Unlocking the Freeflight camera mode

[BlacRyu]

This isn't really a modding guide, but it can be useful for those who want to take screenshots of their textures or models from unique angles. Or for making cool videos from replays. For instance, this camera mode is what was used to make the DreamHack trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebD-3RVt_9g&hd=1). This only works in practice mode or when watching replays.

Note: if you just want to change the angle of the camera simply hold down the \ key and drag the mouse, if you want 100% freedom of movement then read on.

Unlocking FreeCam
To unlock the Freeflight camera mode, simply type this command in the console (ctrl+f8):
cam_mode 1 (This is the main command that switches around all the camera controls)

Be sure to reset this by typing cam_mode 0 when you are done.

Other Useful Commands - I suggest using these commands along with the one above to make things easier and look better:
cg_cameraSmoothing true (this smooths the camera movement to make it more natural)
scene_farclip 99999 (will lower framerate, but allow you to see terrain far off in the distance)
cg_entitycullrange 99999 (like scene_farclip, but for units and buildings instead of terrain)
cam_flyspeed 1000 (controls how fast the camera flies, higher is faster)
g_camfov 75 (the higher it is, the wider your field of view, allowing you to see more on the screen at once. Can make things look weird if you set it too high/low)

To find other camera settings, type these 'search' commands in the console:
cvarlist camera
cvarlist cam
cvarlist fog (Yes, you can change the ingame fog to whatever you want)



Using FreeCam
To control the Freeflight Camera, use the arrow keys to fly forwards, backwards, and strafe, and hold down the mouse-wheel (middle mouse button) to steer. If you don't hold down the mouse-wheel the camera height will follow the contours of the terrain when moving, and if you hold down v the camera will track any unit you have selected (ie: look up when pebbles tosses them, etc). This camera mode will let you view things from ANY angle you want.

Tips:
F12 hides the interface for cleaner screenshots/movies

F5 takes screenshots (saved to Documents/Heroes of Newerth/game/screenshots)

host_timescale (0.01 to 100) will let you change the speed of everything in the game (same as replay speed control and test++)


Bonus: Enabling the Sky
Scene_drawskybox true (type this first, then pick one of the following two skies)
Scene_skyboxmaterial /world/sky/legion/legion.material http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/4959/shot1354.jpg
or
Scene_skyboxmaterial /world/sky/deadlock/deadlock.material http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/8784/shot1356.jpg
Secret happy fun-time sky:
http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/3238/shot1357.jpg

Fog:
Gfx_fogType 1 (Warning: This may take little while to load)
Gfx_FogColor 0.xx 0.yy 0.zz (changes the fog color to xx% red, yy% green, zz% blue. ie: 1.00 1.00 1.00 would be white, 0.00 0.00 0.00 would be black, 0.40 0.00 0.00 would be dark red, etc.)

[Laupsa]

Thx for the info ;)

[Sephinator]

F12 HIDES the interface. It's still clickable.

[BMC`]

Hmmm... anyone knows why i have black sky? :/ In the trailer there are clouds etc :/

[Sephinator]

http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=71238

There's a post longer down the page.

[Sackmaus]

my problem is.. how to reset the options -.- i tried to play.. and now i cant move my screen with the mouse... >.< only with the arrows :@

[BlacRyu]

my problem is.. how to reset the options -.- i tried to play.. and now i cant move my screen with the mouse... >.< only with the arrows :@
cam_mode 0

[gorzerk]

thx!

[Nigma]

Dumb question: How do I get the awesome cinematic "fog" in your screenshot? I'm assuming the fog commands in your comment are for the fog of war or something else because it's not doing it for me.

As in, how do I get the fog from the Dreamhack winter video?

[BlacRyu]

Umm, it should work. Maybe you need to enable something in the graphics options like shaders or something. When you type gfx_fogtype 1 in the console the game should freeze for a bit while it loads a bunch of shaders. It could also be that some of the settings aren't set right, so try fiddling with them.

If you go to the console and type cvarlist fog it will list all the fog commands. Set them to this for something similar to the dreamhack video:
gfx_fogcolor 0.2 0.6 0.8
gfx_fogdensity 0.00012 I fiddled around and it appears this is only used in fogtype 2 and 3 to determine how dense the fog is. fogtype 1 uses the next 3 variables instead. You can use either one I guess. I'm not sure what the difference is between type 2 and 3.
gfx_fogfar 4000 this sets the max distance for the fog, at any point after this it will be at maximum thickness.
gfx_fognear 500 this sets the minimum distance for the fog, at any distance from the camera closer than this this there will be no fog.
gfx_fogscale 0.6 this sets the maximum thickness of the fog. at 1 you wont be able to see through it after fogfar, and at 0 there will be no fog.
gfx_fogtype 1 enables the fog. You can also try type 2 or 3 as well, like I said they only use the color and density variables. They won't do much unless you've got the camera at a low angle though, since they basically just set fogfar to 20000 and fognear to 0. If you're using the standard overhead camera you'll want to use type 1.

