A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone sharing photos, testing builds and reporting bugs. Thanks to JuanHalodiver for reporting the Windows Defender warning, and to Chefbo for the Chef's Shared Loader features War Journalist now uses. Keep the shots coming!
ONE DOWNLOAD FOR BOTH LOADERS. The same ZIP works with Boot Mod Loader and with Chef's Shared Loader 1.4.0 or newer. There's no separate Chef version to pick.

• Bone posing: Freeze your Helldiver, then open Pose editor in the Subject tab. Pick a bone and turn it with the Bend, Swing and Twist sliders, or drag the rings on your Helldiver. Start from any of the 213 poses.
• Saved poses: save up to 99 poses and load them again later, even after restarting the game. To use a friend's pose, copy their file in and press Rescan.
• Your edits stay when you close and reopen Photo Mode. Reset pose clears them.
• New Windows helper name: war_journalist_helper.exe. Defender quarantined the 1.3.3 helper for one player. It was a false alarm, but the new helper shows its name and version and stays the same file across game updates.
• Center auto-focus works as intended now.

On Chef's Shared Loader, War Journalist is more limited:

• No helper: Chef doesn't let mods start programs.
• Your keys still reach the game while Photo Mode is open, so the camera moves with the arrow keys.
• Screenshots are DDS files, not PNG, in the game's settings folder.
• Double-click focus and Center auto-focus need Chef 1.5.1 or newer.

Developed on Linux via Proton. All the 1.3.3 known bugs still apply.
Import the ZIP into HD2 Arsenal, make sure War Journalist is switched on, Deploy with the game closed and start the game. It replaces 1.3.3, and your keys, settings and photos are kept. If you tried a Chef test build of War Journalist, switch that off too. You need the 29 October game update.
Download and full notes: https://github.com/HWG90/DBF_PhotoMode/releases/tag/v1.4.0

War Journalist 1.3.3 — Game update, Saved Shots and Follow cameras

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone sharing photos, testing builds and reporting bugs. Special thanks to Scarpheon, Muchacho, JuanHalodiver and jager of the Helldivers Modding Discord for bug testing. Your logs and reports found these. Keep the shots coming!

• Works with the 29 October game update. After the update, 1.3.2 lost its keyboard and mouse lock, PNG screenshots and scene effects.
• Pose Stop works again instead of leaving your Helldiver stuck in the pose.
• Handycam is now on Page Down, so Steam's Ctrl+F11 recording works in Photo Mode.
• The menu stays blurred with Exposure and other scene options on.
• Saved Shots work and stick to your Helldiver. The camera comes back where you left it when you reopen Photo Mode.
• New Follow player cameras: Pivot turns to keep your Helldiver in frame; Pin moves along with them.
• Freeze holds a running Helldiver (a brief flicker can happen), and Hide carried weapons hides the slung primary while frozen.
• Hide Torso and Hide Helmet work on more armours. Sleeves and waist pieces stay visible in first person.

Tested in game on Linux (Proton). Not tested on Windows yet, so please let me know how it goes and send your logs (boot_mod_loader.log, war_journalist_lua51.log and WJL's service.log). All the 1.3.0 known bugs still apply. Boot Mod Loader only for now; a Lite version for Chef's Shared Loader is planned, but not guaranteed.

Import the ZIP into HD2 Arsenal, Deploy with the game closed and start the game. It replaces 1.3.2, and your settings and photos are kept. You need the 29 October game update.

Download and full notes: https://github.com/HWG90/DBF_PhotoMode/releases/tag/v1.3.3

War Journalist 1.3.2 — Startup, PNGs and any armour
A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone sharing photos, testing builds and reporting bugs. Special thanks to Muchacho, JuanHalodiver, Scarpheon and jager of the Helldivers Modding Discord for bug testing; your logs and screenshots found these. Keep the shots coming!

