Vedric Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 Can anything be done to speed up the camera in CMBB? The keyboard commands are useless the camera is so slow in all directions! Mouse input is better but still slow and non-fluid.. almost like its stuck in mud or something. I remember trying the demo of the first CM and actually getting turned off of an otherwise great game because of the sluggist, non-fluid nature of the camera. I purchased CMBB thinking they surely solved this by now but I was wrong. It would be nice to scroll smoothly around the battlefield much like in Medieval: Total War or every other game out there that uses an overhead camera system. Can this be improved with CMBB? If not, will it be fixed in CMAK? If its a limitation of the engine I 'very sadly' will be skipping any further titles. Thanks, Vedric 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingknives Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 It depends what view level that you are on as to how fast the view scrolls. Personally, I've not had any trouble with it, and I'm hardly using a high end system. If you want to move about faster, try ctrl-clicking on the point that you want to get to. CMAK is the last game in the series to use the current engine - following that it'll be CMX2, (currently under development) which utilises an entirely new engine. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vedric Posted October 27, 2003 Author Share Posted October 27, 2003 Yea I know zooming way out will actually get you from one place to another a bit faster.. then you need to zoom back in and (slowly) move the camera around to find the unit and of course look over the situation by moving the sluggish camera around some more. Even if you ctrl click to a place you still need to rotate (slow) to face the destination and rotate (slow) again when you get there to look around. You say you have no problems but the keyboard movement buttons are absolutely useless. Nothing can be adjusted which to me is crazy considering every game out there allows sensitivity adjustment for either input type. If you've played and become used to using the better camera systems in other games, using the system in CM is painfully inept. At any rate the questions still stand for anyone to answer. Can this be improved in CMBB? Will it be addressed in CMAK? Thanks again, Vedric 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Björn Eriksson Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 I just click a unit in the vicinity of the area I wish to view, then tap the TAB key. This centers the camera on the selected unit. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86smopuim Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 more physical memory an help jumpy camera action. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 You can also hold Control and then click anywhere in the terrain or on a unit, and the camera moves there. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugilist Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 If I understand you correctly... What I do is click the arrow-up button until I get an overhead view, preferably the second one. This one frames platoon size engagements nicely. It also moves around the battlefield fast. Then I find the unit, click on it, TAB it, and click the arrown-down button until I am above and behind them to check for line of sight. Yes it may seem fursttrating at first but it only takes some getting used to. The "higher" the camera view, the faster you go, right? Just navigate from overhead unless you are playing according to combat rules which don't allow this feature, which is still beyond my capacity. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingknives Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 I'd suggest that the hotkeys are the answer, if you get bored of switching up and down the view levels. 1-8(?) on the keyboard jumps to the selected view level 1-5 are angled views, 5< are overhead views. In addition, the ' / ' key will immediately turn the facing of the view by 180 degrees. Finally there are the keypad numbers, which allow for a faster rotate and move. The cursor keys and ' < ' and ' > ' are really only for fine adjustment (e.g. when looking at something with magnification on. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 The arrow buttons in the interface are the fastest of all, but I find mousing them a tad more awkward than using keys. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vedric Posted October 27, 2003 Author Share Posted October 27, 2003 I have plenty of memory... My system specs are SOTA as of 4 months ago.. The camera is just as slow in setup phase as combat phase. I do use ctrl+click and various zoom levels. This doesnt exactly cover everything does it now? To whomever said the arrow keys are faster than the mouse, you should probably clean your mouse and update the drivers. I give up. I guess none of you understand what a smooth quick moving camera is like. Play warcraft 3, that is a fluid moving camera.. oh and its adjustable. Try Medieval: Total War for an average implementation of a 3D overhead camera yet its still lightyears smoother than CMBB and yes, adjustable also. Not to rant against CMBB at all I actually really enjoy the game. I had a friend laugh at how sticky and slow the camera is this weekend. He is a Warcraft 3 nut but it made me think. Oh well, hopefully the new engine after CMAK will solve it. cya, vedric 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conscript Bagger Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 Using a lower level of trees, doodads, smoke, etc. might speed up your camera too. I always turn them down or off during the orders phase so I can get around quicker. And avoid heavily-damaged maps - all those craters are death to framerate. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Dorosh Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 The problem is with the camera controls themselves - they are extremely clunky. The only answer is - you have to, unfortunately, get used to it. My advice - stop playing Medieval War and all those other games that have better camera controls. You won't notice it so much after. Yes, it is frustrating but there is nothing to be done about it in the current incarnation. