No underwater pool view from basements? «12...Next Go

Simfuncrunch

I built my Sims' new basement right up next to their pool and put in big windows, hoping to watch swimmers from below. No such luck. I was hoping for a view like this from Sims 3. Is this possible?

jacqpinks

that is a little disappointing I will have to check this out in game

Simfuncrunch

Looking more closely at the link I posted above, that person used cheats to accomplish the view. I never really paid attention to pools much in Sims 3 but for some reason I just thought you could automatically see what was going on from below. Which makes sense, but might be very difficult to program; I have no idea.

catmando830

Simfuncrunch wrote: »

Looking more closely at the link I posted above, that person used cheats to accomplish the view. I never really paid attention to pools much in Sims 3 but for some reason I just thought you could automatically see what was going on from below. Which makes sense, but might be very difficult to program; I have no idea.

In TS3 you could see who was in the pool w/o cheats.

UmbralFlower

When pools were released, a guru said if windows were placed in a pool you wouldn't be able to see sims swimming through the window.

dnmartyn

you can, but there is a catch.

When I look at the side of the pool with my active SIM on the same level as the entrance to the pool, I can see her legs through the windows:


However, if my active SIM goes down into the basement, he can no longer see her:

catmando830

That's how I was looking at it from inside the basement

Simfuncrunch

dnmartyn wrote: »

you can, but there is a catch.

When I look at the side of the pool with my active SIM on the same level as the entrance to the pool, I can see her legs through the windows:


However, if my active SIM goes down into the basement, he can no longer see her:

Thanks for the illustration; this is helpful. Not realistic, but helpful! Per @candace92 's comment above, I see that it's an acknowledged limitation of this version of the game. Bummer.

Quaay

I could see into my basement room from the swimmer's view but not vice versa :( I was bummed because I put a couch down there just to sit and watch ppl swim. A guru had said something about making human fish tanks so I thought it would work that way.

Blargghh

it's just like when you have a loft area above a living space. The game doesn't fully load anything that isn't on your current building level. Kind of a bummer, but understandable.

Senbre

No unless terrain tools and CFE cheat is returned

Ayradyss

Hmm. Disappointing.

NeonHighways

This is understandable since you can't see anything above ground level in basements. Have you tried doing this with a pool in a basement looking from the second level of basement? Does this even work with a pool in a second floor of a house seeing from inside? (Not an exterior pool)

dnmartyn

MatheusBS wrote: »

This is understandable since you can't see anything above ground level in basements. Have you tried doing this with a pool in a basement looking from the second level of basement? Does this even work with a pool in a second floor of a house seeing from inside? (Not an exterior pool)

It does the same thing

itsug

This has for a very long time been an issue, and got nothing to do with basements actually.
Try making a pool on the second floor with windows on first floor.
Same result ^^

aws200

dnmartyn wrote: »

you can, but there is a catch.

When I look at the side of the pool with my active SIM on the same level as the entrance to the pool, I can see her legs through the windows:


However, if my active SIM goes down into the basement, he can no longer see her:

The laziness of Maxis at its finest.

Ellessarr

itsug wrote: »

This has for a very long time been an issue, and got nothing to do with basements actually.
Try making a pool on the second floor with windows on first floor.
Same result ^^

omg how much limitations this game have????????????????????????????????, ok what i gonna say probably look and sound like a hate but is impossible to not think like that:

why they are still using that so "limited" engine" everything is about limit!!!, forget open world now i could be more happy if they at last redo that game with a "better engineer" keep using a cra,p engineer look so "dumb*** from a game development perspective, this game is full of limitations due to the horrible choice of a outdated and cra,p engine.

libra_style

This defeats the purpose of even having windows against pool walls.....not everything had to be a decoration geesh, that's like going to SeaWorld and you see the whale in the tank but when go below to see the tank to get a closer look the whale disappear, just doesn't make sense oh well ugh

Ceres_Meiriona

I noticed this after pools were introduced. I made a second story pool that plopped down into the center of the house and had windows. I couldn't see the sim legs and was rather vexed by it. I no longer waste precious floor space with pools. They go in the backyard... far from my sight... if I use them at all. -.-

This definitely cuts into my creepy gameplay capabilities, so I do hope they update this at a later date.
(A mad scientist needs creepy features in his house. :P )

bshag4lv

Well that plums. I just made a really nice basement for one sim family, with game room with an underwater view and now there's nothing to look at?? Bummer, but hardly a game breaker for me. (At least there will be some sort of light in the basement besides from a bulb, lol.)

jackjack_k

aws200 wrote: »

dnmartyn wrote: »

you can, but there is a catch.