• No more black screen at startup. The game no longer waits for WJL while it starts; Photo Mode becomes available as soon as WJL answers. If WJL can't run, Photo Mode starts without it and the log says why.
• No hidden dialogs when WJL is missing or blocked.
• PNG screenshots on Windows again. WJL converts the engine's DDS to PNG outside the game, SDR and HDR10 (HDR shots keep their DDS too).
• POV hiding, Handycam and Full Hide work with any armour.
• Toggle HUD binding found in a second Steam library and under Proton.
• Modded installs keep exposure, contrast and saturation.
• All hiding in one place: Subject > Visibility. Handycam always hides the helmet.
• Default movement keys follow your keyboard layout (Z/Q/S/D on AZERTY); keys you set are kept.
• Version and build in the corner of Photo Mode; one WJL file.

Tested live on Linux/Proton and partly on native Windows with development builds; the exact final ZIP has not had another cold-start test, and keyboard layouts were only checked with a US layout. Please report with your logs (boot_mod_loader.log, war_journalist_lua51.log and WJL's service.log). Every 1.3.0 limitation is unchanged. Boot Mod Loader only; Chef Lite is planned, without a whitelist guarantee.
All downloads and full notes: https://github.com/HWG90/DBF_PhotoMode/releases/tag/v1.3.2

War Journalist 1.3.1 — Windows and Proton input fix
A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone sharing photos, testing builds and reporting bugs. Your Windows reports tracked this one down fast. Keep the shots coming!

• No more flashing and closing on Windows. If another program (GPU overlay, recorder or chat app, for example AMD Software's Alt+R) already owned one of Photo Mode's Ctrl/Shift/Alt shortcuts, the whole keyboard reservation failed. WJL now leaves that shortcut with its program and reserves the rest.
• Panel buttons and Handycam respond again. If Handycam cannot start, the panel now says why.
• No PowerShell. WJL now starts through cmd.exe, so Photo Mode opens under Proton again and on Windows installs that block PowerShell.
• Cursor stays in the game window while Photo Mode has the mouse.
• Same rules on Windows and Proton. War Journalist no longer loads in-game DLLs under Boot Mod Loader (Windows refuses unsigned ones), so Proton runs take the same paths Windows players get.

Tested live on Linux/Proton. Native Windows has not been tested in game yet; please report with both logs (war_journalist_lua51.log and WJL's service.log). Everything else, including every 1.3.0 limitation, is unchanged. Boot Mod Loader only; Chef Lite is planned, without a whitelist guarantee.
Import the complete BML ZIP into HD2 Arsenal, Deploy with the game closed and launch normally. It replaces 1.3.0; settings and photos are kept.
Download and full notes: https://github.com/HWG90/DBF_PhotoMode/releases/tag/v1.3.1

WAR JOURNALIST 1.3.0 — THE LUA REWRITE

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone testing, reporting bugs and sharing photos. Keep them coming!

