Spring RTS Engine

If a mod could poll this up it would be appreciated.

I am making this poll (or quasi-poll if it doesn't get polled-up), to determine whether my concerns on these matters are valid:
http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=19663
http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=19839 (last few posts)

Based mostly in my own experience that TA mode is the most suitable to TA-style gameplay, and my own deductions based on the type of camera movement I see people using when Ally Cursors is active, I believe that the TA-style camera is what is most commonly used. By extension, the controls to switch to other camera modes should be made less easy to hit by mistake when combining other controls. The other modes are primarily used when making videos or when you need a special perspective on a given situation, but only actually used 1% of the time or less.

What camera modes do you use on a regular basis during regular gameplay?

TA-mode
Rotatable Overhead
Total War
First Person
Free Camera
Orbit Camera
Smooth camera

Thank you for your input on this matter.

TA camera only.Always.

While speccing i might use the others, but playing is TA cam only.

Never even heard of Orbit or Smooth.

Caydr wrote:First Person

Why even list this?

Regret wrote:

Caydr wrote:First Person

Why even list this?

Maybe some people play com shooter?

FPS camera is not the same as direct controlling a unit.

there have been lots of polls on this already.
i always use TA view or rotable, sometimes i tilt it a little but usually not a lot.
no idea how you can move fast&precise in any other mode.

fps mode is similiar to spectatorview in halflife btw. but in spring you can only scroll left and right, forward/backwards keys zoom and mouse rotates.

knorke wrote:there have been lots of polls on this already.

Yes but this one has an agenda:
-remove ctrl+middle hotkey
-remove shift+middle hotkey
-add some other hotkey that people won't push by mistake
-update the settings menu to make it possible to disable the 2 newest camera modes

Also, if a moderator sees this, please reconfigure the poll to allow multiple choices.

I only ever use Overhead whilst playing but when getting nice screens I use Rotatable Overhead and whilst getting some nice video I will use SpecRun.

I use fps cam thank you very much.

I once saw (via the LockCamera widget) someone playing using FPS camera. It was insane. I think I would get disoriented if I tried the same. It was a refreshing break from seeing everything from the same angle too.

BTW you can use the LockCamera widget to see through the eyes of anyone who is broadcasting their camera position. I have no idea of its current popularity though, and of course I cannot guarantee that population of LockCamera users is representative of the general Spring population in terms of camera mode usage.

there's no "other" option.

aegis wrote:there's no "other" option.

I'm clearly being set up. Well I won't bite.

Smooth Camera is essentially the same as the TA one except it's awesome. The main difference is that the camera motion is, as the name implies: smoother.

The only thing I would like it to do is to be able to rotate about the vertical axis. (and be one of the default choices )

I do sometimes use Rotatable Overhead, though that is mostly for spectating and screenshot/film work.

Caydr wrote:

aegis wrote:there's no "other" option.

I'm clearly being set up. Well I won't bite.

'cept you can have a camera mode fully controlled by lua.

I might use total war cam if it wasn't completely gimped (stupidly fast rotation with really slow scrolling if I remember right)

sometimes I miss the ability to be able to rotate the camera view. I don't see why this couldn't be integrated into ota-cam.

aegis wrote:'cept you can have a camera mode fully controlled by lua.

so if someone implemeneted all the useless camera modes in a widget/widgets, they could be thrown out of the engine to avoid confusing nubs (and me). lua would allow much better customisation (i coudl make total war cam useful)

fun fact: if you reduce tilt (ctrl+mousewheel) it's much easier to place water buildings.

In some mods (particularly s44) I switch into rotatable overhead/fps mode so I can see hills/ridges in profile, get an idea if there is any "lip" on the edge, how to account for firearcs etc.

Stuff like the ridge/hill running along the centre of Titan are often not immediately apparent, and I find zooming around the map in various camera modes often reveals stuff "standard" cam and f1 do not.

Plus fps cam is the only way to spec imo