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Sims 2 Screenshots Basics
Big Pics
The larger your pics, the better! Tiny pics won't show enough detail to see what you've made.
- Minimum Size: 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels tall is a good size for the smallest pic you would want to upload. You may have smaller pics for thumbnails and the like, but for your required screenshots, please go as big as you can!
- Maximum Size: MTS allows pictures up to 1280 pixels wide by 1024 pixels tall, and a file size limit of 244 kbs - so you can have nice, big, pretty pics. You may have to resize your pictures or apply compression to get them to fit within that limit.
Please don't just take a small pic and size it up in your graphics
program to get bigger pics - this only makes the dimensions larger but
doesn't add any detail and just gives you a blurry, pixellated larger
pic, not a nice clear one.
Well Lit
Make sure you take your pictures during the daytime in bright sunlight, in a well-lit room, etc., - make sure your screenshots are nice and bright enough that people can see what you've made. Nighttime shots or those in a dark room really don't show off your creation very much.
TS3: Please see information below under Windowed Mode regarding your otherwise bright screenshots going dark!
Camera Controls
Take some time to just play around with the camera. It can take a while to get used to the camera controls, and even once you are experienced in their use, it may be challenging to get the shot you want with the constraints on the controls.
If you haven't taken many sim pictures before, here is a list of camera controls:
- TAB
Puts the game into Cameraman mode, allowing better and more control of the camera, and removing the blue user interface. Make sure you are in live mode before going into Cameraman mode or you will see grid lines on the ground and floating where floor tiles may be placed. TS3 Note: You will only be able to go into cameraman mode once per load if you are in buy/build mode (without a family moved in). You can either exit to the neighborhood and return to take more pictures, or instead just move a family in for taking your pics.
- W and S
W moves the camera forward. S moves it backward.
- A and D
A moves the camera left. D moves it right.
- Q and E
Q lowers the camera. E raises it.
- + and -
Zooms in and out.
Windowed Mode
TS2: In order to take your pictures using the methods described here, you will need your game running in a window, so you can easily switch to other applications without causing major instability and lag. Instructions on setting up Windowed Mode for Sims 2 may be found here: Game Help:Windowed Mode. Windowed mode should be perfectly safe - in fact, some users actually report better game performance when running in a window. Your mileage may vary.
TS3: In Sims 3, you can use windowed mode by simply choosing it
in your game's options. Windowed mode will allow you to use Print
Screen or FRAPS or whatever screenshotting program you desire, without
getting darkening of your pictures. If you do not choose to use
windowed mode for TS3, you must use the C key to take pictures using the
in-game camera - taking pictures fullscreened in TS3 without using the C
key will result in icky dark screenshots.
C Key vs. Screenshot Program/Print Screen
TS2: In order to take nice big pics, you should not use the game's screenshot system, using the C key or the camera button on the game's controls to take your pictures. Even on the highest picture settings, pictures will still be small, with a very high level of JPEG compression, making them blurry and crunchy. Instead, use Print Screen or a screenshot program.
TS3: The C key camera is much improved in TS3, making it possible
to use to take pictures for upload and still have nice big, pretty
pictures. You can still use a screenshot program or print screen if you
desire, but you will need to run your game in Windowed Mode (see above)
to keep your pictures from getting dark.
Screenshot Program
There are many programs available, free and pay, that will take screenshots for you by using a hotkey, and save them to a folder - just like The Sims 2 with the C key, but with options for much better quality settings.
A quick Google search for 'free screenshot program' will also bring up many other options, which may have other features that are of interest to you.
Print Screen
If you have enough RAM to run Photoshop or another graphics editing program at the same time as Sims 2, you may want to take screenshots yourself, without the use of a program to store them for you.
To do that, simply press the Print Screen or PrntScn key on your keyboard - it's usually off toward the right, over the arrow keys, above Insert and Delete. This will copy your current screen to your Windows clipboard, as if you had selected and copied it as an image.
Then open any graphics editing program, create a new document the size of your monitor's resolution, and paste into that document. Your screenshot should appear in the document.
Optimizing your images for upload
Many simmers struggle with getting their images to be clear, crisp and under the 244kb file size while keeping the image size larger than 800px by 600px. After getting your images from the in game camera or using a print screen program you will need to resize them and compress them into a jpeg image. Many graphics programs have a built in optimizing feature.
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