1.3.0 is the first pass of a total Lua 5.1 rewrite. Boot Mod Loader is the only supported loader. Chef Lite is planned; whitelist approval may allow fuller support, without a guarantee.
Bundled WJL starts automatically on Windows: no manual helper or Python setup. Photo Mode input isolation and restoration were reworked.
Fixed menu-open, font/material initialization and light-spawn crashes in tested cases. Restored the game font and panel blur.
Native camera DoF now supports focus distance and aperture. Retained lens presets, focal length, portrait roll and Bloom where supported.
Removed Inverted depth, Thermal depth, Depth contours, Depth fog and Shader DoF/bokeh: depth shaders currently do not work.
AI control is no longer possible in this implementation. Passive, Dummy and no-aggro are unavailable.
Reworked Freeze/Resume and Slow Motion around game-Lua time control. Resume restores the selected speed. The accepted skeleton hold excludes cape bones and restores owned animation transfer before resuming.
Removed failed smooth-freeze, body/cape transform experiments from enabled production paths. Retained the hoverpack near-zero workaround; limitations below.
Restored tested authored poses and Reset. The catalogue has 213 sampled frames/variants. Applying or changing a held pose resets the previous pose first.
Added automatic Helldiver discovery, selected-subject fallback, bounded inventories and session-change recovery. Improved depth-assisted click selection; reliability remains incomplete.
Added reversible helmet, torso, cape and full-player mesh visibility, plus Hide carried weapons. Fixed the reported holstered-rifle render variant/sling binding; the user confirmed hiding and restoration. Acquired accessories are hidden incrementally and owned visibility maintained after the game callback.
F11 toggles Handycam. It remains attached through Photo Mode reopening and settings changes until explicitly ended.
Added configurable Movement lag beside Intensity, forward/up/left-right offsets and yaw/pitch. Defaults use tested framing.
Added Drag camera position: M1 drag position, wheel forward/back, held MMB yaw/pitch. Framing persists after release.
Split POV helmet, torso and cape visibility. Handycam always hides the helmet. First-person ADS yields the camera and attempts to restore Handycam while retaining POV visibility.
Retained Cinema action shots, scene-local camera paths, saved Director positions, point/spot lighting and presets, composition guides, frames, logos, vignette and grain where supported.
Improved retained menu geometry/font metrics and event-driven invalidation. Unchanged state stays idle; discovery is bounded. Unavailable controls are omitted and return when available.
Normal-user release disables developer reload, inventories and diagnostic activation. Complete package includes assets, licenses, install notes and known issues.
Package validation: isolated Lua 5.1 fixtures, 87 embedded modules matching release source, asset/checksum verification, CRC and packaged startup/shutdown. Another cold-start gameplay test of the exact final ZIP has not been performed. Development-lineage live acceptance is documented separately.

KNOWN LIMITATIONS: occasional cape detachment; intermittent automatic/click subject-selection failure; incomplete Hide coverage for some outfits, holstered weapons, scopes, magazines, backpack/support parts or accessories; rare frozen-ragdoll spinning. Hoverpack Freeze uses near-zero time and can include dropped packs; collision/ragdoll launching on Resume has been reported. Exact-zero hover safety is not established. Handycam ADS return/clipping and normal-aim parallax can remain; backward/strafe body turning is not corrected. Automatic native HUD hiding is unavailable on Windows: use the game's Toggle HUD binding. Lighting/equipment/respawn/scene transitions need wider testing. SDR is the qualified capture path; HDR capture is not promised. Native DoF works; depth shaders and AI control do not.
Download/install: import the complete BML ZIP in Arsenal, enable War Journalist and Assets, Deploy with the game closed, then launch normally. Preserve settings and screenshots; use one runtime.
Full changelog and testing details: https://github.com/HWG90/DBF_PhotoMode/blob/main/docs/RELEASE-1.3.0.md
Downloads: https://github.com/HWG90/DBF_PhotoMode/releases/tag/v1.3.0

War Journalist 1.2.1 — Less stutter, more photos

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone submitting photos, testing builds and reporting bugs. And thanks for spotting the little control legend trying to eat the frametimes!

Fixed the regular visible-panel/control-legend hitches. Unchanged panel layouts and draw commands are retained; equivalent choice lists no longer force rebuilds. Camera validation no longer repeatedly enumerates the whole world. Renderer checks and native lens reads reuse bounded buffers, with lifetime/resource guards retained. Existing font binding is preserved.

Confirmed fixed live on LLL with the legend enabled. All isolated fixtures and BSL/MDL/LLL standalone package checks pass. Occasional random spikes can still occur; this is not a universal FPS promise. All 1.2.0 features remain included.

Preserve settings, presets and screenshots; install the matching complete bundle and restart normally.

All downloads and full notes: https://github.com/HWG90/DBF_PhotoMode/releases/tag/v1.2.1

War Journalist 1.2.0 — Handycam

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone submitting photos, testing builds and reporting bugs. Keep the shots coming!

