Descenting commander view Options

[uffo]

oh helloes!
did a really quick search and didn't find anything on the subject so pardon me if there's already been discussion about this.
anyways! I'd like to make a map where marines starts high and kharaa are at the bottom and marines have to gradually walk deeper
and deeper to the peril. I think it would create more sense of the danger since after all, the evil always lurks in the basement.

but since this is NS and there's this commander view which brings some limitations. with NS1 this was impossible because
the lower the map gets the greater the commander's view distance gets, so I was thinking that maybe in NS2 the commander's
camera could follow a plane that can be set into a certain angle and therefore the commander's camera would always be at desired
height.

here's a picture to elaborate.



anyone with this one?

This post has been edited by uffo: Apr 17 2010, 10:21 AM

[T_RAT]

I think a map like that would be sweet, not all maps though. The camera idea makes sense to me, but i don't know much about making games : )

[Pipi]

I've let my thoughts on that in the Commander View sticky thread. I certainly agree with that.

I was thinking of either an auto-adjusting camera with smooth Y movement, or maybe a let the commander player use the mousewheel to zoom in and out of the map, and let the mapper set a minimum and maximum height inside the level with the commander camera entity.

I'm sure they'll come up with something better and more intuitive than in NS1 anyways.

[1mannARMEE]

I don't think such a map was impossible in NS1, I can remember someone who made a map and made it Pyarmid style so that there was one hive location at the top of the pyramid and every hive location was exactly the same time away from the marine start, I thought that was quite a genious attempt to the whole NS1 really unbalanced hive locations.

Maybe in NS2 it'll work better, but even if the camera is a little weird, this map would be nice anyway.

[spellman23]

In a Podcast and for some ideas I believe we have discussed a kind of mesh height for the comm view (either precompiled or dynamic, don't recall/wasn't determined). That way different areas that are higher or lower wouldn't have this problem. However, it's not part of this: http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/wiki/inde...;s_new_from_NS1 so.... dunno.


Also, I heartily recommend ns_nexus, which is the pyramid map people are talking about.

[Max]

I can't remember if we did a blog on this or we were just thinking about it, but NS2 will allow for the commander height to vary. The way it works is you setup these camera entities in the editor which specify how high the commander view should be at that location. The game interpolates between nearby camera heights to make it move smoothly.

[uffo]

neato and thanks! this can be locked away then.

[Lemming Jesus]

I can't remember if we did a blog on this or we were just thinking about it, but NS2 will allow for the commander height to vary. The way it works is you setup these camera entities in the editor which specify how high the commander view should be at that location. The game interpolates between nearby camera heights to make it move smoothly.

So, the commander can't zoom his view?

[schkorpio]

I can't remember if we did a blog on this or we were just thinking about it, but NS2 will allow for the commander height to vary. The way it works is you setup these camera entities in the editor which specify how high the commander view should be at that location. The game interpolates between nearby camera heights to make it move smoothly.

yup it was in an audio blog ages ago :)

[FocusedWolf]

I can't remember if we did a blog on this or we were just thinking about it, but NS2 will allow for the commander height to vary. The way it works is you setup these camera entities in the editor which specify how high the commander view should be at that location. The game interpolates between nearby camera heights to make it move smoothly.

Yes i remember that reveal.

Any chance of full multi-floored support? I.e. floors which overlap each other?

I just think it is a bit limiting that all "multi-tiered" maps will have this 2 dimensional feeling. Sure you can go up and down in height (like ns1 maps) by traveling across a stair case, climbing a ladder, or jetpack etc but it's noticeable that you are on "1" floor the entire map, just like how the commander sees it in this implementation.

Sure it's more work for a commander, but this easily justifies having multiple NS2-commanders to handle the workload in parallel :)

This post has been edited by FocusedWolf: Apr 18 2010, 04:59 AM

[Renegade.]

You have no idea how serendipitous this thread title is, considering some comm's ego inflation :)

Anyways, entity-controlled camera is a step up, by why not go full-out player control? I don't see why allowing the commander to control his view on all axis is problematic.

[Lemming Jesus]

You have no idea how serendipitous this thread title is, considering some comm's ego inflation :)

Anyways, entity-controlled camera is a step up, by why not go full-out player control? I don't see why allowing the commander to control his view on all axis is problematic.

Neither do I. I did never had any trouble in Empires with the camera. I'd really like to see a camera control option like World In Conflict.

[celewign]

Yes i remember that reveal.

Any chance of full multi-floored support? I.e. floors which overlap each other?

I just think it is a bit limiting that all "multi-tiered" maps will have this 2 dimensional feeling. Sure you can go up and down in height (like ns1 maps) by traveling across a stair case, climbing a ladder, or jetpack etc but it's noticeable that you are on "1" floor the entire map, just like how the commander sees it in this implementation.

Sure it's more work for a commander, but this easily justifies having multiple NS2-commanders to handle the workload in parallel :)

needlessly complex