How to Zoom Out Farther

If you are like me and you want to be able to look at your islands from a more expansive bird's-eye view then follow these simple directions and enjoy the view!

Introduction

It really annoyed me how limited the Tropico 4 camera is when zooming out on my islands so I found an easy way to create a one time setting that allows me to zoom out as far as I want so that I can see my islands in all of their glory.

Note: From my experience this modification does not increase CPU or RAM usage.

Here's a comparison..

Before:

You can barely zoom out in the vanilla game :(

After:

But wait, there's more..

Bird's-Eye View:

You won't be able to zoom out this far using the scroll wheel - instead, you have to rotate the camera by holding ALT + Left Mouse or pressing and holding the scroll wheel while dragging the mouse.

It doesn't just look cool, it can also also help you be more efficient!

It's really helpful to use this view to get an overview of natural resources and other things like crime, liberty, etc.

How To

1. Open the Tropico 4 directory (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Tropico 4\)
   
2. Create a new directory called "Game"
   
3. Open the "Game" directory that you just created
   
4. Create a new text file in the directory you just created - you can name the file whatever you want, I named mine "zoommod"
   
5. Open the file you just created in a text editor like NotePad or NotePad++
   
6. Copy/Paste the following code into the file
   

   -- Zoom Mod
   ZoomMod = function()
   	-- modify camera settings and move fog higher
   	hr.RTSCamera.MaxHeight = 120 -- original: 40
   	hr.RTSCamera.MaxZoom = 20000 -- original: 7500
   	hr.FogStartModifier ="5" -- original: "2.0"
   
   	-- modify rendering settings and render objects from farther distances
   	--hr.ShadowRangeModifier = 20000 -- Shadows
   	--hr.TerrainLODDistanceModifier = 250 -- Grass
   	--hr.BillboardDistanceModifier = 250 -- Trees
   	--hr.DistanceModifier = 250 -- Buildings
   end
   
   -- Only fire once
   local FiredOnce = false
   
   -- UA Set Mode
   OnMsg.UASetMode = function(actions,mode)
   	-- Fire until fired once
   	if not FiredOnce then
   		-- If we boot, trip it ...
   		if(mode == "Boot") then
   			FiredOnce = true
   			-- Run the thread to bypass it
   			CreateRealTimeThread(function()
   				-- Do mod loading code here.
   				ZoomMod()
   			end)
   		end
   	end
   end
   
   -- T4 (non MT) approach
   OnMsg.ClassesPreprocess = function()
       ZoomMod()
   end
   

7. Save and close the file
   
8. Rename the file extension from ".txt" to ".lua" (file extensions will have to be visible; for help, see https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+view+file+extensions)
   
9. Launch Tropico 4

You can modify the parameters by changing the values for MaxHeight, MaxZoom and FogStartModifier.

There are also parameters to modify the render distance of shadow, grass, trees and buildings. They are commented out with older PCs in mind, but if you have sufficient resources you can enable those settings by removing the "--" at the beginning of the line.

Credits

I came across this solution after searching the web and landing on a thread in the Kalypso forum. You can find the thread at http://forum.kalypsomedia.com/showthread.php?tid=10894.

[emanuel92]

i figuerourt

use AHK script

Space::Send {Pause}

BTW enjoy rewards :P

[emanuel92]

or any chance how to add pause button to SPACE for example??

btw if you like Tropico i recommend you try Anno 1404 1703, Settlers 5 and 6, Age of Empires /Mythology, Pharaoh,Caesar 3 4

[Bipolar Bear]

Ah good point, I'll update it in a bit.

I don't have any tips for UI scaling, and couldn't find anything after a quick search, other than some other people also pointing it out as a problem lol

And no I am not in the game industry, but I have done plenty of programming over the decades. But I can't take credit for this mod, because I found it on Kalypso's forum (which now 404s), so it isn't my work :)

[emanuel92]

It makes game playable - original camera is bad.




BTW maybe you should mention at the end that if others using this script and want apply that increased details parameters , they need remove comments "- -" before

--hr.ShadowRangeModifier = 20000 -- Shadows

for example

Also do you know by any chance how to scale User interface? So i can play at 4K but have user interface like on 1080P resolution, so text dont became too tiny??


Do you working in game industry btw?

[Bipolar Bear]

NP! I'm glad to see this thing is still useful haha

[emanuel92]

AMazing, thank you , it works great

[The Man with the Golden Gunk]

Disregard previous message

It was the WASD mod that was causing it, don't fret

[The Man with the Golden Gunk]

Necropost but this is semi-urgent.

Great mod and all bu after I "installed" this, I can't rotate buildings anymore (either through the scroll wheel or keyboard). This persists even when I got rid of the mod. What happened? Please tell me if I screwed anything up!

[spaceweezle]

Much better. Thank you!

[Carda NL]

EPIC! Just what i've been looking for. The zoom out is a nice bonus to what I was looking for. I didn't like the fog distance and now everything looks colorful. You just saved Tropico 4 for me