Casters would you please consider using a zoom mod?

Hi guys, I occasionally check out game casts, like this one- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGY9Aq9AuP4 - that just gave me the idea. I was wondering why if the game is recorded, and then played back, that the caster doesn't use a zoom out mod to allow all of us to see more of the battlefield at once? In this vid, there was a lot of back and forth panning by the caster trying his best to discover the most interesting encounters going on. I think somewhere between 150% and 200% zoomout would be the most ideal height to view a replay from.

Speaking of which, about a year ago, I made a suggestion that the devs should add greater zoomout during replays. There is no reason to have it looked at the standard max zoom for playbacks.

Also why the hell is fog of war always checked by default? It's always the first thing we all probably "fix" as soon as we load a replay. It would be so simply to change that, but nooooo. They ignore perfectly good suggestions like that.

Comments and info on this subject is much appreciated.

Actually A_E did some "Strategic Zoom Casts" in which he does exactly what you are describing you should check them out

Actually A_E did some "Strategic Zoom Casts" in which he does exactly what you are describing you should check them out

Ah, yep. That would be what he linked to

If you zoom out to far the UI disappears. Also the draw distance gets kinda wonky but you can zoom out enough so that it doesnt look weird.

Keep hammering Relic to allow a larger zoom-out in obsmode and replay viewing. This is another no-brainer thing that would be easy for them to add. Remind them to show chat to observers while you're at it

Maybe it is just me but I find it easier to recognise what is going on from the standard zoom and zooming out makes it harder to understand. At this stage I'm not going to bother but if it gets added as a feature I would probably use it occasionally.

I'm not averse to changing camera angles to capture action though which is important for thinks like tank destroyer fights and on some terrain.

Maybe it is just me but I find it easier to recognise what is going on from the standard zoom and zooming out makes it harder to understand.

Same here.

Haha he linked to my live cast, and little did he know I also do a series of casts using zoom out.

I don't use it for tourney games because it generates sync errors sometimes. Seriously I would publicise how to do it, but at the moment I've had about 10 completely wasted casts due to sync errors, and I've only done 16 casts so it's not a viable long term option, yet.

I've have raised this to Relic to allow greater zoom out, a bit further so you can see more in replays would be a great option.

In the mean time you can watch my strategic zoom cast series if you want to see further zoom

I wouldn't use it often, personally, but sometimes in large battles you'd love to just step out one more step. It's available in dota 2 and pro observers use it. Bad ones over-use it, but good ones use it in the right situations to give viewers a better experience. It would be easy for Relic to add.

Then again, showing us the chat (wtf is e-sports w/o "gl hf" & "gg"??) would probably be pretty easy too, but I've been begging for that privately and publicly for over a year.

It's kind of A_E's shtick, kind of like how you come to me if you like watching an Australian guy get frustrated over video games....

But seriously I like it being zoomed in, I actually prefer the players view mode as chaotic as it is because it gives more of a view on what the players are seeing. I know I wouldn't use it and it's not like it's unavailable right now since A_E dies it. With everything else Relic is doing I wouldn't be surprised if it happened soon. that is if enough casters bug them.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKlnjwzT1IruAZFb0EA-5pQ

It's welcome news to hear that it is being done and that relic has been asked by casters to add it. Did not know about Dota 2 having it, but there you go, one great company seems to get it.

Ironic that I linked to the one caster that has in fact used it. haha

Casting my be mostly done for 1v1 and 2v2, but a replay zoomout for 3v3 and up is a must. When I want to watch a big 4v4 I was a part of it's so hard to follow all the action going on without using more zoom.

While allowing this for replays is fine, I see a problem with allowing live casters, observers to do this. Could one not set up a secondary PC and peak at their own game in super far out zoom, or have a friend spot stuff for them and give them a heads up. Of coarse setting the delay to max amount of minutes limits that cheats usefulness, but if made short this can become an unfair advantage. So no, I don't think live observers should be allowed access to a greater view unless a sufficient number of minutes is locked in for this. Am I making sense here, or did I miss something?

BTW thanks for the info everyone.

Why does watching a replay at a greater zoom generate a sync error? Is it an issue related to PC performance, or just a bug relic can't fix?

I've used the BK mod sometimes to play at a greater zoom, and did not encounter any more crashes than "normal" lol

Why does watching a replay at a greater zoom generate a sync error? Is it an issue related to PC performance, or just a bug relic can't fix?

I've used the BK mod sometimes to play at a greater zoom, and did not encounter any more crashes than "normal" lol

It's in -dev mode and also requires changing atmospheric settings to remove the fog most maps have. It causes issues, I'm starting to see patterns and refine things though.

You can remove the fog effect via a setting. Awesome! Oh and that is one more thing that relic should add to replay by default. On some maps the fog got pretty severe when using a zoom mod to watch a 4v4 replay.

I'd like to know what I got to change via -dev to do that.

Can I be completely honest I knew the time would come that people would ask me the exact way to do it, and I told myself I'd try to hold onto it as a USP for 20 casts before making a guide.

I've done 16 at the moment, so need to make four more casts before I make it public

I'll PM you my list of atmospheric presets later if that's ok? (I'm at work currently).

Keep hammering Relic to allow a larger zoom-out in obsmode and replay viewing. This is another no-brainer thing that would be easy for them to add. Remind them to show chat to observers while you're at it

Would be good to be able to zoom out a little bit more when playing the game as well!

Keep hammering Relic to allow a larger zoom-out in obsmode and replay viewing. This is another no-brainer thing that would be easy for them to add. Remind them to show chat to observers while you're at it

And why we cannot have zoom as player as well ? Max zoom will be like in cheat mode and everyone will can zoom as much as he want (begger zoom - player see more but , it is harder to micro things)

Can I be completely honest I knew the time would come that people would ask me the exact way to do it, and I told myself I'd try to hold onto it as a USP for 20 casts before making a guide.

I've done 16 at the moment, so need to make four more casts before I make it public

I'll PM you my list of atmospheric presets later if that's ok? (I'm at work currently).

I'll check out your guide when you get around to it. I'm in no hurry. Been watching replays the sucky way for a few years now, what's a few more weeks or months...

Relic needs to implement a restart replay button. it sucks having to restart the entire thing to back it up at the start of a replay lol.

Sure, and would it be hard to do reverse? How I wish there was a way to go back several seconds to see something I just missed. Sometimes the whole reason I load a replay is to see something and then I miss it only to have to reload the whole damn thing again and go 8x until I hit that part again. And that really sucks because if the event was long into the battle your fast forward can take several minutes. It's a standard feature in every video playback program that you can click on the progress bar where you would like to jump to. But no...