LE Quick Zoom - An Arma 3 Mimic Zoom Feature

[mkt778]

Hello Nexus Forums,

This is my first time posting here. I wish to bring up a feature which I think would greatly benefit the open world of Skyrim, and hopefully the Elder Scrolls series in the future.

 

 

 

Quick Zoom - Introduction:

Basically, what I am requesting is a feature that when no weapon is equipped, or your weapon is sheathed, holding the right mouse button will gradually increase the cameras zoom to a fixed level whilst held. The purpose of this simple feature is actually to restore your natural clarity of vision, but it also aids scouting, plotting courses which you’ll take, focusing on detail or just admiring the beauty of the landscape a little closer as you walk past. There have been many times i’ve encountered a moment in game where this feature would come in handy, and having got used to its existence in other games, it’s almost impossible to live without it. This technically already happens in the game, but only with a weapon drawn and whilst blocking. This somewhat defeats the purpose, as you have a weapon obscuring the view, plus, the zoom it does provide isn’t nearly enough.

Examples and More Explanation:

If you had played Fallout 3 and/or New Vegas, it occurred in that game. When no weapon was drawn, the right click zoomed in. It essentially functioned as aiming without a weapon drawn. But many people, including myself, use it subconsciously in game quite frequently for scouting and just general looking around.

For a reference, here is the zoom feature as it is represented in Arma 3:

http://share.gifyoutube.com/KRpYBj.gif

What you need to be aware of, is that the feature isn’t meant to be used to cheat, and see enemies from miles away. It’s not a binocular. It isn’t the eagle eye perk. This feature is meant to help represent the visual acuity you would have in reality. Don't think of this as 'Zooming in' instead, think of your normal perspective as being 'Zoomed out' as that is what is essentially what is happening. The 'Zooming in' is restoring your natural clarity of vision.

… In English, this function is designed to show you the amount of detail your eyes can see in real life. This is a subconscious thing that occurs when we focus on objects or squint, and unfortunately being unable to do this in game means we have to substitute it for a gradual zoom. From somebody coming from Arma 3, this feature is a God send. Locating and engaging enemies from a distance is almost impossible without it. Targets at distance in most instances only appear as wide as 5 pixels across the screen, but with zooming returning your visual acuity, it makes it much easier to see these distant targets with the same detail you would in real life. For open world games such as Skyrim, this can be the difference between spotting the archer hiding in the window of a house, to winding up dead from a person you couldn’t otherwise see because of them blending into anti-aliasing and lighting conditions.

… Which brings me onto its second use. Those with lower screen resolutions.

Believe it or not, there are actually people who can only play Skyrim at 800x600 resolution. The zoom function in this instance can significantly assist people wanting to scout distances in game, without having to sacrifice frames per second to a higher resolution.

Another thing to note from the Arma 3 example above is how snapily it occurs when you press the button. Take note when the player starts moving, and uses it quickly to peer down in the forest next to him. The speed at which it zooms in is intentional, to increase the practicality of it. The Arma 3 zoom takes a half second to complete. One complete second takes way too long, and will make it feel impractical. The Fallout 3 zoom took one second.

Awareness of existing mods:

Yes, I am completely aware of mods which act similarly, but they aren’t exactly what I am looking for. Some include telescope mods, which add an equipable telescope the player can use. While this is designed for scouting and etc, it completely misses the point of being a quick, accessible way to see medium distance objects at range. Sure, you could just tie it to a hotkey but that’s one less hotkey you could use for another item/spell. The mod I am suggesting is not designed to be a telescope or binocular. It’s a method of seeing the exact detail your eye does in real life. As I stated before, this technically already exists in the game when you block with a weapon, so I imagine implementing something as simple as this wouldn't be too hard. I’ve personally done a lot of google searching prior to writing this proposal, and I was honestly quite surprised nobody had thought of it before. This suggestion was first conceived in June.

Conclusion:

The ability to zoom your view in games isn’t just a recent popular trend, as I have explained above. The Arma series has always bound the right mouse button to zoom the camera. Other games such as Metal Gear Solid 5, feature both a quick telescope which can place waypoints, and a quick, accessible zoom button bound to the left analog stick. These features exist entirely to provide you just that extra bit of detail you otherwise mightn’t of seen previously. For sneak based characters, this is an excellent tool for focusing your next course of movement, or scanning the horizon as an archer for any skylined targets. The mod configuration menu (if one should be developed) could even allow the user to adjust how much they want to zoom, and how quickly it occurs. So this is why I think the ability to quick zoom in Skyrim would be a great addition to the gameplay without ruining any of the other game mechanics.

 

 

Thank you for reading my proposal,

 

-Mkt778

Thank you to user InuyashaFE for helping me edit this

Edited December 27, 2014 by mkt778