Carl and Pam's The Sims Community
The Sims 3 => Sims 3 - Gameplay Help and Discussion => Topic started by: LlamaMama on August 05, 2010, 03:53:34 PM
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This came up in another thread, and made me really curious about play style. When I see sim stories with screenshots, I notice how close the camera is. I always assumed that was just for the screenshot, but recently I'm realizing that some people play the game that close up. How close are you (the camera)? Do you pause often, setting up everyone's tasks before hitting "go"?
I've gotten into the habit of playing at enough of a distance that I can see most of what happens on my sims' legacy lot (60x60), with walls down. That way I can better switch control of the various sims without too much zooming. If one is doing something that needs monitoring, I zoom in a bit, but rarely do I get right up "next to" the sim. I do play closer to toddlers, though.
For example, I'm having trouble getting my married elders to woohoo. They've been so busy with work and kids that they have let their friendship slide, so one offers woohoo and the other refuses. While I play with them, my viewpoint is closer than usual, higher than the ceiling, a couple rooms away from them.
What about you?
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This came up in another thread, and made me really curious about play style. When I see sim stories with screenshots, I notice how close the camera is. I always assumed that was just for the screenshot, but recently I'm realizing that some people play the game that close up. How close are you (the camera)?
I back off enough that I can see anything on the lot that would happen. Since I typically go with my "bear in the woods" technique of outdoor living for my Sims I build everything very close to together. I can almost be right on top of them with the camera and still see mostly everything.
Do you pause often, setting up everyone's tasks before hitting "go"?
Wishmasters was a nightmare with pausing the game. At least in the beginning when all of their wishes were so different because of their different LTW and the skills I needed to pursue. So, it was constant pausing to make sure I did everything right. Once their LTW were all accomplished I moved into the pack strategy and they all pursued similar things — winning the martial arts tournament, sculpting, painting, getting a huge number of friends, writing children's books, etc. Then, the wishes fired similarly and they were doing the same stuff so I could play on ultra speed. With the da Vinci challenge I played it on ultra speed too because I had mapped out my strategy and once I got into a good groove, it was just a question of assembly line work.
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For camera views, it all depends on what I'm doing. Many, many times, if not all the time, I play from a sort-of bird's eye view looking down at most of the whole house. With bigger houses, you inevitably can't see everyone, but I still like that view. However, that gets to be a bit of a problem when I try to capture still-life pictures, so I might zoom into something before the picture view comes on.
I do pause often; I am used to playing multiple people at a time, so pausing becomes just an easy setting. I don't see it taking up more of my time since I'll play for hours on end anyway. My frequent family usually has between 5-8 people in the house, but it's fun having that type of playing chaos.
Yeah, I play closer to toddlers too. They're just too adorable, especially when the older people read to them. It's just such an "awww" moment. ;D
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For camera views, it all depends on what I'm doing. Many, many times, if not all the time, I play from a sort-of bird's eye view looking down at most of the whole house. With bigger houses, you inevitably can't see everyone, but I still like that view. However, that gets to be a bit of hell when I try to capture still-life pictures, so I might zoom into something before the picture view comes on.
I was having an impossible time with the still-life pictures, until Pam figured out the connection between my bird's eye view and the capture problem. That's what brought up the idea for this thread.
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I am about the same. I play just far enough back to where I can see everything. Sometimes, I will play with the half walls, or whatever you call it. I like to see the walls behind the sims, especially if I have put paintings on the walls or decorations. My picture is so clear, I love the detail on everything. In my big households, I pause and queue everyone up to do something and then un-pause it. I very rarely speed up my sims, unless they are doing skills. I am more of slow mo player, that more or less just takes things as they come. That is why I like big households with at least 5 - 8 sims, never a dull moment and it keeps me from getting bored.
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I play up close and un-paused most of the time.
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I play far enough away that I can see everyone in the house (with usually just the outside walls up) and pause frequently to queue up tasks. If I can't queue up several things, I get closer to that Sim so I can pause and add more things once they finish doing what was holding the queue up, like eating. If I don't keep an eye on my Sims while they're doing certain things, they'll stuff themselves with food, or decide it's a great idea to run outside and play in the sprinkler while they're supposed to be getting ready for work, or go off to pursue their hobby/profession (painting, playing guitar, etc.) instead of putting their plate in the diswasher. If I'm playing more than two Sims in a household, I only go to a faster setting if they're all skill building or reading or sleeping. It usually doesn't work that way though. So I play at a fairly slow pace. If they've got the time, I sometimes just don't queue up anything to see what they'll do. But it's usually not something I want them to be doing. Sometimes free will is a pain in the neck. ;D
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It's pretty funny when you queue up a sim to do something, switch to another sim for a while and then realize the first one has been standing in the street for an hour, singing a chinese song.
