Game Mechanics CAMERA

[Jaradakar]

Hi!

I loved playing Terraria on the PC. In fact I overall think it's a superior game to Mine Craft. But Mine Craft seems insanely popular, more popular than Terraria. So I started to ask the quesiton, "Why is that?"

Well I recently picked up a PS4 copy to play the game with my son.

It was obvious as soon as I tried playing.

You are not doing anything to customize the CAMERA for consoles. On a large TV with decent view distance the PS4 version of the game is unplayable IMO.

Why is the camera not zoomed in? Or have a dynamic camera so that if players separate it zooms out? Or support split screen (or a variation of all of the above).

In short, you're ignoring the Camera and if you gave it attention it could make a good game great.

-Jara

 

[SnailsAttack]

So... you just want the ability to zoom in and out? That could have easily been summed up in like 2 sentences but okay lol

 

[Jaradakar]

I don't want the ability to, I'd prefer if they added an automated system to handle it, so the end user is not impacted with needing to hassle with camera controls.

 

[Private Cupcakes]

Not sure about anything about the console version, but I found a thread saying that you can use the touchpad to zoom in and out, like you're using a phone, so no need to accuse the developers with statements like "You are not doing anything to customize the CAMERA for consoles." anymore.

What IS the view distance on consoles, anyways? Is it the equivalent of playing at 1080p on PC? Because 1080p PC is pretty big but still playable, but being able to use a mouse probably plays a big role with that, along with sitting only 1-2 feet of the screen which means the screen fills up more of my vision than a televison from farther away would, but that's just speculation. If console DOES get to have view distances greater than 1080p though, that's a reason to get console terraria over PC terraria. Or maybe not, because console doesn't have 1.3 yet, nor do they get to use tmodloader.

I'm just ranting here now, but in short: Try using 2 thumbs to zoom in and out with the touchpad.

 

[Jaradakar]

Not sure about anything about the console version, but I found a thread saying that you can use the touchpad to zoom in and out, like you're using a phone, so no need to accuse the developers with statements like "You are not doing anything to customize the CAMERA for consoles." anymore.

What IS the view distance on consoles, anyways? Is it the equivalent of playing at 1080p on PC? Because 1080p PC is pretty big but still playable, but being able to use a mouse probably plays a big role with that, along with sitting only 1-2 feet of the screen which means the screen fills up more of my vision than a televison from farther away would, but that's just speculation. If console DOES get to have view distances greater than 1080p though, that's a reason to get console terraria over PC terraria. Or maybe not, because console doesn't have 1.3 yet, nor do they get to use tmodloader.

I'm just ranting here now, but in short: Try using 2 thumbs to zoom in and out with the touchpad.

Hmm I'll try that. Of course even if that does work, it is still more of a bandaid Vs a true fix. You don't want to burden the player with camera controls so developing a system would be much preferable.

On a 58" TV with 6 foot view distance, the character is so tiny and the "blocks" are so small I can't see what I'm doing. I'd like to be zoomed in closer for sure, but depending on how they handle multiple players, well again I'll give it a try. Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm am also game developer, specifically a camera designer, I know a thing or two about cameras in games. Enough to be able to point out a game that did not give enough attention to the camera.