Author Topic: Cannot Take Picture (Read 2239 times)

TheTycoonTycoon · « **on:** October 23, 2006, 04:57:31 PM »

I can't take pictures in photo safari mode anymore for some reason. Camera isn't full. Searched forum got 300+ results, wasn't about to search through that for help. It may have started when I held down the space button too long but I don't know. Happened to me before but I forgot how I fixed it. Help much appreciated.

Oh, and when I go to load a game I'm supposed to see a screenshot of my zoo on the right but all I see is a blank box. kinda bugging me.

hanes · « **Reply #1 on:** October 23, 2006, 05:19:12 PM »

I can't take any pictures either!! And I have a zoo that's over 20 years old and now I can't complete any of the MM challenges. I started a new zoo to see if I could take pictures for the challenges and I still can't! Does anyone know how to fix this?

baobob tree · « **Reply #2 on:** October 23, 2006, 06:14:00 PM »

i had this problem about a year ago and solving it is actually quite simple. i called microsoft games and they walked me through updating a few drives and files. my advice would be to give microsoft a call and have them take you through upddating those things. microsoft's number can be found inside the game manual or on the back of the game box. hope this helps!!

Birdman · « **Reply #3 on:** October 24, 2006, 12:03:55 PM »

Have you tried reloading the game?

csleesburg · « **Reply #4 on:** October 24, 2006, 12:36:39 PM »

And I assume you've got space for the pictures? There can only be 24 pictures per album. If your camera says 24/24 then it's full. Take the pictures and 'pull' them down into an album until it says 0/24. Then you can take pictures. That may be the problem.

hanes · « **Reply #5 on:** October 25, 2006, 06:37:44 AM »

Quote from: baobob tree;149944

i had this problem about a year ago and solving it is actually quite simple. i called microsoft games and they walked me through updating a few drives and files. my advice would be to give microsoft a call and have them take you through upddating those things. microsoft's number can be found inside the game manual or on the back of the game box. hope this helps!!

Thank you baobob tree. I got on the Microsoft Update site and downloaded most of the non-critical updates ( I already have my system set up to download all the criticals). After I rebooted, I haven't had any problems what-so-ever!! Thank you!

mikaboshi · « **Reply #6 on:** October 25, 2006, 06:58:29 AM »

Glad you got it working, Hanes!

TheTycoonTycoon · « **Reply #7 on:** October 27, 2006, 10:13:20 AM »

Made New Zoo...Can Take Pictures In It, Deleted Old Zoo.

TheTycoonTycoon · « **Reply #8 on:** February 04, 2007, 03:05:11 PM »

Well I'm going to bring this thread back from the dead because I still can't take pictures. I made a huge zoo perfect just the way I wanted it but it is useless now. I do save my zoo many times under many different names as I play to backup, so I shouldn't be having this problem, because in theory I could just whip out my last non-corrupt saved game file. But the real twist is that so many of my recent backup save files have this problem (not taking pictures). It took me a whole day to make this zoo and I made 17 different backups. I tried opening backup 12 (I think) but it had the problem making backups 12-17 useless. I wouldn't be surprised if even more files had this problem. I thought my system was fool-proof but it sadly was not. Hypothetically speaking lets say that backup 9 does not have this problem. that means that half of today's work would go down the toilet and I would have to work 6 hours (maybe less because I know what to do in my zoo) to get to this point (backup 17) again!!!!! There, you people probably think I am insane but I was perfectly fine before this happened. If anybody has any helpful info on the subject PLEASE POST IT HERE. I am going crazy!!!

csleesburg · « **Reply #9 on:** February 04, 2007, 03:12:07 PM »

Well, don't think I'm asking this because I think you're dumb, but you HAVE emptied your camera, right? It only holds 24 pictures, and sometimes when it gets close (20-24) it says it cannot take a picture. Make sure and empty your camera by dragging your pictures from the film strip onto the album page. Then, when your camera shows 0/24 you have an entirely empty camera to take new pictures with. Give that a try and let us know if that doesn't work. :original:

TheTycoonTycoon · « **Reply #10 on:** February 04, 2007, 03:25:17 PM »

lol you think I'm dumb. When I loaded the zoo it only had 8/24 pictures in the camera. Then I emptied it anyway but of course that didn't help. It's funny that every time I go back to playing Zoo Tycoon 2 I find another bug or something bad happens. Thanks for the speedy reply even though it didn't help lol.

mikaboshi · « **Reply #11 on:** February 04, 2007, 03:36:46 PM »

We don't think you dumb at all; sometimes the worst problems have the simplest solutions, and we all fall victim to it at some point or another no matter how "smart" we are.

Do you experience this problem only after your zoo gets quite large? If so, the problem may be that you don't have enough Ram to do the zoo AND photo mode.