When I look at the side of the pool with my active SIM on the same level as the entrance to the pool, I can see her legs through the windows:


However, if my active SIM goes down into the basement, he can no longer see her:

The laziness of Maxis at its finest.

It's not exactly laziness. They had the option to choose when building the engine, and they chose the latter for the P word that people have grown to hate (Performance).

It's easier to have Sims loaded one floor at a time, than have your processor animate Sims constantly throughout the game. In The Sims 3, the game didn't have to worry about constantly animating Sims around your Neighbourhood. In The Sims 4, while you're at home, there are 10 or so Sims walking around outside your house. To make that possible, they probably used this as way to reduce the stress on your video card.

Similar to how The Sims 3 would reload textures again, if you spent heaps of time on one floor. To save resources, the textures of other floors would be greyed out once you spent a certain amount of time on a specific floor, and would reload when you changed floors.

Ellessarr wrote: »

itsug wrote: »

This has for a very long time been an issue, and got nothing to do with basements actually.
Try making a pool on the second floor with windows on first floor.
Same result ^^

omg how much limitations this game have????????????????????????????????, ok what i gonna say probably look and sound like a hate but is impossible to not think like that:

why they are still using that so "limited" engine" everything is about limit!!!, forget open world now i could be more happy if they at last redo that game with a "better engineer" keep using a cra,p engineer look so "dumb*** from a game development perspective, this game is full of limitations due to the horrible choice of a outdated and cra,p engine.

The engine isn't outdated, it's just been built. It's engineered extremely well from an Online point of view. Everything that makes an online game work well, had been done. Except it's not Online anymore.
Which is why it comes across that way.

Proteus42

jackjack_k wrote: »

It's not exactly laziness. They had the option to choose when building the engine, and they chose the latter for the P word that people have grown to hate (Performance).
...

Yep, it looks like the ability of 10 or more years old computers to run the game seems to have been a prime objective in the programming of the TS 4 engine / design of the game

jackjack_k

@Proteus42 wrote: »

jackjack_k wrote: »

It's not exactly laziness. They had the option to choose when building the engine, and they chose the latter for the P word that people have grown to hate (Performance).
...

Yep, it looks like the ability of 10 or more years old computers to run the game seems to have been a prime objective in the programming of the TS 4 engine / design of the game

True.

However, when they were making the game online, performance is necessary. Now it's not so much but we are stuck with the engine ><

Considering how much they have changed the Sims 4 since launch, you can tell they are still converting the game from Online to Offline even now.

Simfuncrunch

jackjack_k wrote: »

It's easier to have Sims loaded one floor at a time, than have your processor animate Sims constantly throughout the game. In The Sims 3, the game didn't have to worry about constantly animating Sims around your Neighbourhood. In The Sims 4, while you're at home, there are 10 or so Sims walking around outside your house. To make that possible, they probably used this as way to reduce the stress on your video card.

Well, if that's true, that's pretty ironic to me. Making performance tradeoffs order to have more (annoying) Sims animated in a less open world. I personally would much rather see my Sim at home swimming from below than have my outdoor conversations continually and nonconsensually joined by meandering neighbors and visitors. But that's just me.

I'm not a games programmer and I'm not chalking this up to "laziness" as others have suggested. Whether it's for performance reasons or other reasons, I'm just disappointed is all.

Proteus42

jackjack_k wrote: »

@Proteus42 wrote: »

jackjack_k wrote: »

It's not exactly laziness. They had the option to choose when building the engine, and they chose the latter for the P word that people have grown to hate (Performance).
...

Yep, it looks like the ability of 10 or more years old computers to run the game seems to have been a prime objective in the programming of the TS 4 engine / design of the game

True.

However, when they were making the game online, performance is necessary. Now it's not so much but we are stuck with the engine ><

Considering how much they have changed the Sims 4 since launch, you can tell they are still converting the game from Online to Offline even now.

True ... they are still changing/adding so much with every patch, that the game at the end of this year might look much different (and hopefully also more enjoyable) than it was at the beginning of the year

Goldmoldar

Yeah and the same was said about the SimCity Glassbox engine and how did SimCity fare? Not so well. The engine has a lot of limitations that may fare well for a dumbed down game that does not require a lot of technology.