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Scholar
Original Poster
#1 Old 7th Dec 2017 at 3:57 AM Last edited by DezzyBoo : 15th Dec 2017 at 12:21 AM. Reason: new peoblem

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time, Apartment Life
Default Video, and photo cameras don't work and ALL pictures are GONE
Ok. All I wanna do is take a picture for the calendar contest. That's all I want to do. I don't have fancy picture taking software. What I do is take a video in game. Play it in windows media player, then use the snipping tool to make a picture. I can not play in windowed mode. Tried, it won't let me.

Well, after all these years now it's telling me, "could not record file to disc. Make sure you have enough disc space and correct read write permissions. " And it's telling me this in game. Nothing works. This has never happened before.

I have plenty of memory on my computer. Is it my anti virus? If so, how do I turn read write permissions back on?

"Oh look, my grandchild is now an elder. They grow up so fast. Gee, I wonder when I'll finally graduate college." Sims 2
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 7th Dec 2017 at 10:15 AM
Since no-one else has replied, I better try to help. I really can't use the in-game video capture now either, though in my case it's just a case of having too much CC. When the game was new, video capture (with the "V" key) worked well, but now it's far to slow to be usable.

I presume that you do have enough disk space. Disk space isn't the same thing as memory. Opening your "Computer" with Windows Explorer (Windows key plus "E") should show you your drives with how much space is left on them. To get more information right click on your hard drive (almost always "C:" nowadays) and choose Properties. It should show you used and unused disk space in the form of a pie chart.

First you should try just rebooting your computer. It's surprising how often this fixes seemingly insurmountable problems. My suspicion is that it's you antivirus software that's stopping you using video capture. Mine used to stop me using the in-game still camera ("C" key). It did this by placing locks on files and not releasing the locks when the game was finished using the files. I haven't had this problem since 2014, when I got new anti-virus software, but I remember it used to leave temporary files (with the ".tmp" extension) in both The Sims 2 folder and the N003 folder (which I was invariably playing). These were often still locked, and I had to reboot the computer to unlock them before I could delete them. (Normally the game deletes these files itself when it's finished with them.) Somebody (it might have been HP) recommended a utility called "Unlocker", which allowed me to unlock files without rebooting the computer, but of course this only works if you know what file(s) is/are locked. So, rebooting was usually still the best answer.

If all else fails, and you still can't get in-game video capture to work, why not just use the in-game still camera ("C" key)? Since you are looking for still pictures for the calendar, this allows higher resolution capture than the video camera.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Mad Poster
#3 Old 7th Dec 2017 at 1:01 PM
Or maybe use a screenshot program? Fraps, Gadwin or any of the others available allows you to take pictures as big as your screen resolution, and they're way better than the videos and the C-button pics from ingame.
Scholar
Original Poster
#4 Old 7th Dec 2017 at 3:57 PM
@AndrewGloria I have 572 gigs left of free space in C Drive. When I take the pics in game with C, how do I find them in my computer?

@simmer22 Are those FREE?

"Oh look, my grandchild is now an elder. They grow up so fast. Gee, I wonder when I'll finally graduate college." Sims 2
Mad Poster
#5 Old 7th Dec 2017 at 5:21 PM
Pics taken in-game with the "C" key are in the Storytelling folder for that particular neighborhood. For example, screenshots taken in Pleasantview would be in:

EA Games > The Sims 2 > Neighborhoods > N001 > Storytelling

There are two types of image stored in that folder. Files whose names start with snapshot (example: snapshot_21e304f6_02519da5.jpg) are your screenshots. The ones whose filenames start with thumbnail (thumbnail_21e304f6_02519da5.jpg) are tiny thumbnail images. Don't use one of those by mistake.
Alchemist
#6 Old 7th Dec 2017 at 9:33 PM
FRAPS; there is a free version and a paid version. the free version has less options than the paid version.
Gadwin; full version seems to be free.

in game camera; in base game, the Storytelling folder is in the "main" folder. My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Storytelling
with any expansion, the folder is in Neighborhood's folder. My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\[N###]\Storytelling
either case, there would be 2 files for each picture; starting with "screenshot_" and "thumbnail_".
Mad Poster
#7 Old 7th Dec 2017 at 9:52 PM
Gadwin - there's a professional version that's pay, probably because of the included (mediocre and very basic) photoediting function. There's also a free version that's got all the tools you need. I accidentally downloaded the trial version once, and from what I could see it's not worth the money if you have photoshop, GIMP or similar.

