It's been a while since I last came here, but now reading the messages above I realize there exists a condition in which my cameras make the game go wild. This seems to be a rare case (I have never received any private message regarding this, the reports above are the only one), but seems to be related to Mansion&Garden according to the little info posted above.

If you happen to be one of the unlucky people which has trouble, I would really like if you can help me a bit with this. Please, in this case, contact me with as much info that you can provide me with, and I will try to find the solution with you, which might help others too.

In the interim (for the time it takes me to return to you and find a solution) I suggest that you remove just the one camera that causes problems, restoring the Maxis default of course.

I installed the LiveCamera, CASCamera and NeighborhoodCamera files. I entered a lot and pressed TAB, then I pressed it again and my game crashed. It's the same problem OVERLORD CHAOS! has but my game is in English, so I don't think that the language would cause the problem.

This is an absolutely wonderful mod and I've been playtesting it for about two days now. I have all EPs and SPs including Mansion and Garden. I also agree with the thought it's the Live Camera due to the massive inconsistencies between the files.
Below I've attached a .txt* file with the differences between the maxis-made First-Person and LiveCamera s and your cameras. I reccomend either turning word warp off when you open the file or going full screen as it's set up to be a little more organized.

My error though is always in live mode and blue though unlike Overlord_Chaos!'s error. If you've ever Ctrl+Alt+Del or Ctrl+Alt+Esc out of Sims and came back in you got the blue screen plus little hourglass/pointer thing for a short amount of time, (for me it's three turns) it's the same color as that screen only slightly darker. None of the UI buttons are clickable (no buy, build, story or save modes (not greyed out like a fire, just, click gets no response.)) I can tab in and out between the UI and cameraman mode. My computer wouldn't take a screenshot of the error and Sims crashed afterwords. Had a rare occasion where after getting the error and Ctrl+Alt+Del'ing out and going back in yealded no UI at all, regardless of pressing the tab key or not. Still had the blue screen, although that particular situation I found unreproducible.

Anyways, sorry for such a long post but just trying to help figure it out.
I'm going to take out the live camera for now and head back to maxis but you deserve 3 cheers for this awesome mod! I'm still keeping everything else in though. Hip hip !

Simsclicker: I have checked the file you posted. If you say there weren't any extra line in the default Maxis file issued with Mansions&Gardens then that's fine. It means they didn't had anything new relating to that camera. I actually had a fear when Apartments was released, because of the addition of the ceilings, but I have never heard of any problem with that, and some have mentioned that, unlike other mods, mine allowed them to view their ceiling. My last EP is Free Time, I don't have neither M&G nor Apartments.

You have noticed that I have used more values in the section about zooming. These are steps. Maxis only put in 6 steps, and when testing, I found out that if I enlarged the distance between each steps, without actually adding any new steps, if made the zooming speed (when using either the keyboard or the mouse wheel) to go too fast, too steep. By adding steps, the zooming goes about the same that with the default Maxis settings, except that you can go closer and farther than the default. If you want to experiment with these values, make sure that there are exactly the same amount of values (steps) between each set of parentheses. Any inconsistency here makes all the sets to be ignored completely by the game.

At the end of the file, you have noticed about the sinclude "LiveCameraNoFade.txt". That was a trick which I found Maxis used elsewhere (can't remember where). What it does, is if the file referenced by the call exists, the game loads the file and override any values with those in the files. However, if the file doesn't exist, the game simply ignore the call and goes on. The tricked worked without a glitch until Free Time, so I'd be very surprise if it failed in a later EP/SP. However, if you want to feel safe and you don't actually use the No Fade add-on, you could remove this line and see if it changes anything. Also feel free to change anything else and see what happens. There is little you could do to cause tremendous problems. In fact, I have found that if a value is wrong, or a line is incorrectly formatted, all that happens is that the game reverts to a default value (which is not always the one in the original default file).

Now, about the blue screen you mention. Unless I read you incorrectly, that is normal. If you step out of the game (minimize the game using alt-tab, the Windows key, or any other mean you may come up with, but don't close the game) and return into the game afterward, the screen will come up completely blue (one of the tones used in the game normally) with a hourglass. The game takes a while to return (about 5-10 seconds on my computer, may take more on less on other computers), like if it needed to reload a couple of things, or perhaps mayby it's waiting for Windows to give it its memory slots back (it takes more time to return, if I have been out of the game for a longer period and used other programs during that time). Anyway, I am not sure why it does that, but it always does that, even if a bare naked freshly installed game. If your problem is different, you will need to describe it better, because I fear I missed your point.

By crashing, I expect that the game would be closed without you asking for that, and will not return or leave a button on the task bar. I don't think that is what you are saying. When you have the blue screen that I'm talking about, please let the hourglass do its job (whatever it is that it's doing). Maybe it will take a minute or two, but eventually the game should return to normal. If it takes too long, maybe you should not go out of the game ever (what would you need to do on your computer, beside playing TS2, anyway? It's not like a computer was designed to do anything beside playing that addictive game!!!!)

I hope this is of help to you or anyone else. If not, let me know, I'm going to scratch my head further.


