Camera Glance Keys

Camera Glance Keys

Note: This page describes glancing as implemented by the new glancing test version. The current stable version, as well as the 0.2.8_rc1 use a slightly different system.

Manual Camera Control

While the camera tries to show the areas of the grid that are most interesting to you, the camera can not always anticipate your wishes. Manual camera control permits you to adjust the perspective while playing to show the things that really matter.

The keys for manual camera control can be configured in

Main Menu/Player Setup/Player x Settings/Camera Input Configuration

Glancing Overview

Glancing is the most common form of custom camera control. It causes the camera to face towards a specific direction and is controlled by the four glance keys "glance forward", "glance backward", "glance left" and - you guessed it - "glance right". Unless you changed them in the player options, the glance keys are the arrow keys.

Glancing is activated by pressing a glance key and maintained by keeping any glance key pressed.

For instance, pressing "glance left" for a while will show you the area left of your cycle until you release the key, upon which the automatic camera control takes over again.

While you are glancing, the camera orientation is not be affected by turns.

Why Would I Want to Glance?

Glad you asked ;-). Using glancing, you can look in any direction, regardless of where you are driving to. You can glance backwards to check whether someone (friend or foe) is grinding your wall. You can glance right to check whether you or the opponent is ahead. You can watch what happens at a fortress while driving by or watch its interior while circling it.

The only disadvantage about glancing is that you might be so absorbed in the action around you that you forget to watch what might endanger your cycle ...

Advanded Glance Usage

It is possible to press a second glance key while glancing, in which case the new direction superseeds the old. Therefore, you can have the camera do a full circle around the cycle by pressing the four glance keys in order.

Some cameras don't handle it well if you release glancing while looking backwards. This can be overcome by glancing forward for an instant before stoping to glance.

While glancing is maintained during turns, the meaning of the glance keys changes if you turn, so giving new glance orders while turning quickly might cause something you didn't intend. At present, the devs don't know a way to fix that without saddling us with worse problems.