#srwe faq

MY SRWE PROFILES

I’ve had a couple of asks about using SRWE, and I thought it would be useful to upload all the profiles I have set up, to save you having to set them up yourself.

Everything you need to know is at the link below.

i noticed it happened after i hooked up to a secondary monitor idk if that would affect this or not

my game runs perfectly fine in full screen & windowed full screen but when i try to go in to windowed mode to use SRWE to upscale my resolution for screenshots my game will freeze and turn white and i basically have to hard shut down my sims game in order to do anything.

SRWE works and looks like it’s upscaling in windowed fullscreen mode but when i take screenshots it’s still just the 1920x1080 resolution verses the 4k I’m changing the screen too. i used to be able to use SRWE in windowed mode perfectly fine and then all of a sudden i’ve started having an issue, if you could help me at all that would be greatly appreciated ♡

Hi!

I don't use a second monitor so I'm not sure if there are any specific reasons why that might be interfering with SRWE.

I do know, however, that this white screen issue has been a problem for quite a few people for ages now. It doesn't seem to necessarily be an issue with SRWE itself, but rather with switching away from the game window (which of course you have to do when you use SRWE). There's a thread on EA Answers HQ about it, and most people there don't use SRWE, but they still get that white frozen screen.

There doesn't seem to be a specific fix for it, and it might be caused by any number of things.

Are you using ReShade? Also, is your graphics driver up to date?

If you are using ReShade, does it make any difference if you temporarily remove ReShade to test?

You don't want to compress it, you want to resize it. Keep the original, but resize it to upload. You can do that in any image editor. I resize to dimensions that fit on my monitor.

SRWE!

It stands for Simple Runtime Windows Editor and it's a small, lightweight program that lets you increase the size of your game window (as well as its aspect ratio) for the time it takes to take a screenshot. That means you can get really big screenshots that look so much better when viewed on your regular monitor because there's a lot more pixel information included.

Oh anon, it looks like you've fallen victim to the window bug. I'm not sure what causes it, but if it's the same thing a few people started experiencing a similar thing last year iirc around the time of the Growing Together patch. What triggered it was tabbing out and in of the game, so some people thought it was related to SRWE, because of course you have to tab out and in to use that, but it was just tabbing in general.

There's an EA Answers HQ thread about it here.

I started experiencing the bug too, and it was because I installed a ReShade addon (the ReGrade+ addon). It's worth seeing if you have any addons installed, and consider removing them if so (some of them only really work with dx11 games, and TS4 is a dx9 game).

Otherwise, there were a handful of things that fixed it for other people, depending on the person, depending on the issue. Whether they'll work for you I don't know but it's certainly worth trying them one by one:

repairing the game

starting a new save

running the game (and EA App/Origin/Steam) as admin (you'll need to run SRWE as admin too if you do)

Another person in the Answers HQ thread said they stopped using the Windows key to tab out and instead started actually using alt+tab, and that fixed it. But others say they already use alt+tab and it still freezes for them, so idk.

I'd definitely also try starting a new save but with no ReShade and no mods/cc and see if that lets you use SRWE/tab/resize, and if it does, slowly start adding back in your mods/cc, and then ReShade, and see at what point it starts freezing again.

Hi anon,

You say the light moves when 'opening srwe' - does that mean you're setting up your shots before you open srwe and attach the TS4 process to it? You shouldn't do that! As soon as my game is loaded I open srwe and remove borders/fake fullscreen, then it's ready to go when I need it.

I'm not sure that is what you mean though. Do you mean when you hotsample to a larger resolution you can't see the whole picture anymore? That's how srwe works.

Info: TS4; PC; I currently use Reshade to take my screenshots

The following is from one of your SRWE faqs and I hope you can clarify somethings for me.

-Type in the dimensions of the shape of screenshot you want to take (or leave it as the shape of your current window/monitor) -Set up your screenshot ---#1 - Without SRWE, to me, setting up my screenshot (usually) means using the tab/cinematic camera (and saved camera positions)

-Tab out to SRWE ---#2 - Does this mean to actually tap the "Tab" key? If so, how does that work when I'm using the tab camera?

