Moving around in the Sims 3

Not sure if I’m understanding this because movement of a sim is generally controlled by:
a) clicking on a building or a sim and selecting actions on the selector wheel.
b) by clicking on the ground somewhere in the world and selecting “Go Here”.

If you hit Enter, it'll move the camera onto the active sim.
If you right click on the portrait of one of your sims, it'll lock the camera on that sim.

Yes, right click on the portrait of your sim and then the camera shouldn’t move away until you choose to.
As for mouse controls being backwards from TS4, do you mean for rotate and tilt? I play both games and I changed the settings to make them work exactly the same way. I think I changed TS3 to match what I had in 4. These settings are among the Options. Go to General Settings and play with the camera rotation options.

"wendyyi1;c-18292636" wrote:
If you hit Enter, it'll move the camera onto the active sim.
If you right click on the portrait of one of your sims, it'll lock the camera on that sim.

This is HUGE! Thank you! I had figured out enter, but not right click on the portrait. I was hitting enter over and over frantically. That was about 30% of my problem.

"FreddyFox1234;c-18292656" wrote:
Yes, right click on the portrait of your sim and then the camera shouldn’t move away until you choose to.
As for mouse controls being backwards from TS4, do you mean for rotate and tilt? I play both games and I changed the settings to make them work exactly the same way. I think I changed TS3 to match what I had in 4. These settings are among the Options. Go to General Settings and play with the camera rotation options.

This is also HUGE! Thank you! I inverted the rotation. That is another 30% of my problem.

The forward and backward mouse controls are still inverted. Is there anyway to switch that? If I just play Sims 3 and do not alternate between Sims 3 and Sims 4, I will eventually switch, but I would rather have both games work the same.

I am about 60% there, but the inverted forward and backward are still very awkward, and about another 30% of the problem. That last 10% is a bunch of small issues that I will eventually adjust to. If I could just invert the forward and backward mouse controls I would be entirely satisfied.

Maybe the forward and backwards mouse controls are only inverted on my computer. I notice in general, when I switch between Mac and PC that the touchpad controls are inverted, and when I use Linux, there are always easily accessible options to choose. Hmm. Maybe there is a way to change the mouse controls in Windows to invert the mouse controls only for the Sims 3.

Moving around is already so much easier, though. Thank you both! What a great surprise to wake up to!

The Sims 3 forward and backward make more sense than the Sims 4 controls. What I did was switch Sims 4 to the Sims 3 camera. In my game at least, switching to the Sims 3 camera, did not change sims 4 rotation to the default Sims 3 rotation, so I need to leave Sims 3 inverted rotation checked.

Now the games are almost the same. I just need to get used to the changes.

I'm so glad we were able to help :)
I've always used the Sims 3 camera on Sims 4 as I prefer the freedom it gives. I'll check my settings in Sims 3 when I next open up the game but I think I've got both camera options checked in Sims 3.
As for the forward and backward mouse controls, do you mean for zooming in and out? I'm not sure why that should be different for each game. I've got a Mac and my mouse scrolls/zooms according to the way I've set it up in my system settings, and then it works the same way for everything I do. Not sure if that's the issue you mean though?

"BlueSpaarkle;c-18292947" wrote:
also the best way to access the world map is by clicking the M on keyboard (i'm pretty sure the same works in TS4 expect here you won't get a loading screen :D )
when you're on the map view, the right click on the portrait will zoom into your Sim too (this is very useful if your Sim is at a communit lot) - i mean, it will zoom into your Sim wherever in the world they are
also when you sim is anywhere outside of your home, you can send them home by clicking the little bue arrow on their portrait that appears when they leave home

you might have known this but just throwing in some tips & tricks just in case

For every person posting, there are many many more people reading a thread. Please post anything you think of, even if you think I might know about it. It is the things that people think we know that we don't know.

Ease in moving around the world is one of the most critical parts to enjoying a game. Having all possible ways to move around collected into one thread is a great resource for the community.

Thanks!

It’s all pretty complicated! I guess you just need to keep trying out the different options and eventually you’ll settle to something that feels right and works for you for both games. In my case, I spent literally months and months tweaking the graphics settings of TS3 to get it just right - good enough graphics to not look rubbish, but not too high to cause the game to crash more than I could put up with. It’s good when you get it settled into a state that feels right and you can just get on with enjoying the game :)

"FreddyFox1234;c-18293110" wrote:
It’s all pretty complicated! I guess you just need to keep trying out the different options and eventually you’ll settle to something that feels right and works for you for both games. In my case, I spent literally months and months tweaking the graphics settings of TS3 to get it just right - good enough graphics to not look rubbish, but not too high to cause the game to crash more than I could put up with. It’s good when you get it settled into a state that feels right and you can just get on with enjoying the game :)

I will be tweaking things for awhile, but it is quickly getting better and better. I have all the graphics on high except for the neighboring lots. I saw that on a video and I really like it.

I have a hard time keeping the camera zoomed in on my sim.

In Sims 4, when I am having my sim snowboard continuously or practice mountain climbing, I use the mouse to stay focused on them. I can even switch back and forth from speed to regular speed without losing the Sim. I could never keep up like that in the Sims 3. In the Sims 3, I must constantly pause the game, so that I can catch up and focus on my Sim and make sure she is okay. I get so stressed with the controls. I think I will get get better just with time, but I keep hoping that there is a quick tip that will make me more proficient instantly.

For the mouse controls that do work, they are backwards from Sims 4 which really throws me off. Is there a setting or a mod that tweaks the mouse controls?