New first-person handycam in Director → Action camera mode, with gameplay controls, hidden avatar/equipment and hidden gameplay HUD. Adjustable handheld shake, optional camera smoothing and smooth wheel zoom are included. Wheel up zooms in; wheel down zooms out.

The half-second visibility hitch is reduced: worst visibility update dropped from about 22 ms to 1.6 ms in the measured LLL sample, with reduced hitches confirmed by the tester. No universal FPS promise.

Camera-follow lights remain active in action shots and handycam. Added protection against transient camera reads removing lights. Wider lighting coverage: Not tested fully. Subject now offers Hide cape; Cinema notifications are optional and off by default. Cape Reset ordering and Epic LUT handoffs are improved.

Choose one complete package, preserve settings/presets/screenshots, deploy the matching assets and restart normally. BSL and MDL packages are on GitHub, plus LLL. Full notes and downloads: https://github.com/HWG90/DBF_PhotoMode/releases/tag/v1.2.0

BSL: https://github.com/HWG90/DBF_PhotoMode/releases/download/v1.2.0/War-Journalist-1.2.0-BSL.zip
MDL: https://github.com/HWG90/DBF_PhotoMode/releases/download/v1.2.0/War-Journalist-1.2.0-MDL.zip

All 76 fixtures and all three standalone packages pass. Final handycam/zoom feel and lighting transitions need wider live testing across loaders. Existing 1.1.0 features remain included.

NEW IN 1.1.0

• Passive / no aggro: player-side bit replaces repeated enemy scans. Solo-only. Normal restores our flag; AI keeps running. So uh... don’t get too comfy.
• Independent photo camera: removed the ActionCam adapter/dependency, with camera/input recovery fixes.
• Performance: no enemy scans for Passive; bounded Dummy work and cheaper transform-only light-follow updates.
• Follow Player: moves the complete lighting rig, including newly added lights.
• Hoverpack: restoration clock and pause-entry fallback corrected; native hooks remain removed.

No-aggro flag tested live; integrated ownership/lifecycle and package checks passed. Wider mission, respawn, damage and objective testing remains limited. Preserve settings, presets and screenshots; deploy matching bundled assets and restart.

THANK YOU to everyone sharing photos and testing!

GitHub: BSL / MDL / LLL and full notes
Nexus: BSL / MDL

WAR JOURNALIST 1.0.1
A Helldivers 2 Photo Mode

1.0.1 — Actually 1.0 this time.

• BSL startup fixed with supported ActionCam: the verified ActionCam 2.3.1/2.4 callbacks are found through loader wrappers. Exact compatibility signatures remain required.
• Pick your tab layout: Composition → Menu layout → Tab layout now offers Slim or Stacked, saved through restarts. The global controls stay within reach.
• Cute new icons: Director gets a clapperboard, Subject a helmet, and Controls a cross.

BSL startup and both layouts were confirmed in-game. MDL and LLL passed package startup checks. The accepted compositor and shader assets are unchanged.

The full 1.0 release notes remain below; their verification counts describe the 1.0 release. All features and testing limits remain included.

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone submitting photos, testing builds and reporting bugs. Seeing what you're making with these tools has been amazing. Your shots and feedback helped get us here. Please keep the photos coming!

New tools

• Static Cinema action shots: place the camera, then control your Helldiver while the view stays put. Press your Photo Mode key to reposition.
• Up to 32 scene-local camera path points, adjustable segment durations, Smooth travel or Cuts. The final view remains held.
• Reachable Freeze Action, Slow Motion/speed, Lock Camera and solo AI controls, with a mission-faction icon.
• Action shots retain slow motion, temporarily unfreeze, and restore your previous Freeze setting on return. The Cinema hint fades after three seconds.
• Controls-drawer visibility, open/docked state and layout survive restarts.

