Zoom To Cursor (Thank you Firaxis!)

[PieceOfMind]

As best I can tell, Zoom-To-Cursor (an interface feature where using the scroll wheel to zoom in or out centers the zooming on the position of the cursor instead of the centre of the screen) has made it to civ5!

While this video was not the best I've seen, it confirmed at several points that this significant interface improvement had been implemented. For example at 22:28 in that video it can be seen in effect. It can also be seen at 12:40 but it's not the easiest thing in the world to spot.

It's little things like this that make the game more a pleasure to play, but tend to go unmentioned in all the hype about hexes, combat, wonders and all those other cool, sexy or organic things.

To those who are confused about why I'm so excited about this feature, wait til you get your hands on the game and discover how easy and intuitive it is to use this sort of zooming. It's really hard to describe how nice it is to use. All I can tell you is that once you've played a game that uses it (Supreme Commander is the main game I know, but I'm sure there'd be others), you find it hard to go back to games that don't use it (e.g. civ4).

Also, this bit in the manual (page 15) appears to confirm it:

Alternate Cursor Zoom Mode: When zooming out, the screen will pull straight back instead of remaining anchored to the cursor.

So you can even disable it if you so desire (but you won't ).

EDIT... Hmm, actually I think I have this backwards. The alternate cursor zoom mode might only affect zoom-out, as the description implies, so this alternate option is something that you'd want to enable. Ack, it's hard to describe how this works - see it when you play the game.

Thanks Firaxis!

 

[Schuesseled]

I'm not entirely sure i like zoom to cursor, i want it sometimes and other times i do not. mixed feelings.

 

[cembandit]

They took that out in the last build I think, testers got confused, so old cursor style is back...

 

[cembandit]

Ps, I'm just messing with you, your almost fanatical ZtG love made me laugh this morning

 

[Zelig]

I was wondering about this too, after recenly getting annoyed at its absence in civ4, good to see it confirmed.

 

[PieceOfMind]

They took that out in the last build I think, testers got confused, so old cursor style is back...

Ps, I'm just messing with you, your almost fanatical ZtG love made me laugh this morning

phew

Don't do that to me!

Anyway, I'm sure you'll all have the zomgZTC love soon enough as well. Except Schuesseled. Dude, Schuesseled, what game is it that you've used it in and didn't like it? My experience with it has always been positive (if that wasn't already obvious, lol). It's extremely intuitive to simply point your mouse at something and then zoom to it. Without ZTC, it's not as if there's a crosshair in the middle of the screen so you know where the zoom is centered. In civ4 if there's a unit to the right side of the screen you want to zoom to, you'd have to first recentre the screen on the unit and then zoom. In civ5 you just point at it and zoom. Less mouse travel distance and/or fewer mouse-clicks. Either way it's a good thing.

The only thing that might hold it back is if the graphics get a bit laggy from zooming in and out too much. I noticed Pete in that video was being very restricted in his use of zooming in and out, but that was probably more out of being well trained in giving demos of the game (you don't want the viewers getting headaches). At worst, it might be necessary to turn down graphical detail.

 

[Semmel]

woooooow ZtC Such a minor feature, so easy to implement, so important for usability.. Thanx firaxis

 

[Shurdus]

Awesome! Other games that use it are Sins of a Solar Empire and Elemental. It is indeed a brilliant feature and I cannot believe anyone would actually even consider to turn out off.

 

[matthewv]

Also very excited to have ZtC. I must say that if I can ZtC it is the only way I move the map. I zoom out quickly, move the mouse to where I want to go and then zoom in (adjusting the mouse as I am zooming in to zoom exactly where I want to go). Once you get really good at you can move your view to were you want it almost instantly.

I got lots of practice at ZtC using AutoCAD and it always painful playing a game that doesn't have it.

 

[Gizka]

This is wonderful news! I loved that feature in supreme commander

 

[Mustakrakish]

I still don't understand what Zoom To Cursor is?

 

[Semmel]

When you zoom in, the area around your curser is enlarged. So you point your curser to the thing you are interested in and zoom in. You dont have to point the center of the screen to the location you want to see nor do you have to moove the screen after zooming in to the location you are interested in.

