Adjustable Camera Pivot Height

Adjustable Camera Pivot Height

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Posted by: Makovorn.1706

Makovorn.1706

I would like to put forward a suggestion to the developers for an adjustable camera height – specifically, to allow us to adjust the vertical center point (or pivot) of the camera.

During the beta world events, ArenaNet came up with a very good idea to allow us control over the camera position on the horizontal plane. This, along with the recent field-of-view calculation fix, went a long way to help us play more comfortably and to help us appreciate the amazing environmental art in Guild Wars 2.

Unfortunately, there is still the issue of the camera pivot being too low to the ground. For the asura, this creates the problem of the camera colliding with the ground when you’re trying to look upwards.

The other races also suffers quite a bit, because when you zoom inward, instead of the camera pivot lining up with your character’s eye-line, it seems to line up with your character’s waist. For the norn, this creates a problem for people choosing a bigger body build. For the other races, this causes the camera to be too centralized when zoomed out, and because of the lowness of the pivot, it makes forwards and upwards observation very uncomfortable. When zooming in, your character gets in the way of your view.

I’ve attached some screenies:

  • Pic 1: Here you can see the problem for humans (similarly, the sylvari and asura). When zoomed out, the centralization of your character makes it very hard to manoeuvre the view in such a way so that the action doesn’t disappear off the top of your screen, especially if you play ranged. Most of the time, the action seems to take place underneath the enemy health bar & indicators – it’s worse if the ground you’re standing on is slanting upwards or downwards. It feels very uncomfortable.
  • Pic 2: Here you can see what happens when you do try to get all the action in view – notice how the camera basically sits right on the ground when trying to view forward. It makes ground targeting next to impossible. In WvW, this is especially bad. Ever noticed how hard it is to look upwards to enemies on keep walls? If you do look up, it’s not from your character’s eye-line, but rather your character’s feet!

It’s not all bad though. Strangely enough, ArenaNet has already provided a limited solution for the camera-height problem. I’ve used this pic before in the beta FoV thread:

  • Pic 3: Here you can clearly see the difference between camera-heights for different races. The forward view of the the female norn in the middle looks great, because I’ve taken advantage of the default camera pivot height assigned to the norn/charr races, but chosen the shortest possible height for the character. This gives you the much sought-after, over-the-head type view you see in the majority of modern MMO’s and other titles using a 3rd person camera.

Understandably, one cannot go over-board with the camera-height, as there are other world-design aspects to take into consideration as well. However, introducing a vertical camera height slider in the options, alongside the horizontal one we have at the moment, and giving us the option to go slightly higher with the pivot than it is now, will go a long way in making the play experience more comfortable.

Attachments:

(edited by Makovorn.1706)

Adjustable Camera Pivot Height

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Posted by: Eltrow.6382

Eltrow.6382

Can’t agree more, the current camera is not optimal!

Adjustable Camera Pivot Height

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Posted by: Nexrex.8273

Nexrex.8273

I support this suggestion with all my gamer willpower!

Adjustable Camera Pivot Height

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Posted by: LaronX.8079

LaronX.8079

I agree. It is kinf of obvious that like 90% of the content was tested with only Human chracters ( and probably the thief and warrior class) as everything elses seems off or is bugged.

Blub.

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Posted by: ajpearman.2586

ajpearman.2586

This definitely needs to be an option. I find playing certain races to feel much more unconfortable than others due to camera placement. It’s an option that definitely needs to be made available. If we get horizontal placement, why not vertical as well?!

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Posted by: CapN Biku.6024

CapN Biku.6024

They shouldn’t just let you go higher with the camera, but lower too. It would make it a lot easier to take full body screen shots of your characters without looking down on them or zooming out. So I say yes!

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Posted by: Lil Puppy.5216

Lil Puppy.5216

I hate staring at the ground all the time. For the first couple months, every time I played The Maw world event in Wayfarer Foothills, I didn’t even know there were things going on up in the sky! Then I was approaching it one day from a distance and was like “WOAH! I didn’t know that was happening all this time!”, and realized that my camera was making me stare at the ground ALL THE TIME.

+1 for more control over my playstyle

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Posted by: Djjl.1752

Djjl.1752

I have always been on this band-wagon since day 1. Another thing I’d like to add is that when my norn is downed, a lot of the time i’m off the bottom of the screen.

Some more camera issues I’d like to bring forwards: The most zoomed in you can be sems quite far out, IMO. I’d like first-person view, or at least over-the -shoulder.

