More Awesome Than You!

This mod fixes the issue with not being able to capture various rabbit holes, collections and other stuff.

Goes in mods\packages.

"fix_photographyXML_allsizes.package" is a variation that besides the fix enables all sizes, styles and zoomlevels for sims with no photography skill. Failure chance, picture cost and values are the same as before. As you level up in skill you will still get the same messages, "Your sim can now take black and white pictures" etc. Just ignore this.
This edits the same xml as before so just chose one file.

EDIT: Fine to use with patch 2.3
2009-12-22: Both files updated with fix for the dropa stones collection.
2010-02-03: While they fixed the theatre issue with Patch 1.9/2.4, the other issues are still broken. It should be fine to still use this fix.
2010-03-08: Forgot to update the thread for the 1.10/2.5/3.1 patch. Fix should be fine to use. With the constant stream of patches I won't update this thread for each one.
2010-05-18: Removed photo subjects that weren't visible in the UI or possible to capture.
2010-06-01: Ambitions/game patch update.
2010-06-07: Fix for said update.
2010-11-19: Updated for Late Night/game patch.
2011-01-29: Fix for Bridgeport theatre.
2011-10-18: Patch 1.26/Pets Update.
2012-08-20: Small fix and tweak.
2012-09-05: Supernatural update. Added the new supernatural collection, fixed Moonlight Falls theatre, tweaked the "fortune teller" photo so that it registers fortune tellers at any career level (was previously only level 6-10).
2012-11-21. Added Seasons collection.
2013-02-22: Updated for patch 1.50

No changes for patch 1.55

This works great! Is there another fix like this for the Journalism career. My sim will go to do the review but he doesn't have the option to write the review on his computer.

I haven't looked into careers or opportunies at all, so I don't think I can help you there.

My sim was finally able to get a photo of the theatre, the spa, and the school thanks to this.  :D

Now if only there was some way to manually tell the stupid camera what you were trying to point at, like a way to chose from a list of possible subjets instead of it just randomly flickering from one to the next.  Less pics of one and a half mummies that count as "Two's Company" and pics of a snake charmer that count as "My Spouse".  The arbitrary "this is what you're pointing the camera at" thing is stubborn as hell sometimes and often does not relate to what is actually captured at all (like a picture of some floorboards that says it's a pic of "Fighting the Flab" wtf?).

I just started with the damn camera. N00b shots don't get to zoom out far, so I have one picture of a 'big boulder' that just looks like an amorphous black mass as I could only capture about 20% of the middle of the stupid thing.

Yes, some way to switch between the different motives in the pictures would have been great. There are some tuneable values in this xml that gives the "scale" of subjects. Possibly this could change how some things register. There are also two other xml files, one for objects and one for people, that gives values of for example the distance allowed between people to be captured. There would probably have to be a lot of experiments with these values though to get something better.


I was thinking of changing this, to allow full zoom and all styles and sizes available from start. I think this is possible with just changing this file. Then it would only depend on how expensive your camera is. And your skill level would only decide chance of failure and value of the pictures. This would be way more realistic. 

Well yes, even a camera n00b can push any button on an expensive camera. We had one of those on the IRL photography course I attended.  :D

The chance of failure should be reliant on skill level, etc. I look forward to this mod.

Well, that was easy. :)

Well, that was fast!

Just an observation, I noticed that the dropa collection in the collectible section and the "get a room" on sims in motion is not recognized either with or without this fix.

Ok, I'll look into those.

Edit: Dropa stone collection issue is fixed. The "get a room" photo is possible to capture. Make sure the sims on the couch is doing the "makeout" interaction and that it's daytime. "Cuddle on sofa" won't do and at night it seems to be overridden by the "lovers at night" photo. Also, sometimes if a photo contains several subjects you may also have to cycle through them by snapping other subjects first.

Thanks, Goggalor

Thank you so much for this fix!

I could not believe EA did not think to work on the Riverview buiildings, oh wait a minutes, in fact I did!

And including the beach photography in one of the collections when there is none in Riverview? Nice again EA!

Thanks for fixing their failures!

I have been trying to complete the photography skill records and found that for the everyday moments category the game lists 27 items internally but only 25 are listed on the skill page.