Houses with multiple stories make things a lot harder for one who likes to keep everyone in view. It might be a good building contest concept, to design a multiple-generation home with only one level.
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My usual style (with a number of exceptions) is to play one single sim, usually seen from afar. Every now and then however I do pause the game and zoom into the room with walls up just to check in on everything and get me into the right mood (it seems less of a doll-house when you see the ceiling from inside the room).
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It's pretty funny when you queue up a sim to do something, switch to another sim for a while and then realize the first one has been standing in the street for an hour, singing a chinese song.
It's also frustrating! Or maybe I'm just a control freak. ;D
Houses with multiple stories make things a lot harder for one who likes to keep everyone in view. It might be a good building contest concept, to design a multiple-generation home with only one level.
Oh, definitely. I usually only build what I need for a one or two Sim home, and download larger ones when I have more Sims. Though unless I see a house I really like, I'm done downloading homes. Most larger houses (more bedrooms and bathrooms) are multi-story. I'm probably playing even more slowly when I'm in a two or three story home. For the Wishmaster Challenge, I'm getting away with a one-story because I made them two couples, but then I had to add an extra room for stuff. I'm glad they're not allowed to have kids or I'd be doing a lot more expanding or have to move. Besides, one of my Sims hates children. :D I'd love to see a house like you described, though that's one Challenge I definitely wouldn't be pursuing! ;D
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I like to play one or two sims at a time, and I like to see everything that's happening. If my sims are living in a house (and not, as Metro calls it, "bear in the woods"), the house is one story and walls are down. I don't even bother with a foundation. There are no stairs and -- truth be told -- I don't even build a real house... just box in the bedroom and bathroom so my sims can sleep and shower without having to worry about no(i)sy neighbors. I only play on two speeds: ` and 3. ;) That is, pause and fastest.
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I play a combination of close up and far away view. Of course, if my Sim needs to go somewhere for a task, I have to see the whole house/lot. But for conversations and the actual performance of the task, I like to zoom in close and watch. I watch them paint, cook, invent, swim, garden. Most everything. The interactions can be hilarious and it seems like there's always something new being added. I use pause pretty often just to keep everything under control. I'm playing 6 Sims at the moment and they can easily get off schedule if I don't pause and get things set up. I also play with the walls cut away. It lets me see what I need, but I can also see the back walls with paintings and whatnot. I'm still playing the triplets from the Toddler Race and I've got portraits of each of them as toddlers and as children. They are teenagers now and there will soon be teenage portraits on the wall beside the other portraits of them. It's nice to be able to see those pictures with the walls partially up.
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I play zoomed out, usually so I can see the whole lot. I'm not a big picture taker so seldom zoom in close. Maybe I am missing out on stuff? I do pause too much because I'm a micro-manager. I hate free will! heh
I too have discovered that I prefer 1 story houses. The moving up and down all the time to see family members makes me dizzy!
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I hate free will! heh
Have you tried playing with freewill turned off or reduced?
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I usually play with it reduced, unless I'm trying one of the old challenges from this forum. Shhh, I'm a secret challenger taker. I have found it is a great way to learn the things in the game that I haven't tried on my own.
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I'm a combo player too. Some things just need a zoom in but I like seeing what is going on all over the lot. If I didn't zoom in I would have missed the microwave-bot romantic interest that was going on in one house.
Can we add another facet to this topic? Are you a builder or a player? A friend of mine likes to build intricate houses and then gets bored with the Sims. Sometimes I get so excited about a household idea that I just buy a pre-made and renovate. I'd like to see how many builders v players are around.
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I like to see the whole lot, otherwise I think they'll do something I don't want them too! :) I pause so I can queue everyone up and then I use the fastest sped, normal is just too slow :) I usually like to play with only 2 people, so the wishmasters has been a little different. But I love how the challenges get me out of the way I normally play so that I can experience different aspects of the game!
