Live Cameras with 1st, 2nd & 3rd person perspective (Press Z/X Keys)

Update #3 (May/06/2023): I was double checking the files I uploaded and realized I uploaded the wrong file for my dynamic field, I'm sorry for those who downloaded it from April 28 until this day, that file was missing the second person perspective.

Update #2 (Apr/28/2023): Now you have field of view options (FOV), between my dynamic one (from 55 to 80), Pacmani's (80-85) or EA's (45); this means you can choose weather if you'd like your fov to remain stable or dynamic within a larger field of view or the original EA one. There's also are some minor tweaks to make the camera movements a bit smoother.


Update #1 (Feb/23/2023): The parameters are high enough now for you to travel through the entire neighborhood from corner to corner in live mode; I originally reduced these because I thought a bit of restriction couldn't be bad, considering you could fly away from the neighborhood accidentally, however, I realized the game has different restrictions depending on how far you are from the center of the neighborhood, the further away from the cented the more restricted you are to move with my previous parameters, but that shouldn't be an issue anymore.



Not going to lie, I had a lot of fun playing with "Realistic Live Camera with Ego Perspective" by PacMani, back in 2014; I got to enjoy the game from a different perspective. Now, after coming back from a hiatus, I kinda missed the original camera and field of view (FOV) but I also wanted to keep the camera ready to take pictures & play as if I were a sim inside the lot, so I did my own version based off of PacMani's and EA.

What's new.
This new version is an enhanced hybrid between PacMani's and EA/Maxis camera with predetermined camera positions; meaning, you'll get a different perspective each time you zoom in/out with Z or X keys only. You're free to move around the neighborhood like you do in PacMani's version.

In live mode, right click the portrait of your sim in the UI/Menu and zoom all the way in, you'll get a 1st person camera. Originally with PacMani's you'll zoom into the sim's head, but I wanted to keep the 2nd and 3rd person perspective so I had to relocate the camera height, you'll zoom into your sim's lower neck instead, this 1st person camera is not perfect to use while playing with a sim, but is great to take pictures as if you were a sim inside the room.


This is how it looks when you zoom all the way in (1st person)

If you press X once you'll see your sim from the hips. (2nd person)

Press X again and you'll see the full body of your sim (3rd person)

Press X for the third time to move around like you usually do with the original EA camera; at this point; if you're using a laptop, I suggest you use shift plus and minus to gently zoom in and out.

Press X again and you should see the entire lot

If you zoom all the way out, you'll see the entire neighborhood like you do in neighborhood view.

Recommended way to play. (Click the thumbnails below to play the gifs)
If you want a better experience playing 2nd and 3rd person, consider this:
- The smaller the room the more you should zoom all the way in, so you don't peek outside the room when you rotate the camera sideways; stay in the center of the room to rotate freely or pick a corner to see the entire room.
- Since navigating in this perspective with keys (WASD) is really slow, you can quickly navigate the room by right clicking the floor nearby, right click is your best friend in this setup, you can also use Ctrl+right,click+mouse/pad to move the camera up and down for laptop and PC users.

- In 2nd person, stay at least 1 square away from the walls so you can freely rotate inside a room and you don't peek outside the walls, since the camera doesn't automatically zoom in the game when it's near a wall.

- Another way to improve this experience is by saving camera positions, clicking Ctrl+4 (you can choose from #4 to #9), so next time you follow your sim and you quickly need to go to a room just press 4 again and the camera will go back to that room. The best part is, these camera positions save when you save the game, so you don't have to adjust the camera again.


How to Install. It's as simple as copy-paste
Make a backup file.
- Go to your "Documents\EA Games\The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection\Cameras" folder.
- Make a copy of the "LiveCamera.txt" file there and rename it (like "LiveCamera Backup.txt"). I uploaded a backup file either way, just in case.
Open the download with an archive program like 7-zip, WinRAR, WinZIP or whichever you prefer.
- Drag the "LiveCamera.txt" into your "Documents\EA Games\The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection\Cameras" folder (where you just backed up the current LiveCamera.txt); then click on replace
Start the game and have fun!

Check out Pacmani's Live Camera and Gunmod's cameras