The missing two are 1. The Maid and 2. The Repairman. which is impossible to get since trying to capture them they would register as "friends or a sim in the area or maid at work/repairman on the job" just wondering if it possible to request to fix this also?

I also noticed that the Fireman is really hard to get since the fireman will most of time register as "running", "a fight" or "fighting fire". I hope ambitions would be able to correct this with the firefighter career.

Thanks.

Is there a mod that add new camera resolution? I love the 4:3 resolution, but it's too small.

Actions take priority over type, as you just said with the fireman- a sim who is a fireman, but dressed in casual clothing and just standing around, registers no problem.

The same probably applies to the maids and repairmen.

Thanks Claeric, Will try that.

Did you finish the 25 listed photos in that collection and it still wouldn't show as completed? Also not sure were you mean they are listed internally. If you are talking about the fact that they are listed as subjects in this xml that's because those entries are used as arguments in other entries.

And as for the fireman, what claeric said.

Yes, I finished all 25 listed photo category for the Everyday Moments. What i meant internally listed is that when you unlock the everyday moments category, the game will list that you still have 26 subjects more to go. Been checking the pop-up messages in game and noticed the two unlisted subjects are "The Maid" and "The Repairman"  It appears they are not the same as "Maid at Work" and "Repairman on the Job"

Did the fireman as what claeric said, Kept getting "my friend" or "a sim in the area" depending on how well you know him. I did manage to get the subject via using the buyable fire mod and kept the camera on him until the "Fireman" tag appeared.

Thanks.

Ok, I think I managed to hide the maid and repairman entries properly. I don't have any sim at the moment close to finishing that category though, but hopefully it will register as completed now. Thanks for letting me know about it.

Thanks very much, Will try it out.

Edit 5/26: It works Thanks very much, Goggalor.

Updated for Ambitions and the latest game patch.

Thanks for the update Goggalor.

Just noticed, that Ambitions broke the photography skill in my game. The "Home Sweet Home" category seemed to have spawned an empty subject to photograph which deducted from the completed set number on the Shutter Nut challenge.

I'm still experimenting if this is caused by ambitions or another mod or CC.

Oh, it's definitely ambitions. They had added some code to take photos of crafted sculptures or sketches. Seems like they forgot to add a name in th UI or something like that. I'll see if I can fix it with this mod.

Edit: Turns out all they wanted to do was add the new sculptures and sketches to the "Home Decor" subject, but failed miserably. That'll teach me to not add their updates without checking if they actually function first. Fixed.

I found the missing name for the Home Sweet Home by accident. It's the laundry set, You must have both washing machine and dryer inside the photo frame. No name will pop out. Got it through by completing an architectural job for laundry room.

I don't think it's your fault since the addition was subtle and only 1 subject hidden in 13 categories, anybody can miss that.

Thanks.

Thanks!  :)

The mod fixed a few of the problems I was having, much appreciated.

Also, I was able to finally get the "Home Decor" subject completed for the "Home Sweet Home" collection.  I succeeded after looking at the XML file a bit, and when I threw down a floor lamp and a vase next to each other, the game recognized the subject immediately.  Specifically it was the Petite Pagoda lamp and the Dragon's Vase (misc. decor) that worked for me.

I can't seem to get the Shower in a Can photographed, the only thing that ever pops up is Object (Still Life).  Is this broken, and can it be added to your mod?

I remember seeing this somewhere on here before, but I don't remember where (maybe it's in this thread, but I really don't know). Anyway, apparently that's an "action shot", so it needs to be someone USING the shower in a can.

I looked through this thread but didn't see it.  Why would it be under travel if it's an action shot?  Thanks for the info though.

I suppose because EAxis assumed that a Sim normally doesn't use it unless they're in the tombs. Again, I can't be for certain that this is the reason.

Here is what I saw earlier about this. (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,18646.msg545192.html#msg545192)

Granted, it's that user's only post, so as for validity...but it's worth a shot.

Nope, it's valid.  I confirmed it, so thanks for the info.  Now I just need to figure out how to capture lovers in the various vacation worlds, because I never see them.

