inspect screenshot tools

[handsomeDick]

I’m trying to build a screenshot service similar to BUFF and CSMoney

Ideally, the full pipeline would cover everything from an action/inspect link (e.g., steam://rungame/... +csgo_econ_action_preview ...) to generating clean, high-quality, UI-free weapon screenshots.

However, I found a YouTube video showing a Python-based method to capture images:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUIERG6r-t0
This looks more like a manual/automation screenshot workflow inside the game, and it may not match what I want in terms of scalability.

I also noticed this site:
https://cs2inspects.com/zh-CN/screenshots
It seems able to generate screenshots using only paint seed, paint index, and float (wear), without requiring an inspect link.

Or does achieving this level of control usually rely on in-game injection or memory hooking?

[Dr. McKay]

You have to use the game client code somehow, whether that's injection or hooking or whatever. The GC only sends the raw data (paint seed, paint index, wear, etc) but the code to turn that into a model or image is only inside the game client.

[handsomeDick]

32 minutes ago, Dr. McKay said:

You have to use the game client code somehow, whether that's injection or hooking or whatever. The GC only sends the raw data (paint seed, paint index, wear, etc) but the code to turn that into a model or image is only inside the game client.

Thanks, that makes sense.
I suspected that at some point you have to rely on the game client itself, and your explanation about the GC vs client-side rendering logic really clarified it for me. Appreciate the insight.

Edited 15 hours ago by handsomeDick