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malthaussen
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 6th Sep 2025 at 2:08 AM
Default Taking photos for the album: how do I change the zoom for them?
I've been snapping a few shots for my album in my Legacy Restart, and no matter how I have the main screen zoomed, the pic is always the same zoom, and not the zoom chosen. How do I facilitate this?

-- Mal
"Of two choices, I always take the third."
Charity
Mad Poster
#2 Old 6th Sep 2025 at 6:57 PM
Print Screen will honestly give you better pictures than the in game camera.
malthaussen
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#3 Old 6th Sep 2025 at 9:25 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Charity
Print Screen will honestly give you better pictures than the in game camera.

Yes, that's true. But I like compiling albums to tell a story. I don't know if there's a way to do that without the in-game camera.

-- Mal
"Of two choices, I always take the third."
simsample
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retired moderator
#4 Old 6th Sep 2025 at 10:27 PM
malthaussen
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 7th Sep 2025 at 12:32 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simsample
You could try this:
https://modthesims.info/d/60033


No, that's the storybook viewer, which a) I already have, but b) doesn't work in Legacy, dammit. It doesn't change the camera focus, just lets you view your albums outside the game.

-- Mal
"Of two choices, I always take the third."
simsample
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retired moderator
#6 Old 7th Sep 2025 at 1:13 AM
It will let you link images taken with printscreen to a story though, which was why I mentioned it. It's moot if you can't get it to work with Legacy, though! What does the snapshotcamera.txt file in your documents folder look like? This is how it is on mine (disk install, all EPs and Sps) and I can make snapshots zoomed in.

Code: 
# Camera configuration file for the Storytelling tool.
# See cameras.txt for a description of syntax.

# A more free range camera for debugging
camera      "SnapshotCam" Live

zoom        1 (68.0 49.0 28.0 18.3 1.0) 
fov           (32.2 28.6 23.0 22.3 21.8) 
clip          (25 25 15 10 .15)           (500 500 500 500 500) 
pitch         (30 26 22.5 19 15)          (40 45 50 55 60)

orientation 1 (10 55 100 145 190 235 280 325)
smoothing   7 8
slope       0.7
wheel       1.5
malthaussen
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#7 Old 7th Sep 2025 at 4:05 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simsample
It will let you link images taken with printscreen to a story though, which was why I mentioned it. It's moot if you can't get it to work with Legacy, though! What does the snapshotcamera.txt file in your documents folder look like? This is how it is on mine (disk install, all EPs and Sps) and I can make snapshots zoomed in.

Code: 
# Camera configuration file for the Storytelling tool.
# See cameras.txt for a description of syntax.

# A more free range camera for debugging
camera      "SnapshotCam" Live

zoom        1 (68.0 49.0 28.0 18.3 1.0) 
fov           (32.2 28.6 23.0 22.3 21.8) 
clip          (25 25 15 10 .15)           (500 500 500 500 500) 
pitch         (30 26 22.5 19 15)          (40 45 50 55 60)

orientation 1 (10 55 100 145 190 235 280 325)
smoothing   7 8
slope       0.7
wheel       1.5


Okay, they're identical except for a comment line. Please, walk me through this like I'm an infant, how do you do it? I zoom the cam in and take the shot, but it's always zoomed out to a
standard zoom no matter what is on the screen in front of me.

-- Mal
"Of two choices, I always take the third."
simmer22
Mad Poster
#8 Old 7th Sep 2025 at 4:33 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 7th Sep 2025 at 5:42 AM.
Do you mean how to use the camera controls?

You can use the TAB button for full control over the camera (arrow buttons or WASD for left/Right/forward/back, Q and E for up and down, . and , or < and > for rotating depending on keyboard. You can zoom in and out using X and z or + and - )

There's a full list of various key combos and mouse controls here:
https://help.ea.com/en/articles/the...egacy-controls/ (Says Legacy, but should be the same for UC or whichever other version you've got)


If you mean how the camera zooms far out after you've used the TAB mode, I think there's only one way to go around that, and it's to save a "starting" camera position - you can save camera positions both outside of and in TAB mode, with Ctrl+[4-9], so 6 camera positions for each mode. Hitting just the number makes the camera go back to the position (and resets the zoom if you save with no zoom, as in the ZX/+- kind of zoom).
The TAB camera should start at the position the camera is in when you hit the button, so it's only when you go out of it this particular problem happens. I think it's fairly common, especially if you use a camera mod, but reasonably sure it happens without one as well.
malthaussen
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#9 Old 7th Sep 2025 at 5:31 AM
No joy. This is crazy. Yeah, the number sets the camera zoom all right, but when I take the pic, it's still zoomed out. WTaF?

-- Mal
"Of two choices, I always take the third."
simmer22
Mad Poster
#10 Old 7th Sep 2025 at 5:40 AM
Can you show what you mean with a couple pictures - before and after? I think it would be easier to understand what the problem is, and if there's a way to fix it.
malthaussen
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#11 Old 7th Sep 2025 at 9:15 AM
Sure can.

Here's a screenshot taken with f12, zoomed in: [IMG][/IMG]
Here's what the in-game camera gives me: [IMG][/IMG]

As you can see, the Zoom is ignored. These shots were taken one right after the other, without changing the zoom.

-- Mal
Screenshots
"Of two choices, I always take the third."
FuryCat
Forum Resident
#12 Old 7th Sep 2025 at 1:05 PM
This happens to me too, I don't know of a fix but I just zoom in a bit further than I want to, take the photo and then it shows to be taken with the actual zoom I want it to be (Not sure if this makes any sense )
Cats are the cutest creatures. And the most stubborn.

My Simblr
malthaussen
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#13 Old 7th Sep 2025 at 1:56 PM
Quote: Originally posted by FuryCat
This happens to me too, I don't know of a fix but I just zoom in a bit further than I want to, take the photo and then it shows to be taken with the actual zoom I want it to be (Not sure if this makes any sense )


Makes plenty of sense. I'll mess with it and see what happens.

-- Mal
"Of two choices, I always take the third."
simsample
-·-- -·-- --··
retired moderator
#14 Old 7th Sep 2025 at 4:27 PM
Oh I see what you are getting at, that difference is becuse your screen is at a different aspect ratio to the in-game camera. So when you take a screenshot, you are taking a widescreen image, but the in-game camera is VGA. You can see it on my shots too. If I were to edit the in-game image to remove the top and bottom of the picture, it would appear the same (except for the pixel bit depth).
Screenshots
simmer22
Mad Poster
#15 Old 7th Sep 2025 at 10:59 PM
If you use a widescreen and feel like things seem a bit more squashed than it should be, you can try using the "square pixels"setting in the graphics settings ingame, especially if you're playing in fullscreen mode.

It does look like the camera takes the "same" picture, but it's cutting some off the top and bottom on the actual screen (and of course the size). More noticable when comparing a widescreen screenshot to a 600x450 ingame C-button pic.
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