Guild Wars 2

It’s well known, there’re problems with the camera. Some are a bit annoying, others are really frustrating (Full discussion about camera problems). I’d like to address the zoom-on-camera-collision issue, which is way too present and makes combats and puzzles difficult.

Camera zooms when it collides with the ground
The zoom isn’t the real problem, it’s that you only see the back of you character or a giant asura head.You want to look at the environment but the game shows you your character.

I suggest a dynamic camera aiming point:

• When the player manually zooms in, he/she usually wants to look his/her character. -> At closest zoom, the camera should be centered on the character.
• When the player manually zooms out, he/she usually wants to look at the environment -> At furthest zoom, the camera should be centered above+behind the character’s head.
• On automatic zoom, the aiming point wouldn’t change. The camera would still be centered on the point decided by the player.

Ex (attachments 1 and 2): I want to look at this beautiful statue but the camera zooms on collision with the ground. Current mechanism (attachment 1): the screen is centered on the back of the character. Suggestion (attachment 2): the screen is centered above the character’s head.

Camera zooms when smalls objects are in the way & base algorithm for zooming
When the character goes behind a small obstacle, like a small tree, the camera goes nuts. It’s VERY annoying in combat and puzzles. The game should only move the camera when the position of the character becomes unclear. Right now, the game zooms in when an obstacle is too close (yeah, not because it hides you, but because IT IS TOO CLOSE!). It feels like the algorithm is:

1. Launch rays from the character hitbox to the camera hitbox (camera hitbox -> min distance camera-walls).
2. If a ray collides, then move the camera to the collision point.

And the zooming triggers too often, even when the character position is clear to the player.

The best approach would probably be: check whether the collision is caused by a wall or by a decoration, then move the camera ONLY on wall collisions. But that can be difficult/time consuming to implement depending on data structures.

For now, I suggest reusing the existing outline mechanic (which appears when the cursor is above something):

1. If the camera collides with something, then move it (preserve the min distance camera-walls).
2. Try to draw the outline of the player (but don’t display it).
3. If at least x pixels can be drawn, then do nothing.
4. Else use the old algorithm on the ray from the center of the player to the center of the camera (we know this ray collides with something).

That should do the trick in most situations.

Ex (Attachment 3): I moved my character behind that golem. I obviously know where I am. Hidden part of the outline = white, draw-able part of the outline = blue.

Don’t move camera on invisible walls
Why does it?

I fully understand and appreciate that English might not be your first language (I’m trilingual), but I’m having a tremendously difficult time understanding your proposed fixes.

Can you quote me the specific confusing sections in a PM? I’ll try to rewrite them.

Well I think I’m understanding it the more I read it… it just takes a little bit of thought. We could work together on correcting it, if you like. It might help if I know what your native language is so that I know where you’re coming from. I’m sympathetic, because I face the same difficulties speaking Japanese and German. I can offer a couple pieces of advice right away:

1.
I zoom
you zoom
he/she/it zooms
Don’t forget the S! You did this correctly when you say, “the camera zooms” but not when you say, “the player zoom”.

2.
Sometimes, like with your first two examples, it’s not clear if you’re showing something that exists or suggesting something that should exist. Does that make sense?

It turns out I understand a lot more than I thought I did, but small grammatical errors must have been throwing me off (I just woke up from a long nap)! I’ll look at it some more and let you know what might be difficult to understand.

::edit:: More on my second point:
“At closest zoom, the camera is centered on the character.”
This makes me think that you’re just telling us how it is. When I first read this, I thought you were listing a bunch of current problems and not suggestions.
If this is a suggestion, write,
“At closest zoom, the camera should be centered on the character.”

I appreciate your help. Although, we should continue this in private messages since it’s not directly related to the topic.

If you like, go ahead and send me a PM. However, I found it completely relevant to the understanding of the topic, and thus the topic itself. Clearing up ambiguity isn’t really something that’ll get your thread locked, if that’s what you’re worried about.

Actually, the solution would be for the camera to ignore the terrain completely and look right through it based on the FOV. Most games tend to work that way when there is platforming involved.

I’m basically assuming we will see what they come up with as a fix between now and the content update. They’ve already said they would be fixing many of the camera issues mentioned. The, what seems like a million complaints about the camera, i’m hoping will be addressed sooner rather than later, it is super annoying now.

munkiman.3068:

Actually, the solution would be for the camera to ignore the terrain completely and look right through it based on the FOV.

Regarding the FoV, they said they’re not going to change it.

Looking right through terrain completely could work, but might look weird in GW2. That’s why I did a distinction between walls and decorations in the “possible best approach”. Looking through a statue obviously works. Looking through the side of a mountain? Can be weird. Looking through the side a house? The game would need to detect the exact right portion of the wall to remove, then add missing textures now and then. Which may be difficult/take a lot of time depending on the data structures (which are probably not suited for that). We need something quickly.

I wasn’t suggesting changing FOV, i meant that whatever was between the camera FOV and your character would be completely removed. For example, when the camera looks through the mountain/wall/whatever, it’s simply not seen at all. You would never see the terrain inside the FOV, the camera would always exclude objects between itself and your character. There would obviously be some tagging of objects that wouldn’t be omitted (like other players/npc’s/etc). But that is how i’ve seen it handled in the past.

Ok, now I get it. You’re talking about the second problem: “Camera zooms when smalls objects are in the way”. Other games don’t ignore the terrain completely. There’re things the camera ignores, like ladders, and other things the camera don’t, like walls or the ground (If I’m wrong, I’d like to see some examples). While it might sound easy, it is not the case from a programming standpoint.

Guild Wars actually did it to some extent. It pretty much moved right through solid walls without obstructing the view.