-Type in the same dimensions but larger (so, if it’s a square shot, type in something like 3000x3000) -Tab back into your game ---#3 - Same as question as #2.

-The window will get really big and you won’t see all your game -Take the screenshot ---#4 - Which program am I using to take the actual shot? TS4? Reshade? SRWE? If the latter, what am I clicking (see SRWE screenshot below)

---#5 - If the case is that can't use the tab camera, how do I hide the GUI?

---#6 - How do I set where my screenshots save?

---#7 - In the screenshot, what are the bracketed sections for?

Thanx in advance!

Hi!

Sorry it took me a couple of days to reply to this. I've been looking forward to answering your questions!

TAB CONFUSION

Okay, on the 'tab out' thing - on a Windows PC you can alt+tab to switch between the windows you have open. You press alt and while you hold that down you press tab, and each time you press tab it will switch to a new window (depending on how many you have open at the same time). If there's only one window open, pressing alt+tab will 'tab out' to the desktop instead. 'Tab out' is just a shorthand way of saying to press alt+tab to cycle through your windows.

As long as the alt key is held down, pressing the tab key won't affect your tab mode camera at all. Alt is a 'modifier' in this instance. Keys like alt, shift and control are all modifiers and mean one key - like tab, or any other key on your keyboard - can have multiple uses, basically extending and expanding the number of keys you have available for certain functions and operations.

So when I say to 'tab out to SRWE' I mean to press (and hold) alt and then press tab to cycle away from your TS4 window and into the SRWE window. And then when you're done you can 'tab back in' to TS4 by doing the same. Remember, while alt is held down it bypasses TS4's regular tab key function, so it won't affect the tab mode camera.

So, set up your shot by going into the tab mode camera and composing everything as you want. Once you're happy, press and hold down alt, and then press tab as many times as needed to make SRWE the main window. When you're done setting up the resolution you want, alt+tab back into the game and it'll still be set up as you left it, and you can take your screenshot.

HOW TO SCREENSHOT

If you use ReShade, you'll be using ReShade to take the screenshot as normal. It'll save wherever you usually save ReShade screenshots, but it'll be bigger!

To set where ReShade saves your screenshots, in the ReShade menu go to the Settings tab at the top and a little way down you'll see a screenshot path section - just point that to wherever you want your screenshots to go. I have a folder inside my main screenshots folder just called RESHADE, that's where mine go, and I separate them out into different game folders from there when I'm ready, but you can set it up into whatever folders you want.

WHAT DO THESE MEAN?

Scale: I've never used that, but I'm guessing maybe you can specify a multiplier of your current window size instead of putting in exact dimensions? Don't quote me on that. You don't need to worry about it.

Window scaling from megapixels: This is fun. This didn't exist when I wrote my initial SRWE tutorial. Do you remember the bit in the tutorial where I talked about megapixels, and how if you work out how many megapixels your computer can handle it can help you to work out the best sizes for each aspect ratio you want to set up? Well this section makes that even easier.

You can use the aspect ratio box (where it says 1:1) to select the aspect ratio (obviously!), and directly underneath in the megapixels box you can type in the megapixel amount you know your PC can handle. It will then fill in the output resolution box on the right for you with the dimensions of that aspect ratio with that specific megapixel amount. So you don't have to go through all the hassle of using the aspect ratio calculator to set up a bunch of profiles if you don't want to, just select the aspect ratio and the MP and SRWE will do the rest. (You may still want to set up a profile for your favoured aspect ratios at sizes that fit on your PC monitor for when you're composing, unless you've already worked out what MP they are specifically. I think profiles in that case are easier.)

BONUS: MY PROFILES

Don't want to set up a bunch of profiles but want a million of them ready to go?

Here you go: MY CURRENT SET OF SRWE PROFILES

Unzip that folder and add all the profiles inside to your Profiles folder, which should be wherever you launch SRWE from. If you don't already have a Profiles folder, just put mine wherever you want, and you can navigate to it when you choose load profile in SRWE.