OK. I made a started a thread similar to this and it quickly got moved to the graphics test thread. In all fairness it was quite a simple post and I didn’t really expand or explain properly the type of thing I was hoping people would discuss. So here goes again. I’m looking for things you might have gleamed an insight on, for how the full game will work or look, that wasn’t really told to us before. Things that you learned by playing with the graphics test. Alternatively, possible concerns on how the full game will work based on how the graphics test worked. From what I understand this is a compiled version of the full game with the data and world generator limited to what we see, also the UI removed, and the text put in. If that is so, maybe people discovered some Easter eggs of sorts that were unintentional remnants of the full game.
Things I learned:
Interface / Camera controls: left mouse select, right mouse rotate camera, mouse wheel zoom, but also noted with mouse wheel, it is affected by where your mouse pointer is. In fact, in the test, it is the only way to in effect pan the camera. If you zoom out with your mouse over one corner of the map and then zoom in on the opposite corner your camera will be centered over the last corner you zoomed in on. Zooming both in and out increases the amount you can move the camera. This works similar to some graphics programs. As a concern, I sure hope that the full game has edge scrolling and/or keyboard controls for camera panning, which I’m sure it probably will.
Overall appearance:
This is what most impressed me about the graphics test. It’s hard to describe, but even after looking at all the screenshots we’ve seen; tom actually running builds of the game on live streams; actually having it on my computer is a whole new experience. Even with the very limited world we get to see, it seems to be very smooth. It’s a combination of a plethora of subtleties, I think, that when all combined give a very pleasing ‘feel’. I know the poly count on this test is minuscule compared to what the full game will be but it just runs so smoothly, I don’t know, like I said it’s hard to explain.
Bottom line, this test has certainly ramped up my anticipation. Thanks guys, it had kind of settled down, and I was able to carry on more of a normal life. Now I have to read this forum twice as often, just to see if there is anything new. Hopefully someone smarter than me has found some cool things that you can do with it, not necessarily modding (there is a thread for that already) but parts of the interface from the full game that maybe aren’t quite apparent or obvious.
note to admin: Please let this post stand to see if it sparks a discussion before moving or closing it
I guess that most findings and things you can do are discussed already in the “Modding Stonehearth’s Graphics Test”-thread. Let me link to that thread instead of repeating all the things (quite some). As you have said… it is a very limited version and my feeling is that there is not so much to discover on the surface (apart from the mentioned controls).
On the concern side… nothing new from this test for me. I see it as a simple test of the graphics engine. We do not see anything of the GUI, cannot execute any activities and probably even the movement might be only in so that you can fly around and cause more issues to the engine (which will be reported). I am looking forward to the first, playable release and than we can say a bit more I guess. But for sure it is nice to have a piece of Stonehearth in our hands already.
Can someone explain how on earth the right mouse rotate is meant to work or should I submit a bug report? For me I am incapable of dragging and right clicks are difficult to control with.
right-click simply rotates the camera, and in all my tests so far, as worked very smoothly… shift-left-click pans the camera, just as @Ghost suggested too… thanks again!
Right click and hold.
swipe the mouse to the left and the screen rotates clockwise, to the right, counter clockwise
moving the mouse up and down rotates it to a more horizontal look (up), or more a topdown look (down)
So then where would a request to radiant go? An alternative to right click drag please radiant, those of us running windows on a macbook will have major trouble with right click drag on the trackpads. You can do it with an actual mouse or third party software but I’m pretty sure it’s not available obviously. Although I can’t test my ideas now as the test is broken from my latest attempts at modding, apparently the secrets of how to add extra smod files aren’t as simple as I hoped.
well, thats also the sort of feedback to be expected during the testing phases… although, this specific concern could be alleviated if radiant provides the ability to remap player controls…
Remapping controls often forget something like this, the best (and near only) option is to allow the use of a key to simulate rightclick. Something like hold control to make left click/drag to count as right. Having keyboard alternatives to muse controls is recommended anyway though.
I have on this laptop, and had on my previous one, a key that right clicks for me? Two right of the spacebar. Does your computer not have such a key? It could be quite useful, but I can’t say I use it much.
