Dev Discussion #65 - Camera Perspective

ATC_Forgiven

I enjoy in game photography, exploration and zooming in on the artwork that makes up the digital world around me.1st person is my favorite camera with a narrowed fov. For general play a 3rd person like BDO was great. For battles zoomed out seems to be the way to go. All in all its according to what Im doing. I hope to see a camera or photo option on Ashes. At the very least a free cam I can zoom in with to take portraits of other players.

DELORIN

Just have a setting for Camera mode for people who wants to take photo, they cant be in combat or be moving during this time.

Jori

Camera behind me slightly off center higher up with the ability to pan left or right with the right Mouse key while I'm running

Follidus

I like the idea of capping how far you can zoom out in order to give more cover to positioning and sneaking around. Someone could swing their camera around to try and get more info, but that's sacrificing a lot of their ability to focus on what's in front of them

Immortui

I recently rewatched the node wars preview and someone got attacked from above from some ruin, which I love but then when you target them, the camera has to go down to the ground to pan upwards, which wasn't perfect. In that case I wish I could have my camera set higher. I also know that some people don't have problem with this therefore I'd love the ability to customize my camera.

RavenStryker

I love being able to zoom out when traversing the lands to see different paths that I need to travel, but also understand that the farther you zoo out, the more detail you lose in the environment and on characters. While in towns and just standing around chit-chatting I tend to zoom in to admire the smaller details in game and on characters. Having a max zoom distance is healthy for the game and definitely should be considered. Giving a potential "range" of zoom a player can choose from would be an interesting concept because I know some people that don't like zooming out very far, so providing an ability to set a shorter zoom distance for their max will prevent them from zooming out farther than they want as well.

Solmyr

I see people saying they just want all the options in the world. There are a few problems with that. Giving people all kinds of choices sounds good at first, but it really just forces everyone into using the most practical option. Knowing where to restrict the players' choices and where to let them do whatever they want is the hallmark of a good design philosophy.

That said, I think Intrepid is doing a good job on this. Here's what I think of the various options.

Isometric perspective:


If you have this perspective without a generous zoom-out distance, it's not very good. If you allow players to zoom out far enough to make this angle viable, it becomes the undisputed best option for all players. Fantastic omni-directional situational awareness. No other camera angle will ever be used for anything even remotely serious. Allowing this all but removes the other options.

Third person perspective:


This perspective restricts your situational awareness in all direcitons but forward, and adds some interesting depth to combat encounters as a result. It emphasizes elevation, communication, and stealth. It's also by far the most immersive option, barring a potential first-person view. However, if the other two options are available, this perspective will almost never be used, because it restricts your situational awareness so much more than the alternatives. I'm also not sure how well this would work with tab combat.

Hybrid:


This is the camera style we've seen in the showcases. It lets you zoom out pretty far, but not so far as to completely disconnect you from your character and trivialize situational awareness. It also lets you zoom in to something approximating a 3rd person view, if you're okay with losing that much visibility. I see it as a hybrid camera for a hybrid combat system. As with all compromises, it leaves nobody 100% satisfied. Action combat enjoyers will think it's a little too zoomed out, while tab target fans will think it's a little too close, but it's really the only good option for the combat system they've chosen

Michael

I agree with this. Except I really prefer a centered camera angle. I love not being super zoomed out. Especially in a game where vision will be worth something if you are expecting PvP. Being allowed to be crazy zoomed out will potentially give an advantage compared to someone who hates having to play with a camera like that.

Disobedient wrote: »

BDO has the best camera angle from games I've played. It's slightly off center. Any way you do it, people will get used to it though. As long as it's not super zoomed in.

FortunatusCanis

I have found that I enjoy a zoomed out POV not just for intense combat encounters but also for navigating the map, always nice to get the like Forza chase cam effect as you navigate through the map. I also really loved the ability in Everquest 1 and 2 to go into a first person like mode, in these POV's no part of the character was shown because its main use was navigating a tight possibly confusing space.

A question I have around Camera POV is will camera zoom be blocked by walls? I'm also curious how the eye-adjustment light mechanic will play out with players whose cameras are zoomed out in bright daylight, while their character is in a dim space. I would really love to see a reason to bring the camera in tight, your going into a dungeon, or a warehouse overrun by monsters? better get tight and close to see what's going on.

Araga

What camera perspective do you prefer in terms of both angle and distance from your character?

• A few meters from the character. It distance to avoid is so close that ability uses begin to clutter the UI elements or so closer that your character an aggro a mob that was outside your viewable area.

Do different situations call for different perspectives?

• There should be a slight increase in camera distance in raid, sieges, vehicles, and other large scale encounters. You need greater visibility and timely information to make meaningful choices. However, if distance is increased the alternate distance should include some toggle or feature to mark your character so that they are quickly identifiable regardless of other character or effects on screen.