Camera maximum distance / viewing / zoom fix

[Kugelfang]

The issue that the camera is FAR too close to the action has bothered me and many other players, as can be witnessed https://steamcommunity.com/app/552620/discussions/1/1736588252398400924/ and https://steamcommunity.com/app/552620/discussions/1/2595630410193725519/ and https://steamcommunity.com/app/552620/discussions/1/1732089092454076868/ -- to this day it has not been fixed. The current allowable maximum is still ridiculously close.

After about 1.5 hrs playtime I decided that it bothers me so much that I either return the game (I cannot play like this, it drives me crazy) or try to fix it. And it is somewhat fixable. Here's how: Find your "prefs" file. For Linux userrs, it's at ~/.config/unity3d/AtomTeam/Atom/prefs . Then edit it with a text editor, it's just XML. Look for this line:

<pref name="CAMERA_MAXDIST" type="float">45</pref>

I've doubled the value from 45 to 90, which is still close but at least playable. Be aware that, presumably because the game is usually never run that far away, entities aren't cached when you're moving your viewport. This means that you'll have short lag when moving the camera around, i.e., it stops for a split second. But still MUCH better than the default setting, I'd rather have motion jerk than being that close to the character. Maybe one day the devs will increase this silly low limit to something reasonable, in which case the game might also preload resources more aggressively (fixing the jerking motion).

[balicki1981]

Hello Kugelfang

Can't find suchfile/setting on Windows version. Do you maybe know where it is located? Map zoom is pain in the a** in this pretty cool izometric 'Fallout3'.

[Kugelfang]

Hey balas, I only have Atom on Linux, but a bit of searching showed that maybe C:\Users\{name of your profile}\AppData\LocalLow\AtomTeam\Atom could be the right path (found it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/552620/discussions/1/1744482417435734739/ ). Could you maybe check and, if it's correct, confirm? Then the other Windows users can enjoy sane zoom settings as well, I completely agree with you that it's a PITA otherwise :-)

[Mav]

Hmm damn, it does not seem to be possible on windows. That path is just for the save files on windows but I found this page which lists all the locations for different platforms: https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/PlayerPrefs.html

So for windows it's stored in the registry at 'Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AtomTeam\Atom'. But CAMERA_MAXDIST is not a key that is present by default, and you can't add it yourself either because all the keys are appended with some kind of randomized hash/string, probably to prevent tampering or something. Like there's one camera setting but the key is named 'CameraAlwaysSnap_h3479596225' and all the keys are different so... I tried but it didn't work.

I wonder if it isn't much easier to alter basic camera settings with a mod instead. I did already see a first-person camera mod so it should be possible.

[Mikali]

Thanks for doing the research. Too bad editing the prefs doesn't work on Windows. A mod is a possibility, but not for people who purchased the game via GOG.com like me.

[Mav]

Dunno if this still works after the updates, but someone told me to try this:

In the console, enter the command "cameradistancelimit min max". Example: cameradistancelimit 0 400

[Mikali]

How do you access the console?

[Mav]

Press Numpad * and Numpad 0 together to pop up the console.

For others with steam, this camera mod kinda does the trick too: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1689887503