's Blog

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.

• Fraps
• Gadwin
• Irfanview

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.

• Photoshop *Pay
• Gimp *Free
• IrfanView *Free

How to create a Pool Island. And advanced pool building tips.

Pool Islands are not incredibly difficult to do, but before you attempt it, I strongly suggest you take a look at Snooty's L-Shaped Pools Tutorial. (It will open in a new window)

Now, if you have tried to create a pool island before, the problem you may have run into is that it wont let you place a section of the pool. The reason for this is that the game draws an imaginary rectangle around the pool that you have already created... it will only allow you to add sections of pool to areas outside this rectangle. Dont worry if that doesnt make sense to you, you dont need to understand it to do this tutorial :)

1) Imagine that this is where we are going to create our pool island. At the end of this tutorial, the brown area in the center will become an island, and everywhere else will be water.


2) Start off by creating a pool that completely covers area 6 and 9.
Make sure it doesnt enter any of the other areas.


3) Here is the tricky part:
While still using the pool tool, hold down CTRL and drag a stretch of pool in area 8.
Now, release the CTRL key, and then the mouse button, and without moving the mouse, just click once. A new stretch of pool should appear!
If you have difficulty doing this, go take another look at the L-Shaped Pools Tutorial.


4) Using the same method as before, fill in area 4 and 7 so that only area 1, 2 and 3 is left.


5) Finish off by filling in area 1, 2 and 3 and your pool island is complete!


6) Decorate the pool and island however you wish.
Try the Pool Tips tutorial for decorating ideas.

Advanced Pool Tips
For those who are interested in doing more advanced work with pools, I will explain some of the problems you might have when working with complex pools.


Here you can see an interesting shaped pool that I have created.


Remember that although you can only see the exposed areas of the pool, the game actually considers the pool to be as big as the rectangle that you can draw around it.


This is why when you try to add an area of pool inside the rectangle the game will not let you.


It will let you add an area of the pool to somewhere that is outside the rectangle.
But remember, once you add this area of pool, it will increase the size of the rectangle surrounding the pool.


Notice that you cannot delete bits and pieces of the pool wherever you want.


You can only delete parts of the pool by shaving off entire sides of the rectangle like shown above.


Be very careful when changing the height of the terrain at the corners of the rectangle.
I am still not sure what causes this, but sometimes it will make the water-level of your pool appear either above or below the pool, depending on what you raised it to.
The easiest solution seems to be to flatten the ground at these areas, save and quit to the neighbourhood, then go back into the house.

This info took me a while to work out, so hopefully it will save you some time when creating your own advanced designs.

One last thing, you can create two seperate pools, and then link them together. Until you join them, each pool will have a seperate rectangle. This can sometimes the the easiest way to create certain designs of pool.

Advanced Internal Stairs on a foundation.

1) Build a two story house on top of a foundation.


2) Build a 1x1 room in the corner of the first floor
This will eventually become the middle landing between the stairs.


3) Now build another 1x1 room on top of a foundation in the exact position shown in the image below.

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4) Next, you will need to turn on a building cheat.
Here is how to do it:
To enter in cheats, press and hold down CTRL, SHIFT and C.
You should see a small white box appear in the top left corner of the screen.
Type in boolProp constrainFloorElevation false and press enter.
This will allow you to change terrain, even when there are objects on it.
Careful, this cheat can screw up a house, so only use it where specified.


5) Use the small "lower terrain" tool and click in the corner of the foundation exactly eight times. It is very important you do the correct amount.

6) Drag the "flatten terrain" tool from the top corner to the bottom, so that the foundation becomes low and flat like shown above.


7) With a floortile selected, click again on top of the small building. It should lower part of the large building like shown above.


8) Now click in the corner that is diagonal to the corner of the large building. You should see that the whole landing is lowered.


9) Two places away from the landing, add a new floortile where shown.


10) Using the connecting stairs tool, join the second floor to the landing.


11) Again use the connecting stairs to finish off your staircase.

12) To flatten the roof of your building, get a floortile, and drag from one side of the building to the other. The roof should become flat like shown above.

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13) You can now turn off the cheats by hitting CTRL-SHIFT-C and typing in
boolProp constrainFloorElevation true


14) You can now remove that temporary structure you created earlier.
First remove the floortiles, then the walls, then the foundation, then flatten the ground.


15) Finish off the 2nd floor however you want.


16) Your advanced internal L-shaped stairs on a foundation are complete :)
geez is that a mouthful or what? :p

I tried to make this tutorial as easy to follow as possible... but there are MANY different and possibly more effcient ways to build these kind of stairs. So as I always say, experiment.

How to make Creative Object Tips

Although for most of us, we can't create new objects yet, it is possible to combine existing objects to create interesting designs. This page will show you some examples of the kind of things you can do by using the object cheats.

Without the moveObjects cheat on, you will not be able to intersect objects, but turn it on, and it becomes easy to create something like this L-Shaped couch.

With the snapobjectstogrid cheat, you can move objects closer together. In this example you see an extra-wide bookcase.


Tv on coffee table.


Dense bushes and trees.


To create a built-in looking fridge, simply move it further into the wall.
You can also do this with other appliances such as the dishwasher.


This is four lights with different rotations, put together to create a single light.


Make your posterbed actually look like one!