It's the second one (Gadwin Printscreen) here: https://www.gadwin.com/download/
It may have some issues with the game in fullscreen mode (depending on Windows version), though it works fine with windowed mode. Looks like there may be a screen recorder under the printscreen programs - but I haven't tried it (Gadwin Screen Recorder).
Scholar
Original Poster
#8 Old 8th Dec 2017 at 2:59 PM
Tried it with a different game folder and same thing. What do I do to fix this? I need this to work and it's too much to explain why, I just need it.

why after 13 years would it stop working? I can only think of my anti virus. I have AVG. How do I fix this? I want my video capture back.

http://modthesims.info/t/599784 This thread seems to show a similar problem and

Quote: Originally posted by simsample
Just add your Documents/ EAGames/The Sims 2 folder to your exclusions list in Avast.


How do I do that in AVG?

"Oh look, my grandchild is now an elder. They grow up so fast. Gee, I wonder when I'll finally graduate college." Sims 2
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#9 Old 8th Dec 2017 at 9:51 PM
Nothing fancy about Fraps, you just get the free version like most of us who use it have. Take your shots-mine is set to the 9 key but you can set it to whatever key you want. Once they are done (handy folder in C drive) run your pictures through Gimp or fast Stone to change it from BMP to PNG. BMP is too large for the site. Your way actually sounds harder and I am not sure on the quality of going such a round about way.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Scholar
Original Poster
#10 Old 8th Dec 2017 at 10:38 PM Last edited by DezzyBoo : 8th Dec 2017 at 10:48 PM.
I need my video capture to work. I put my Sims 2 folder in exceptions and still no go.

How do I fix this?

"Oh look, my grandchild is now an elder. They grow up so fast. Gee, I wonder when I'll finally graduate college." Sims 2
Scholar
Original Poster
#11 Old 8th Dec 2017 at 11:06 PM
ok I got fraps to work. I guess I will just have to accept my video no longer works.

"Oh look, my grandchild is now an elder. They grow up so fast. Gee, I wonder when I'll finally graduate college." Sims 2
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#12 Old 8th Dec 2017 at 11:24 PM
Well I moved your thread to the help section, somebody who can help might see it.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#13 Old 9th Dec 2017 at 2:43 AM
I have the same problem actually. I rarely take videos, so I only recently noticed it. Screenshots are fine; it's just videos that won't work.
Scholar
Original Poster
#14 Old 9th Dec 2017 at 3:09 PM
Damn. I have a bad graphics card so when my graphics go screwy I can either hit the Windows key and go back to my desktop then renter the game, or take a video in game to reset them. Obviously taking a vid is easier and I'm really annoyed I've lost it.

And by bad graphics, I mean crap like this:



So yeah. Super annoyed. But oh well. I have to go back to my desktop anytime Change Appearance malfunctioned or CAS so whatever. Sigh.

"Oh look, my grandchild is now an elder. They grow up so fast. Gee, I wonder when I'll finally graduate college." Sims 2
Scholar
Original Poster
#15 Old 10th Dec 2017 at 1:45 AM Last edited by DezzyBoo : 10th Dec 2017 at 1:56 AM.
Okay...snapshot doesn't work either.

I take the pictures, the flash happens, and it doesn't save them in game or in the storytelling folder.

Fraps takes shots of the UI on the screen of the game.

as you can see here..



I had to use the snipping tool to cut that part off to submit to the calendar contest.

How do I take a picture without the UI showing like other people do???

WHAT DO I DO PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME

"Oh look, my grandchild is now an elder. They grow up so fast. Gee, I wonder when I'll finally graduate college." Sims 2
Alchemist
#16 Old 10th Dec 2017 at 2:09 AM
not sure if any third-party screenshot program can hide the control panel or sim's queue.
to hide control panel, press either F10 or Tab; before taking picture.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#17 Old 10th Dec 2017 at 2:20 AM
@DezzyBoo First you need the no red pause line mod. http://www.insimenator.org/showthread.php?t=62217

Next make sure your graphics are on high even if it's just for this shot.

