A little while ago, I had the pleasure of exploring and writing a walkthrough of Ravasheen’s Ink for Yourself Memory Keeper and Custom Journal mod. I was so impressed with that mod, I knew I had to check out her latest mod, the Photographic Memory mod. This is an overhaul of a previous mod of hers but this is my first time exploring either version of the mod. I’ll be walking you through the mod and all of its features, as well as giving my overall thoughts of the mod.
So let’s get into it!
Of course, you will have to install the mod, first. You can get it from Ravasheen’s website. The current version releases to the public TODAY (October 13th, 2021) so go ahead and grab it if you haven’t, already. You can also follow Ravasheen on Patreon (no subscription needed to follow Patreon creators) to find out more about future early access versions if you’re interested. If you need help with installing mods, check out our article Getting Started With Mods and CC.
Once the mod is installed correctly, all you have to do to get started creating your photo memories is look in Build/Buy under Activities & Skills > Misc. You’ll find two photo storage objects; a floppy disc and a flash drive. Both objects have the same in-game functions, so it doesn’t really matter which one you choose to purchase. Purchase one or both if you like! You can have as many photo storages as you want. This is useful for organizing your photos into different collections; you can have a flash drive for your wedding photos, another for your vacation photos, and so on.
Click on the floppy or flash drive to bring up more options. Click Label Photo Storage to give your drive a name and description so you can differentiate them if you own multiple. You can also open it to see all the photos contained inside. To start, you won’t have any photos in here, of course, but that’s where the really fun option comes into play; the Photo Studio! Click the Photo Studio option on the drive to bring up a new menu with a variety of creative options:
- Create Photo Gifts: This is probably the option you’ll be using the most. This is where you can purchase copies of your photos to turn into prints, polaroids, calendars, and more! There are a variety of different sizes and photo orientations to choose from. The mod is base game compatible, but if you do have the Cottage Living expansion pack installed, cross-stitch designs will be available to order as well. When you order a print of your photos, it will immediately be added to the active Sim’s inventory. Then you can display it on the wall or keep it safe in your photo storage object.
- Improve Photo Quality: Did you take a blurry photo, or a photo with a thumb print or gnome blocking the view? No problem! Sharpen up those photos and remove pesky thumb prints and gnomes with this option! Never worry about having a beautiful moment ruined by bad photography again.
- Transfer Photo, Canvas, or Cross-Stitch: This is a useful function for putting painted art on custom photo objects and for any occasion where you might want to copy the image from one object to another. It’s similar to the Create Photo Gifts option, except instead of creating a copy, it’s a direct image transfer to another object in your Sim’s inventory.
If you don’t see the Photo Studio option available, make sure you have some photos in your Sim’s inventory. The option will not be available unless your Sim has some photos to work with.
Once you’ve ordered some custom photo objects, you’ll notice some new options on them! You can name your photos just like you can with your original photos in the game but you can also give them descriptions! Now you can capture all those moments perfectly with just the right description to take you back to those earlier days with your Sims family. You can also set the photographer, change the filter, swap out that photo for a different one if you aren’t happy with your initial selection, and change the rotation.
However, the most exciting option is the Add Moodlet option on all your new custom photos. This is what truly turns your photos into priceless memories for your Sims to reflect on. Click on a custom photo and choose Customize Photo > Add Moodlet to bring up a pie menu of emotions. You can choose between eight different emotions. Pick whatever emotion you feel suits that photo the best. Once you’ve assigned a moodlet to a custom photo, the photo will have an emotional label attached to it, like “Happy Memory” or “Sad Memory” or “Embarrassed Memory.” I chose to make one of my vacation photos from a hike in Mt. Komorebi an Inspiring Memory. Click any custom photo with a moodlet attached to it to recall the memory. I can now click on this vacation photo to have my Sim “Recall an Inspiring Moment.”
Recalling a particular moment will cause the Sim to do an animation related to that emotion and they’ll gain a small emotional moodlet related to the memory for 4 hours. This is much the same feature as what The Sims 4 added to the Screenshot Manager but much more intuitive and better integrated into gameplay. You don’t have to go searching through a bunch of menus to get to it. It’s always right there in your Sim’s photo storage or displayed proudly on the wall in the form of custom prints.
Many of the custom photos have different swatches in Build/Buy. Just to give a few examples, the calendar has a few different calendar day colours, the polaroid has some different writing along the bottom, and the photo prints come both with and without scotch tape variants. This adds an extra layer of customization to your photos.
As you can see, both the custom photos themselves and the photo storage drives are highly versatile to suit your own play style. The drives have separate inventories so you can use them to organize and catalogue all your photo memories. You can even make multiple copies of a set of photos, put them in a drive and gift them to friends and family members if you want them to have copies of your Sim’s wedding, graduation, new baby, or any other important moment in their lives. There are so many different ways to keep and cherish all those moments with your Sims!
The best part? If you also have Ravasheen’s Ink for Yourself Memory Keeper and Custom Journal mod, this mod is fully compatible with the journals! You can keep your custom photos in the Ink for Yourself journals alongside all your written journal entries! How neat is that? I can’t wait to start using these two mods together to create wedding albums and vacation albums! The possibilities really are endless.
And if you’re worried that this mod might mess up your original photos… don’t be! The Photographic Memory mod does not override or touch your original photos in any way! This means that if you ever need to remove the mod for any reason, all of your original photos will stay safe and untouched as if you had never installed the mod in the first place. Only the customized copies you made will be gone. Ravasheen really has thought of everything to ensure that all of your precious memories stay safe no matter what.
So what are my final thoughts on the Photographic Memory mod? I’m sure it’s probably pretty obvious by my enthusiasm that I love this mod. I already know I’m going to spend hours redoing my Sims’ entire house and cataloguing my hundreds and hundreds of photos into different flash drives for safe keeping and gifting. I know I’m a bit of a sap when it comes to making memories and telling stories with my Sims and I couldn’t help but get a bit emotional while exploring this mod. Seeing all those memories my Sims have made in such beautiful prints on the wall with descriptions, moodlets and everything really brought all those memories to life again for me.
The Sims is my happy place when the rest of the world isn’t so happy and Ravasheen has helped to make my happy little world even happier.