Create an extra wide desk by placing two desks together.


This statue is on top of a small coffee table, inside the chest of drawers.


This is two bookcases on a table, with a light and plant.
Sims can still get books from it!


You can place curtains on archways for a nice effect.


With the cheats on, you will be able to place streetlights and trees on the other side of the road. Also notice the last streetlight is combined with another.


Usually kitchen islands will not connect with normal kitchen counters, but you can use an extra counter to fill in the gap.


Fishtank on table.


Game system under the tv, with the controllers moved aswell.


Made by using the small and medium size couches together.
(sims may not sit on it if they are too close together)


Star-table made by using two triangular tables together.


Raise and paint the terrain to make it look like a rock outcrop in your creek.


Place a foundation, fence, stairs, and roof to create this gazebo.


This pond has extra overlapping lillies.


This centerpiece was made by first lowering the terrain, then adding the plants


I have no idea what this is, but it was fun to make :p
It uses counters, plants, masks, pinball machines, candles, statues, bookcases, wallhangings, and lights.


This lecture theater was a bit tricky to make, and beyond the scope of this tutorial, but use your imagination and see what you can come up with :)

How to create circular stairwells.

1) Create a 6x6 room


2) Make it as high as you want your staircase to be.


3) Add 1 piece of flooring to the corner of the 2nd floor room.


4) Use the connecting stairs to join that level to the ground


5) Repeat the process, moving to a new corner of the room on each floor.


6) Create a building to join your staircase to, and you are done!


You can even remove the walls around the stairs, to create a more open feel.
PS. This pic was made by using external programs... you cant do a slide in TS2 yet. :(

Advanced Circular Stairwells

1) Create a block of foundation 2) Raise the terrain near it FOUR times. 3) Drag another piece of foundation from the top of the hill to the bottom, so that you now have 2 pieces of foundation a square apart, with one piece being twice as tall as the first. 4) Raise the terrain again, but this time do it EIGHT times instead of four. 5) Again, create a piece of foundation. 6) Flatten the ground 7) Now simply make a little 1x1 room. 8) Add flooring 9) Remove walls 10) Use connecting stairs 11) Repeat 12) Add walls to each floor 13) Add floors 14) Again, use connecting stairs 15) Finish it off 16) Remove the walls, and the stairwell is done! 17) If you want to make it indoors, you will have to make the room 5x5. You will not be able to make it 3x3, unless you are very proficient with using the building cheats. Also, you have to do each wall individually. Shift-dragging will not work. 18) Add a building so that the stairs lead somewhere, and you are done! Alternate Circular Stairwell Method They will both produce similar results, so use the one that you find easiest. 1) Use connecting stairs 3 times to dig into the ground 2) Hold down CTRL and delete the stairs. 3) Create 1x1 rooms at each level of the ground, and add flooring. 4) Delete the walls, but leave the floors 5) Flatten the ground 6) Use the connecting stairs, and then follow on from step 12 of the previous tutorial.

Passed 500 000 downloads!

I noticed that I have passed a milestone in downloads, the 500 000 mark, so I want to say a huge thanks to all of you that have downloaded my creations. I am happy to see that they have found their ways into many games and houses.

Now that my PC troubles are coming to an end (hopefully) I am looking forward to start creating new objects again.

The light at the end of the tunnel

Finally I see a light at the end of the tunnel.

My father is doing fine even if he still is tired but that's nothing unusual after pneumonia. He will need a few weeks more to recover completely. I had it myself several years ago and I was at home for three weeks until I was fit enough to return to work.

I ordered my new PC today. Unfortunately the company building the PC didn't have my chosen motherboard in stock so they could only give me a preliminary delivery time about two-three weeks from now :( . I hope that it will not take any longer than that. In the meantime I will start catching up the downloads, lol.

Be Back Soon!

I won't have to chance to create cc for a while. I'm leaving for Freshman Orientation on the 18th of August and I won't have the chance to play Sims 3 until I come home (I can't play the game on my laptop). There's no telling exactly when I'll get to do that, but I will not quit Simming or making cc! I'm just taking a break.

Back Home

Honey, I'm home!!!!

I had a great vacation!!! But it is time to go back to work.

This is what I'm working on right now, some modern doors and windows add-ons of the The Barricade Door.

There will also be a single door with sidelight and may windows.

Housing Commissions

I was thinking about taking in some commisions for houses. If you are interested please send me a mail with information about the kind of house you would want

Pricerange (if neccesary)

Reception Rooms
Bedrooms
Bathrooms
Extra rooms

Lot Size
Housing Style and size + stories
(I prefer something classic like georgian or Victorian but I am willing to try out new things ^^ )
Garden style-size

If you want something special of specific also put it in there, like split level, basement, hill house etc etc.
Try to give me as much details as possible and if you really want to help me, send me pictures of the kind of style you would like
Also tell me the kind of colours you would like, or if it's a specific download you want in there, also let me know.

The reason I am doing this is because I want a challenge in creating houses and learn how to create houses even outside my range, I hope I will improve this way.

PS: I can create a furnished house, details about that will be discussed in an e-mail

If you are interested please let me know ^^
Do not be afraid to ask questions
And thanks for the helps
-Naomi


PSPS: I am not even sure if this against the rules couldn't find it anywhere so if it is please let me know and I will take the blog down.