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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 13th Jan 2015 at 1:39 AM
Default Image Quality?
I'm having some trouble with pictures for my lot. I've uploaded two Sims 2 lots, and the staff member who had looked over them mentioned the pictures weren't as high quality as they should be. (You can find those listings on my profile if you want to take a look.) I'm currently building Sims 3 houses now, and I messaged her in hopes of figuring out what I could do better, and figured out that I shouldn't be taking in-game screenshots for this. She suggested Fraps, which I downloaded, but was having some difficulty with it. It also only saved my pictures as a PNG instead of JPEG, unless I registered and paid. I ended up downloading something else from a Google search, called "Lightshot" and it seemed to work better for me. It also let me save in JPEG format. I'm still not positive the images are as high-quality as they can be though, especially after comparing them to some other published MTS downloads.

Here are the images I've taken with Lightshot for my listing. Can you let me know what you think about the quality, and let me know of any suggestions you have? Thank you. (This is a shared/public album on my Google Drive): https://drive.google.com/folderview...cEE&usp=sharing

Thanks!
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Instructor
#2 Old 13th Jan 2015 at 2:35 AM
I think it is a problem of your in-game texture rendering - look, grass shouldn't look like that pitch of colour straight from Paint. Try using a higher tuning for in-game graphics quality. In fact using just in-game screenshot should be sufficient. I don't think it's a matter of what external program to use.

Good luck
Test Subject
Original Poster
#3 Old 13th Jan 2015 at 2:49 AM
Thank you for your reply, SimsMatthew. I appreciate it! Here is an image of my settings right now. What do you think? Everything's on High pretty much... https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7...iew?usp=sharing
Scholar
#4 Old 13th Jan 2015 at 3:49 PM
Some of those settings really don't need to be up high for what you're trying to do. Eg, High Detail Lots. What you need is for the one lot you're taking pictures of to look good, any other lots in the area are utterly irrelevant. So you can turn that all the way down to 1. Less stress on your computer Draw Distance and Sim Detail can probably also be lowered quite a bit. Let your computer focus its power on what you need from it.

There is a point though that no matter how high you put the settings, you will be limited by your computer's hardware. I don't know what kind of specs your computer has, but it's possible that you'll either have to settle for okay but not great screenshots, or ask someone with a better computer to take some for you. That might not be the case, but we can't tell without seeing some updated pictures with your adjusted settings.

no power in the verse can stop me
ge smak daun, gyon op nodotaim
jus nou drein jus daun
Lab Assistant
#5 Old 13th Jan 2015 at 4:50 PM
I second Gingerxyz's suggestions.

Also, do you have to run the game in 800x600? What resolution is your screen? For me, resolution makes the biggest difference.
Pretty Space Pony
retired moderator
#6 Old 13th Jan 2015 at 7:27 PM
From a moderator point of view: The quality of the images is good enough for lot uploads. We don't want to force people to buy high-end PCs just so they can upload here Of course it is very helpful to see if you can improve the quality because better is always, well, better but I just wanted to inform you that it is not absolutely required. I would recommend practising a bit more with the camera controls, some of the screenshots have a fisheye effect, which is caused by zooming out too much, rather than moving the camera backwards.

The moderator recommended a screenshot taking program because the in-game camera of TS2 sucks. TS3 does not have this problem, you can press C to take screenshots. For TS2, I use Gadwin Printscreen, because this allows me to save them as .jpgs
Test Subject
Original Poster
#7 Old 13th Jan 2015 at 7:49 PM
I'm sorry, I don't know much about graphics! However, I didn't even think about the 800x600 and how it may affect the quality. I played around with it and am now on 1600x900. Everything looks loads better! The computer I'm using is pretty decent (nicest one I've used in a long time... runs the Sims very fast!) Should I be on any other resolution than 1600x900? Or is this OK?
Alchemist
#8 Old 13th Jan 2015 at 7:55 PM
Can you show some pics with the high settings?

If you remember me, I'm awesome!
__________
Need help building? We'll help.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#9 Old 13th Jan 2015 at 8:14 PM
Yes, I was just about to do that actually. Here is a different album uploaded on my Google Drive, with the new pictures. What do you think? I literally just took the pictures ten minutes ago. https://drive.google.com/folderview...aGM&usp=sharing

Edit: The indoor pictures still look kind of dark, but I think you can tell overall there is more detail and it's all sharper, especially the exterior photos. At least I think.
Scholar
#10 Old 13th Jan 2015 at 9:29 PM
Yes those are much better! Definitely good enough for upload.

Does the house have ceiling (or any other) lights installed? If no install them, if yes, then check to make sure they're turned on. I think it's either Ctrl + Click or Shift + Click to bring up the options on the lights (you'd think I'd have got the hang of it by now but that one still trips me up pretty often ) I know in my game they can be kind of stubborn, and insist that they're turned on when they aren't, but in my experience, turning the blacklight option on and off and/or changing the intensity level usually gets them to turn on. That should sort out the interior darkness issue.

Edit: Nice job on the house btw. Think I'll probably download it once it's up!

no power in the verse can stop me
ge smak daun, gyon op nodotaim
jus nou drein jus daun
Test Subject
Original Poster
#11 Old 14th Jan 2015 at 2:31 AM
Aw, thank you. You should definitely download it and let me know how it works out for you. I'm pretty satisfied with the images I have so I think I'll submit them with my house. If I figure out some better technique, I'll edit it. Thanks everyone.
Instructor
#12 Old 14th Jan 2015 at 3:04 AM
Yeah the images are great! The grass does look like, uhm, grass. Yeah, they're far better than what you had before. Great job
Test Subject
Original Poster
#13 Old 14th Jan 2015 at 3:27 AM
Awesome! I'm thrilled. I've just uploaded the house so hopefully it'll be up in a few days!
Alchemist
#14 Old 14th Jan 2015 at 8:42 PM
I have to say that the interior pictures are rather dark, though.

If you remember me, I'm awesome!
__________
Need help building? We'll help.
Destroyer of Worlds
retired moderator
#15 Old 23rd Jan 2015 at 5:19 AM
Yeah, the interior pictures are pretty dark. Make sure to place lights and they're actually on. If the lights are off since there's not a sim in the room, you can turn them all on automatically by toggling the day/night button.

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#16 Old 23rd Jan 2015 at 6:32 AM
Quote: Originally posted by paisleyplumbobs
Edit: The indoor pictures still look kind of dark, but I think you can tell overall there is more detail and it's all sharper, especially the exterior photos. At least I think.


I think if you ramp up the lighting in your house you may have nailed it The exterior shots are certainly massively improved Good job!
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