Why are my screenshots only black? - screenshot

Question

could someone tell me why my screenshots are only black? I am still learning and couldnt find a clue why they are only black.
This is my Utility class
static class XNAUtilities
{
private static RenderTarget2D ssTexture;
private static KeyboardState currentState, previousState;
private static int counter;
public static void TakeScreenShot(GraphicsDevice device, Keys theKey)
{
// Take Screenshot
currentState = Keyboard.GetState();
if (currentState.IsKeyDown(theKey) && previousState.IsKeyUp(theKey))
{
//device.SetRenderTarget(null);
PresentationParameters pparameters = device.PresentationParameters;
ssTexture = new RenderTarget2D(device, pparameters.BackBufferWidth, pparameters.BackBufferHeight, false, SurfaceFormat.Color, DepthFormat.None); //??
FileStream fileStream = new System.IO.FileStream(#"Screenshot" + "_" + counter + ".png", System.IO.FileMode.CreateNew);
ssTexture.SaveAsPng(fileStream, pparameters.BackBufferWidth, pparameters.BackBufferHeight);
counter++;
}
previousState = currentState;
}
}
}
This is my Update and Draw from Game1.cs
protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime)
{
if (GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.One).Buttons.Back == ButtonState.Pressed)
this.Exit();
myModelRotation += MathHelper.ToRadians(1f);
// Take a Screenshot
XNAUtilities.TakeScreenShot(GraphicsDevice, Keys.F8);
base.Update(gameTime);
}
protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)
{
GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue);
Matrix[] transforms = new Matrix[myModel.Bones.Count];
myModel.CopyAbsoluteBoneTransformsTo(transforms);
foreach (ModelMesh mesh in myModel.Meshes)
{
foreach (BasicEffect effects in mesh.Effects)
{
effects.EnableDefaultLighting();
effects.World = transforms[mesh.ParentBone.Index]
* Matrix.CreateRotationY(myModelRotation)
* Matrix.CreateTranslation(myModelPosition);
effects.View = Matrix.CreateLookAt(new Vector3(200, 100, 400), Vector3.Zero, Vector3.Up);
effects.Projection = Matrix.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView(MathHelper.ToRadians(45f),
GraphicsDevice.Viewport.AspectRatio, 1, 5000);
}
mesh.Draw();
}
smileySprite.DrawSprites(GraphicsDevice, spriteBatch, new Vector2(10,10), Color.White);
base.Draw(gameTime);
}

Answer 1

You're not actually rendering to your render target. So you're saving the blank target.
You need to wrap your scene drawing like so:
GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(ssTexture);
// Render your scene here
GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(null);
// Now you can save your render target as a texture