Camera scrolling speeds, a genuine question

[Mailer]

So, I've been using Blender for a little while now, and I bloody love everything about it. Even if the only thing I've done so far is create player-models for the Garry's Mod workshop.

There is one thing though, that I have been aching to ask about, and it's about zooming in and out, using the scroll wheel.
In "Object Mode" I find that the camera scrolls slower and slower, or gets less effective, the further I zoom in from my position. I understand that this is in fact how most cameras are supposed to work, but I need to ask if it's possible to make the zoom speed constant no matter how far I zoom in. Sometimes it gets really annoying when I try to zoom in on a certain point and can't because I'm too far away.

It is possible to bypass this, but that requires me to enter the KP_5-camera, that I've promptly forgotten the name of, and that's not very optimal when doing weight paint.
There, the camera works just as I want it to.
If there is a way to make it function the same in standard view mode, I am all ears.

Best regards.

[Mailer]

Also, moving the camera sideways follows the same principle where it gets really ineffective, and slow, if I'm already zoomed far in.
I haven't experimented that much with options for Blender so I'm hoping someone has a good idea of what I want here.

[Basho]

i am a bit bothered by this as well. a related issue is that when trying to match a specific zoom level (for whatever reason), the jump when scrolling to zoom makes it rather impossible. so if anyone know anything about that it would be helpful.

i do have a bit of advice though.

by using shift+F you can enter fly-mode. you navigate as you would in a game (mouse to look around, WASD to move), use Q and E to move up and down and scroll to change movement speed.
then you just click (if i remember it correctly, maybe ENTER) to stop moving; fixing the view in place so to speak. ESC will cancel fly-mode and return to your previous view.
this also works when looking through a camera, so it is quite useful when positioning a camera.

i dont think this can be used in orthographic view, but i am not sure.

[*P0P$*FR3$H3NM3Y3R*]

The keypad 5 switches between orthographic and perspective view. That camera zoom in deceleration occurs only in perspective view. I think its supposed to mimic a real camera in which u couldnt zoom in infinetly. For modelling however this behavior is annoying for me. While modelling I use orthographic view all the time. (i'm mostly in architecture so ortho is the way to go anyway..i use perspective display mainly to check the look in viewport)
Since blenders default setting automaticly switches ortho/ perspective display when u switch views, it will produce this camera issue. You can disable that in the user preferences it's called AUTO PERSPECTIVE.

Also i want to second the camera fly tool. Its very helpful to maneuver cameras around. It even features a gravity system (TAB key) so that u can walk on surfaces and maintain a constant height (i think about 1.75meters by default). This makes lining up camera much easier. In camera fly u can adjust the sensitivity and speed via the scroll wheel.

[Mailer]

@Basho

@*P0P$*FR3$H3NM3Y3R*

Wow, that sounds awesome. I have barely scraped the surface of what Blender can truly do, but these tricks are probably really good to know about.

Thank you.

[Mr Chappy]

Hi,

You can use "Shift" with "Numpad +" or "Numpad -" when in Ortho or Persp to get around this issue.

[Mr Chappy]

...another useful thing you might not know is you can zoom in and out via holding down "Ctrl" then moving the mouse up/down, this still has the issue that the std wheel zoom has in Persp view though.

[Mr Chappy]

...one last easily missed thing is pressing "Numpad . " to make anything you currently have selected the focal point of your viewport.

[*P0P$*FR3$H3NM3Y3R*]

yeah and while we are at it: use numpad / key to switch to local view ( isolates selected objects in viewport)

[ㄥoㄥıʞɐꞱ]

In User Preferences in the Interface Tab, activate "Auto Depth" and "Zoom to Mouse Position"

It will zoom to the curser and makes speed depending on how far the object you're aiming at is away

Greez

[Mailer]

Originally posted by Taki7o7:

In User Preferences in the Interface Tab, activate "Auto Depth" and "Zoom to Mouse Position"

It will zoom to the curser and makes speed depending on how far the object you're aiming at is away

Greez

This is a really old thread at this point, but I appreciate the answer. At this point I'm just using the orthographic perspective 99% of the time, but all of these suggestions are very useful for those special occasions.

I'm just going to mark this as a solved thread now, so we can all move on.