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I pause and give my sims a string of actions, usually, and play in normal speed as much as possible. I'd like their lives to go faster, but I'm afraid I wont have time to give them a full life. I love watching them interact with other sims, and doing their skill learning.
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LlamaMama, super-great question and interesting answers!
I think I'm usually about "mid-distance" camera-wise. I can click any controllable Sim (and my households usually have at least 2 Sims in them), and get a good idea of "what's in the room, what's going on." I can see onto neighboring lots, and usually hear next-door-neighbor's kids crying, if that helps. I've very, very rarely "zoomed way out" or in the "town view" unless I'm sending a Sim to a different lot.
I keep walls at the mid-position ... if something's looking "picture-worthy" I'll pause or "slow" the game to 1 (normal speed, I think it's called) and raise the walls so I can get a decent picture (I miss the Sims2 robust camera controls, I'm still not sold on the whole "video camera" default settings of the Sims3).
I just about ALWAYS keep the speed on 2 (Fast), unless I'm watching a Sim closely or checking out an animation / new object / a new Expansion pack's out and I want to see what's going on. Speed 3 (Ultra) is only for bedtime / skilling up.
So it's "Queue stuff up" ... "press PLAY (at speed 2)" ... watch for a bit ... then "Pause." Rinse and Repeat.
Great question. I think just about everyone's play style's different, it's insightful to see how others play. :)
-- Happytime
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I'm a combo player too. Some things just need a zoom in but I like seeing what is going on all over the lot. If I didn't zoom in I would have missed the microwave-bot romantic interest that was going on in one house.
Can we add another facet to this topic? Are you a builder or a player? A friend of mine likes to build intricate houses and then gets bored with the Sims. Sometimes I get so excited about a household idea that I just buy a pre-made and renovate. I'd like to see how many builders v players are around.
I am more of a player than a builder, but that has changed recently. I really am getting into the building and have checked out some of those sites for building, but the topic of building should be directed to the building thread though, since this thread is about style, but good topic though. I really like hearing how everyone else plays and I am enjoying all of the houses.
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I am more of a player than a builder, but that has changed recently. I really am getting into the building and have checked out some of those sites for building, but the topic of building should be directed to the building thread though, since this thread is about style, but good topic though. I really like hearing how everyone else plays and I am enjoying all of the houses.
Maybe I didn't word it right but I was talking about play style. As in do you play as in a designer/architect/dollhouse maker or do you play to get into the lives of the Sims you create.
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What about you?
I love zooming in and getting up close and personal. I like to see the stupid or odd things my Sims like to do from time to time. I also like to pause frequently to give off a series of commands. It helps me get through the game easier.
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Yeah, Zoomed in is the best, you get to witness so many expressions like these -
(http://i838.photobucket.com/albums/zz303/Samoht04/yyy/Screenshot-154.jpg)
(http://i838.photobucket.com/albums/zz303/Samoht04/yyy/Screenshot-155.jpg)
(http://i838.photobucket.com/albums/zz303/Samoht04/yyy/Screenshot-156.jpg)
(http://i838.photobucket.com/albums/zz303/Samoht04/yyy/Screenshot-161.jpg)
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I play kinda in the middle unless I want a screenshot. I always have the walls down unless I'm hanging a pic or putting a ribbon on them. I also always play at speed 3. I also use the P, I and J keys alot, so I would be lost without my keyboard too lol.
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I play kinda in the middle unless I want a screenshot. I always have the walls down unless I'm hanging a pic or putting a ribbon on them. I also always play at speed 3. I also use the P, I and J keys alot, so I would be lost without my keyboard too lol.
Oh, drat! The list I found doesn't mention the P, I, and J keys. Where are you guys finding a listing of keyboard commands? I'm having a heck of a time finding them.
Edit: Sorry, I dug around and found the card with the shortcuts that came with the base game. Now all I need is a magnifying glass to read it!
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I can't remember where I heard about them. Either the Prima guide or this site! Probably this site as it's so much more awesome than the guide! ;D
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I remembered the ones from Sims 2 and they have stayed pretty much the same. Also if you hover over a button it also gives you the shortcut for the furture. ;)
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I remembered the ones from Sims 2 and they have stayed pretty much the same. Also if you hover over a button it also gives you the shortcut for the furture. ;)
Hmmm ok there are 3 possibilities as to where I got them! ;D I just wish I remembered for sure!
