Free camera movement

[sgfan206]

Subject:
Free camera movement

Description:
Free camera movement means, you are able to zoom in, rotate and even pan the camera up and down. This means, you are able to observe the entire happening from first person perspective.

This feature is included in Games like Ground Control or World in Conflict (which is actually a follower of Ground Control). Example can be seen at "Media".

Positive Effect:
It would add an incredible feeling, like you were actually there. You can watch the sky and observe the battle at close sight.

Negative Effect:
It might be distracting or confusing to use that feature.

Media:
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, have a look at this.

[Nervmich]

Yes I d like this. It would make most fun in singleplayer if you want to take some vids. But for fast online gaming you shall have a key you can swith back to the regular camera perspective

[=LEVIATHEN=]

I like this idea. That's the one thing that has been missing from C&C: a sky that you can clearly see. Maybe the camera movement would've require the same complicated-ish controls as WiC, but would have something similar to maybe the Dawn of War use (you could still move around the map in the basic way, and you could also pan the camera up or down).
Basically, it would be mixing the graphical quality of this:


With the basic camera movement controls of C&C with an added form of panning, like in Dawn of War:

[Golan2781]

EAW had the cinematic camera which was quite cool and required practically no user input - very good if you just want to see stuff blowing.

No matter how such a system is implemented, it's IMO imperative that you have a default camera system akin to the current one. You might toggle to a free-flow camera, but by default the regular controls apply so you can better command your army. Cinematic and freeflow cameras really are only there for show.

[=LEVIATHEN=]

No matter how such a system is implemented, it's IMO imperative that you have a default camera system akin to the current one. You might toggle to a free-flow camera, but by default the regular controls apply so you can better command your army. Cinematic and freeflow cameras really are only there for show.

Yes, that would be a better idea. Something that you could toggle in the options menu. That would allow for people who don't like the freer flow of the WiC camera movement can stick with the classical style.

[EddySaf]

Yeah that's really only there for show and we would all like to have a look. But when playing I really would like to see all of the battlefield from above. I think it was Coolness who mentioned he would like to zoom out quite further.

[Coolness7]

Yeah I mentioned this already but good to know you agree.

[sgfan206]

I just have installed and tested Ground Control 2 again. I have to say, the camera control is very similar, if not even identical to Tiberium Wars. With the middle mouse button, you can rotate the camera, while you can zoom in and out using the mouse wheel.

Unfortunately you can't move the window in GC2 by right-clicking like in Tiberium Wars. But aside from that, the camera control is almost the same.

Also, there's an option to toggle free camera movement on/off. With RTS camera enabled, you are just playing from normal RTS perspective.

And I bet this feature was one of the major reasons which made Ground Control and World in Conflict as popular as it is. Just imagine Command & Conquer being like this.

Another thing: In Tiberium Wars you can actually zoom to the ground by modifying the Gamedata.ini-file option "ScrollPitchMultiplier" from the value 0.15 to (at least I've tried this) 1.00. It really works in game, however not the way it is supposed to be. It doesn't adapt the maximal height automatically. Don't know why this was made, foras it was never used.

But also, using the Pitch Multiplier, you can clearly see the maximal visual range. Anything beyond this border can't be seen.
Is there any way to disable this border?

[wombat789]

Would this use too many game graphic resources ? Why not just have strategic zoom ? There are plenty of first person shooters . Does this game really benefit from having this low level third person perspective ?

[Lauren]

You can disable it but SAGE wasn't made to handle that.