[MattWBradbury]

I just installed Dreamfall, and I have to say, these are some of the worst camera controls I have ever seen, and I've played Tomb Raider. Is there any way to fix these controls? I'm trying to look up at the window in the very first room, and it feels impossible. My camera rotates about 5° downward, and then vibrates back into position. I've tried just about every combination of camera controls, and none of them seem to be working right. I can't focus on different things without having to be right on top of them. I was playing with some keys and found something that let me scan for things, but after trying every key, I cannot find that key again. 2 minutes into the game, and I'm already fed up with it.

Can anyone help me out?

[orient]

I found the camera okay once I changed the "Camera Horizontal Axis" option in the "Game" menu. The default setting just felt wrong to me.

The best way to examine things is to get Zoe to face it, not necessarily the camera. Constantly fiddling with the camera isn't such a great idea because, like you said, in confined spaces it just doesn't maneuver well. I found that in most cases, the camera will sort itself out and I only played with it when I had to.

So yeah, I suggest trying a more "hands off" approach with the camera control until you get used to it.

[potan]

Yup, this is what i did to make it workable:

MOUSE
Mouse Mode: CAMERA

GAME
Camera behavior (PAD) : fixed behind
Camera behavior (MOUSE): fixed behind
Camera Horizontal Axis : Inverted
Camera Vertical Axis : Inverted

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by MattWBradbury

Can anyone help me out?

I'm not sure if I can help you, I played Dreamfall on my old XBox with the controller. It was marvelous.

Therefore, have you tried using a controller instead of relying on your mouse and keyboard? The game's in third person real-time 3D, it's perfect to experience as if it were a console game.

[Jorz]

I agree with Intrepid. I played the PC version with an Xbox360 controller, using Pinnacle Game Profiler to map the controls.

It was very enjoyable that way... and being able to play from my sofa is essential for me with these longer games.

[Sik]

It was closer to "The Best Camera Ever" than "The Worst Camera Ever" for me. As others have mentioned, though, the default settings are more suited for an Xbox controller than mouse and keyboard, which is a weird default choice for a PC installation. I'm fairly sure I used something similar to Potan. I remember inverting both y and x axis, and changing the camera from follow mode to free-look.

[booB]

I didn't have much trouble with it. If you ONLY play AGs, and you're not used to third person games where you control your own camera, then you might think it's the worst, but I've played some third person action games whose cameras have made me physically ill after playing them.

[MattWBradbury]

After playing the game for a few hours, I think I've gotten a little use to the controls, but they still are pretty bad. For me, these are in fact, the worst camera controls I have ever used. I've played plenty of third person games: Hitman, Max Payne, Tomb Raider, Dead Space, GTA, ect. These games had good cameras in third person (except maybe tomb raider), and yet, the Dreamfall developers decided that they wanted to go with something extremely cumbersome. I seriously have no idea why they even put a vertical axis on their camera because there are only about 10° of freedom. I know it's an adventure game and not an action adventure, but you can still learn something about how to make a good camera control system.

The only way I can look at things is by walking into an area, facing my character towards what I want to inspect, press the right mouse button and moving the focus into position, and then use the mouse wheel to select the proper boxed item. It still does not make since. Why not just put a crosshair on the screen and let people point to what they want to look at. I'm thinking Max Payne style here. It still makes no since. Did they even listen to user inputs about the controls with mouse and keyboard?

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Remember, Ragnar Tornquist and his team are not experienced real-time 3D game developers. Try to cut them a bit of slack and give them credit for at least trying a new way for us to experience adventuring.

That stated, they SHOULD HAVE done their homework and played such games as Max Payne, Tomb Raider, and other 3rd person games. They should also have studied the Splinter Cell and Metal Gear games for the stealth sequences, and played a few fighting games for the combat bits. It's obvious they didn't, which is why many of us complained.

[orient]

Originally Posted by MattWBradbury

The only way I can look at things is by walking into an area, facing my character towards what I want to inspect, press the right mouse button and moving the focus into position, and then use the mouse wheel to select the proper boxed item.

That right-mouse focus field is horribly cumbersome, worse than manually facing objects in my opinion. Honestly, after a few hours, selecting objects should became rather easy without it. After all, the playable characters automatically focus on the closest interactive object, so sometimes you don't even need to manually turn - once you select an interaction, the game will move your character for you. The only time you need to fiddle around is when there are two objects close to one another. In this case, I would simply move the character a little with the keys until their focus changes to the other object. I really didn't find it too bad, at all.

I tried to stay away from the "focus field" throughout the game, so it frustrated me when I was almost forced to use it in a few sections, due to poor puzzle/gameplay design.

[MattWBradbury]

I think I've finally got it. Though a camera system that takes several hours to get used to is a bad one.

So far, I like the sequel better than the original. It feels more like I'm there, and I'm not just trying every object on every thing I can see. It seems a little easier as well, but that may just be that the extra immersion helps me think through problems more realistically.

[Little Writer]

Don't know what everyone's trouble with the camera is. I just use the mouse to look left and right. Have my left hand on the A-Z-E letters (which are set to move left-move forward-move right) and my thumb on spacebar (the action button). I just walk around, hit the spacebar when there's something interesting. If I can't find anything at first, I double check with the right click focus function (though usually everything is obvious). Works great for me.