Bring some with you. If you bring 3 people with you on vacation, it shouldn't be hard to stage any shots you need. Maybe if your HEAD wasn't so FAT AND STUPID, you'd have figured this out.

The "lovers" don't need to be doing any romantic interaction. Get yourself invited to any home that has a married or otherwise romantically linked couple and get them in the same shot.

Updated for Late Night or WA patch 2.12.

Hello Goggalor

Over at MTS in this post here (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=427200), we have determined that the Town Theater is borked again by EA. It's the one in Bridgeport. Do you think it can be fixed? Thank you.

I'm so confused, was certain that I tested that when I updated. Must have somehow packaged the wrong file version. Anyway, it should be fixed now. For some reason though the bridgeport theatre refuses to be photographed in front of the entrance, it has to be captured from the side of the building.
Thanks for letting me know.

Cool. Thank you for fixing.

So, from the side only. I wonder why? EA does so many strange things. Still, Thank you for the info.

also.. That's funny.. it "refuses" to be photographed. :)

Update for patch 1.26/Pets.

In this patch EA several new subjects/collections and I haven't tried to capture them all, so please report here if you're having trouble with a specific one.

Did the patch fix it at all?

If by "it" you mean the freezing issue, then yes. If you mean the various problems that this fix dealt with, no they didn't fix those. They also didn't bother to make the new combined rabbitholes register properly, but they do with this.

OK, definetly downloading now. Thanks :D

I am just wondering if this works with the 1.29 patch? I heard the patch didn't change much but some mods still needed updating. Thanks.  :)

No changes to this needed for 1.29. It should still work.

I downloaded the fix yesterday and have the same problem with the erveryday moments.
What should I do to complete it ???
I have too all 25 pics but it doesn´t say complete.......

Sry for my English I am from Germany and the language is difficult for me.
Hope you understand me and answer me as soon as possible.  :D

I haven't used this skill in a while, but I think that category should be possible to complete with the fix. Maybe it doesn't work if the 25 photos were taken before installing it? I'll look to see if it needs more fixing.

I copied it first in the mods/packages then I tried it to complete, but it didn´t work.
Maybe it is because I play the German of Sims 3?
I don´t know.....
Or have I something other to do? Or the other mods I have reactivate the fix?

I hope you understand what I mean^^

And thank you for being so helpful  :D

I had accidentally removed the fix for the maid issue during the last update. It should probably be possible to complete the collection now.
I also tweaked the firefighter setting, you can snap a picture while they're working. But you'll have to still go through the "running sim" and "fighting fire" pictures first.

Awesome. I was getting so frustrated with the way the game (wrongly) identified what was in the shot. Thanks!

Hi thank you for the fix with the everyday moments. It´s completed now =)

But I have now a new problem....... It is the Photography challenge where you have to complete 5 collections. I have completed 6 in the drop-down-menu. There are the Architectural & Buildings Collection, Nightlife, Everyday moments, Home Sweet Home, Still Life and the Around Town Collection.
In the challenge it says I have 4 of 5 collections completed.
But I have 6 of them. Can you help me please ???

Sorry that I make you more work.

I did a lot of testing, that challenge is severely broken. Sometimes it just misses a category even though it shows as complete in the drop down menu like you said. What's worse is at times it has shown the right number, like 4 out of 5, but after saving and reloading it randomly drops to 3 or even 2.
Anyway it is not something that can be fixed with this mod. For now I would suggest that anyone who wants to do that particular challenge (Shutterbug) doesn't finish a collection until five of them are almost complete and then quickly finish them off in one go.

Thank you for your help and the update of the fix =)

Is your fix still compatible with patch 1.38?

It needs an update to add a new category for supernatural. I will wait until I install that so that I can test the new pictures and rabbitholes. Since there was no changes apart from the new collection I don't see why the old file won't work in the meantime.

Apologies to Mr. Necromancer.  I'm just wondering if this is still needed/compatible with patch level 1.42/Seasons.

There are some new subjects. Will update soon. Done.

Updated for patch 1.50.

Does this need a 1.55 update for IP?

I guess that's a no then. How lazy of EA not to even bother adding a new collection with the introduction of underwater photography.

Yeah, no changes, will edit the patch number.