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How to Improve Gallery Pictures
BryonyRae
Posts: 5,181 Member
Over on Twitter, @TheSims stated that we should post suggestions for improvement to gallery images here. I am coming at the issue from the perspective of a builder. There are several problems with the existing system:
Possible Systems for Improvement for Lots:
Additional Considerations
Suggestions for Improvement for Rooms:
Suggestions for Improvement for Sims/Households:
More? Please feel free to discuss other ideas and options, and I will add them to the list. Suggestions for rooms and sims are also welcome.
- Gallery shots are taken from fixed perspectives that may wind up being too close or too far away, depending upon the size and shape of the structure.
- The angle of the shots does not work for some type of builds, hiding elements, like roofing, that balance the structure.
- Neighborhood objects such as trees, rocks, or even other buildings often wind up obscuring some or all of the images.
- Interior shots are so zoomed out that very few details can be ascertained and anything you have done that may be special or subtle cannot be seen.
Possible Systems for Improvement for Lots:
- When saving the lot, prompt the user to take one or more screen shots for use in the gallery. Allow them to go into TAB camera mode in order to get the zoom and angle they desire. Send these shots directly to the library file as part of the saving process.
- When saving the lot, use something similar to the in game sim photography system (I am referring to when the sims use a camera to take pictures in GTW) to enable the user to take one or more screen shots for use in the gallery. Send these shots directly to the library file as part of the saving process. This method would be less desirable than the first, as the player might not have as much flexibility to get the shots at the angle/zoom they'd like. It would still be better than the current system though!
- Change the lot saving process to match the sim saving process in CAS, where the player can cycle through different preset camera angles of the build and select the one they find most favorable. This would be the least desirable option, as unless great care is given to the different preset angles, some of the current problems might still exist (zoomed too far out, objects obscuring the build, etc.). However, at least it would provide some options and player choice, where there currently is none.
- Use the camera presets file (located in VideoCameraStates) to determine positions/angles to take shots and overwrite default shots with those shots (see pg. 2 for details). This would be a fairly flexible system - up to 5 shots of the creator's choice, very non-intrusive, and perhaps more easily implemented than some of the others.
Additional Considerations
- If possible, let the creator take a maximum of 8 pictures (8 is the current maximum); prompt them for the number of pictures they want to take within that limit.
- If possible, allow the creator to select a time of day for each image (make use of the functionality already present in build mode to set the time of day).
- Add a "skip" function that is available throughout the process; if the creator clicks "skip," the game generates the default gallery shots that it ordinarily would. This functionality is necessary because many creators save to their library as part of a testing process or to save while it's a work in progress, and they do not care about gallery images at that point.
- Consider also adding a game option that would toggle the creator driven imaging system off. When the system is introduced, you'd probably want it off by default so as not to confuse people who are used to the current process. Patch notes could alert interested creators that the option now exists, and they would find it very quickly.
- If option 3 is selected, enable the game to select the "front" of the lot based on which door has been selected as the "front" door. This will aid in the many cases where people build on sizes like a 30x20 and select the 30 width as their front side, but the game has designated the 20 width as the front (currently only those who have Get Together can use lots where the 30 width is the front).
- Allow builder to hide world objects that may get in the way of the picture(s), i.e. neighborhood trees, lampposts, etc.
- Take pictures at highest graphics settings automatically (background toggle for photos only)
- Enable applying filters to screen shots (using system from GTW photography)
- Enable brightness adjustment
- Let user choose wall cutaway level.
Suggestions for Improvement for Rooms:
- Ability to zoom in
- Allow for more than one image, so that more detail can be shown in large rooms.
Suggestions for Improvement for Sims/Households:
- Add 3D rotation for headshots in order to allow a focus on distinguishing features.
- Add the ability to choose the sim's expression (or cycle through available expressions, including a neutral expression, i.e. face at rest).
- Add the ability to choose the sim's pose (or cycle through them).
- Add more Maxis poses to select from
- Add ability to show (at least) one outfit per category, with a choice of poses for each.
- For "family portraits" provide a choice of group poses/arrangements, and if possible the ability to choose the position and outfit of each sim.
- Add a variety of selectable backgrounds (like in the photo studio object).
- Options to create a full length view of a sim
- Ability to zoom in to take close-ups/headshots
More? Please feel free to discuss other ideas and options, and I will add them to the list. Suggestions for rooms and sims are also welcome.
Post edited by BryonyRae on
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105
Comments
Thanks for doing this
I think it would be great to be prompted to take several screenshots, maybe 4-6, as part of the upload process and choose which one is the main Gallery image. The others could be the additional images.
As things were before the Tray Importer, you had to be quite careful which lot you picked for your build if you wanted
the colors of the build to show up nicely on the picture. The sun goes up and down in the same direction no matter
which lot you pick and the light from the sun changes both the texture and the colors quite drastically.
Not sure if anything can be done when it comes to this. But it was easily corrected with the help of the Tray Importer.
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1. A menu that lets us chose the angle of our floor plan shots. Sometimes they're shot from the front of the building, sometimes the back, sometimes one side or the other...Picking a lot is like rolling the dice almost, and it's especially frustrating and limiting for builders like me who prefer to build on larger lots, due to the very small number of large lots in the game. I mean, if I built something on a 50x50 lot that takes full advantage of the size, I only have maybe 1 or 2 possible places to shift it to get a better angle (I'm talking base game here). That's not right.
2. The ability to zoom in or out and hide world deco in the foreground. I never had too much trouble with world deco obscuring my shots before (lucky me) but sometimes I do feel like the floor plan shots could be a bit closer in, especially on larger lots.