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I play pretty close up to my Sims, close enough to see a whole room, but not close enough that they are the only thing I see. I used to play with a more bird's eye view, but then I realized that I really love watching Sims do all their crazy little things. One story houses are a god send in my game, as I get motion sick pretty easily. All that bouncing from floor to floor and across the town makes me sick! Luckily, I've figured out that if I close my eyes during those moments, I can play a lot longer. Ahem, getting back on topic: more close up is definitely my style. I think I only pause to position for pictures, other than that, I just let them do what they want in between queues. It's fun to see what they come up with when I'm not looking. Especially when I get a lot of kids in one house at once, they always end up playing/talking with one another.
-D
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I usually play at the exact vantage point that you get to by hitting the silouette in the left corner, I think it's called "Zoom to Sim" or something like that, although I could be totally wrong on what it's called. That's about the distance I like. Sometimes I click that button, and then just slightly zoom out, like one tick of the mouse wheel. For some reason that just feels right to me.
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Well up close is sooo funny sometimes, you get to see these expressions! :D
(http://i838.photobucket.com/albums/zz303/Samoht04/Screenshot-375.jpg)
Flattering picture? ;D
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I'm definitely a "Half-Walls", normal speed, panned back to "monitor everyone" person. A bit of a control freak, so I don't appreciate Sims going off and doing stupid or un-necessary things on their own! I like to keep them busy doing skills, and earning money ;)
I do a lot of "Pause and Queue" ... in fact, so much that the "P" key on my keyboard doesn't last a full year before I need a replacement!!
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Distance: Change it up a lot depending on what's going on and zoom in and out as necessary. When interacting with other sims -close. Alone- zoom to the house/lot. So it just depends.
Pausing- the more sims i have in the household the more I pause. During activities, getting ready for work, evening things like cooking etc I don't pause. When meeting new sims I tend to pause just before the queue runs out. Had an experience where my Sim was romancing a female sim and he had it to ... thinks xxxx is very alluring and then he starts talking about gardening. Very smooth... since then I pause more when interacting.
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Had an experience where my Sim was romancing a female sim and he had it to ... thinks xxxx is very alluring and then he starts talking about gardening. Very smooth... since then I pause more when interacting.
Too funny. I had a similar experience. In RL that would be a big, (makes loser sign on forhead), sayonara bubba.
I think I play according to what's going on. In a challenge I usually need a bit more control so I pause, queue up, zoom out a wee bit and hit ultra speed with my finger hovering over the pause button. In more relaxed play I go back and forth because I want those kodak moments. I used to use mostly ultra speed but have found normal speed has it's benefits. In the current challenge I'm in ultra speed seems to be the ticket.
I used to pretty much be a builder/remodeler and seldom actually played my Simmies but while this is still my favorite mode of play, (I love totally renovating a town and making it more my own), I am finding more and more that actually playing the characters is just as much fun. They do such outrageous things!
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I've only played one challenge of yet (I'm thinking about going back through the "Dead / Completed" ones and trying a few), but the only difference I could note in my play style was I was a great deal more "controlling" (ensuring each and every Sim has something to do, *snap snap!*), and actions for each Sim were queued up such that my Sims very seldom had a chance to "Free Will" something I'd not directed.
But since the one challenge I've done (Grimmy's Skill Challenge of Total Unhappiness) (http://www.carls-sims-3-forum.com/index.php/topic,1744.0/topicseen.html) had makeneedsstatic active (the few times I failed to queue up events, when I selected a Sim they were blissfully and mindlessly just standing about, all needs met), I'm not sure if my experience much matters! hehe
-- Happytime
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I tend to play with half-walls or walls down. I also love the "ultra-speed through task" button, otherwise I play on normal speed. I also have a tendency to follow one Sim at a time, focusing on that Sim accomplishing whatever while the others do what they want to do. Somehow, I always seem to end up with seven or eight Sims in the house (half of them children), ignoring everyone except the person I have trying to raise skill points or complete an opportunity.
I also like to use map view, especially when I have Sims running to several different places (think money collection or finding collectables), and I spend half my time in map mode when overseas.
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Here's a tip for people who like to pause the game often: the ` (tilde) key on the keyboard also serves as a pause button. I find that very convenient because it's next to the 1234 keys that control the speed. I discovered that by accident and I'm guessing I'm not the only one who didn't know about it.
