Saving Current Frame into an Image File XNA 4.0

This implementation will save current frame into an image file named “anImageFile.png”

Put this code into your draw method.

if (takeScreenshot)
{
   Color[] colors = new Color[GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width * GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height];
   GraphicsDevice.GetBackBufferData<Color>(colors);

   Texture2D tex2D = new Texture2D(GraphicsDevice, GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width, GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height);
   tex2D.SetData<Color>(colors);

   String filename = "anImageFile.png";

   FileStream stream = File.Create(filename);

   tex2D.SaveAsPng(stream, GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width, GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height);

   stream.Flush();
   stream.Close();

   takeScreenshot = false;
}

The idea is very simple. First, we get colors data from graphics device, then we create a new Texture2D object and set colors data with saved colors data from graphics device. Finally, we call the SaveAsPng method to save current frame into an image file.