Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Thoughts on the Camera and a Suggestion

I haven't spent as much time with CRPG's as many others here, so please bear with my opinion and reaction to the game.

I feel like the overhead view at the view distance we have kind of hurts my experience. It feels like the environment is too big for the camera, and I'm always fiddling with the view in order to feel comfortable about my surroundings. The environments are large and intricate and I feel like I can see too little of them at a time, which is frustrating.

I wonder if a game developer would choose to have the camera as it is if it weren't for the long tradition of CRPG cameras.

My constructive notes:
-I would love it if I could right-click and drag to pan my view. It would be faster and more accurate than relying on keypresses or edge panning.

(Next is totally a bonus "what if" suggestion for after the game is awesome and done. Maybe a mod could do this. Have previous Larian games had mod-able cameras?)

-Some areas (I haven't checked EVERY area) would lend themselves very well to an optional over-the-shoulder ARPG style camera. Not permanent or for everything, but when it comes to the part where you are experiencing the world I have found it to be very fun to angle the camera this way. The areas I have tried seem to be completely built up with geometry, so it looks like this could just be a matter of making a camera mode with no additional geometry work. Rotating the camera down is a close approximation, but adding some features that native over-the-shoulder games have might just add a nice experience.

I don't want to take any options away from anyone, so please don't hate me.

I had a few fights where is was impossible to attack the characers because they were either above or below me and my camera wouldn't travel to that point. To be able to move the central point of focus on a vertical axis (by pressing +/- for example) would make manouvering the camera during a fight much better.

The current camera system needs work. I suspect that ceilings, etc. are not rendered so we have no ability to look up. But it really needs improvement, I fight the camera a lot.

The camera in this game is the most annoying one I have ever dealt with. We need to be able to look up. Especially with so much emphasis on using the high ground. Wandering around while being unable to look higher than chest level does not lend itself to proper scouting of an area. Detaching the camera from the character doesn't fix this issue.


We have a crude version of this already but I would like to see it improved. I play almost always in this manner because it is more immersive other than the inability to look up. Anything a normal person can see by moving the head and neck needs to be visible in game the same way.


The only way to deal with this is to move the camera separately from your character, and even then this doesn't always work. Something like your idea for the detached camera would be good, would like to be able to use the mouse to look up and down while camera is attached to character.

I'd love it if the camera didn't zoom all the way in and go horizontal just for the sake of screenshots, since doing so serves no practical gameplay purpose.
Seeing 10 miles off into the distance does nothing for me besides bog down my system by drawing in a bunch of absolutely unnecessary shit.

Keep the camera at varying distances of isometric and reintroduce a fog of war so that the constant memory leaks aren't killing rigs at the lower to middle end of the performance spectrum.
I'm not going to often stop and admire the mountains on an island that I'll never be able to travel to. I'd much rather have substantially more focus on my immediate surroundings.

I would only play with the proper third person camera if I could, isometric lacks immersion for me. I only use the isometric because I have to for combat. There should be options for lower end machines to not render things past certain distances, most other games I play have this setting. I can definitely agree with the fog of war and perhaps make it so the detached camera can't travel so far. Being able to have a proper vertical view range would greatly help with this.

I will admit the camera gets me lost sometimes and it likes to move on its own when you pan too far.

The goblin fight in the secret passage buy the grove is an example where the camera. There is one goblin way up on the cliff and its a fiddle fest with the camera to get a shot on them.

I agree that the camera is terrible often, especially in very vertical areas with several levels above each other, such as mountains, caves and buildings.
Moving the camera so that you see where you want to go or where the enemies are is difficult sometimes.
Also moving the chars in such areas can be hard, like you want a char to move inside the building and he always wants to climb on the roof or you tell chars to go somewhere and they damage themselves by climbing up and then falling down.
Another problem is that the camera jumps between characters in combat, so sometimes only the combat log tells you if you hit or miss.

For RPGs I prefer an isometric camera because it usually gives the best overview.
Isometric as in "with an angle from above", not isometric in the mathematical sense.
I was surprized that there is even a wikipedia entry for this: wiki

Just copy dragon age origins. Hell, even the Witcher 1 supported both.

I wish camera improve in following ways:

1) Able to control looking up and down, not just following the environment.

2) During combat, able to (option?) lock camera per character. Let say I setup a camera angle, position for Wyll for current turn, the camera should go back to that setting in the next turn, not the pre-set "home" position. Currently I am spending more time moving camera than actually shooting.

3) During combat, option to NOT follow enemy movement for their turn. I don't need to see them running around or standing still for 30sec if they are not even showing in mini map.

4) More zoom, for taking picture of course!!

5) Oh, can we have flying mount?