Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Please get rid of isometric view for D:OS 2

I like the iso view

yes, i prefer dragon age camera style , i like to see my charachter close instead of tiny toys fighting far away from the screen, i loved divinity 2 saga, one of the best games i ever played, but idont get the other divinity games because they only use isometric camera and its annoying, i hope they could give us the two choices, anyway, dragon age is the best in rpg games

Can't we have both? A hybrid between isometric and over the shoulder?

Or, as I mentioned a few posts back, an ability to switch between the two: a number of games have an isometric "tactical mode" switchable with third-/first-person (or both) which I like as they all have their assorted advantages.

If D:OS2 doesn't cater for the latter I'd assume it's probably due to limited development resources rather than some sort of deliberate design decision; at least I'd hope so. I guess it wouldn't make a lot of sense to exclude one on purely ideological grounds!

I'm currently playing Beyond Divinity for the first time and that's an isometric viewpoint that really does make my brain hurt: at least D:OS lets you pan and change the perspective a little!

That is also a possibility

Well, opening up a level or simply browsing through visual resources in the editor for current EE show that a lot of stuff is specifically made for top-down view, if you look at most stuff, it can turn into nothing (invisible) depending on the angle you view it from.
In the editor you CAN actually see the sky because the camera is freely movable in any direction but believe me, you would not want the game to look like what you can see from angles that you cannot have in the game.

I'm pretty sure Larian could change that if they wanted to or had to, but I assume that this would be a major effort and would we really be willing to pay for that ? Not to mention that it would be very doubtful that D:OS 2 could really be released this year if they did.

Personally I like the isometric view a lot, although a had to get used to it again after so many years without it.

360 degrees camera rotation was already possible in classic if you enabled it in options and I don't remember finding anything that looked bad. They gave you an explicit warning when you enabled it. (So I guess they would have fully enabled it in classic already but weren't sure and there was no time to check the complete game world.)

The thing is, having a shoulder cam would basically double the amount of work on decoration for us.
The game is done and tweaked 100% for the iso view.

If you take a cool looking spot in the game with a great vista and all with iso view, I can assure you that the game won't look that great at that spot with a camera over the shoulder. The game is not done that way.

Creating appealing environment for iso view is really different than creating appealing stuff for 3rd person/1st person or whatever close to it.

True, and I seem to recall some spots of blackness did occasionally appear in certain areas right on the edge of the map in early releases of D:OS.

As much as I'd like to see distant lands from eye-level it'd be so much work to do; either that or create the hemmed-in feeling you often get from that sort of perspective.

I remember fiddling about with the settings of Sacred 2 to get (almost) over-the-shoulder perspective though I forget how that worked. Just distance fogging, IIRC. Actually I just remembered I have some screenshots, so it does this:

Raze and norD could tell you more about over the shoulder camera but I think if this would be done
texture depth should have be increased, some assets replaced due to (ortho)perspective taken into account and the way how the engine could stream distant level maps should be rewritten.
I think this would seriously push the release date and it's unneccesary.

Instead, creative time should be used to develop:

• 1) memorable charaters/villains like Jon Irenicus, Morte, Minsc, Dak'kon, Nordom...
• 2) gorgeus modeled and hand-painted environments and worlds
• 3) unforgetful compelling story
• 4) engaging and fun gameplay

As someone who supported all Sacred products and played them for thousands of hours - I can tell you that the shoulder perspective in Sacred 2 was a terrible thing in every aspect.

It didn't even work well with the kind of action-combat sacred offered and would often leave you disoriented in certain lategame areas when cavewalls and obstacles where a thing. Targeting a creature on the other side of some vegetation or a wall? Impossible. And don't forget there's a massive difference between a realtime arpg and a tactical multicharacter turnbased CRPG where that kind of things happen more frequently.

There's a reason even the terrible third game; Sacred-imgonnapuke-3 didn't feature a similar camera as in 2.

I kinda liked it, but then again I'm one of the seemingly few people who liked Morrowind's fog and didn't turn it off when I installed the Morrowind Graphics Extender. In fact I liked it so much I added fogging to Oblivion too.

But yeah, I take your point that it wasn't ideal in every situation; I just liked to use it periodically as I find isometric slightly disorienting if I use it for extended periods.


I never had the pleasure. I read what other people had to say about Sacred 3 and decided that some treasures are best left buried.

I agree that isometric view is preferable for most of the game. Over-the-shoulder view would not be good for exploring the world of D:OS.

However, I definitely feel the ideal is definitely to have a mixed view. In XCOM, for example, the camera is usually isometric but it zooms in and moves occasionally to provide a close-up or over-the-shoulder view of certain actions.

I've mentioned this before -- one of the bigger weaknesses with the storytelling in D:OS is that it is not cinematic enough. I've compared it to other games before to show that the characters often do not "converse" so much as monologue. They also do not really express themselves physically.

On the topic of the camera angle, I feel that D:OS would greatly benefit from having more cinematic camera angles, particularly during dialogue. I'd much rather be looking at the 3D model than a static portrait. Even older 2D TRPGs tried to be as cinematic as possible.
Vandal Hearts (today's obligatory example)

This is an excellent point and a great example.

I hope not, love the isometric style of original sin.

The 3d games is just to much. I got them all, and i rarely play trough em before i just get bored.
Got half way trough da:i, amalur, morrowind, skyrim, fallout4, gothic3, risen2/3, two worlds1/2, the witcher 2/3. (and about all the others)
I never finish when they are 3d, they are just to big and time consuming. (well except the mass effect ones, love those:)

On the other hand i always finish the isometric games and i just love them more. Much better to keep track of what you are doing, where you going and the ui.
Wasteland2, d:os and pillars i had several playtroughs.

That's just a completely personal opinion, even if true to an extent.
A more cinematic experience, however, does not work AGAINST isometric: rather, it enriches it.

I find that to be an opinion too.

As far as Pimpel's post being a personal opinion, I share it for the most part and disagree that cinematic camera enriches the game by default.
I consider that the camera can do that, but only if it serves a proper purpose and does not conflict with the overall presentation.

Well, it is more of a fact, what I am saying: think about the link posted, Vandal Hearts, or even think of XCOM2: the cinematic camera makes the game more dynamic and way less "static". Plus, it only works during combat, so the exploration phase is still there, in its glory.

Think also of Dragon age: would it feel the same without the cinematics, the close-ups, and the spectacular cut-scenes form a non-isometric point of view?

Haha. It's not a "fact" that cinematic cameras are "objectively" better. More dynamic isn't always better. (Transformers 2 is a very dynamic movie!) There are plenty of people out there who hate the cinematic camera in XCOM, and it's not because they're wrong and you're right.

It's great that you have an opinion and good reasons to back it up, but that's all it is.

A movie =/= a game.

Besides, plenty of people? On 2kforums, I've not seen it. Or this was on Steam?

I am quite sure than none of us are sitting on accurate statistics, so let's just say that there are a minimum of two sides to the debate and just being on one side doesn't make it the one true way.