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How does TL feel about having the ability to zoom out of the map given to spectators of a game letting them see a wider view of the battlefield. This would allow watchers of the game a more unique and diverse viewing experience. Of course limit the range so it can only be slightly expanded, similar to how you can zoom in right now.
Poll:
Poll: Zoom Out as a Spectator FeatureYes (274) 92% No (20) 7% Maybe: I'll explain in a comment (4) 1% 298 total votes Your vote: Zoom Out as a Spectator Feature (Vote): Yes (Vote): No (Vote): Maybe: I'll explain in a comment
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Anything that gives commentators more options on how to present content to viewers is good in my book.
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ALLEYCAT BLUES49782 Posts
makes sense,its easier to keep track of whats going on that way.
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Like the idea, a fullscreen minimap option would be great as well.
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normal zooming out seems silly. but i would liek a zoom out option like in supreme commander where you see a shematic overview of the battlefield. which is basically a big minimap but with etra symbols marking battle groups etc. that would be great for spectators.
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I don't see why not. However there should definitely be the option to disable it as there will be so many people trying to do it when their computers cant handle it.^^
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Well yes I'd like to see it.
However as Blizzard has stated there would be huge performance issues if you zoom out too far. I guess the engine scales pretty linear and even though the units are further away from your camera point it still takes the same amount of performance to calculate everything for it. Thus there may be some huge issues when you have like the entire map visible.
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hm seems like a spectator feature which will be very likly to be hacked and used in normal games.
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Yeah why not. I seriously don't see it being hacked as a major problem, and better commentating is never a bad thing. I'd say yes.
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Actually, while I voted yes I would have to change it to "no." I worry it may be similar to changing FOV in an FPS -- for advanced players, it absolutely makes sense to change to a wider angle, and while players could watch a POV from higher FOV without too much difficulty, spectators might not adjust so well because they haven't necessarily played the game.
Similarly, while players might be able to distinguish certain similar units even at a farther distance than normal (Marauder / Marine; Zealot / Templar), spectators might not.
In short, I think a very clear use-case scenario would first need to be presented before an argument for this feature could truly be warranted. Honestly I can't think of one personally, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
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I'm sort of undecided on this.The current zoom out feature is like WC3 in that it brings you down to battlefield level which I don't see a practical use for right now, so it would provide something that makes sense at least.
At the same time it would be very taxing on a CPU and for shoutcasting since most of the streams are low-medium quality it would be hard to follow battles other than what the commentator is telling you.
I guess it would be nice but it depends on exactly how they implement it that would determine whether or not it would be a nice feature or a bad one.
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meh...i wanna say yes cause it would be kinda cool but tbh i dont think its needed that much
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On May 07 2010 21:03 ArdentZeal wrote: hm seems like a spectator feature which will be very likly to be hacked and used in normal games. I did vote for No because i fear the same.
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On May 07 2010 22:08 daewdasd wrote: I did vote for No because i fear the same.
Blizzard seems serious on cracking down on hacking and I'm sure if they implemented this they would anticipate this as well and take steps to combat it.
But at the same time it's blizzard and hackers are very clever.
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Can you do this in the map editor? Playing games in UMS to allow spectators is nothing we aren't already use to.
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On May 07 2010 22:08 daewdasd wrote:Show nested quote +On May 07 2010 21:03 ArdentZeal wrote: hm seems like a spectator feature which will be very likly to be hacked and used in normal games. I did vote for No because i fear the same.
I've already seen an app that allows for this anyway. Hackers are going to hack, whether you put a feature in or not. It's not reason to bottle up potentially useful features. What next, we get rid of the map because someone might maphack it?
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This can already be accomplished with UMS games, so no real need for blizz to implement.
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dont allow them to zoom out alot because it will make the game run slower. but alittle small zoom out would be cool
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Yeah it'd definitely be cool to let spectators see juuuuust a little bit more than what the players see, but it doesn't need to be too much more than that.
I don't think potential framerate issues should be too big of a concern as long as it's something the spectators have to actually make happen, computers will get better over time.
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This would be very intuitive to add in for spectators, referees, and viewers of replays - just add a few more level to the mouse wheel zoom scroll!
Highly recommended feature ++++
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god this would be fantastic for replays too!
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The way some rtses do it is to have the units turn into symbols after a certain zoom point. Hell, symbols aren't even needed, just squares of the player color will be fine (like in the minimap).
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It would be nice for us as observers. It would be good to implement it as max zoom since for entertainment spectator purposes, we want it zoomed in so we can see what's going on and don't want to accidentally scroll out crazy far as in SupCom.
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On May 07 2010 22:08 daewdasd wrote:Show nested quote +On May 07 2010 21:03 ArdentZeal wrote: hm seems like a spectator feature which will be very likly to be hacked and used in normal games. I did vote for No because i fear the same.
wtf... it takes like no time to make a hack for this even now how would it make hacking easier if spectators got the option in-game? even if blizzard manages to somehow encrypt these data successfully, which I really doubt, you will always be able to inspect the feature with a custom map... and if they manage to seperate the custom map camera from the ladder one, they can just do the same for the spectators
so this seems such an invalid reason
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That's actually a really good idea. It would give people observing, and commentators the ability to get a wider view as to what's going on, and also, discuss map strategy easier during a game.
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On May 07 2010 19:18 TotalBiscuit wrote: Anything that gives commentators more options on how to present content to viewers is good in my book.
This. I know the view of blizzard on this topic but I really wished we could zoom out a bit in Starcraft 2
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This reminds me of Supreme Commander ^^
I really like this idea, except it might be hard to see a group of zerglings running around the bottom of the map, as they are tiny and your sight range, so the zoom out should not be too dramatic.
