More Awesome Than You!

(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q316/kutto2/uiglitch.jpg)

There's only 8 people in this house, so I don't see why those two portraits are at the side there. Any clues?

My game has always done that with 8 people (or 7, drives me nuts with 7 because I tend to forgot about the spare). If yours didn't used to, it might be the resolution you've got the game set at? I always play at 600x800 or whatever the base is, and I know most people don't.

600x800 has all sorts of nasty UI issues. How can you stand not being able to expand both the needs and the wants at the same time? But I guess if your computer sucks you don't have a choice.

hm, maybe it's not 600x800 as I can expand both needs and wants at the same time... I just have it set at whatever the game came set at for a not-so-great computer which looks more or less just like that screenshot and suits my old eyes pretty well.

Just a guess, but maybe it's leaving room for pets.  Even though you probably couldn't add a pet to the house. :D

Hook

pets are usually what show up on the second tier next to the people.

Not a glitch, normal. If you run at a low res and have multiple Sims, a second (or more) line is added. As of Pets this is extended to the right to make space for a row of critters.

You could add pets to that house. 2 of 'em. You can have up to 10 'playables' but only 8 of them can be sims. In my game, anything over 6 shows up on that 2nd line - doesn't matter if they're pets or sims. Always has, although I think the second line used to be higher up. If you look at a screenshot of Brynne's game (or someone else that plays in a similar fashion) where they pack houses full, they get a 2nd and then more and more lines. Might be more'n 6 before it switches though, if you're playing at a higher-res.

Mine shows 10 on the skewer before starting a new row, and if there are any pets, they are right next to the first row of sims with the extra sims starting a row to the right of the pets.  If there are no pets, then the pets column simply remains empty.

Speaking of resolutions...

My boyfriend got me a wide screen monitor for Christmas and I love it...  Except the Sims doesn't work correctly in WS mode.  The CAS option panel actually blocks most of the sims face while in close up view, doing make-up or hair or whatever.  I am not sure why it makes the option box so close, it's a wiiiiiide screeeeen...  But if I try to run the game in normal screen mode everything just looks short and wide...

Well, that is odd. I like to play in windowed mode myself (not sure what resolution the game thinks it is), but I've never had this occur with 8 people before. This is the first time I've played with 8 people since I installed Pets, though. I guess I can play in 1028x768 mode if I means I don't get this happening. Plus, I'll get to expand both wants and needs at the same time!  :P

The line "breaks" earlier since Pets. So it is possible that you used to be able to fit 8 Sims on a tiny 800x600 screen, but not anymore.

Damn, I had a text file, someone here told me how to adjust a graphics file so the widescreen options show up in game. I can't find it at the moment though and my big machine is down.

Ohm that's easy. Find your native resolution (1680 x 1050 for a 20" 16:10 monitor, 1920 x 1080 for a larger 16:9 monitor, or whatever).

Go to the last XP you have (Celebrations trumps Seasons).
Open \TSData\Res\Config\Graphics Rules.sgr in a text editor

Look for the string "option ScreenModeResolution" and change the Setting $High as follows:
   setting $High
      uintProp maxResWidth      1680
      uintProp maxResHeight     1050
      uintProp defaultResWidth  1680
      uintProp defaultResHeight 1050

Use your native monitor values of course.

Next time you load the game the resolution is available.

Make sure you either have the original CD, or a backup of the file, should EAMaxis come out with a patch.

Would a patch worry about an extra res being available in a text file?

Yes -- most of the recent patches replace that file, and the patch process barfs if the file has been modified.

*makes note to self

Ta, Joe