Oran Gootan
Pwn 'N Play
Spaceship Samurai
0
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Posted - 2016.08.23 12:58:19 -
[1] - Quote
Please for the love of all that is holy increase the max zoom distance to what it was pre-patch!
I love the way this game looks. I have always loved the way the developers keep the game looking consistently modern and fresh. My favorite thing to do second to PVP in EVE is to film PVP. All those missiles, streaming about.. The fire from distant railguns and artillery cannons.. Smartbombs exploding magical cotton candy plasma all over the place. It looks absolutely amazing. I have never seen such vivid, immersive space combat as eve can produce in any movie or television show.
Unfortunately for elite eve combat videographers such as myself, the max zoom level has absolutely obliterated several methods I have used to take AMAZING video takes and screenshots. I feel like the game and the external media content generated from the game is severely hindered by the zoom changes to the camera.
Space is absolutely massive as it is. The new grid size is roughly the same size as the planet Earth. With the zoom factor pre-patch, I could clearly see a battlecruiser sized ship on the other end of a grid. At the current zoom level post-patch, I cannot resolve a battlecruiser-sized ship with the same clarity from 40km away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyzY74QEKzs
Above is a link to a short clip I made in 2012 of a conga line of CFC hurricanes attacking a station in delve. With the powerful camera zoom I was able to take a wide-pan shot of the entire fleet in a single take. No fumbling with a tactical camera. I wasn't forced to detatch my camera from my ship, which can be disastrous in a combat scenario.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf9sJLCj_Xc
Here is another video I took pre-patch. Here you will see several great shots which are currently either impossible or require much more effort with the current zoom level:
* at 0:31, I focus on a Vexor, dumping his blasters into the poor doomed Archon. Notice how the ship is clearly visible, how the blaster effects streak from the ship. Notice how dope that looks.
*at 0:51, I take a close-up of a recently facemurdered Archon. Notice how the camera pans considerably not due to the movement of the mouse, but due to the movement of my hurricane, producing an intensively immersive and jawdroppingly beautiful shot.
*at 1:13, I start to film our logistics ships. Notice here how the movement of the ships combined with the slow panning of the camera across them, and the way you can see the ships turning as they keep formation with the fleet, how they seem to glide along their clearly visible engine trails, giving them the graceful appearance of the lifesaving angels they are, despite the clunky appearance of the hulls themselves.
*at 4:37, I took a wide pan across the entire grid. Notice how even at a distance of 400km, the ships, weapon effects, all the action is clearly visible. The entire combat situation is visible for the next few minutes. The zoom allowed me, without repositioning the camera, to take a sweep of the entire field, capturing the whole combat situation. The hurricanes are clearly visible burning out of range. A ship which got caught can be seen behind the canes, with a massive amount of ewar effects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlHEbbRG7-k
This is a video I took post-patch. With the hyper360meganerfed zoom distance, I was severely crippled in my ability to adequately film this engagement.
In the beginning, I go full zoom. Notice how, from my position on the grid just 60km from the capital fleet, I was unable to resolve CARRIERS. The Archons on grid appear as tiny sticks. The subcapital ships are completely invisible. The only thing clearly visible are the supers, titans and force auxillaries, the largest ship in the game. From a camera positioned just 60km away.
Even after attatching my camera to one of the supers on grid, I was still unable to resolve any subcapital ships with the current zoom level. The closest or largest ships appeared as tiny dark slivers on the screen. Even after positioning the camera as close as I could to the dreadnought who was being primaried, the subcaps on grid are still tiny unrecognizable blobs.
The reduction in max zoom is significant, and severely hinders my ability personally to produce external video content for your game. I'm sure there are others who feel the same way.
I have seen several posts in this thread about people complaining that the max zoom level makes the stars in space appear "pixelated". Watch the videos I took pre-patch again. Can you honestly say, while focusing on all those ships, shooting all those guns, all those smartbombs everywhere, that the background of stars and planets becoming slightly blurred is actually bothering you? Generally, videos in eve are of spaceships, not of space itself. If you don't like how space looks when you're zoomed in that far, don't zoom in that far! It's very simple. If you have a sprained ankle, do you constantly move it around and wonder why it hurts, or do you let it rest and not move it in a way that hurts you? The same obvious solution works for the camera as well. If you really want to look at space with a telescope, get a telescope and go outside. There are hundreds of thousands of pictures which come from ACTUAL space telescopes that you can look at freely available to you on the internet. Guess what happens when you zoom in on those? The same thing! They become pixelated, because there can never be infinite data put into a texture. You shouldn't try to hide the technical limitations of your game by introducing MORE limitations when it comes to graphics.
I'm not asking you to scrap the new camera, or make a new one, or change anything at all except one constant, one tiny, simple, numerical constant. Stored somewhere, in some configuration thingy, just a single number. Please increase the zoom distance. I will love you forever. |