Re: [BY DESIGN] [MSP] Camera keys not working in photo mode (QE, WASD)

The patch doesn't fix this? For those of you who don't know what we are talking about: Q used to elevate the camera, E lowered it, TAB allowed free camera control while taking pictures with the tripod. Please fix this Sims team! You had it working before it was broken by a patch. Please prioritize it!

This wasn't fixed at all. Not even remotely close. The Q & E keys are just panning the camera up and down, a feature that we could do even when it was broke before with just the mouse. The other bug report shouldn't have been archived as the main feature, the WASD keys allowing free camera, was still never fixed! This is insane. Why is it so difficult for them to address and fix this? It was working for a few months after the pack was released, and then broke completely when they tried to fix the issue with not being able to take pictures in basements.

For me, it makes the entire Moschino Stuff pack obsolete. I am a photographer IRL and really only bought that pack so I could make creative pictures in the game. 👎

From the original post, which has incorrectly been marked as "Sovled", and edited to add additional ways that this bug has yet to be fixed:

When having sims pose for photos using the tripod, we used to be able to move the camera around using the WASD keys and Q + E to freely move the camera around the composed scene. It would work like we were moving the camera around when we press the TAB key in-game - WASD would allow us to move closer and farther away (not by zooming, by moving the camera forward and backward in the scene), and essentially see the subject in almost 360 degrees.

In addition, Q + E would bring the camera up and down, like the rising and falling of an elevator.

Now, six months after it was broken, the W + S keys are only zooming in and out, A + D pan the camera on its' stationary east-west axis, and Q + E is panning the camera on its' stationary north-south axis.

The patch released in 12/2019 completely removed the functionality of moving fully on a horizon and being able to get shots at "eye-level" regardless of where the sims are. For example, taking profile pictures of toddlers is now much more difficult (if even possible at all) as the camera can only "pan down" at them, shooting their photo from above. 

The above photo was taken in the glorious few months that this feature actually worked. Using Q+E I was able to move the camera down to the eye level of the short tiny toddler and snap a picture.

Essentially, removing the features advertised in the Twitch play below.

https://clips.twitch.tv/StylishSpinelessHedgehogPunchTrees

Why am I explaining this in extra-deep detail and re-iterating points made before? Because it seems our reports in the past have gone on deafened ears for the past 6mos and I truly am at a loss for what else to do to get this fixed. 

This is UNREAL. Unreal. You break an entire feature where keys arent doing what they are supposed to, so you just make the keys that do nothing, do something but still not what they are supposed to. These devs are a JOKE. Refund everyone who bought this pack, you clearly don't care to fix the entire point of the pack.

@xjfo411xwonderfully said!

This is such a baffling bug because it was a feature that was working. If it was some misunderstanding about a pack's functionality that would be one thing. However, we had the feature for a while. The only thing I can think of is that it had some sort of deep error that would take a while to correct, so they are quietly hoping we forget about it. The "Q and E" patch notes from the June patch almost felt like they were trying to get one over on us. There is no way they really thought that was solving anything.

The fact that they haven't even said: "Hey, we know that a core feature of a game pack is busted, it is just taking a while to fix" makes me think that they aren't going to fix it. I hope that they know that there are enough people who care about that feature to invest the time into fixing it.

 I have video evidence that proves they didn't fix it in the June 3rd patch.  https://twitter.com/silveriowiki/status/1268594608184782848

This is still not fixed, and it is just lazy to consider it to be so. EA has completely removed the most SIGNIFICANT gameplay feature introduced in the (PAID) Moschino Stuff pack, and is trying to pretend like it never happened by sweeping it under the rug. All they did was bind Q and E to something you could already do, completely ignoring the vertical height feature, which is the entire draw of the Tripod. 

I don't want to wait another 6 months for another lazy fix to be released. If this isn't going to be fixed then I want my money back. I paid money for this pack, and the product I received was NOT what was advertised. 

Marking as "mee too". At this point I wonder if they even know how the feature worked at first place. I read about the "fix" on the patch notes finally thinking I would be able to use it as advertised, but no. They did something else with it. With the huge amount of problems created by the latest patch, I wonder if this is going to ever be adressed. It's the key gameplay feature of a pack for Christ sake.

Hi 🙂 Hopefully this can help you while you wait: snip

- Wrote this comment before actually trying it and was disappointed again lol 

CM Edit: No mod linking please. 

@crinrict - this thread needs to be changed from [NEEDS INPUT] to [OPEN], as the previous thread was. It doesn't need further input as the same people who were having issues with it in the [ARCHIVED] thread are, no doubt, still having issues with it. Perhaps part of the reason it is not being prioritized is that it is being unnecessarily dropped from the list of priorities!

This is either an issue with the team in charge of escalation not comprehending the issue fully, or the product manager not prioritizing feature breaking bugs in their backlog.

@xjfo411x I haven't had any time to re-tag threads. There's currently quite a few that needs updating but I've been doing non.stop bug testing/collectign since Tuesday so please, cut me some slack. This is all manual work.

Also the tag has no influence on how this is handled with QA

I wonder if we could somehow all reach Moschino on Twitter and tel them their pack is broken for over 6 months and no further explainations are given 😕

I do understand EA have a lot on their plate right now, but honestly. It's bad enough when features get broken and they continue to sell the game, but this is the prime gameplay object we are talking about. They need to sit their assess down and fix it or offer refunds, because honestly, how can they get away with breaking the selling object of a pack not even aknowledging it?

