ScrollLock camera mode unusable after patch

[nttChris]

It's a pity that such a great game came with such screwed up, restricted and restrictive camera and camera angles. I would like that in any 3d game to have complete freedom when it comes to moving the camera around, nomatter if thus I go trough some objects.
If the camera free movement is restricted, why bother to make a 3d game ? Go back to isometric then.

Anyway, the camera is very bad in anno 1701, like I said above, but the patch restricted it even more. So much that I can not take my carefully chosen screenshots anymore using that scroll lock mode camera (1st person like camera).

If you used before the patch the Scroll Lock mode, the zoom in/out keys (pg up/pg down) were working there too, but after the patch they were disabled. WHY ? Why restrict even more such a restricted camera ?

The patch brought good stuff, but I prefer to return to the cheat for planting trees than not being able to use the scroll lock camera at all, because it is so closed now to the ground that becomes simply unusable. It's such a pity... :nono:

And why there was no camera tilt in anno 1701 from the beginning except a sort of tilt in that "scroll lock mode camera" which is meantime compromised ?
(tilt is the ability to move downards and upwards the camera, not only to rotate it)

I would like to have the zoom in/out keys working again in scroll lock mode camera.
Is there a way, a txt file, where I can edit the anno camera movement freedom ?
Thanks.

[LadyH]

Hi nttChris

you didn't find the new unlocked camera?

hit the END key and then use your mousewheel carefully

such screenshots are possible after patch
http://img272.imageshack.us/img272/3613/screenshot0247xk1.th.jpg (http://img272.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot0247xk1.jpg)

[nttChris]

Yes, I found it, but this is just for extreme zoom in/out in normal gameplay camera and not suitable for a more perspective like screenshot like you could get before the patch in "scroll lock mode camera".

I really need to edit the camera parameters, if there is an editable txt in anno like you can find in most of the 3d games. Is this possible in anno at all ?

------------------------------------------------

I'll try to be more specific regarding the first post.

In mid november, before the patch, I made a screenshot which I am still using as a wallpaper today. Here is the link:

http://www.geocities.com/floaredecoltpitic/screenshot0095_640.jpg

After installing the patch, because there is no zoom in/out anymore in "scroll lock camera mode" (scrool lock key is left from pause key and above home key), this is the closest screenshot I could get:

http://www.geocities.com/nttchris/screenshot0109_640.jpg

Horrid, right ? That's why I am so dissapointed about.

Here is another one made after the patch in normal gameplay camera:

http://www.geocities.com/nttchris/screenshot0108_640.jpg

Both screenshots made after the patch are not usable as wallpapers anymore.

Why do we have to use this stupid second scroll lock mode for getting a decent screenshot ? Because the gameplay normal camera has no tilt and for a 3d game this is a huge lack.
They made a compromise with this scroll lock mode, but normally, when clicking the mouse wheel, instead of just rotating the camera, we should have had tilt too and then the "scroll lock mode" wouldn't even exist.
Even so, it was a good compromise before the patch, but when this compromise disappeared, I had to say smth.

I hope I made a clearer point now. Sorry for the long post.
:angel:

[Toccatta]

Why do we have to use this stupid second scroll lock mode for getting a decent screenshot ? Because the gameplay normal camera has no tilt and for a 3d game this is a huge lack.

LadyH already told you that you can hit the END key to unlock the camera. After the patch, the unlocked camera DOES have a tilt function. Just as you can rotate the map by moving the mouse left and right, you can tilt the camera by moving the mouse forward and back. Before the patch, that axis had no function. The patch not only added the ability to zoom in and out a lot more than before, but it also added an adjustable tilt feature on the previously unused mouse axis.

[nttChris]

Sorry for me being stupid in this case.
I thought Lady H has referred just to the new extreme zoom in/out, because she hasn't mentioned there is actually a tilt, which I was really craving for.
Thank you very much to both of you. :)

[Toccatta]

Well, now that you know, you can give us the "perfect" screenshot of that island. That's a pretty impressive castle. :go: The free camera mode doesn't have the same perspective shift that postcard mode has, but it's a lot more versatile. After you play with it for a bit with the new tilt functionality, I think you'll probably like it a lot more than you did the old postcard mode.

[nttChris]

I am already testing it and I am already trying to make a new and better screenshot thanks to the tilt of the normal camera. I am still missing smth though. I don't know how to hide the interface, although i know this is possible, and I was just looking trough the forum threads regarding the patch.

P.S. In this map I have another palace in a colder climate island, with a whale jumping out of the water right in front of the palace, but the palace itself is much smaller.

[Toccatta]

I am already testing it and I am already trying to make a new and better screenshot thanks to the tilt of the normal camera. I am still missing smth though. I don't know how to hide the interface, although i know this is possible, and I was just looking trough the forum threads regarding the patch.


You can change it to any key you like, but the default key to toggle the interface is "I". Hope that helps.

[nttChris]

Yes, it helped very much. Thanks again.

I made some new screens with the normal camera new tilt function. It's great indeed and it is a crucial patch feature for me.

Unfortunately, the hidden interface in normal camera won't hide the rotating symbols above resources, like in postcard view, but one can't have everything. I resized them because the geocities free domain doesn't like too much traffic/bandwidth, but they can always be sent as wallpapers per mail.

A little modified:
http://www.geocities.com/floaredecoltpitic/screenshot0110_640.jpg

Another angle:
http://www.geocities.com/floaredecoltpitic/screenshot0113_800.jpg

Another island and the whale in front of the palace:
http://www.geocities.com/floaredecoltpitic/screenshot0115_640.jpg

On this island I had to squeeze all the 4000 aritocrats to get all the palace modules:
http://www.geocities.com/floaredecoltpitic/screenshot0116_640.jpg

:cool:

[Toccatta]

Well, let me give you one more bit of help then. You might want to sign up for a free photobucket account. I don't believe I've ever seen anyone exceed bandwidth on photobucket, although their free accounts do have a picture size limitation. However, unlike some other image hosts, they don't use pop-ups when you look at their pictures.

Imageshack also hosts images, and they don't appear to have the same photo size limitation that photobucket has, but they have some nasty and intrusive pop-ups, so I wouldn't recommend you use them unless you just really need to host LARGE images.

[nttChris]

I want for a long time to sign up for these image hosting sites, but I had no real motivation lately.
I suppose I will follow this advice of yours too. :wink: