theleif: it should be exactly as you described, only changing the zoom position when you are zooming in. it does not pick new zoom targets as it is zooming out.

SE-Weed: My wheel setting in windows is also 3 lines to the click, so there must be something else going on.

Can anybody explain to me (preferably with a diagram or screenshot or video or something) a situation that reproduces any zig-zaggy or bizarre behaviour? My zoom is smooth like butter, even when I'm scrolling as fast as possible.

Here's my take on how the Zoom on Cursor should work:
In short, think of it as Homeworld + Supreme Commander.
In detail, have the usual Zoom on Cursor function as it was in Beta 2, that is, zoom on cursor when zooming in. Precisely at the cursor - no autolocking. With an added twist - if I have the camera locked on something (alt-leftclick, middle mouse, etc.), it should act as a regular zoom, and not break the lock whenever I zoom in. That way, you have zoom-on-cursor whenever you want, but you can still focus on one ship. To get out of the focus, just break it by edge of screen panning or moving the camera manually any other way.
Best of both worlds.

is thier a shortcut key to hit to change the zoom to curser,

it is somewhat cluky to have to go and click it at top of screen.

I think 3 lines is the default setting in Windows, but on my system when I changed it to 1 line, the zoom occurred a lot smoother. When the setting was on 3 lines, I would constantly go past my intended zoom target (usually ships and structures). The planets seemed big enough to "lock on". I tend not to center my intended zoom target when zooming, so maybe my play style needs an adjustment, but then zoom to cursor would not be needed.

If someone else has jumpiness, try this setting and see if it helps. If not, just set it back. Unless of course, you don't think the code is taking this setting as a parameter.

I will try to reproduce the jumpiness when I get home from work. I was able to Pause the game, alt-tab to the desktop to change this setting, and return to the game with immediate results.

DatonKallandor: You're thinking along the same lines - best of both worlds is the target!

EvilTesla: Right now the shortcut key is defaulted to M.

SE-Weed: You shouldn't have to adjust your play style or center your zoom target, that would defeat the purpose of ZTC ! When you say that you kept going past your intended zoom target, could you give me a few more details? Like - your intended target (I assume a ship)? Was the intended target in mesh or icon mode? What did you keep zooming to (I'm guessing the planet that the ship was at?)? Was it possible at all if you're super careful or totally impossible?

FYI: You can zoom in on the selected entity by putting your cursor over the picture of the entity in the bottom center of the HUD and scrolling.

EDIT:

If you are finding the zoom seems to be jumping around as you are zooming out, check your mouse wheel technique maybe you are accidentally moving the scroll wheel forward a click as your finger goes to grab it. I think both Craig and I did this the first couple of times, but it's pretty easy to work it out of your muscle memory. Likewise if you find the camera zooming in and out as you are trying to zoom in.

Thanks all for your feedback! Keep it coming

Ok played for about 2 hours and I got the hang of it, I actually quite like it. Just have to get used to having your mouse the focus of something.

The one thing about zooming that bugs me is if I center on anything using ctrl+click, as soon as I zoom in or out it'll break the camera 'lock'. I think this is one of the issues DatonKallandor was talking about as far as Homeworld-style camera goes. There you stay locked on your object until you actually move the camera yourself, zooming in/out keeps the camera centered on the object. That would be a fantastic feature

Sinzer

Hey Annatar,

At the moment you can use ctrl-zoom to keep the focus locked on something, but this may change depending on how people use it!

1. Place your middle finger at the top end of your scroll wheel (basically standard holding position)
2. Whip it down (to your palm) as fast as you possibly can without actually pressing hard enough to click "mouse 3"
3. Lift hand just enough to clear the scroll wheel when you reverse the flick.

Repeat as needed. You can also do this in reverse, just place your finger at the base of the wheel, palm arched upward slightly (as if you were holding it in a normal grasping position just a minute ago, fore finger on left mouse button, ring finger on right mouse button, middle going over scroll wheel). Flatten palm while running finger along the mouse.

Basically just scroll really fast, and the game will sometimes reverse the scroll. Its happened in a few other games, but not many. I can't reproduce this effect elsewhere (for example, in Firefox if I try to scroll down a page fast), almost always in games with some kind of zoom.

Please note that this is not a "reset" issue, it usually happens somewhere in the middle of a "flick" -- I'm not accidentally hitting the mouse wheel in the opposite direction

Another feature to the zoom system (that would be nice) is a "sensitivity" option -- let me really RAMP up the sensitivity, because its way to low. Or, make it so the shift key increases zoom speed, rather than decreases.

Thanks Ron

Do you notice it mostly when you are zoomed out (planets in icon mode) or zoomed in (looking at a grav well) or doesn't matter?

I've made some tweaks to the smart-targeting that should make it less zig-zaggy... a sensitivity option is a good idea.

For the moment, use the zoomMult and slowZoomMult in the camera settings file. If you turn slowZoomMult up past 1.0 it will speed up the camera when you press shift.

Usually medium area -- going between far enough out to look at a star system, and close enough in to deal with an individual grav well (in either direction). And its only a real issue when trying to zoom in a hurry, otherwise it either doesn't occur or isn't noticeable.

Thanks, I'll fiddle with that.

My zoom seems to be bugged. at the moment, it sometimes zooms quite quickly (like 6 or 7 mousewheel "clicks") to get from spaceship view zoom to star system zoom, and then sometimes it goes realllllllly slow. Like, maybe 200 clicks to do the same distance. I'm just guessing that number, but is literally so slow that you can't play the beta funly with it. I have no idea why this is or how to fix it :<

DroneFragger: that definitely sounds like a bug. Can you figure out a way to make either the super-fast or super-slow things happen so we can figure out what's happening?

Are you using a normal mouse or a built-in laptop mouse?

I think my problem was definitely user related. I have to be more careful when pinpointing my zoom. I changed the lines per wheel roll to 6, twice the original number, and it definitely scrolls faster, but playing the game more I was able to better pinpoint (get used to) where my cursor needed to be. I did see the zoom past behavior that I experienced before, but this is generally when there is a planet or larger image (asteroid) behind a ship or station. I could quickly reverse zoom and center my cursor better and then rezoom. I noticed that if I had the "object of desire" dead center in my zoom, then I could not scroll past it.

I also used the zoom to HUD picture tip as well. This helped a lot.

Thanks!

It's a Logitech G5 running on my desktop. I think it might be to do with the drivers myself, because some games refuse to accpet that the Logtich G5 has a middle mouse button and counts it as Ctrl, so I set it to P. however, I don't click that hard to make It actaully press P 99% of the time.

Intel 3.0
2gigs ram
Gforce 7800 gs
windows xp
Logitech mx510 mouse


Hey im new to the community and have only played beta 3 for about 6hours worth and every thing has ran very smooth and following the forums every problem has been mentioned so far one way or another but im posting now because I also experience this problem every now and then when im zoomed in very close to an object (ships,structures.ect) it all of a sudden becomes a slow zoom both ways taking quite a bit of wheel spinning to draw out of it but once it reaches a certain point out it becomes smooth again.So far if I zoom back in immediately it stays smooth. I will experiment more when I get the chance and let you know if I notice anything else.


Edit

OMG i just noticed my name i forgot the O mephiston GAHHHHHHHHHHHHH


Edit.
HAHA fixed it

DroneFragger: as a temporary measure, try using the z,x,c buttons. Does your scroll work normally in web-browsers, etc?

SE-Weed: The next patch should include some fixes to make it easier to select things with planets behind them, but for now you should be able to get around it by just rotating the camera slightly so the planet isn't behind the object and then zooming. Looking down on the planet grav well also makes it easier.

Edit:

For those of you who have trouble with weird zooming behaviour that is going in/out at weird times or seems to be reacquiring a new zoom target at strange times - as a test, try and use the zoom keys (I think V and B by default) instead of the scroll wheel and see if it continues happening. (Apologies, the keys zoom a little faster than the mouse, this will be fixed soon)

Thanks... will that include an in-game UI to control zoom speeds (sensitivity?) for the mouse?

Ok so this is weird, today I was playing around testing planet upgrade strategies, when all of a sudden I couldn't zoom in either direction...

I wasn't focused on anything, and the mouse wheel was totally unresponsive.

Once I clicked on a plant I was able to zoom again...

Bug?

hmm, think I've found the problem in my case. Appears to be a problem if you run the game via steam (Using "Add non-steam game" to add sins to the Steam game list). When the game is run, it seems that pressing (in my case) shift-\ to open the steam in game friends messenger seems to set shift to be *always* on for some reason. So therefore, It seems to be steam at fault and not the game. :< Sorry for wasting time.

np DroneFragger, it's good to have solutions posted in case somebody else has the same problem.

lordkosc, definitely a bug. were you zoomed way out?

Ron, I'll see about that sensitivity setting for the next patch.

its also hard if you want to zoom in on some fighters cos you have to try and keep your pointer on them while you zoom.

Thanks, that seemed like the kind of thing that should be in there