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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 29th Jul 2020 at 1:29 AM
Default HD Screenshot Resolution Mod?
Hi everyone!

It's been a while since I've last posted on here, so please forgive me if I've mistakenly posted in the wrong place!

I've been wondering for a while now if it would be possible to modify the output resolution of snapshots taken in-game? I know we can already use other tools like FRAPS or even just the Print-Screen shortcut to save high-quality snapshots, but I think it would be awesome to have higher-quality screenshots to use for in-game for storytelling too. Currently my in-game snapshots have a resolution of 400x300, and as you can imagine are very blurry/pixelated. I just think this would be a really cool mod to go along with the Clean UI and other new graphical improvements we've seen so far for Sims 2!

I guess in general I'm wondering three things - if anyone :
- knows if this would even be possible lol
- has already attempted this
- has any ideas on where to start!

Thank you all in advance; I hope you and all of your loved ones are doing well ^-^
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 29th Jul 2020 at 5:22 PM
You can set your resolution to 600x450 by setting the image size to "large". I don't think there's a setting to make it larger, though - but I'm not sure if anyone has found a way around that. You may be able to "trick" the game by using the same file and name (you can edit the pictures and still use them) but I'm not entirely sure if you can for instance size them up and paste in a larger printscreen photo (you can try, though - but make sure to keep the same 4:3 format).

I prefer printscreen, honestly. It takes pictures in the exact resolution of your screen and with a less messy naming system than the game uses (I use a printscreen program to save them in a folder). I haven't used the ingame storytelling tool since back in 2006-07, I think...

The storytelling tool probably has uses for those who do rotational play and those who like to keep track of families and such, but for making stories it's not been that useful ever since the Exchange went down (half the point was that you could upload stories with the tool).
Test Subject
Original Poster
#3 Old 25th Dec 2020 at 5:28 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
You can set your resolution to 600x450 by setting the image size to "large". I don't think there's a setting to make it larger, though - but I'm not sure if anyone has found a way around that. You may be able to "trick" the game by using the same file and name (you can edit the pictures and still use them) but I'm not entirely sure if you can for instance size them up and paste in a larger printscreen photo (you can try, though - but make sure to keep the same 4:3 format).

I prefer printscreen, honestly. It takes pictures in the exact resolution of your screen and with a less messy naming system than the game uses (I use a printscreen program to save them in a folder). I haven't used the ingame storytelling tool since back in 2006-07, I think...

The storytelling tool probably has uses for those who do rotational play and those who like to keep track of families and such, but for making stories it's not been that useful ever since the Exchange went down (half the point was that you could upload stories with the tool).

Thank you for replying! Yes I've been using printscreen to take screenshots because the in-game screenshot camera is so pixelated, but I was just thinking I would really love to be able to have higher resolution photos for storytelling in-game because it feels like journaling It's so fun to keep track of my Sims' lives and write little stories about them; it's such a shame that the resolution is limited given how much the graphics have been improved by the wonderful modding community through custom content and tools like Reshade etc...

I poked around in the settings and like you said, there doesn't appear to be an existing/easily accessible setting to change this... does anyone know if it would be possible to change this through modding? I am a software developer but I've never created a mod for Sims 2 before/am still learning from the modding tutorials.

I was even thinking it would be awesome if I could write an external tool that does what you've described (when a screenshot is taken in-game, the tool will detect this and also take a printscreen shot and replace it in the folder), however I'm not sure if the game refreshes images without exiting first would still be better than doing it manually though!

I just feel like even though the exchange is down, the in-game storytelling tool is still a lot of fun and really adds to the experience for me at least
If anyone has any other thoughts on this, I would be very grateful!
Mad Poster
#4 Old 25th Dec 2020 at 11:34 PM
I think you can replace the pictures with larger ones (same ratio and format!) but that's a bit tedious. I'm also a little unsure if it works fine ingame or if you really spot much of a difference, because they're probably going to be just as small in the album.

The naming system for the pictures seems to have semi-random hex (first code seems connected to the lot, because all the pictures for one lot seem to have been assigned the same code, second looks random-ish but like it is trying to follow some kind of half thought-out pattern, but it doesn't seem to be a date/time stamp, at least not one that makes sense when converted to decimal), so I'm not sure you can get a screenshot tool to figure that one out.
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