Secondly and option that turns your camera to whoever you are locked on to (because I am frequently locking onto targets I can’t see, wasting valuable comment time turning the camera to face them- also it would be helpful for teleport abilities, if after teleporting through an ability your character turns back to the target they are locked on to).

But let’s start with the vertical adjustment

Justus League – Darkhaven – Australia

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Posted by: albatross.9720

albatross.9720

This should absolutely be an option. It’s…interesting, being an asura. And by interesting, I mean extremely frustrating and it feels like I’m missing 70% of the game.

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Posted by: Niodyne.7085

Niodyne.7085

This is my biggest issue in the entire game. The only reason I haven’t talked about it, is because I figured it would have already been discussed to death. I hope the devs really take a critical look at the camera system and improve it so I can properly see the awesome content they’ve created.

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Posted by: MysticHLE.7160

MysticHLE.7160

I’m surprised that this isn’t in the game yet…it’s been a long time now…

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Posted by: Manganeez.4801

Manganeez.4801

I’m closing my eyes, wishing really hard upon a star, clicking my heels together three times, raising my hands to the sky, and chanting. Despite all that, I’ve made it through this comment without a single tpyo.

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Posted by: Mak.7625

Mak.7625

I suggest more freedom in camera pivot point and zooming adjustments so that we can take much more awesome screenshots!

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Posted by: Hyve.9527

Hyve.9527

Agreed! This would make a big difference in some areas, where it is almost impossible to see what you’re doing. ArenaNet have done a lot of things right with Guild Wars 2, and they’ll continue to do so.

My hope is, that this comes sooner, rather then later.

I’m new to Guild Wars 2, recently migrating from World of Warcraft!
Feel free to give me help and advice!

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Posted by: Shroom Mage.9410

Shroom Mage.9410

I also really want this.

If you use a ranged weapon without a target, the shots are aimed right at the center of the screen, which is completely obscured by your character. There isn’t usually a practical reason to do this, but when an enemy vanishes, all of my shots are fired directly into the ground. I can usually hit an invisible enemy if I aim right where it is, but this is a little more than difficult when I have to aim at a point that’s always behind my character.

“Be who you are and say what you feel
because those who mind don’t matter
and those who matter don’t mind.” -Dr. Seuss

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Posted by: Macnol.3752

Macnol.3752

Hi! I’m Macnol, and I approve this message.

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Posted by: atleastzero.4317

atleastzero.4317

I thought maybe it was just me, but I have this thought every single day that I play, my Asura especially. If the distance from my feet to the bottom of my screen was closed by about half, I would be so happy.

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Posted by: Echo.3741

Echo.3741

Obligatory “why the hell isn’t this in the game already????!!!!!!”

Echo Mir // Echo.3741 [Echo] Echo Echo Echo Echo

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Posted by: DeWolfe.2174

DeWolfe.2174

Couldn’t be with you more!!!! There have been post for Z-Axis control before. I know I posted one myself months ago. I have no idea why they’re not considering this. It would be ideal!!!!!

Maybe keeping the current control mechanism plus another key like “shift” could allows Z-axis control. Even a slider in the option panel could be the minimal amount of control.

[AwM] of Jade Quarry.

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Posted by: Thorzilla.9124

Thorzilla.9124

Agreed. Most of the times I have to lower my camera all the way to the floor to see if I’m hitting something or not.

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Posted by: Nymeria.1653

Nymeria.1653

I’d like to zoom in much more so I can take screenshots of my character’s face :P

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Posted by: Sensei.7420

Sensei.7420

I want this so much.

I really want the ability to zoom into first person view as well. I can’t take pretty screenshots when my character is in the way.

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Posted by: ScribeTheMad.7614

ScribeTheMad.7614

@Nymeria
There’s a way to get the camera closer to yourself than the zoom allows
Walk up and face a wall, then rotate the camera around to the front. The wall will force the camera closer to your character. If you get too close though your character starts to become transparent as the camera tries to get them out of the way so you may have to experiment with distance from the wall.
If you have the look behind function keybound you can use that to fine tune the distance.

“The short answer is that new content is not going to drive people away from the game.
There is absolutely no evidence to support that it would.” -AnthonyOrdon

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Posted by: iniside.4736

iniside.4736

Any news on that ?
I would really like to see it in game. And also bit more on horizontal adjustment, like 1cm-2cm (real world).