What would REALLY be amazing would be if you could see a little box (watching a replay) ON the map of where the user's viewpoint is. Think of the FP option but for both/ all players, so you could really see their awesome multi-task skills or where all their attention is diverted, what they're doing etc.
The box could be the colour of the player and even have a representation in the minimap. But more zooming out sounds great
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I would love to see a zoom feature similar to that of Supreme Commander when spectating. This would allow spectators to see all areas of the map and be able to comment on unit movement with more ease.
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On May 07 2010 22:43 valug wrote: Can you do this in the map editor? Playing games in UMS to allow spectators is nothing we aren't already use to.
in war3 it was possible to do this for players, not sure about spectators though. since the editor is similar, i guess this could be done.
but i prophecy that, aside from non-featured tournaments, there won't be many ums games with "normal" settings. just look at how it was in war3. if bnet features a strong ladder service, the reason for ums games is practically gone.
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On May 07 2010 21:03 ArdentZeal wrote: hm seems like a spectator feature which will be very likly to be hacked and used in normal games.
This already exists. I'm sure adding it into the game wouldn't make a difference. In fact I think that sometime in the future a larger zoom effect will be standard in RTS games. The technology has to catch up though I'm sure it eats up a ton of processing power.
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No I don't think its needed.
The reason why is because the game window shows what the players see, which is something I can appreciate as a viewer.
Also, the movement of the camera is good because the lack of movement is good. What I mean by this is say in a sport like hockey where you have a fixed camera view that moves with the puck its great to see the fast paced game where the camera is moving around, but then you know when that camera is stopped at the goal and 5 guys are there trying to hit it in its an awesome feeling.
I think the same thing can happen with a SC2 battle, where the camera is looking at various bases, but then you focus in on a battle and show whats going on and you see that crazy micro that puts the player on top, it'll be a great feeling.
All in all, as a player and a viewer I like the view size, and I think zooming out would ruin it (even though I'm 100% sure there will be custom made maps where observers can zoom out)
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Giving spectators a higher maximum zoom does not make the game any easier or harder to hack, and it does not detract from the gameplay nor from the observation of gameplay. It's a no-brainer. You could even have to shift-scroll wheel to get past the player-max-zoom so it's easy to zoom within the normal ranges, and you have to intentionally zoom past the normal range.
For those of you arguing against watching a game from far away, you do know that you can zoom in/out to the min/max as you please, right?
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The only thing stopping bliz from doing this would probably be the performance repercussions. To a casual player, all he would really notice is "wow this game performs badly when I zoom out".
Some sort of rendering rules need to be implemented so that decent performance is possible while zoomed out first, i.e. cutting certain effects when far away, scaling down model/texture detail at distances, etc.
The engine was never intended to handle large ass views, as demonstrated by many of the "MMO" UMS maps
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Yes BUT it should snap back to regular view immediately. Kind of like the pivot camera buttons.
For example, if the hold down a button, the view will zoom out, and when they release it'll snap back in.
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lol, implement a dota mode in sc2 =)
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Please. Anything can be hacked. Don't leave out a feature for everyone else just because "it'd be easier to hack." Everything will be hacked no matter what, so don't let the hackers win by allowing them to prevent us from having cool features.
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Oh, and on top of that, an ingame paint utility overlay, to easily draw arrows and fronts and such.
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who doesnt like extra features that don't clutter the screen?
i just hope commentators and observers won't overuse this feature when casting or streaming.
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This is actually already possible with the map editor. Just create observer matches with special observer maps that allow the observer team to zoom out and in.
Would probably need to clone the statistics tabs, though, since it isn't of the same game type.
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On May 08 2010 03:16 Zed03 wrote: Yes BUT it should snap back to regular view immediately. Kind of like the pivot camera buttons.
For example, if the hold down a button, the view will zoom out, and when they release it'll snap back in. I actually like this idea a lot. I feel like the "default" view for a spectator should USUALLY be the same size as what a player can see, but I like the option of letting a commentator zoom out slightly to see a larger part of the battle field.
I could see this being very useful in a 2-front battle kind of situation. I just watched the Razer Domination finals with Dimaga vs Demuslim, and there was a time on blistering sands where demuslim was parking his units right between Dimaga's natural and gold mineral patches. Dimaga had his units split between the two bases, and it would have been awesome to see the entire battle without having to dart back and fourth.
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Personally I think a fullscreen minimap option for spectators would be excellent.
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This is a really cool sounding feature. I want clarity though: precisely how far back do you mean?
Would this work Supreme Commander style where you zoom so far out you can see iconic blocks of color representing each player's units/buildings?
Or would you just be able to zoom out far enough to see the whole map on one screen?
I just think that the more specific we can be about what we think would be cool, the easier it'd be for Blizz to incorporate said idea.
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Yeah... i like the idea. Here are my thoughts on the performance requirements.
The problem being that the quality for unit models/terrain would probably have to be scaled down dynamically to adjust for the increased amount that can be seen. Most games will implement some form of this (see geomipmapping or mipmapping) to change the level of detail depending on how close you are. Yes there is a feasible limit on units (supply cap), but keep in mind that i'm a little worried about the terrain as well.
As an RTS i doubt the current sc2 engine supports changes to the level of detail (please someone correct me if i'm wrong). And I don't think it would be an easy thing to include at this point. Perhaps not incredibly hard, but it would require at least the attention of a couple of developers for a month's time. Presumably not a resource blizzard is heavy on at the moment.
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I still really want some way to hide the replay progress bar. Has there been any comment on that?
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