Camera When "locked"

[Jester]

Hi all! When I lock my camera (Q or the Camera icon) on a unit, the tilt and scroll wheel moves the camera in opposite directions of when I am not locked. I couldn't find a setting to change that and was wondering if I was simply missing that somewhere. Is there a way to make the camera move in the same direction when locked and not locked?

Thanks!

[andrey12345 v2.0]

They cannot have "opposite directions". When the camera rotates around an object and when it changes height these are not related things in any way.

[Jester]

Thanks Andrey. Sorry, I should have been more clear. I'll break down the two different situations:
When I am not locked on a unit and I roll my scroll wheel "back" (towards me), the camera raises. When I roll my scroll wheel "forward" (away from me), the camera lowers.

Now if I lock on a unit, the opposite happens. I roll my scroll wheel "back" (towards me) and the camera lowers. I roll my scroll wheel "forward" (away from me) and the camera raises.

The same phenomena happens when moving my camera with the RMB held down. When not locked on a unit, I hold down the RMB and move my mouse the right and the camera (and the view) pans the right. If I move my mouse to the left, the camera (and view) pans the left.

Now if I lock on a unit and hold my RMB down, the camera moves in the opposite way from the previous example just mentioned. Holding the RMB down and moving my mouse to the Left, the view pans to the right.

If this is acting as designed, thats fine. Just not what I am used to from other games and wanted to see if there was a setting to make the camera behave the same whether locked on a unit or not.

Thanks!

[Toni]

When you are unlocked, then you can freely look around: Holding MMB lets you pan and tilt the camera. Move the mouse to the left and you look to the left; move it up and you look up, etc. This feels natural to me.

When locking on the camera, then this makes the camera orbiting around the object and orients it always towards the object (you cannot pan/tilt anymore). So, if you hold down MMB, then you can instead move the camera around: if you move the mouse to the left, the camera moves to the left, if you move to the right, then it moves to the right, etc. It too feels natural to me. But maybe I am just used to it.

On scrolling. What about:

Unlocked:

- Scroll up = camera moves up/higher
- Scroll down = camera moves down/lower

Maybe this would feel more "natural"? But just an idea, based on your post.

[Jester]

Doh! I wrote RMB when I meant to write MMB (like you posted Toni). Ive edited my previous post with replacing RMB with MMB...my bad.

So the orbiting around the object makes sense, (and really what I mean when i said panning). I just don't understand why it orbits in the opposite direction than when I am unlocked. Its not a big deal, just caught me off guard and was wondering if there was a setting to change it. If not, no worries. Thanks again!

[Toni]

Originally posted by Jester:

So the orbiting around the object makes sense, (and really what I mean when i said panning). I just don't understand why it orbits in the opposite direction than when I am unlocked.

The reason is, that "locked" and "unlocked" are fundamentally different camera modes in this case.

Unlocked:

You can (a) change the position of the camera (WASD, scrolling) and you can (b) also freely pan and tilt the camera (MMB + mouse movement). And pan and tilt does not change the position of the camera, you just - so to say - "look around" from the position where you currently are. The camera does not "orbit" around anything, when it is unlocked.

Locked:

You can only change the position of the camera (WASD, scrolling, MMB + mouse movement: all of them just change the camera position). Pan and tilt is not "in your hands" in this case, since the camera orientation is locked to always orient towards the object that you are locked on automatically. So no matter what position you move the camera to, it will always "look" towards the object.

So when you use MMB + mouse movement, then you do not "look around" (pan and tilt) like in unlocked camera mode, you change the position of the camera. And this "changing the position" is the only thing that you can do.

In your example: When you are a) locked and b) MMB to the left, then you move the camera to the left. And since the camera reorients to the locked on object automatically it looks to you, as if you are panning to the right, when moving the mouse to the left with MMB.

It feels - like I said above - natural to me. Since these are different "operating modes" for the camera. But - like also said - maybe I am just used to it.

BTW: Maybe this helps you: A and D does the same thing as MMB+mouse movement in "locked" mode: it moves the camera to the left/right.

[Jester]

Gotcha. Thanks again!