Okay, so I''m still dreaming about one day turning a design into a product... I''ve yet to play a game that uses a 3D environment where I feel like I really control the camera movement. Usually, too many functions are left to just the mouse to perform. If moving around is necessary, and moving around expertly can heighten the enjoyment of the game, how do you avoid the pitfalls that current games have? For example, I love Shogun: Total War, and even though I''ve heard and read about people saying they actually liked the interface/camera movement, I just wasn''t satisfied with it. Mouse moving forward, backward, sideways will move the camera accordingly, but since mouse move up and sideways results in camera circling to that side, more often than not what I wanted to happen, didn''t happen. Eventually, I found myself using the keyboard a lot, to ''strafe'' the camera from side to side. Camera movements that I can think of in a 3D environment: move forward move backward move left move right move forward-left, forward-right, backward-left, backward-right circle camera left circle camera right circle camera 90 degrees left/right at once circle camera 180 degrees at once zoom in zoom out zoom in/out to specified distance tilt down tilt up tilt up/down to specified angle move to location X and center on it Personally, I''d favor a system which would let the standard movements of a mouse only take care of the most basic movements of the camera. Mouse moves forward, mouse indicator hits top of screen, camera moves forward. Mouse moves left, mouse indicator hits left edge of screen, camera moves left. If the mouse moves forward and left at the same time, camera would go forward and left at same time. Can we assume that a mouse has a scroll button? How many players do not have a mouse with a scroll button? Is there a reason for not owning a mouse with a scroll button? (I guess owning a trackball would be a reason) I''d love to be able to just make the scroll button take care of the zoom in/out aspect. That leaves us with the circling camera motion and the tilt. Well, why not create a special mode for the mouse, just like we have a special mode for keys on a keyboard. When SHIFT (or any other preset button) is pressed, the mouse switches to special mode. When SHIFT is pressed, a forward movement with the mouse results in a tilt up. Backward movement results in tilt down. A left/right movement of mouse results in a left/right circular camera motion. Any desired levels of zoom/circle/tilt could be preset to certain hotkeys. The ''move to location X'' could be done either by a double click in standard mouse mode, or with a single click combined with SHIFT in special mouse mode. Hm, is this even possible? Assigning different functions to mouse movements depending on keys that are pressed on keyboard? Okay, so question to all you gamers/designers is: what possible camera movements would you want to be able to use? what possible solutions are there to give a player easy tools to achieve all these movements?

Yeah it''s possible.

The ideal camera would be where the important events are displayed automatically and without user intervention, and hopefully in a very cinematic style, as per battle in FFVII and sequels. FF worked around some problems that computer games have that consoles do not. For one, if a camera moves while the player is looking at something, or even worse, trying to manipulate something with the mouse, it frustrates the player. If it shows something the player doesn''t care about, he gets bored. If it shows something the player cares about and then moves away, he gets angry.

Black and White had a very nice system that I think could be extended, and some problems that could be corrected.

In B&W, to fly overhead and then look down at a decent zoom from a versatile height(the best part of their system), doubleclicking the left mouse button is required. To move, click and drag as per Adobe Acrobat. To zoom, both buttons. To circle, move the mouse to the edge and click&drag. To tilt, move to the top and do the same. Arrow and modifier keys are available for all of these operations.

I think we need to study player''s camera habits before we can decide what is best, but I think we need to consider something similar to the revolution Warcraft II introduced over Warcraft I--context sensitive clicking for cameras as well as actions.

So clicking on an enemy building causes you to zoom close into that building, so that you can examine it visually. If it has a door out of which units walk, the camera faces the door. If the *ground* in an enemy base is clicked, the camera zooms to fit the portion of the base that is not covered by fog of war, and rotates so that the camera sits somewhere in a plane that connects your base and their base, so that anything that comes closer to the camera is also approaching the player''s base, and everything that is visible to the player is shown by the camera as long as there is nothing specific being clicked. Clicking on a unit would zoom to that unit, and if there are any units in its vicinity, it zooms to show the group. A definition of group that is very limited in distance would be preferable so that the unit can be clicked individually if the desire is only the unit itself. Another nice feature might be to zoom to show all a units escorts, but that might tip off a player to what a units orders are.

Clicking on the ground in your own base would zoom to that position, and try to be as versatile as possible. Clicking on your own buildings would make you zoom to that building, and circle to its door, as per the enemy base. Clicking on one of your own units might zoom to its control group, platoon, units in its vicinity, escorts, unit escorted, target(s), or any of the above.

Clicking on the ground during a battle would position the camera where you can see all your troops and as many of their targets as is feasible, probably from a directly above location, if there are few aircraft, or from behind your troops or perpendicular to the battle lines if aircraft get in the way(so you can look below them) If your units begin to retreat, the camera might follow the retreating units looking backward, or perhaps from above. If their units begin to retreat, the camera might zoom so that it can see your units chase, and the trailing units of his fleeing force.

If you had some kind of hero unit, a camera riding shotgun with him(hero in the lower left or lower right corner of the screen, facing the same direction as your camera) might be fun, so you could see battle from the treches. Or perhaps it might zoom to his area of influence, if his presence affects surrounding units.

Clicking on a moving unit would display all the units who were moved in a group with the unit, or to a similar location, or at least the units in the vicinity. It would follow them as they moved, and if the unit needed to avoid an obstacle, the camera would circle to follow the unit around the obstacle and point again to the direction in which the unit is moving.

Clicking a gatherer would zoom to the gatherer, what he''s gathering, and to all of his fellows who are gathering the same thing(same thing being similar distance and identical resource type).

Clicking terrain where nothing''s going on would circle to point away from the player''s base(or closest base), and tilt so that the fog of war is just visible, and zoom so that items in the distance are just distinguishable, and items that are near where you clicked are very close to the camera''s position.

Directly manipulating the camera of course is still important, as well as modifying some actions that would remain contextual.

Clicking and holding(relative to the screen, not the unit) on a moving unit would circle around it. Clicking and holding on a building would cause it to zoom fairly slowly out. Until they let the key go, of course, after which the camera would stop. Clicking and holding on a unit participating in a battle would zoom in, tilt up and move closer, so that you get a more in the trenches view. Double clicking then holding might make the action go backwards. Double clicking without holding would make the camera move without circling or tilting or panning.

Moving to the edge of the screen to circle, top to tilt, and clicking and dragging to move would all work as per Black and White. Additional keys such as the ones you mentioned for spinning left/right/back would be used as well.

I think with a sufficiently intelligent camera control system, modifier keys for the mouse would not be necessary, unless I''ve missed something crucial the a camera needs to do.

Wow. That was long.

Play homeworld, best mouse control ever, period.

Edited by - useful on February 28, 2002 4:39:30 AM

Check out Ground Control... 3D rts with a great camera solution.

I would say keep the camera as simple as you can. For my own design, I am planning to make the game playable using a fairly basic camera with a standard top down view, a la Age of Legends (or whatever its called) and Warcraft 3. Extra features like rotation and zooming may be available, but the key is to make the game playable without them.

I am also considering having a homeworld style ''unit centric'' view point, and letting the player toggle between that and the standard viewpoint with a single keypress.