 

[Mustakrakish]

oh ok that sounds useful...

 

[haphazard1]

I think I understand what is being described, but I don't really see much use for it. Maybe there has been a huge improvement in the zooming effect, or maybe my machine is just that pathetic, but zooming was always terribly laggy in Civ IV. I always played zoomed out to one step before you got the clouds/global view, and then stayed there permanently.

Although with all the mechanics which seem intended to keep your empire really, really small, I guess you could zoom in and still see the entire thing.

 

[bjbrains]

Zoom to cursor is one of my favorite features in a game. Ever since I first used in Supreme Commander, I've loved it because of the ease of control it gives.

 

[PieceOfMind]

I think I understand what is being described, but I don't really see much use for it. Maybe there has been a huge improvement in the zooming effect, or maybe my machine is just that pathetic, but zooming was always terribly laggy in Civ IV. I always played zoomed out to one step before you got the clouds/global view, and then stayed there permanently.

Although with all the mechanics which seem intended to keep your empire really, really small, I guess you could zoom in and still see the entire thing.

Believe me, when you get to play a game with ZTC, you will see why people like myself love it.

It's true that if zooming in or out was too slow it would lose a lot of its effect, but from the video I linked in the OP, it looks to be fast enough. In Supreme Commander it was extremely fast. In that game I think you could adjust the zoom speed in settings too. Presumably civ5 will allow this only through altering an xml file or an ini file.

The main point is that ZTC makes obsolete the ancient screen-moving methods of (a) move mouse to edge of screen, (b) left or right click to centre screen before zooming in (e.g. civ4, simcity4), (c) using minimap and (d) using arrow keys.

 

[Zhahz]

Zoom to cursor owns.

Looks like you can drag scroll on the main map too, which also owns. You can see Murray doing it several times before the 1:05 mark in yesterday's crapcast and it's mentioned in the manual.

Oh. Yes.

The combo of zoom to cursor and drag scroll make for much slicker and quicker getting around the map.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Zoom to cursor owns.

It almost looked in the crapcast yesterday that he was drag scrolling too, like in GalCiv2 or Elemental. (click and hold on map, then drag, to move the view around rather than edge scroll).

I've read that you can do this via the mini map, but that's not that handy and the difference in scale between mini and real map makes it wonky. But it sure did look like he was doing it on the world map yesterday.

The combo of zoom to cursor and drag scroll make for much slicker and quicker getting around the map.

Yep, he was using drag scroll a lot. He barely used ZTC at all which is why I was watching it so closely. I didn't even listen to what they were saying most of the time, just kept skipping through chunks of the vid until I saw the zoom level had changed, then tracing back and watching the zoom.

For the record though, civ4 had drag scroll as well, or at least the latest patches do. You press both left and right mouse button at the same time. Personally I found it clumsy though, as the right-mouse button was already used for movement, and it wasn't difficult to misclick and accidentally send your unit into battle or into danger unintentionally.

 

[Zhahz]

For the record though, civ4 had drag scroll as well, or at least the latest patches do. You press both left and right mouse button at the same time.

Interesting - never knew that ... but that is a clunky way to impliment it. I usually read every line of patch notes so I'm a little irritated at myself now.

The only thing I'd want added to this in Civ 5 is that when you zoom all the way out you enter strategic view - kinda like how in GalCiv2 zooming way out switches you to their strat/icon view.

Yes, I'm so lazy that I don't want to click or hit a hotkey to toggle strategic view. It's logical to have it occur at extreme zoom levels - it works great in GalCiv2 since you can go from being zoomed way out looking at tiny units to a strategic view (that also has some zoom levels) to manage from a big picture perspective. It's also nice with ZtC because you can usually see more of the map from the extreme/strat view - more range for zooming back in to cursor.

 

[grant2004]

Hmm, sounds like a tiny detail to me, but definately an improvement. I'm glad you're excited.

My tiny feature that has me psyched is voice chat over steam. That's enough of a bonus to make me forget all of those things that had me worried about using steam.