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Original post by TechnoGoth I quite like super pigs idea of adjusting the cameras distance from the main character based on who open the current area is. Standing on open hill the camera is far enough for you to see for miles. crawling through a narrow cave the camera so close you can almost touch it.

You're talking about zooming in and out as things pass in front of the camera? Or just zooming based on a certain set area? A forest is open, it's just cluttered. Zooming could easily be performed by the player when they see they are about to enter a forest area. But I fail to understand how it would improve the situation. The trees are still passing between the player and camera. Perhaps less of them, but is that worth the cost of barely seeing five feet in front of you? Unless we're referring to a Hitman cam. But that's not about zooming in, that's gluing the camera to the player's back. Which is a completely different type of game.

Thanks again

Or you can always vary the different camera angles based on location.

For example, in a dense forrest, you might want to move the camera overhead to sort of give the sense of denseness. Then in open areas drop the camera down to shoulder level. This way, you don't really have to worry about the camera running into anything.

Just a thought...

Alpha blending is a nice effect, but if you're moving the camera around, then you need to resort your objects everytime your view changes. This is because alpha-blending has the negative effect that things have to be drawn from farthest to nearest order. This may be somewhat stressful when you have large and dense forrests, though some culling can help too.

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Original post by WeirdoFu Or you can always vary the different camera angles based on location. For example, in a dense forrest, you might want to move the camera overhead to sort of give the sense of denseness. Then in open areas drop the camera down to shoulder level. This way, you don't really have to worry about the camera running into anything.

It might work quite well. Switching to overhead may take some immersion away, but I could easily provide it as an option.

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Alpha blending is a nice effect, but if you're moving the camera around, then you need to resort your objects everytime your view changes. This is because alpha-blending has the negative effect that things have to be drawn from farthest to nearest order. This may be somewhat stressful when you have large and dense forrests, though some culling can help too.

Like I mentioned before, I doubt normal alpha transparency is going to cut it for me anyway. It would probably be easier and faster to render moving objects twice, transparently over trees the second time. Would have to use the stencil buffer, I believe. But doing so, I could make these see-through parts look however I want. I'll probably go with barely visible, non-textured black silohetts. I think it would distract very little while still providing visual feedback. It would also be easily switched on or off as an option.

Thank you all for your help