Bugs fixed

• The reported frozen ragdoll spin at exact zero time now holds its captured pose and resumes normally; Subject pose switching still works.
• Gameplay camera and cursor recovery after native-menu handoffs; Escape/settings and chat take priority.
• Buffered double-click focus, camera cursor confinement, and held ADS input preservation.
• The additional floating-cape outfit variant and Maxigun ammunition-feed visibility/restoration.
• Temporary unavailable scene reads no longer discard camera path points. Saved lens restores report partial failures accurately.
• Supported standalone ActionCam 2.3.1/2.4 coexistence. The Radeon shader-registry repair is retained.

Everything is bundled: 213 sampled pose frames/variants, Native DoF, shader bokeh preview, autofocus, lights/presets, scene effects, artwork and five saved Director cameras. No Link addon, MCM, HUD or ActionCam prerequisite.

Choose one loader. Preserve settings/presets/screenshots, replace the older Photo Mode package, deploy its matching assets and restart.
GitHub — complete BSL, MDL and LLL bundles
Nexus — BSL and MDL

All 63 fixture groups, three standalone loader startup checks and package/asset closure checks passed. Public GitHub downloads match the release checksums. Action-shot return and the reported ragdoll freeze/resume were verified live.

Lighting: Not tested fully. Shader DoF remains a preview. Broader scenes/equipment/camera-mod transitions need coverage. HDR/SDR switching is not claimed fixed. Solo AI suppresses behavior; it does not stop all AI processing, physics or damage.

Camera foundation: HuedPurple's ActionCam. Native reader work credited to CowboyBingus and Link. Thank you again to everyone sharing shots, tests and reports!

WAR JOURNALIST 1.0
A Helldivers 2 Photo Mode

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone submitting photos, testing builds and reporting bugs. Seeing what you're making with these tools has been amazing. Your shots and feedback helped get us here. Please keep the photos coming!

New tools

• Static Cinema action shots: place the camera, then control your Helldiver while the view stays put. Press your Photo Mode key to reposition.
• Up to 32 scene-local camera path points, adjustable segment durations, Smooth travel or Cuts. The final view remains held.
• Reachable Freeze Action, Slow Motion/speed, Lock Camera and solo AI controls, with a mission-faction icon.
• Action shots retain slow motion, temporarily unfreeze, and restore your previous Freeze setting on return. The Cinema hint fades after three seconds.
• Controls-drawer visibility, open/docked state and layout survive restarts.

Bugs fixed

• The reported frozen ragdoll spin at exact zero time now holds its captured pose and resumes normally; Subject pose switching still works.
• Gameplay camera and cursor recovery after native-menu handoffs; Escape/settings and chat take priority.
• Buffered double-click focus, camera cursor confinement, and held ADS input preservation.
• The additional floating-cape outfit variant and Maxigun ammunition-feed visibility/restoration.
• Temporary unavailable scene reads no longer discard camera path points. Saved lens restores report partial failures accurately.
• Supported standalone ActionCam 2.3.1/2.4 coexistence. The Radeon shader-registry repair is retained.

Everything is bundled: 213 sampled pose frames/variants, Native DoF, shader bokeh preview, autofocus, lights/presets, scene effects, artwork and five saved Director cameras. No Link addon, MCM, HUD or ActionCam prerequisite.

Choose one loader. Preserve settings/presets/screenshots, replace the older Photo Mode package, deploy its matching assets and restart.
GitHub — complete BSL, MDL and LLL bundles
Nexus — BSL and MDL

All 63 fixture groups, three standalone loader startup checks and package/asset closure checks passed. Public GitHub downloads match the release checksums. Action-shot return and the reported ragdoll freeze/resume were verified live.

Lighting: Not tested fully. Shader DoF remains a preview. Broader scenes/equipment/camera-mod transitions need coverage. HDR/SDR switching is not claimed fixed. Solo AI suppresses behavior; it does not stop all AI processing, physics or damage.

Camera foundation: HuedPurple's ActionCam. Native reader work credited to CowboyBingus and Link. Thank you again to everyone sharing shots, tests and reports!