No Full 3d rotate?

[Banquet]

I love the new graphics but can't seem to rotate in the y (up/down) axis, only in the 'around' axis. Is there any way to override this? I notice there are keys for high, low and default viewing angles but this seems nuts. Why can't I rotate around a planet or ship in any direction? Hopefully someone will tell me I can! It would also be great to be able to pan the view around a bit when using the bridge view (which is great btw)

It's great to be playing Distant Worlds again and I can't wait to get deeper into the game, just a bit disappointed about the seemingly hobbled 3d view.

[SirHoraceHarkness]

Not having a full 3d spin is a bit disorienting but I'm getting used to it. Hopefully this is something that can be modded in or an option in a future patch.

[Crumplecorn]

Came here to post basically what OP said. I'll add that the tracking/bridge cameras seem to break down when in hyperspace. The camera generally doesn't show the ship (but insists the camera is locked to it), and things get a bit wild when it arrives (camera zooming in and out wildly and then snapping to where it should be).

Also the textures or whatever for pinpricks of light (i.e. stars and planet surface lights) need some kind of filtering/sampling applied, at the moment whenever the camera moves they flicker wildly as the individual dots appear and disappear - unless that's just happening to me?

I'm loving DW in 3D, especially the starfields (proper pinpricks of light rather than the big blobs most games do) and the sense of scale from the planets. But it would be great if the camera was up to the task of showing the graphics off properly.

Edit: Actually it seems like if you activate tracking view while zoomed into anywhere other than where the ship is, even within the same system, you get a view of what you were looking at, rather than the camera moving to the ship?

[Banquet]

Well that's sad as it appears there really is no way to properly 3d rotate the camera view. The keyboard buttons for certain angles is incredibly clunky and, frankly, crap. We've lost things like the planets orbiting the stars to gain 3d and then the 3d we get is half arsed.

[R_TEAM]

Hi,

i would it not say "..half arsed.." ....
but he realy have an point ....
I never understand the use of an full 3D environment ... and restrict the view on an fixed angle or anything like this ...
(DW2 is not the only game where doing this here ....)

[Banquet]

I just played DW:U again for a few minutes and I must say the new graphics in DW2 are on a completely new level so perhaps 'half-arsed' is a bit of an exaggeration for effect... but it's seeing how nice the graphics are (for a huge strategy game) that makes it even more annoying that the 3d view is hobbled.

Someone with UI and 'gaming' experience needs to step in and overhaul the whole control and view system because currently the biggest battle in the game is navigating around and viewing things at a good angle... Even the pirates aren't that annoying.

[jRides]

You can rotate around no problems in the ship design view by holding the right mouse button down.

If they could give us this option and middle mouse button to pan the map on the main screen, that would solve everything - rather than the weird MMB or RMB one or the other but not both + keys for specific up/down angles set up they have now.

[GHerr]

i thought a few months back they actually stated you would be able to move the camera to a top down position, but maybe i misunderstood. i too would like the full camera rotation option

[Artophwar]

I too found it a bit disorienting not being able to fully rotate the camera around. Hopefully they will add that option in the future.

[muzzlehead]

I am really surprised we do not have full 3d camera control. I also hope it is an option in the near future.

[Cauldyth]

i thought a few months back they actually stated you would be able to move the camera to a top down position, but maybe i misunderstood. i too would like the full camera rotation option

Hit 'T' to go to top-down view, 'B' to go back to regular view. It's also accessible from the eye icon in the bottom right.

[LordMM]

You can rotate using the Q and E. However, there is no Y axis

[drillerman]

The only reason I can see for not having a fully rotatable camera in all axes is performance issues.

[Banquet]

I've tried to think of why they might have restricted the 3d view but I can't think of anything that makes much sense. It could be performance I suppose, but I'm not sure what difference it would make. If you change the angle via the keyboard shortcuts and then rotate with the mouse, you can just about see things from most angles after a fashion, but it's harder than it needs to be and you often end up with an awkward angle. I also wondered if it might be to stop people getting disoriented but I don't think people would. 3d games have been letting people freely rotate around objects for decades. Stellaris does it. Even Crusader Kings 3 lets you rotate up and down and you don't even need it in that game.

I understand this is a strategy game, but in games like this for me half the fun is zooming right in and enjoying the little details of what's going on from the perspective of a single unit. The current view controls make it really hard to do that in a satisfying way.

It would be great to get a dev comment on why it was restricted and if it's something that can be implemented in a patch.

[BTAxis]

I get where you guys are coming from and I would also like to see proper camera tilting, but just to add a little perspective to this conversation, keep in mind that this whole game was basically programmed by one man. Other people were involved, especially Erik on design and I believe some programming as well, but Elliot is still very much the core of the development team, by himself.

This is why you see outlier design choices like these. Elliot made the game he wanted to make, the result of which is very different than if a large design team had designed the game.