Possible 1.8 update feature - increased zoom

[adrenaline]

Hey... I thought I heard rumor of an increased zoom feature coming with 1.8... apparently was wrong, but it is not completely out of the question.

Here are a couple of PunkUser's quotes from The Tain.

It's trivial to add, but it definitely changes the game. This sort of thing is a big deal in other games (dota-clones, starcraft, etc) so it needs consideration. Would need a somewhat democratic agreement from all of the relevant competitive folks to really consider it.

[Edit] I should add that it's trivial to add in 1.8 because of a lot of work that we've done on improving the modern renderers (opengl, directx 10/11). It may or may not be possible to support in the legacy renderers though (software, direct3d, 3dfx, etc).

In any case just for fun, here's a screenshot with ~10x further observer distance than the regular maximum zoom level: Clicky

While it is neat and such, we probably don't want to allow *that* much additional zoom. For starters we'd have to optimize certain things even further to support this level of zoom on lower-end hardware (not a big deal though - we can do it if need be). More importantly as mentioned, it may not be reasonable/possible to support even any further zoom on very low-end systems that use the old renderers (especially software).

So if everyone can use OpenGL/DirectX 10/11, or those that can't don't mind being at somewhat of a disadvantage (seems unlikely), it's certainly possible. I'd still be curious on the question of how many people would actually want to allow such a change though.

If you missed it, check out what it COULD look like HERE

It likely would NOT be increased THAT much (that example is 10x... more realistically it would like 2x or something but imagine the possibilities it would open up, in terms of captaining. Note that it would not change visibility (how close enemy has to be for you to see them). The issue seems to be that it may not be useable by people with older machines, running in software mode or something. Anyways, just thought I'd post it here to see what the competitive community thinks of this. Personally, I think it would make tournament games much more competitive, and put A LOT more focus on effective captaining.

PunkUser... could you possibly provide screenshots of what other zoom levels would look like? (maybe 2x-5x) or something?

Anyways... please vote.

[switch]

*cruiser* yes. I would go the full 10x or more.

I can certainly appreciate the extra CPU load issue, but this seems like a pretty straightforward method for increasing situation awareness and decreasing tunnel vision.

[headhunter]

10x zoom is fine by me.
2x zoom is fine by me.
The current "bird's eye view" is hardly true to the name.
I have been wanting a greater zoom for always.

[adrenaline]

35 views and 5 votes... c'mon people. Vote.

[punkuser]

I should note that regardless of whether or not people want this for gameplay, we could always still add it for watching replays.

But I will re-emphasize: it may not be possible to make this work for anything other than OpenGL and DirectX 10/11. I'm hoping most of you guys are using those already on non-ancient machines, but you should be aware of that potential issue and the disadvantage it may put old machines at, and vote appropriately.

[harpo]

If it would work that would be fantastic. I've been wishing I could zoom out just a little bit more.

[cheezefist]

This would be good.

[waywardone]

It's awesome as long as the FOG OF WAR STILL APPLIES, so this would still only show enemy units that are in LoS of one of your own. If this can't be done properly, it *cruisering* sucks.

[punkuser]

Aug 31, 2012 19:42:08 GMT 2 waywardone said:

It's awesome as long as the FOG OF WAR STILL APPLIES, so this would still only show enemy units that are in LoS of one of your own.

Yes of course that would be the case (as adrenaline mentions in his original post), just like panning right now. It merely zooms the camera back a bit further.

The screenshot I took was from a film (MWC finals actually) hence why you can see everything. I'll get some screenshots of different zoom levels tonight.

[waywardone]

Then it is awesome

Could the zoom max be put into Loathing like 'observer constants' and people could adjust it according to what their machine can handle?

[punkuser]

Aug 31, 2012 20:33:43 GMT 2 waywardone said:

Could the zoom max be put into Loathing like 'observer constants' and people could adjust it according to what their machine can handle?

Potentially possible, but personally I think it'd be more useful to the average user if we could simply agree on a reasonable zoom level (probably between 2x-5x current) and have an option to enabled "extended" zoom in prefs or something. I'd like to keep the zoom level such that it's reasonable on any machine running modern OpenGL/DX10 renderers. It's already pretty good speed on these modern renderers and can get even better with some further optimization.

The "old machine" issue is more of a "we can't support this feature *at all* on Software or other legacy renderers" than a "it'll just be slow".

[honkey]

ADD A PING FEATURE U will see the quality of 2 t game play increase exponentially

[asmo]

Would be AWFUL...it would take away from the art of captaining and team communication.The game has ALWAYS been this way and the limited camera zoom helps promote teamwork in a TEAM GAME! If they added this I would just not dl 1.8 or stop playing myth 2 all together...not trying to be a baby about it just my honest opinion.

[adrenaline]

you are being retarded. it would not take away from captaining, if anything it would improve it. in general, most players would NEVER actually play at that zoom level, because it is not practical for anything but captaining.

punkuser already indicated that the FOG OF WAR would not be affected in any way... all this would do is give the captain a better overview of the battle. think about it. i think games would be MUCH more competitive and this would really put an emphasis on captaining.

and what would not downloading 1.8 accomplish? you are not forced to play at this zoom level... I for one would continue playing at my normal zoom level.

don't claim stuff like it will take away from captaining and communication without giving examples.... support your argument.

[asmo]

of course you aren't forced to play at a zoomed out level but if you don't than it makes the playing field unequal. It would not add to captaining it would make it more casual. Believe it or not there is some captains that can do a pretty good job paying attention to the "whole battle" despite the limited zoom or they are able to cover what they can't see by 'good team communication'...Every time a change is made to make a game more casual it gets worse from my experience