View more map

Is there any way to view more of the map in this game, without going to globe-view zoom levels (where you lose detail)?

I'm playing in a 1024x768 window on a 1600x1200 LCD panel. I'd really like to make the window take up the whole screen and be able to view more map tiles at one time. But switching to 1600x1200 only makes the existing tiles uselessly bigger.

Can someone save me from this geographic claustrophobia?

Thanks,

-Richard

On my 1600x1200 display, on a huge continents map, the default is 16.5 tiles wide and 12.6 tiles high on the outermost view just before it goes into globe view. It's an overhead satellite view. This is the last view distance at which you can see individual units on the ground.

CAMERA_MAX_DISTANCE_FADER defaults to 0.75 in CIV4DetailManager.xml. Changing this value seems to affect the size of the globe when you are zoomed out entirely. So it's not the option that we're looking for.

DF_GLOBE_MORPH looks interesting, but there's no explanation of what it is or what it does or why it's specified in the manner that it is. There are 2 sets of values for this fader key. And changing it just seems to muck with the fading effect as you pass from satellite view into global view.

(I'm still looking into this...)

Thanks for looking into it; you're obviously way more familiar with the files than I am. Let me know what else you come up with!

Cheers!

What I'm looking for is two items.

1) How to change the distance where the camera starts to swing from a 45 degree view towards the 90 degree overhead/satellite view. The current setting only allows you to see half a dozen tiles before the camera starts to pitch down and you slowly move into the overhead view. I want to see 8-10 tiles wide before it starts to convert to the overhead view.

2) How to change the distance at which the overhead satellite view morphs into the globe view. That would allow us to see more then 16x12 tiles on the overhead shot (my goal is to be able to see 32x24 tiles).

(No luck on either of those changes yet, but I've also not had time to muck with it again. I need to go check some other Civ4 forums.)

One option:

GlobalDefines.xml has a field called FIELD_OF_VIEW which defaults to 42.0 (degrees? probably). Changing this to 60.0 gave me an overhead view that is around 25 tiles wide instead of 16 tiles.

This is probably the easiest value to change, although I'm not sure what negative effects it might have on performance. (Other then the obvous "you're now looking at more units, requiring more CPU time".)

I've also changed:

CAMERA_BATTLE_ZOOM_IN_DISTANCE from 900 to 1500, because I want more "context" when I'm viewing a particular battle. I haven't tested yet that this value does what I want.

One simple approach is to try 1280x1024 resolution. I think by default this view gives you a little more landscape (more tiles) to view at one time (and not just seeing the tiles bigger).

You can set any old made up window size you want in the .ini file.
I usually run 1600x1000 on my screen, but right now I wanted to have little DVD window open below it as I listened to the commentary, so it's 1600x800. Anything will work. Plus, you can maximize the window and it will take up all the available space, minus the start bar.

WuphonsReach said:

GlobalDefines.xml has a field called FIELD_OF_VIEW which defaults to 42.0 (degrees? probably). Changing this to 60.0 gave me an overhead view that is around 25 tiles wide instead of 16 tiles.

Click to expand...

Wow nice find, the changes are dramatic.

The top picture shows the maximum zoom out before the globe views takes effect with FIELD_OF_VIEW set to 80, and the bottom shows a mine on the max zoom in with FIELD_OF_VIEW set to 10


The lag is awful with it set to 80 though (it also doesn't zoom in close enough) so I wouldn't recommend it.

I wouldn't recommend settings much above 75 for field-of-view. That's probably +/- 37.5 degrees on the vertical plane, so if the camera angle with the ground gets below 40 degrees you're going to start seeing the horizon.

And as soon as you can see the horizon, the game tries to draw all of the units between you and infinity in the direction that you're facing. This leads to massive lag due to drawing units that are 50 tiles away on the other side of the map. You can see this issue if you play with the FlyingCamera variable.

I played all last night at FoV of 60 degrees and it did just about what I wanted. I didn't feel like the map was too small, nor did I feel constrained by the view as much. It was nice to see a sizeable portion of the empire at a glance. I reckon it will make the upcoming wars easier as well (bombing targets will be on the same screen as the bomber's home city).

Jackpot! Thanks for the hints, everyone. The lovely screenshots by Bad_Ronald inspired me to play with the XML files a little bit. In case it's of use to anyone, below are the settings I've settled on.

Note that in my experience changing resolutions does NOT show you more map; it only makes the tiles bigger.

In CivilizationIV.ini:

Fullscreen = 0
ScreenWidth = 3200 ;dual 1600x1200 displays
ScreenHeight = 1170 ;so I don't cover up the start bar
D3D9Query = 1 ;no idea if this is doing anything

In GlobalDefines.xml:

FIELD_OF_VIEW set to 100 ;shows me about 58 x 19.5 tiles on std map
CAMERA_MAX_TRAVEL_DISTANCE set to 0 ;to turn off "sliding" scroll

GAME MENU SETTINGS:

-Graphics all set to medium
-Animations frozen
-Effects off

On my machine (dual 3.2GHz P4 CPU's, 3GB RAM, Nvidia 6800 128MB video) it the lag seems about what I was getting before I started playing with settings.

Admittedly my machine may be a little souped up compared to some - adjust accordingly!

CAMERA_MAX_TRAVEL_DISTANCE

That defaults to 6000, right? I'm not sure what you mean when you say setting it to zero turns off the sliding scroll? Does that mean that when you click on a new point the camera will instantly go there rather then doing a smooth transition?

(If so, I may choose to set this to a value of 500 or 1000. Smaller moves would still be smooth, but larger moves would be instantaneous.)

>>That defaults to 6000, right? I'm not sure what you mean when you say setting it to zero turns off the sliding scroll? Does that mean that when you click on a new point the camera will instantly go there rather then doing a smooth transition?<<

Yes, exactly.