Third press Tab and use the free camera. It moves with A,D, S,W,E,X,Z.

I used Gimp to save as a PNG and then I resized before uploading to Mod Your Panties.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Scholar
Original Poster
#18 Old 10th Dec 2017 at 2:41 AM
Thank you very much

"Oh look, my grandchild is now an elder. They grow up so fast. Gee, I wonder when I'll finally graduate college." Sims 2
Mad Poster
#19 Old 10th Dec 2017 at 4:17 AM
The TAB button (the free-cam mode) hides everything except the action queue (To fix: select a sim without a queue or go to buy/build/settings) and the red pause line (link above).

You can also use the arrow buttons for forward/L/R/back, plus Q and E for moving the camera up and down (but only use Q in TAB mode, as Q is usually the quit button). You can move the mouse for tilting and rotating the camera.
Mad Poster
#20 Old 10th Dec 2017 at 5:28 AM
Nopke made a mod that gets rid of the frame altogether. With BeosBoxBoy's invisible version linked above, it's still possible to accidentally click on the pause button in the corner and unpause your game.

Nopke's version:
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=586548
Scholar
Original Poster
#21 Old 14th Dec 2017 at 3:46 AM Last edited by DezzyBoo : 14th Dec 2017 at 3:57 AM.
Ohhhhhkaaaayyy....This problem is becoming even more concerning and I REALLY need some help.

ALL pictures ANYWHERE in my game are GONE.

ALL families. ALL hoods. ALL storymodes. ALL pictures for custom hoods that don't have a Maxis flyby. Everything. Poof. It's like my game ate and deleted every single last picture.

And it isn't just one folder. It's all of them. Attached is what I mean by folders in case someone doesn't know. I run four of them. And ALL my pictures are GONE.

What the heck is going on when my game was FINE the last time I played, like 2 months ago. All I can think of is my anti virus and I would like an answer as to how and why my anti virus destroyed images in a video game!

Below are screenshots.

Please ignore my horrible water...
Screenshots

"Oh look, my grandchild is now an elder. They grow up so fast. Gee, I wonder when I'll finally graduate college." Sims 2
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#22 Old 14th Dec 2017 at 10:49 AM
Are the files actually there? Go to C:\Users\[your username]\Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\[Your Hood Number]\Storytelling.

Are there any image files in there?
Mad Poster
#23 Old 14th Dec 2017 at 2:19 PM
It might not be your anti-virus (though if it is, it would be because something convinced it that .jpg files could be viruses and you should be able to get a list of quarantined files). It might be an actual virus. A Loooooooooooooong time ago I was working in an office that got a virus which ate all the .jpgs it could find.

What I'm saying is, the problem may be in your computer rather than in your game, in which case we'd need to know a lot more about your computer than we do in order to help. You may ultimately need help from someone who can sit down at it, though personally I always like to do a little troubleshooting myself (and with my husband and another IT person we're friends with) before calling in the pros, so he doesn't waste time with the "users are so stupid" run of basic tests.

In this case, I think the first thing I'd do is try to find any other graphic files that might be in the computer and see if there's a pattern to what is and isn't gone. Can you find the files but not see the pictures? Are all your .jpgs and .pngs gone, and all your .gifs behaving normally? If you add a new picture from outside the computer, what happens to it?

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Scholar
Original Poster
#24 Old 14th Dec 2017 at 2:31 PM
@simsample That's what's so strange. the files are there. I checked. All the maxis screenshots and a few old ones I took years ago are there in the storytelling folder.

@Peni Griffin all of my other images are fine. Gifs run normally. Nothing on my actual computer has gone missing or is malfunctioning.

I'm sorry guys let me clarify. What I mean by gone is, gone from the game. The jpegs are on my comp, my game isn't reading them.

Please note: All was fine last time I played. Is my graphics card too full like where I have seen people having flashing pink? Is this a symptom of that?

I'm very upset. I can't play Maxon's Polgannon without the pictures...

"Oh look, my grandchild is now an elder. They grow up so fast. Gee, I wonder when I'll finally graduate college." Sims 2
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#25 Old 14th Dec 2017 at 2:51 PM
Try with a fresh Sims 2 folder.

Drag Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 to the desktop and run the game. Do you see in-game images now? Does your video capture work?
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