Zoom fix here.

[Eadrick Tudoria]

NOTE: DON'T DO THIS IF YOU PLAN TO PLAY MULTIPLAYER GAMES. It is considered cheating by most people, and perhaps the developer.

One major drawback of AoE3 is the zoom is terrible. The overhead view of the game is SO CLOSE to the ground. SO, here's how you fix it. Keep in mind that this game seems a bit beastly, and zooming out too far really puts a load on your computer, at least it does on my computer.

First of all AoE comes with 2 DLCs. The game and the DLCs each have their own config file you will need to edit to change the zoom.

For me, the path is (I have windows 7 64-bit):

C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/SteamApps/common/Age Of Empires 3/bin/Startup

You are going to want to find these three files

game.cfg
gamex.cfg
gamey.cfg

---I recommend making backup copies of these files...

You will need to open them with either Notepad (which comes with most windows installs) or preferably Notepad++ or some other text editing program.

After opening the .cfg file, search (there is a search function in notepad) for the word "zoom". You will find at least 6 entries for the word "zoom" and that section will look like this:

maxZoom=60
normalZoom=50
minZoom=29
extraZoomPercent=0.15
zoomSpeed=0.5
zoomWheelDivisor=30.0

Change Both Normal and Max Zoom to a higher number, I use 100, which I rarely zoom to this new maximum value.

maxZoom=100
normalZoom=100
minZoom=29
extraZoomPercent=0.15
zoomSpeed=0.5
zoomWheelDivisor=30.0

NOTE: DON'T edit ANY other values unless you know what you are doing. If you mess it up, there is a simple fix. If you do not have any mods installed, just the vanilla game, you can simply Verify Game Cache through steam. Steam will find that the game.cfg file is edited and correct it. Or replace the files if you created backups of them.

And that should be it. Now, realistically, you probably only have to change gamey.cfg and not all of them since gamey.cfg is for the Asian Dynasties DLC, which is the "version" I launch when playing the game since the AD "version" is the base game, plus both DLCs. However, I change them all just to be sure, I honestly don't know if you need to edit them all.

Like I previously said, these .cfg files are now edited. If you verify game files through steam, steam will see them as corrupted and will replace them. So if your game is running weird and you use verify game cache to fix the weirdness, you'll have to edit these files again.

EDIT: Steam users "rustyshakelford2" "Australia" below posted that trying this mod in MP creates match making error and using this fix or "mod" is considered cheating as it gives you a wider FOV.


EDIT2: Some users have said that this fix does not work for them. I haven't tried it, but if the above fix doesn't, maybe this will. As always, use at your own risk:

Originally posted by philhne07:

Originally posted by IceFoxx:

I am running no mods, I am zooming with middle mouse wheel, I also dont update files.

I also could not get the max zoom to work. I tried editing the minimum zoom when that didn't work and I could get the minimum zoom to work as well as the normal zoom.

My fix was to set BOTH the max and normal zoom to 100 and it worked! I settled on 120 since I've got pc power to spare

If this work for you, give thanks to philhne07 for finding a possible workaround!

[Lisa Yates]

+1 thank you !

[Raydell]

You only need to edit the one you're playing. So it's just the gamey.cfg if you're playing with the Asian Dynasties expansion. :)

If you're worried about messing things up - just make a backup copy of whatever files you're going to edit. If things go wrong, simply restore the backup.

[MS IamPREZSTEVE]

Extremely interesting. Nice post! As RoosterCantrell pointed out, I wouldn't try this unless you have a decent CPU. This should work in singleplayer, but have you tried this online?

[Eadrick Tudoria]

Thanks! haven't tried it online, just throwing that out there...

[Staryn]

Thanks a lot. That was one of the most annoying things, especially in naval battles. Hope this works.

[rustyshakelford2]

This fix worked great, but in multiplayer you get a crc mismatch error. I'm guessing there is probably no way around that.

[iSnack2.0]

Zoom mods are actually banned on ESO. Go to http://www.agecommunity.com/archive42006.aspx and read the section at the bottom titled "Mods and Hacks":

QUOTE
Mods and Hacks

It has come to our attention that a popular UI mod enables users to zoom out further than the game usually allows. This gives the player with the mod an unfair advantage, and we consider this cheating when used in multiplayer games. If you are using a mod that has this functionality, do not make use of it in multiplayer games, or uninstall the mod.

We are also looking into other hacks at this time, and would like to remind players that we have a zero tolerance policy towards cheating and the use of hacks.

04/05/06
END QUOTE

[Sawtaytoes]

Thanks for this! I play this in LAN and the zoom has been bugging me for years!

[.:ES|wANNSEE:.]

Thank you very much! This fixed the zoom issue for me. Great post.

[umeu_1]

mods dont enforce that rule anymore really. there is an option to change from near to very far in the settings. but if thats not far enough you can do what the OP said. do note that its a bit upon still by competitive players. however if you just use it for your own entertainment its fine ofcourse

[iSnack2.0]

Originally posted by umeu_1:

mods dont enforce that rule anymore really. there is an option to change from near to very far in the settings. but if thats not far enough you can do what the OP said. do note that its a bit upon still by competitive players. however if you just use it for your own entertainment its fine ofcourse

It was declared by ES to be cheating back in 2006. Do not do it for online play.

[IceFoxx]

No matter to what I change these.... it has no effect.

Zoom ingame stays the same....

[Um Bongo]

Originally posted by IceFoxx:

No matter to what I change these.... it has no effect.

Zoom ingame stays the same....

You are editing the wrong config file for the version of the game you are launching.

[IceFoxx]

I changed the files which he posted:

game.cfg
gamex.cfg
gamey.cfg

[Eadrick Tudoria]

Originally posted by IceFoxx:

I changed the files which he posted:

game.cfg
gamex.cfg
gamey.cfg

Sorry, I don't know what the problem is. The fix is very basic and should work. it's a very universal config file, and provided you aren't running some truly wild mods, this should work.

I don't mean to be insulting, but have you zoomed with middle mouse wheel (or what ever keys assigned zoom)? I am not exacty a veteran when it comes to config files for ANY game, but this is a pretty brute force, guaranteed fix.

Also, don't let Steam update files after this, which it won't, since this games recieves NO updates. You have to do nothing, since Steam updates games ONLY when updates become available. So, nothing should have changed.