I don't usually pause the game often, but sometimes I pause while waiting for the camera to pan to a location very far away (if timing is critical it can use up a lot of valuable seconds!).
When I attempted my first Sims story blog, I noticed that my photos seemed to be zoomed out much farther than other bloggers'. So now I zoom the view in more if I need to take screenshots for a story. Otherwise I keep it at a sort of medium distance. I think I'm a bit of a camera control freak, though. I've noticed that if I play the game too long, my wrist starts to hurt because I'm constantly holding down the middle mouse camera so I can spin the camera around for the best view.
One thing I do find fascinating: if I take a lot of screenshots while playing, and then go back and look at them later, I notice the screenshots are full of all kinds of subtle details (especially in the faces) that I totally missed while playing the game. It's kind of like watching the same movie again and noticing new things the second time.
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According to my son I spend more time with the game paused than I do with it running and I need to learn that the faster speeds exist... he's probably right, but I'm an incredible control freak when it comes to my Sims, and sometimes I just have to give them full lives, really, really full lives, for example the mother of the family I'm currently playing (soon to be grandmother) is part up way up her fourth career having maxed three already and she's still got about a week to go until she hits elder, on the other hand her husband got his super spy life time wish ages ago and has been just messing about learning the guitar or smashing space rocks, he's way behind on writing reports but I'm just thinking, never mind you've got a week to go until retirement (I caked him up at her birthday party so they are the same age), just let the reports go hang, go learn enough fishing so your daughter can become an immortal.
I play zoomed in to about one room at a time most of the time and switch between Sims a lot to see if they're doing what I told them or have run off to play in the street, sometimes if they're doing something particularly sweet or cool I just let them get on with it and rein them in later, for example in a legacy like game (basically a legacy with some of the rules adapted to my tastes) I was playing a while back I had a couple of cousins who'd completed their life time wishes early in life and had basically been reduced to being child minders and every single time I left them without actions cued up they would seek each other out and start chatting and sharing secrets in some random corner, it was both adorable and slightly creepy.
I'm not much of a builder, I just don't consider myself good at making nice houses, although every now and then I make one I really like and then many many families will get to live in versions of it. I'm going to try and make an ice house though with the soon to be immortal sculptress, not sure how that's going to go, I guess I'll have to see.
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Here's a tip for people who like to pause the game often: the ` (tilde) key on the keyboard also serves as a pause button. I find that very convenient because it's next to the 1234 keys that control the speed. I discovered that by accident and I'm guessing I'm not the only one who didn't know about it.
Another keyboard shortcut for pausing is the 0 key. It's easily reached if you use the number pad.
I tend to micromanage my sims. Lots of pausing and flipping back and forth between individual sims. It gets pretty hard when they're spread all over town.
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Here's a tip for people who like to pause the game often: the ` (tilde) key on the keyboard also serves as a pause button. I find that very convenient because it's next to the 1234 keys that control the speed. I discovered that by accident and I'm guessing I'm not the only one who didn't know about it.
I didn't manage to get that to work. I normally use the 0 button to pause.
I tend to find myself playing from far away to be able to see what's happening but I need to keep reminding myself to zoom in otherwise I miss classic facial expressions such as this one below. It's one of my founding sims on her way to smash space rocks. She grumbled all the way there:
(http://s1.postimage.org/tLEt0.jpg) (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gxtLEt0)
Another one of her and her husband just after woohoo - she doesn't look so happy!
(http://s1.postimage.org/tLLXr.jpg) (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gxtLLXr)
Running to a dive well after being set on fire:
(http://s2.postimage.org/GVlTr.jpg) (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TsGVlTr)
And subsequent belly flop!
(http://s3.postimage.org/d7NwJ.jpg) (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Pqd7NwJ)
And my favourite when being ejected out of a sarcophogaus
(http://s2.postimage.org/GVym9.jpg) (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TsGVym9)
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I didn't realize for a long time about facial expressions. I just played along and one day, I forget what I was doing and I zoomed in and about fell off my chair. The expression was priceless and then started reading on here about other people pausing. I do that alot more now and it is so much fun. I have quite a few screen shots of pretty good expressions. So now, needless to say, I play fairly close to watch them more closely. ;D
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Diane, I'm of a mixed mind "zoomed-up close" for the Sims3.
I enjoy seeing the Sim's expressions, for true; but I just don't find the Sims3 as visually-appealing as the Sim2 Sims were to my eye (that's a diplomatic way of saying I think they look bloated / puffy and generally *bleh*).