I totally agree. Gosh I’ve stopped playing sims 4 because of this issue since 3 months ago I believe. I thought after all the updates and new packs, they would’ve fixed this but noooooo. Thanks ea for disappointing one of your game’s biggest fan. You are frauds I am so frustrated with your performance.

Dear mr. Guru, still no fix?? I didn’t pay quite amount of money for such failed performance of this pack. It’s been months. This isn’t a cry of a player who is not contented with what you produce. This is a cry of a player that is very frustrated of not being able to experience what he is promised. I am very disappointed I cannot stress it enough.

[Admin - merged consecutive posts together. Also removed the all-caps. Please don't abuse formatting, including all-caps, per the AHQ Rules & Guidelines]

Any news from a SimGuru (I can't call them gurus, they show us that they have no power!) or dev don't care about what we are allowed to have and prefer to earn more money playing StarWars?

So... yeah. It doesn't seem that this issue will be fixed anymore.

Such a bummer....☹️

There seems to be a really easy fix for this, at least it fixed it for me.

Originally I had the same issues everyone else has had with not being able to adjust the height of the camera when using the tripod. I noticed though that in the PhotoCamera.ini file (the one located at \wherever your base games files are\Game\Bin_LE\res) that at the very bottom of the text in the file, third to last line, is a setting called "TripodUseFreeCam".

I kid you not, all I did was change the value there to 1 and after that I was able to use Q and E again when taking pictures with the tripod camera. I had the previous version (1.69.59) when I did this and I currently have the most current patch, and it still works just fine.

You can edit the file with any standard text editor, like notepad or notepad++ and just save it. I used Notepad++ so I didn't have to worry about checking to be sure it remained an .ini file when I hit save, so if you're worried just do Save As and check that the file type is still .ini before you hit save.

I did this for the PhotoCamera.ini file in both the Bin and Bin_LE folders, but if you have the 64-bit version installed you can just modify the PhotoCamera.ini file in the Bin folder. That was all I did to get the buttons to work again.

I recommend deleting the cache files and a few others that could cause issues afterwards. It's good to do this from time to time anyways, I do it every time I close the game.

To do this, go into the Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4 folder and delete the Config.log file, the localthumbcache.package file, and any other log files or files with "exception" in the filename.

Also delete the spotlight_en-us.package file (depending on your language, the filename will vary slightly) inside the cachestr folder, but leave the cachestr folder.

If you also have the cache folder, delete the files in there as well, but leave the folder.

Delete the entire onlinethumbnailcache folder (not related, but never hurts to delete it to refresh things).

Beyond the exception files, the game will generate a fresh copy of all of the other files you deleted upon starting.

Some users are having issues with the A and D button functionalities inverting only while using the tripod and the bottom slider may not work, but you can replicate that functionality using WASD to move around and the mouse to direct the view. I'm not sure why it's causing that, but I'm working on figuring out the issue and I will hopefully find out the problem soon. The issue may possibly persist in the Flash Studio, but if you have Ksuihuh's AEP mod (adult film star career mod), you can choose (as the photographer) take erotic photo option on the flash studio and it will function exactly like the fixed tripod does. Or you can manually set up a photo studio with the separate components from build mode (you'll probably need to use the cheat bb.showhiddenobjects to see them).

I really hope that this fixes it for anyone else who has had issues with using the tripod.

EDIT by crinrict: Added solution banner for info

It didn't fixed it for me, i still can't move freely when i hit the tab button using the tripod 😢

@ConyoK Oh no, you don't hit the tab button when using the tripod, although it should still work even if the tab button is pressed since I just tested it to see if it mattered. Just to be doubly sure, you saved both PhotoCamera.ini files with the TripodUseFreeCam = 1 and checked that both files are still saved as .ini files? I'm sure you did, but it never hurts to check again in case something went wrong and the file didn't save the new value.

If both of those files are correct, you can try deleting the cache file and a few others that might be causing the fix to not register. Whenever I make any changes to the game files, I go into the Sims 4 folder in my documents and I always delete the spotlight file in the cachestr folder (if you also have the cache folder, delete the files in there as well), the entire onlinethumbnailcache folder (not related, but never hurts to delete it to refresh things), the Config.log file, the localthumbcache.package file, and any other log files or files with exception in the filename. Beyond the exception related files, the others will regenerate when the game is started.

You don't happen to be using any mods? I've got a ton of mods on mine, so it may not be that, but if you're using one that also utilizes the tripod camera, there might be something related to that causing it to not work.

Edit: Ah sorry, I'm wondering if I misunderstood. Do you mean move freely as in move exactly you like can when you hit the tab button when not using the tripod camera? Or that you can't change the height of the camera when taking a photo using Q and E?

I can change the hight with Q and E, i cant move freely when hitting tab, it doesnt work anymore.

Its stoped working last year.

OMFG, editing both .ini get the freecam to work again with tripod ! THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!

EDIT: for some reason S and D is inverted, S make the cam move to the right and D to the left, its weird 

Great, I'm glad you got it working! That is odd, I'm not sure why it would be doing that. Maybe selecting to invert the horizontal camera rotation would fix it in the game camera settings? For me the A pans to the left and the D to the right and my W and S move the camera forward and back. Lol I just realized that I can move around the entire room with the camera while taking a photo, I thought the W and S were zooming in and out. But I couldn't find anything in the PhotoCamera.ini or Camera.ini files that could be causing the inversion. Maybe deleting the cache files again and restarting the game will fix it?