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingknives Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 The CM engine is getting on a bit, but I don't understand how a slow camera can ruin a game. Using the hot keys to jump out a few levels, ctrl-click and hotkey back works fine for me, along with intelligent use of 'TAB' and ' / ' and using the keypad numbers. If you're playing on battlefields so big that it really does slow you down, you're playing a bit beyond what CM is designed for. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 I noticed a queer thing last spring. And that was that camera movement was smooth and fast at the start of a battle, but after 8-10 turns it began to get noticeably jerky and slow. After about 12 turns it got so bad I just gave up on it. I'm still not sure what caused that. I speculated that as more and more of the enemy's units became revealed, it overloaded my vid card or something. I've had it recur a few times in other battles, but that was by far the worst. Perhaps one thing that has helped since is that I try to avoid high unit counts, playing with only a company or so to each side. It still bugs me that it happened at all though. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vedric Posted October 28, 2003 Author Share Posted October 28, 2003 Wait a minute! Allow me to backup a bit. Michael Emrys was exactly right. I thought he meant arrow keys not the arrow icons on the GUI. The arrow icons on the lower right of the interface are indeed much faster than mouse movement or keyboard input. However this type of system is straight out of an 80's role playing game and awkward. I cant remember games using arrow icons on the user interface for camera movement for nearly 15 years. Except CM of course. So this begs the question. Why cant they add some adjustability to the other forms of input (keyboard and mouse). Its clear the engine is NOT the limiting factor here. Perhaps update us with a small patch? Im on my knees here battlefront.. Im begging here! If anything the icons on the GUI should be slower for fine adjustment of looks, NOT the other more widely used mouse and keyboard input. All should be adjustable however.. Any response from the boys at battlefront? Thanks, Vedric 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimguy Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 Just to chime in here, if you have an nVidia video card, the driver version will have an effect on your visual quality and speed. The 3x series worked very well for me, but the early 40 and 42 series drivers were very sloooow (but worked well in FS2002). I now use 44.03 dets and they work well, but could be better IMHO. I haven't followed the detonator drivers too much lately, so you might want to ask around for other's experiences. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 Originally posted by Crimguy: Just to chime in here, if you have an nVidia video card, the driver version will have an effect on your visual quality and speed.I do and I very much suspect that you are right. The problem is that I am on a Mac using the Apple version of the GeForce 4 Ti with 128M. It's theoretically powerful enough to do the job, but the driver is inadequate and I don't think Apple has done an update since I got it a year ago. Michael [ October 28, 2003, 03:41 AM: Message edited by: Michael Emrys ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenAsJade Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 Some people are saying "put up with it", but with an adequate graphics card it doesn't fall into the category of "have to put up with it"... it's fine. My nVidia card is 18 months old and copes fine. There are some things you can do to help though: - Turn off trees (they just get in the way anyhow). I rarely have trees turned on. - Get low res mods. Just swapping your wheatfield for a low res one can make a world of difference. - Make sure anti-alisasing is turned off. With a half-decent machine, it really should be quite acceptable. GaJ. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goose Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 Try using the numpad keys. I think they are as fast as the clickable arrow icons. I even think the manual states something like "arrow keys are for fine positioning of the camera, numpad keys are for getting around" 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 My experience with scroll rate seems to be rather... counter intuitive. I currently play the game on two macs, my creaky old G3 at home and my robust G4 at work (don't tell the boss). My home mac downsamples the graphics ruthlessly, my work mac is crisp and sharp. My home mac has a slower processor than my work mac. So guess which machine has the faster scroll rate! So my advice to you? Buy yourself an older, slower, crapper machine! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eichenbaum Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 Some know me... I create Huge scenario's. Lot's of trees... well lots of everything. Every time I test these on a PIII 450MHz - 256MB and a Geforce 2 64MB. And yes... the camera moves a bit slow. Like others said before, you need to turn down the amount of objects displayed like grass, rocks, trees etc. You'll see the camera moves much quicker. If you use a PC : SHIFT+N for grass & stones etc... and SHIFT+T for the trees. If you set them to 'minimum' you can still enjoy the 3d objects without getting epileptic strokes by the flikkering screen 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookie Monster Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 Definately update your video drivers and turn off anti-aliasing. One other thing that helped me to "smooth" my camera movement. Get rid of custom mouse pointers or turn off the window's theme(Plus!). One last thing that might help is to get rid of any desktop backgrounds. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.