture object as well but those come out fine. It is just the meshes that don't.

 

Yeah, I just threw it up here quickly in case it rung a bell with anyone. I'll send a bug report when I find time to isolate it and send it. Right now I'm in a hard push to add features and this is a minor annoyance, relatively. Thus, it could be a while before I get to this.

 

So, I finally went through the pain of taking a whole day to dig into my secondary issue here, isolate it into a test project, and report it. And, unsurprisingly, it looks like it isn't going to go anywhere. Case 1045705. The current status is that it is by design that my screenshots look different from what is on screen. ???

So, for anyone else looking at this down the road, here's what is going on (and my earlier description wasn't quite accurate). The alpha shaders provided by SVG Importer (which has very very spotty support these days -- I fix bugs in it myself now) don't work correctly with CaptureScreenshotAsTexture() when an object has alpha values. What happens is that the screenshot steals the alpha values from that object with the SVG Importer shader and also applies them to the objects underneath it (or, probably, everything on the same pixel). In other words, Unity is processing the alpha values in a different way in screen shooting than it is during game play. But, this is by design in their own words so far. It seems wrong to me... but I'm no expert on this either. I haven't been using Unity long enough to claim any sort of expertise here. All I know is that what they call an accurate screenshot isn't what I would call an accurate screenshot and they are like, yeah, totally, we're good with that.

Fortunately, for me, during all that testing I also took some time to find a workaround that works for me -- but it won't work for all use cases. I postprocess the screenshot texture to remove all alpha values before I display it on screen or save it to PNG. But, I don't need to do this in real time and don't have any other alpha areas that should really be alpha. If your requirements are otherwise, good luck.