3. I'd like to echo the OP and others in saying that we need a way to take interior, "walls-up" photos to add to our gallery uploads. Enabling TAB camera mode in build mode would be a good way to do it. And it's not just because sometimes the finer details of a build can get lost in the mix with the automatic cutaway view either. Just look at my Imposing Palace build. The top two floors have the exterior walls completely missing because of the half walls I used to border the balconies and external walkway. That means that there is no way for someone to know what the library walls look like at all--all the viewer sees is floor, decor, and bookshelves. Not exactly flattering.
Addendum: 4. The ability to chose which side of the lot is the "front." Building on corner lots allows you to pick and choose where the front of the house is when you build...but not when you save. This lot is a good example of that phenomenon. The actual front of my building is on the left-hand side of the "front view" photo, and the rest of the shots show the floor plan from the back (which causes the pool to obscure part of the first floor of the "Heck" apartment). Right now, to get a better picture, I'd have to move this build to a new lot and cross my fingers that all of the angles are decent just to make sure that the right part of the building is shown as the front. So, yep, there's definitely a need for a "front picker" option.
Mods are used to augment or add features to the game that would be fun or useful, but aren't there. Make the in-game gallery screenshot function more...well, functional...and users won't need to use a mod to get better pics of their creations.
"If you build it, they will come." - Movie: Field of Dreams
For sims:
That's all I can think of for now.
Legacy Photomode
But really, at least for me, it is more about showing "this is what you can expect to find here" rather than
"oh this is the best part". I always give full tours on the forums, but many players are not using the forums.
I understand this, but I think that giving users control over the shots that are used would make people much happier. Kind of like a limited version of the camera mode, but at least you could set up the shot/angle.
What I usually do to get the lighting just right (or as close to it as I can given, as @Manssom noted, the environmental hues), is to have my play tester sim on the lot, and to fast forward his/her time of day to the one that I think looks best. Then, I go to save the lot. This works now, without any new Gallery options, so I thought I might mention it for those who may just be using the build mode day/night toggles. While helpful, the chosen times of day are not always ideal.
Yes, @MAINAGO1, that is the goal, to ensure that the system is entirely in-game and that images can't be tampered with post-process (without triggering the CC flag). That way, it would be a system that Maxis could support for non-CC builders.
@Pegasus143 In my opinion, ideally, it would be entirely up to the builder what he or she chooses to capture in their images. I would like to see a prompt asking for the number of pictures to be taken, say, up to 8, as 8 is the current maximum (based on the number of levels of the build), and then a prompt to take each picture. I understand that this means that a builder might not choose to provide an overhead layout shot or might focus on the exterior at the cost of the interior, etc., but I'd rather see that freedom, and let the downloaders decide whether they want to take a closer look in game or not. I think that most builders, given a high enough number of images to use (currently, lots with only 1 or 2 levels don't get many images, and the Image Replacer tool could not add image slots), would choose to provide a balanced view of their creation.
@SimsLovinLycan If we're able to get option 1 or 2, I think they would address all of your issues, because you would have the freedom to take your shot at any angle, zoom, walls up, etc. as you choose (although again, option 2 might be more limited).
@EmmaVane I'm adding your sims requests to the index.
@luthienrising That's a very good point. A skip function would probably be a must have, which, when selected, would just take the default pictures that the game takes now. They might also want to consider adding an option in the game options to toggle the functionality on/off altogether and have it off by default to avoid confusion over the changes.
@Mirrrr We are not discussing custom thumbnails here. If you would like to provide your feedback on custom thumbnails, there is a thread for that here. In this thread, we are discussing gallery images generated strictly in game with no post processing effects.
An interesting suggestion @DominicLaurence, but I think that it would be the same amount of work for them programmatically to generate some of the images via default and the rest via creator as to generate them all via creator. I personally would rather see them all creator driven.
@Luke I think we'd need Maxis themselves to clarify whether they care about creations having a uniform look. I tend to think it's not so much because they want everything to look uniform as it is that they had to create a program with preset distances and angles, and they chose to use homes levels as a basis for each shot beyond the first two shots. With any luck though, a sim guru will pop into the thread at some point and let us know if there are specific requirements to how images must be set up.
@Lovelysimmer100 Just want to clarify that I am not in charge of anything here.
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Now I have received the information that is already discussed here etc via Image-Changer. In Europe, we have now on the website L'universims.com (Tray-Importer) the possibility screenshots that we had done in the construction or game mode to draw the images that otherwise the upload of rooms, budget or land up in the gallery Maxis. Many had used the. One could detect a lot more details. Well after the update from Maxis is all represented as CC, even if that is not the case.
Most of us work without CC. If CC is included it is indicated as 90% even under the comments. Many are upset about, it would be but for Maxis determines a possibility with the developers of this program to negotiate or to develop on this basis a program itself when to have the appropriate staff capable and Maxis able. We would suffice it when we would get from Maxis FINALLY ON FEEDBACK.
What experiences have you in this direction can already do. We have become so frustrated that upload some even only empty lots or want to withdraw completely from the community. And that will be a significant part of Europe. Anyway Maxis would certainly remember the budget when would increasingly withdraw. That would be a shame, right?
What do you all mean? Thank you all for this interesting discussion.
can improve the default gallery images. If we want to discuss the Tray Importer and custom thumbnails we can do that here
I didn't say to ask questions here. I said if you had any ideas on improving the in-game system you should post here.
I'll put my realist pants on and ask for the bare minimum: Please allow the game to take images from the side the front door is. The amount of horizontal houses on 30x20 lots (especially in Willow Creek/Oasis Springs) with side/back view preview images on the gallery makes me sad.