I also have a great deal of difficulty maneuvering the camera about in this version (which may be my strange mouse ... come to think of it, I think I'll hook up an old-fashioned Microsoft Mouse and see if the camera controls behave any better for me), I used to be able to really get excellent views in the Sims2 versus what I can manage in the Sims3.
Regardless, sometimes it's hilarious to zoom-in when the Sims are being really expressive and checking out their shenanigans!
-- Happytime
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This close up is awesome and funny in my opinion!
(http://s4.postimage.org/O6qS.jpg) (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVO6qS)
This is my sim fighting Cornelia. I wish I could have gotten closer, but no matter how many times I would roll my wheel, this is the closest I could get to them! It's still cool though!
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I see the stripe! Tell me the green skin isn't another graphics glitch. :)
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This is my sim fighting Cornelia. I wish I could have gotten closer, but no matter how many times I would roll my wheel, this is the closest I could get to them! It's still cool though!
Sometimes if I move my mouse closer to the scene, then zoom, I get better results. Have you tried that?
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Sometimes if I move my mouse closer to the scene, then zoom, I get better results. Have you tried that?
No, I didn't try that! Thanks! Llamamama no she's naturally green lol. ;D
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No, I didn't try that! Thanks! Llamamama no she's naturally green lol. ;D
I hope it helps. I think I've read somewhere that the camera in Sims 3 is harder to use than the one in Sims 2. I might have even read it here on the forum somewhere, but I don't recall.
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I just found out that when you press tab you can zoom in and out, you can get really up close to a sims face! :)
(http://s1.postimage.org/dj4pr.jpg) (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gxdj4pr)
(http://s1.postimage.org/dj6UA.jpg) (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gxdj6UA)
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Thank you for the tip!
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I just found out that when you press tab you can zoom in and out, you can get really up close to a sims face! :)
If I'd known you didn't know that, I would've told you. Convoluted sentence there, huh? :) I hit tab the first time by accident and thought, "Oh no! How do I get the picture to stop swinging around so crazily and get my Sims bar (or whatever it's called) back?" I don't know how I figured it out, but I did, and saw the potential for better snapshots right away. I rarely hit the C key without using it to position things as well as I can.
Like this:
(http://s3.postimage.org/qju50.jpg) (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Pqqju50)
"I have the strangest feeling that I'm being watched."
;D
Just using this so I can try the insert image thing. :)
Note: Obviously I'm doing something wrong. I thought I selected the right image size. Hmm....
Note #2: I just noticed it looks like his (Baxter Vincent from the da Vinci Challenge) leg was severed just below the knee.
Note #3: The point that I forgot to mention is that I chose the amount of space around the Sim intentionally, to add to the feeling that he's alone, yet feels like he's being watched.
No more notes after this!
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The in house imaging does not give the correct size, that is why most of us use photobucket. It is a few more steps, but once you get the hang of it, it is quite easy. I have used the tab key for ages, I just assumed people knew about, you can really get up close and personal with that key, lol.
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I knew about the tab key but not that you can zoom in and out, now I can take photo's easier, the only bad thing is that fish-bowl effect.
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If you don't want the wide-angle lens effect you can just move the TAB camera in and out with the W and S keys or your forward and back arrows. Q and E change the height of the camera. A and D move you left and right (or your arrow keys). So you can get in very close to a sim's face without zooming.
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Yeah but that is also more difficult.
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The in house imaging does not give the correct size, that is why most of us use photobucket. It is a few more steps, but once you get the hang of it, it is quite easy. I have used the tab key for ages, I just assumed people knew about, you can really get up close and personal with that key, lol.
I was using Photobucket under NeoFelis2 (I had an account I couldn't access anymore, so when I couldn't remember the password, I had to give up my original; hate when I do that) and it's a couple more steps than the 'Add image to post' so I was really hoping I could get it to work. I still have the new account. I just need to buckle down, log in, and upload my pics I've taken to date into my Sims album, I suppose. If I do it in one session and then every five pics or so after, it shouldn't be too difficult. I got some nice ones of the birds in China, which look different than the ones in SV. Okay, I'm going off-topic here, so I'll stop. :)
Oh, and I thought people knew about the tab key, too. I never looked at the section of the guide for first time players, so I don't know if it's there. I'm not even sure that's the place for it.