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The Sims 1, 2, 3 and 4 In Regards To Adding Pictures & Captions

The Sims 1: You can take a snapshot of anywhere on the screen, and the picture will have The Sims watermark logo on top. Each family has a family album, and you can add your own captions on the bottom.
The Sims 2: Just press 'C' for a camera snapshot, and the game will take a snapshot for you. This time, the entire screen, minus the UI, will be taken in the screenshot. So, if you have the walls down and cutaway, then you can actually see the walls down and cutaway in the snapshot. Like The Sims 1, you can also add your own captions on the bottom.
The Sims 3: All screenshots are stored in your The Sims 3 folder, but they aren't accessible right in the game. Instead, you may view the pictures in the Sims 3 launcher or directly inside the folder, and the screenshots are very large in file size. If you have enabled Memories, then you can take your own Memory snapshots and make your own Memories. There is also a little area for adding a caption, but it doesn't have that Family Album feel from The Sims 1 or 2 days anymore, as you have to cancel a specific memory before opening up a different memory.
The Sims 4: All screenshots are stored in your The Sims 4 folder, and they are accessible right in-game. It is possible to attach a positive memory or negative memory to the snapshot now, but the main problem with this feature is that ALL your screenshots from all your families are just jumbled up in one big folder. For people with only one save file and one active family, they will have no issues with the Screenshots Manager. But for rotational players, this is one big issue, because all the pictures will get jumbled together in one big pile, not separated into households or anything like The Sims 1 or The Sims 2.

The Sims 2 Base Game would have all the pictures from all neighborhoods stored in one big Storytelling folder, but later, EA has changed it and made it so that the Storytelling pictures will go into a specific Neighborhood/Storytelling folder. This makes Storytelling pictures very easy to find in The Sims 2.

The Sims 4 - as it is right now - is very similar to that Sims 2 Base Game experience, but it's even worse, because The Sims 2 Base Game actually allows some organization IN-GAME. Even though the pictures may all be jumbled up in the Storytelling folder, the pictures are organized by household in the game, so that all your Pleasant family pictures will show up with the Pleasant family, and all your Broke family pictures will show up with your Broke family.

I want at least the ability to sort and organize pictures in The Sims 4, preferably by save file and household.

Comments

  • EnkiSchmidtEnkiSchmidt Posts: 5,334 Member
    Adding about Sims 1: The game automatically generated a web page for each household. Even if you didn't intend to publish your albums, this was a great way to look at your story without having to load the actual game. This is the only quality of life feature I missed in Sims 2.
  • waterywatermelonwaterywatermelon Posts: 473 Member
    edited December 2020
    Adding about Sims 1: The game automatically generated a web page for each household. Even if you didn't intend to publish your albums, this was a great way to look at your story without having to load the actual game. This is the only quality of life feature I missed in Sims 2.

    Yeah, I've noticed that The Sims 1 actually has captions in text files, but the text files are just that. Text files. In The Sims 2, you can view the text files in the Storytelling folder(s) if you have an EP, or if you just have the base game, then all the pictures would be included in the main Storytelling folder. So, both the Sims 1 and 2 seem to have the ability to view text files outside the game.
  • Nikkei_SimmerNikkei_Simmer Posts: 9,403 Member
    edited December 2020
    Here's my solution...

    Wait for it...

    Photoshop_Elements_Premiere_Elements_11.jpg

    But then again, I shoot...
    CokinFilterSystem-withfilter.jpg
    as well as play
    Screenshot-135.jpg
    YMMV (Your mileage may vary).
    Post edited by Nikkei_Simmer on
    GYZ6Ak9.png
    Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~
  • EnkiSchmidtEnkiSchmidt Posts: 5,334 Member
    Adding about Sims 1: The game automatically generated a web page for each household. Even if you didn't intend to publish your albums, this was a great way to look at your story without having to load the actual game. This is the only quality of life feature I missed in Sims 2.

    Yeah, I've noticed that The Sims 1 actually has captions in text files, but the text files are just that. Text files. In The Sims 2, you can view the text files in the Storytelling folder(s) if you have an EP, or if you just have the base game, then all the pictures would be included in the main Storytelling folder. So, both the Sims 1 and 2 seem to have the ability to view text files outside the game.

    They both have that function, but Sims 1 does it more elegantly.

    Sims 2 puts the screenshots and the textfiles in a storytelling folder
    (For me on the UC it looks like this: Neighborhoods->N002->Storytelling->And then in there snapshot66d28e4a_[individualsnumber], thumbnail66d28e4a_[inidividualnumber],webentry66d28e4a)
    I can look at my screenshots as a slideshow if I wanted, but to read the captions I need to open the webentry files.
    I know of no way to read my story the same as I can ingame, aka pictures and captions in the same place.

    Sims 1 creates a webpage for each of my households, a webpage that I do not need to publish. It's just there on my computer (or used to be, because the laptop that could still run it died on me). I can look at this webpage offline and open my family album, pictures AND text in the same place, exactly as the story would appear ingame.

    I don't know how else to describe it. Maybe someone who has Sims 1 still installed could help out.
  • Sorak4Sorak4 Posts: 3,934 Member
    The Sims 1 also automatically took photos and captioned them for events like death and marrige, however they were always autosaved at lowest size and quality.

    ALSO there were captions in pictures that could be taken in a special way, but ONLY if before Hot-Date or later was installed.
    L9q8VGi.png
  • OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 4,973 Member
    Three other problems with the TS4 'system' are:
    Even if you create subfolders for each household the shots are stored in a date time order that's computer friendly. It is not uncommon, when reviewing your shots, to find that the newer ones precede the older ones, thereby ruining any graphic story you may try to tell.
    Caption space is very limited, about a line and a half. TS2 captions can be paragraph length if you choose.
    If you have a caption in your last shot, it will have disappeared the next time you go into the 'album'. If you want to preserve your tiny comment you need to take another shot after that one in the same gaming session and leave it uncaptioned.

    As for the shots being memories, the game selects the memory type for the photo. Fine if that's your intent. But, what if you see the event as a happy one, but the game decides it's romantic? The TS2 system, positive or negative based on your sim's personality, was both simpler and better.
  • sulsulkichiwakusulsulkichiwaku Posts: 2 New Member
    I think the Screenshot Manager on TS4 is terrible. I can easily extract one family's contents from the screenshots folder and start a new one with another family so I can keep them separated. Extra effort but still feasible. The real issue here is how the game sorts all screenshots randomly, not following an alpha-nummerical order at all, however you sort the photos in your screenshots folder, the game is not gonna display them like that. It's reeeeally annoying and it really affects the user's experience by totally disabling the story-telling.
  • OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 4,973 Member
    Totally with you! Have tried several labeling methods, and none work. Biggest downer of the game for me.
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