Silver_Gryphon · « **Reply #12 on:** February 04, 2007, 03:50:30 PM »

Can you get to photo mode? I've never had this problem myself, but what actually happens? If you bring up the camera is it just space that doesn't work? (so right-click and x still works okay?)

TheTycoonTycoon · « **Reply #13 on:** February 04, 2007, 03:59:19 PM »

Well, it makes sense...I only have 503 MB RAM lol. Zoo Tycoon 2 only uses less than 300 MB on my PC. *runs to check system requirements* It says it needs only 256 MB RAM. My zoo was a large zoo with 50 animals, 100 guests maybe. I could try exiting even more background tasks as I play ZT2 and maybe get it up to 400 MB for ZT2. I don't even know if this is a possibility...are you just making up that info or have other people had problems like mine as well? And how much RAM would you recommend for ZT2 w/ all expansions in a large zoo w/ 200 animals and 120 guests? (that was what I was planning) I was hoping to be able to just coast along with 300 MB RAM to run ZT2 (which should be criminal, I know) but if ZT2 requires more I could stretch it a bit. *hoping somone has all the answers*

mikaboshi · « **Reply #14 on:** February 04, 2007, 04:03:41 PM »

I use 1gb of ram and still get lag sometimes with that many things going on. I'm not making this up; you wanted help I'm thinking of anything that could be affecting it. I dont recommend less than 512 mb of ram for ANYONE especially if you are running XP

ShenTirag · « **Reply #15 on:** February 04, 2007, 04:05:27 PM »

I run ZT2 with all expansions at full graphics with large zoos and it still can lag heavily for me and I have 1GB of RAM. (Though I do have WinXP, which is bloated anyway.) I've never had the problem with photos you are experiencing, but it does sometimes take ages for me to switch between overhead and guest mode when running a big zoo, so I wouldn't be suprised if it had an impact. Have you checked the folders where the photos are saved to see if they are being taken at all and are just not showing up ingame?

Edit: If your saved game shot isn't displaying either, sounds like an issue with your graphics card to me, as far as I'm aware it's just a quick screen cap that ZT2 makes as it saves. Can you use the print screen function on your computer and does it work?

TheTycoonTycoon · « **Reply #16 on:** February 04, 2007, 05:11:40 PM »

Ohhh...graphics card, eh? Print Screen function works fine. When I installed MM2 I got a graphics card warning that my computer might not be able to handle it. It was doing just fine. So it could be low RAM and/or a poor graphics card...darn. Hypothetically speaking that is the graphics card, is there any way to make it work better? Any other thoeories welcome also.

mikaboshi · « **Reply #17 on:** February 04, 2007, 05:14:46 PM »

Try updating your graphics drivers. A quick way to check for driver updates: As long as you have XP and are connected to the internet (can't tell you how to do it with other systems unfortunately) Right click on "My Computer" on your desktop (or in your start menu). Then go to "Properties". Next You'll want to click the Hardware tab at the top (it shoud be between "computer name" and "Advanced". Now that you have selected the Hardware tab, select the "Device Manager" button. This will bring up a list of all of the hardware that your computer has. Go to "Display Adapters" and click the little plus sign. It should bring down a one or two things. Mine, for instance, has "Radeon 9550" and "Radeon 9550 Secondary". Right click on the first one and hit "Update driver". XP will automatically go into the web and search for a driver update. If it doesn't come up with anything type in google the name of the card (in my case, I would type "Radeon 9550 drivers"). Hopefully this works!

ShenTirag · « **Reply #18 on:** February 04, 2007, 05:22:02 PM »

1) Update your drivers.

2) Turn down the graphics in-game.

Those should prevent lag, but ultimately if your game is having problems handling stuff then perhaps the combination of low RAM (seriously, you need more to play ZT2 on XP) and lower than required graphics card may be causing your problems.

Did you check to see if the images were being saved, but just not shown in game by the way?

TheTycoonTycoon · « **Reply #19 on:** February 04, 2007, 05:29:10 PM »

Well I updated the graphics driver. I guess I'll load ZT2 and hope for the best *inserts ZT2MM CD*

Wow...Everything works fine now after updating graphics driver and lowering graphics settings for ZT2. I even see the screenshot of my zoo instead of a blank box. Thanks everyone!!

ShenTirag · « **Reply #20 on:** February 04, 2007, 05:47:49 PM »

I'm glad you managed to get things to work without resorting to buying new hardware - that's always a plus!

mikaboshi · « **Reply #21 on:** February 04, 2007, 05:50:50 PM »

Yep! I would suggest getting more RAM eventually though still, especially if you plan on playing any more games. XP is a resource hog.

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Author Topic: Cannot Take Picture (Read 2239 times)