Rotatable map?

Socratatus · Oct 16, 2012

I was playing Shogun Total War and discovered to my surprise that you can rotate the campaign map.

I`ve tried to find a way with Civ 5, but can`t. The instruct manual is as useful as a paper kettle. I suppose you can`t rotate the map in Civ 5?

I would`ve thought in this day and age that would be a standard.

Greizer85 · Oct 16, 2012

To my knowledge this isn't possible, although I can't figure out why you'd want it in the first place.

As a side note, paper kettles can actually be used for boiling stuff in. I'm not sure how durable/accident-prone they are, though.

Nargluj · Oct 16, 2012

If you try it you'll be surprised on how well it works. Although it doesn't work well when you want to boil a lot of water and have quite thin paper. Use many smaller ones instead if you don't got thicker paper.

You can also use plastic bottles.

Halcyan2 · Oct 17, 2012

You could actually rotate the map to a certain degree in Civilization IV. Unfortunately I do not believe it is possible in Civilization V.

Raz · Oct 17, 2012

I saw a mod to add rotational keys to Civ 5. It was a long time ago, though.

Edit: looking for it; can't find it again.

Socratatus · Oct 17, 2012

Halcyan2 said:
You could actually rotate the map to a certain degree in Civilization IV. Unfortunately I do not believe it is possible in Civilization V.

Could you? I have CIV 4 and didn`t know that!

Anyway, the reason I ask for a rotational map is simple; it sometimes enables us to look at a strategic situation from a fresh viewpoint which can sometimes help decisions.

Halcyan2 · Oct 17, 2012

Socratatus said:
Could you? I have CIV 4 and didn`t know that!

Anyway, the reason I ask for a rotational map is simple; it sometimes enables us to look at a strategic situation from a fresh viewpoint which can sometimes help decisions.

If I recall correctly, you held down CTRL while pressing left or right. It was particularly useful to see building or wonder graphics that were obscured based on the angle. Civ IV was nice since every building and wonder could be identified from the city graphics (exception for Hollywood, Islamic Monastery, and there was sometimes a limit one you reached about 20+ buildings/wonders).

Back then, I could identify every single building and wonder a city had just by zooming in and looking around! :cool:

Dentalfury · Oct 17, 2012

I don't think I ever really wanted to rotate a map in any Civ game i've played. However, I have always wanted to re-center world maps. I always hated it when a continent wasn't neatly displayed. It would also be nice to able to set your own center on the mini-map.

mv10 · Oct 18, 2012

Dentalfury said:
I don't think I ever really wanted to rotate a map in any Civ game i've played. However, I have always wanted to re-center world maps. I always hated it when a continent wasn't neatly displayed. It would also be nice to able to set your own center on the mini-map.

I've always thought it would be good to have map centred when a certain wonder was built. Just how in real life the world sets its time to GMT and therefore most depicitons of the world are centred (longditudially) on London.

They could have a Greenwich observatory wonder or an East India Trading Company wonder which centres the minimap according to the city in which it is built.

StrategyMaster4 · Oct 18, 2012

Dentalfury said:
I don't think I ever really wanted to rotate a map in any Civ game i've played. However, I have always wanted to re-center world maps. I always hated it when a continent wasn't neatly displayed. It would also be nice to able to set your own center on the mini-map.

Killing me right now....in my current game.

Nutty · Oct 23, 2012

Raz said:
looking for it; can't find it again.

You wanted the CameraRotation mod by alpaca.

I updated the mod for my purposes recently, and attached it to post #10 of that thread.

Socratatus · Oct 23, 2012

Nutty said:
You wanted the CameraRotation mod by alpaca.

I updated the mod for my purposes recently, and attached it to post #10 of that thread.

Wow. If I could Rep you I would. i`ll give it a try.

Thankyou.

thanks to raz as well.

The_J · Oct 23, 2012

Nutty said:
I updated the mod for my purposes recently, and attached it to post #10 of that thread.

In case you do such a thing (updating a mod which is not anymore maintained), then feel free to notice the moderators about that, so that we can add a link to the update in the starting post (which I just did

).

Socratatus · Oct 23, 2012

Just tried it- WOW IT WORKS! AND REALLY WELL!

It`s all 3D, you can see around and behind. I used to think it was set 2D, but this shows it was indeed designed to be rotatable. It`s like a new game graphically!

This gives the map a huge new strategic feel now (like turning around a real map for a better view). i`m so glad I made this thread now. I hope the Devs think about making it permanent without needing mods.

My thanks again!

heinous_hat · Oct 24, 2012

The rotation mod does have some issues, though they are quite easy to live with...

In the early game, when the rendered map area is quite small, rotating the camera can leave part of the viewport "out of bounds". This can cause the camera to get stuck on the edges. Simply rotate back towards center and all is well. That problem goes away quickly as the map expands. Rarely, the camera will "fly away" into the fog for similar reasons. Just hit the 'home' key in that event.

Also, anything beyond a 45 degree rotation will begin to reveal that trees are not fully modeled. A performance measure, no doubt, but it's odd that trees are the only items given this this treatment (along with the 'godray' cone on your selected unit).

Aside from those small issues, it is great to be able get a fresh perspective on the map layout and gain a greater sense of depth. It's a simple thing that lends a lot of immersion.

The_J · Oct 25, 2012

heinous_hat said:
Also, anything beyond a 45 degree rotation will begin to reveal that trees are not fully modeled. A performance measure, no doubt, but it's odd that trees are the only items given this this treatment (along with the 'godray' cone on your selected unit).

That's easy to explain: Trees are the only items ingame, which a) appear often and b) don't change. In contrast to cities, which might change their structure during growth, or units, which move around, the trees just sit there. Removing parts from cities and units would therefore be much more complicated than for trees. And every other thing in the game just would not have had a that big impact, just due to the number of occurences.

heinous_hat · Oct 25, 2012

Indeed, yes. Possibly why huge PerfectWorld maps lag like crazy at times. If they had originally intended a static view, though, it seems they could have saved a lot of geometry by culling the terrain itself, no? It feels like the fixed view was a later development compromise. The groundwork is all there for a very convincing 3D environment.

I do find changing my perspective greatly improves my enjoyment of the game. That goes for both aesthetic appreciation and strategic thinking. Now if there could just be some progress in replacing some of the (still) obnoxious tile improvements... :sad:

Socratatus · Oct 25, 2012

heinous_hat said:
Indeed, yes. Possibly why huge PerfectWorld maps lag like crazy at times. If they had originally intended a static view, though, it seems they could have saved a lot of geometry by culling the terrain itself, no? It feels like the fixed view was a later development compromise. The groundwork is all there for a very convincing 3D environment.

Yea. It`s clear to me they intended to make it rotatable 3D, but decided not in the end. I did think it strange that the map could not rotate by default.

The_J · Oct 26, 2012

Performance, performance...

heinous_hat said:
Indeed, yes. Possibly why huge PerfectWorld maps lag like crazy at times. If they had originally intended a static view, though, it seems they could have saved a lot of geometry by culling the terrain itself, no? It feels like the fixed view was a later development compromise. The groundwork is all there for a very convincing 3D environment.

It's their 3D environment, that's it

.
They've built the whole engine, and since such engines are also licensed to other studios, the whole environment is a 3D one. I don't think they could have cut out much stuff without adjustments on the engine, which they probably did not want to do.

-> so yeah, you're probably right, it's a compromise.

Rotatable map?

Socratatus

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Greizer85

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Nargluj

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Halcyan2

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Raz

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Halcyan2

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mv10

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