Flying Camera Mode

[Nestorius]

I've been searching all over for information on changing camera views and I can't find any adaquate explainations. On page 10 of the giant Sulla thread he says he messed with the camera angles but doesn't say how. On another thread someone says he changed the ini file to flying camera mode enabled, but I don't see any mention of this in the ini file.

So I know:
alt-F: enables satellite view

shift-f: you get a message saying 'camera mouse mode enabled'. What the hell does this do, because it seems like it does nothing.

So how do I get flying camera mode, and if it was disabled for the release, why? And why would they not mention disabling it?

I like to look at my positions at multiple angles. Helps me think...

 

[Lord Chambers]

I accidentally discovered that ctrl + left arrow or ctrl + right arrow changes the direction of the North pole. That was pretty exciting.

 

[Psyringe]

You get Flying camera mode with Ctrl-F. But you have to activate it in your ini File. Set "AllowFlying = 1" there, it's currently set to 0.

I have no idea why this feature isn't activated by default. Okay, it's usefulness is limited, but it's nice to look at. and it doesn't hurt.

 

[Dimy]

Flying cam is great.... if only for pictures like this:

And check that whale in the background It's even better animated of course....

 

[EvilGuy]

I don'y see "AllowFlying = 0" in the .ini file... is it supposed to be in the CivilizationIV.ini file?

should i just add the line?

 

[Psyringe]

I don'y see "AllowFlying = 0" in the .ini file... is it supposed to be in the CivilizationIV.ini file?

should i just add the line?

In the directory where you installed Civ4, there should be a link named _Civ4Config.ini - click on it. The ini file will open in your standard editor. "AllowFlying" is set in line 58 (or somewhere near, since I already edited my file, line numbers might be off).

 

[Dimy]

Hmmm I found the CivilizationIV.ini file in "My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\"

The line is under [Config] :

[CONFIG]

; Allow Mouse Scrolling in Windowed mode
MouseScrolling = 0

; Allow Camera Flying
AllowFlying = 1

 

[dannyevilcat]

Hmmm I found the CivilizationIV.ini file in "My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\"

The line is under [Config] :

[CONFIG]

; Allow Mouse Scrolling in Windowed mode
MouseScrolling = 0

; Allow Camera Flying
AllowFlying = 1

Why the hell don't I have either this or the flying cam in my .ini?

 

[WuphonsReach]

I don't have those options either. But I went ahead and added the AllowFlying line below the [CONFIG] section in my CivilizationIV.ini file. So instead of:

[CONFIG]

; Screenshot format (TGA,JPG,BMP)
ScreenShot Format = JPG

it now reads...

[CONFIG]

; Allow Camera Flying
AllowFlying = 1

; Screenshot format (TGA,JPG,BMP)
ScreenShot Format = JPG

[Alt-F] switches the camera between directly overhead (satellite view) but still zoomed in and a 45-degree view that is still zoomed in. Interesting control to use.

[Shift-F] does something I can't figure out.

[Ctrl-F] is fascinating, but extremely laggy on huge maps with lots of units. They need to implement a view distance filter for this mode. You need to be careful to keep your camera pointed at the ground, otherwise it will attempt to draw units that are 50 tiles away.

 

[doronron]

On the shift-f thing - Maybe try another command line ala "AllowMouseCamera", or something?

 

[joethreeblah]

I don't have those options either. But I went ahead and added the AllowFlying line below the [CONFIG] section in my CivilizationIV.ini file. So instead of:

[CONFIG]

; Screenshot format (TGA,JPG,BMP)
ScreenShot Format = JPG

Ok, so how then, does one exactly take a screenshot then?

 

[Stuie]

Ok, so how then, does one exactly take a screenshot then?

Just press the [Print Scrn] button on your keyboard. The screens are saved in the Civ 4 folder in your My Documents directory (down a few levels - don't have the exact directory structure with me).

 

[Nestorius]

I'm pretty sure that the first time I looked for "Allow Camera Flying", it wasn't there, and my previous game was on 'custom'. When I started the Earth scenerio, I went back, and that option was added.

Anyways, this option does seem to slow the game a bit, maybe that is why they set the default off. It also seems really hard and counterintuitive to control. When its turned on with 'alt-f', the view goes crazy with the mouse. You got to carefully change the angle and then lock it with 'shift-f'. Then you can't scroll with the mouse unless you use 'grip mode' by pressing and dragging both mouse buttons at the same time.

Maybe they just didn't have time to finish it, and it will be fixed in a patch. All I want to do sometimes is just flip the angle 180 degrees so I can see things from a different perspective.

 

[WuphonsReach]

I noticed that when you flip around so you're looking at things from the north, the shadows tend to obscure detail (the 3D engine seems to light everything from a southern exposure). So a 180 flip isn't very pretty.

One thing I may go looking for is perhaps there's a spot to set the # of degrees is used for[Ctrl-LeftShift] / [Ctrl-RightShift]. That way, instead of a +/- 45 degree shift, I could set them to +/- 90 degrees. Being able to look at a location from 3 directions would still result in moderately nice shadows and still give enough of a spatial shift to shift a thinking rut.

 

[Wolfwood]

Ups, I just flew the camera through the top side of the map (over the glaciers to the black area) and the game merely crashed as I tried to turn back and return to the map.

A pretty thing, but I hope they fix it and bring it out with a patch.

 

[lordroy]

I don't have those options either. But I went ahead and added the AllowFlying line below the [CONFIG] section in my CivilizationIV.ini file. So instead of:



it now reads...



[Alt-F] switches the camera between directly overhead (satellite view) but still zoomed in and a 45-degree view that is still zoomed in. Interesting control to use.

[Shift-F] does something I can't figure out.

[Ctrl-F] is fascinating, but extremely laggy on huge maps with lots of units. They need to implement a view distance filter for this mode. You need to be careful to keep your camera pointed at the ground, otherwise it will attempt to draw units that are 50 tiles away.

Same for me, if someone can tell us what exactly this does, along with screenshots, I would be a very happy civ

-=R=-

 

[lordroy]

I still can only get an angle shot, no matter what I do, this doesnt seem to work for some reason...


What am I doing wrong?


-=R=-

 

[Psyringe]

Did you set AllowFlying = 1 in your ini file, as mentioned in this thread?

If yes, did you press Ctrl-F to activate flying camera mode?

If yes, did you turn the mouse wheel for camera movement?

 

[lordroy]

Did you set AllowFlying = 1 in your ini file, as mentioned in this thread?

If yes, did you press Ctrl-F to activate flying camera mode?

If yes, did you turn the mouse wheel for camera movement?

I didn't realize you had to turn on BOTH Flying Camera Mode (CTRL-F) AND Mouse Camera Move (SHIFT-F). I was just doing SHIFT-F and of course nothing was happening.



Thanx again.


-=R=-