[Penance]

Instead of having to type all those in every time it's easiest to just make a fog.cfg (or whatever) file in the \game\ folder, put in all the commands on separate lines and type exec fog.cfg

I might try to make new a new sky box later. Though I think I might have a stroke attempting to chop up a landscape picture and make it work. So... We'll see. :>

[BlacRyu]

Instead of having to type all those in every time it's easiest to just make a fog.cfg (or whatever) file in the \game\ folder, put in all the commands on separate lines and type exec fog.cfg
Yeah good point. Might as well go ahead and throw in skybox commands and whatever into a movie.cfg file or something if you're going to be making lots of movies. Then like Penance said just put it into the Heroes of Newerth/game folder and type exec movie.cfg or whatever you call it.

There's also an environment mod that enables weather effects such as rain and snow, you can get it here (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=110880). If you're feeling sadistic you can download my raining blood (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?p=1506851) mod and river of blood (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=93193). (preview here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqs3dYt3mmk&hd=1))

[Penance]

Little bit more info on the skybox in case someone wants to make their own or steal them from other games.

Numbered so you can see how it's unwrapped and which direction it was rotated to get to that point. Keep in mind the rotations are from the straight version, not from the already unwrapped, so reverse them if you're going to make a new one.

Full size of the legion skybox - http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/7493/skybox501.png
Unwrapped counterpart - http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/159/skybox2.png

50% size of legion skybox - http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/7493/skybox501.png
50% counterpart - http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/7715/skybox502.png

Not very complicated but you can't just go take a picture, chop it and think it will work.
"5" was placed on the top intentionally. Was easier to see it matched up there rather than on the end so it was a line of 4. Sorry if this is confusing.


Might post a couple I've made later. We'll see.

[rKaiser]

For some reason I can only use arrow keys to move, middle mouse button doesnt work and so doesnt " \ " help?

[Penance]

For some reason I can only use arrow keys to move, middle mouse button doesnt work and so doesnt " \ " help?

\ Doesn't work with the free flight.
You have Mouse 3 bound to something else for the other issue.

[Brutality]

I also cannot get the middle mouse to do squat. I tried everything and I really cvant follow anything. I reset the controls to default and middle mouse still not responding.

Please help =(

[ConstantineX]

old thread but do you guys have problems with the animations (skills, visuals etc) when using cam_mode 1? After a while the animations stop working and its quite annoying as I have to restart hon in order to make it work, is there a command that resets the animations or something like that?

[IceOut]

old thread but do you guys have problems with the animations (skills, visuals etc) when using cam_mode 1? After a while the animations stop working and its quite annoying as I have to restart hon in order to make it work, is there a command that resets the animations or something like that?

i think its ur pc runing out of ram or page mem :S theres no fix for that

[Squeye]

thank you very much
helped alot
just have a look at it =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n1e4_XLUd4

[elgrundle]

is there any way to hide the mouse cursor?

[McKnight]

Are there any other threads with moviemaking commands and such?
Should be a sticky imo.

[Emin3m]

where is the freaking button to change angle of view when i press / its only toggle hp bars & is their a way to reset all setting after i first time try and screw evrything up lol

[Ayevee]

Camera smoothing doesn't work, nor does free fly mode. Some help would be nice.

[Emin3m]

Camera smoothing doesn't work, nor does free fly mode. Some help would be nice.

would explain lot things lol

[Haruhi_sos]

thanks for this

[FlameStick]

cam_smoothAnglesHalfLife amount(i usually use 0.3-0.5)
cam_smoothPositionHalfLife amount(i usually use 0.3-0.5)

U can use that to smooth camera not available when in replays thought i would add it :P

[SHeeDeED_777]

so bad, so bad list of commands plz put everything together.

[TripleGee]

Anyone know why I cant zoom in or out when using freeflight mode?
I can zoom when in mode 0 but then i cant rotate the camera as i want to, and when in mode 1 its the other way around.

thx

[w3wStarBoy]

Can anybody tell me how to follow heroes after switching it to freelight camera mode?

[Legionnaire]

Do the fog commands no longer work? Becuase when i type them in, the effects don't appear ingame.

[Syth`]

if you hold down v the camera will track any unit you have selected (ie: look up when pebbles tosses them, etc).


WHY DID I NOT KNOW THIS. Thank you!