Tom

Thanks for your prompt response!
Yes, the steps make a lot of sense, the larger the amount you can zoom, with a metered interval, the larger the interval is and adding more intervals helps to get the desired effect.
As far as the "sinclude" yes, I've seen that somewhere before in another file and know that's normal. I just remarked it's existence in the file because I was listing everything, even things I was sure wouldn't cause a problem.
I'll try removing it and that line of code, to see if it causes a problem, even though most people say they have the problem and don't list that as one of their files. I will try without it and try to replicate the error.
I also know the blue screen when you press the flag key/Ctrl+Alt+Del out of it and back in is normal. I always let the hourglass do it's job, I just love to play the Apocalypse challenge and there are so many rules you have to come out of the game to see if something is 'legal' or not yet. Plus with my old computer it would do that on a freeze (not enough RAM) so I learned to wait it out.
What I meant to say is that the error color of the screen I receive (unlike Overlord_Chaos!) is a darker value of the same blue, unlike the black in her/his screenshot. I wish I could take a screenshot of it but my computer gives me a weird picture of what's behind the game and a little black box in the corner instead of a picture of the error.
I've included a picture I took with my phone (not very good quality) that show my error.
The UI (Sim panel) does nothing. Can't switch to buy, build, story or options modes.
I'll eventually get a "This application has crashed and will now terminate" dialog (or something to that effect, the same that Overlord_Chaos!'s says but in English.)
Anyway I'll try getting rid of the LiveCameraNoFade.txt and deleting the line of code and see if it does anything. Hope it helps and I made myself clearer. Everything else works like a charm though!

EDIT: I tested without the LiveCameraNoFade.txt (with sinclude words and without) and got the exact same error as Overlord_Chaos!, black screen, termination seconds later.

I have problems believing my cams could do that (in the end, these files are just some altered config files). But well, I assume that you tried restoring the original files and that the game doesn't crash anymore, so I got to believe there is a problem in rare circumstances, but I will not be able to determine what it is that causes the problem, unless I could be in front of your computer. I am very sorry that you cannot use my cameras, but I really don't see what I could do.

I see you already have a nice camera, you don't need mine lol

Lolz...
It's all good though. Everything else works like a charm and using the zoom on the first-person camera in combination with the Maxi LiveCamera makes for some pretty close up shots, apparently Eaxis was pretty flexible with that.
Still, I can't get over how much I adore the CAS Camera and the neighborhood cam! Thanks for making these, they're great! :D

thanks! i've always found the cams limiting, esp in neighborhood, and i'm looking forward to trying these.

I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate this mod. The camera view in the neighborhood has been bugging me for the longest time. There were houses I couldn't even get to because of the view of the original camera. I love this! Thanks a bunch.

This is brilliant! Thank you very, very much!

Hope you're still supporting this. My problem is that the neighborhood camera seems to be MAXIS' limited mobility (I haven't tried situations that would use the other cameras). What I used from your set (removing the Maxis version & putting it in a desk-top folder) is: Build, CAS, 1st person, Live, and neighborhood. Should I try removing these and downloading them again? Makes no sense that they didn't work!

"FIXED": when RETURNED to hood camera works fine. Whatever...

You're awesome for making this! Thanks

The CAS-cam is the best one from this pack in my opinion. If you're using a widescreen you have to zoom out to see the whole Sim without the menu onto him. With your CAs-cam it works. Thank you.

It would seem Maxis didn't own any widescreen monitor when they created the game. I did the only thing that was possible, that is slightly adjust the angle of the camera. Even with that, it doesn't work well on every possible resolution, but I had to make a trade off for what I thought was more common. I'm glad that you like it!

incase you forgot to backup sims 2 defaults program has it in (program Files)\EA Games(or just EA)\Sims 2\TSData\RES\userdata

camera in (program Files)\EA Games(or just EA)\Sims 2\TSData\RES\userdata\cameras

i dont have cameras folder in the sims 2

I love it; I can actually see all of the roads in my neighborhood now! lol ^_^

Tom,

I don't know if you have ever tested this mod on a laptop, but I seem to be having a problem changing the pitch in any mode. I used your cameras on my desktop PC, and everything worked great. I use an external wireless mouse (it does have a wheel) with my laptop because it's easier for me to control, but I've also fooled around with the mousepad and still had the same problem. I also tried installing GunMod's cameras since I used them at one point on my desktop. I have the exact same problem with his, and while leaving a comment in that thread I noticed someone else mentioned it, too. If you know anything about this I'd be grateful. I know everyone's moved on to Sims 3 and other things, so if you can't help I totally understand.

Thanks!

Hi arwentroi,

I haven't moved to TS3. However, I had not played TS2 in a while (I'm currently reinstalling it at the time of writing this), which is why I have not logged in this forum for a while.

I was actually playing TS2 on a laptop at the time I did this mod. I have since played it on different other computers with this mod in. I have so far never ran into any problem at all myself.

It does not make a difference whether you run the game on a laptop or desktop computer (the game actually does not know the difference).

Tom




About M&G problem

If you are experiencing a crash caused by this mod, please see the new notice labelled Known Issue on the main description page. (I am deeply sorry for this problem, and even more about not being able to find a solution.)

Tom -

Thanks for your reply! Between my last post and yours, my mouse's battery died and I couldn't get it out, so I bought a new one. Turns out the old mouse was the problem! I can change the vertical angle again. Thank you again for this mod, I wouldn't be able to play without it!

I really like the settings of this mod, but it causes my game to crash when I exit tab mode in a position not supported by Maxis and/or normal play mode. Also, whenever my sims go into labor, the camera moves into a position around their feet. If I want to change it, the game crashes as well. Thought I'd let you know.

Oh wow, I'm gonna test this after my weekly downloading spree. Thanks sooooo much!

Every time I refresh my game or change my EP configuration, I need to redownload all of my hacks. The amount of times I've come back for this specific hack is more than any other hack! I wish I could thank this thread more than once!

Brilliant!! I have all games and EP and have experienced no trouble.... This is absolutely what I needed after just learning to build my own neighbourhood in Simcity 4 and uploading it into Sims 2!! I can now view every road!!
Thank you thank you!!
It will never cease to amaze me the talent I find on MTS!! =D

Thanks for making this!
Does installing new EP's make the camera's reset? I've noticed that the files go back to the original when I install a new EP.