Game or Lame?
It’s the Small Things
As the above picture suggests, I’m easily amused by any assortment of things. So, imagine my excitement when I found out that I could tweak my interface without downloading a thing. I know, I know. It sounds boring or complicated and probably both. I’ll admit that it can be tedious when doing it the first time, but the end result is worth it (unless you throw your monitor out the window in frustration).
Making the Most of Your Monitor
There’s much to be said about the importance of scale. After all, nothing will create more screen real estate for you and it’s extremely easy to change. To change the scale:
- Goto Video Options (Hit ESC to see Options menu).
- Check “Use UI Scale.”
- Use the slider.
- Hit Okay.
- Enjoy.
Let’s say you want to set the scale to an exact amount that’s not .64 or 1 (good luck doing this with the slider). You can use the Config.wtf found in your WTF folder (use Notepad or Wordpad if you’ve never opened a .wtf file before) in the WoW directory. Look for SET uiScale and enter any number between .64 and 1 you desire (keep the quotations around the number). Save the changes.
Zoom Zoom
Mazda commercials aside, zoom will determine whether or not you see your environment adequately. It’s an MMO not an FPS, after all so being able to see around you isn’t “cheating” and it will probably save you from being called several unsavory names simply because you couldn’t see the mob you backed into. So, how do you maximize the effectiveness of how far you can zoom out? It’s a relatively short and painless process:
- Go to your Video Options (Hit ESC to see Options menu).
- Find Terrain Distance.
- Use the slider to change the visble distance.
- Hit Okay.
- Goto Interface Options.
- Under Camera Find “Max Camera Distance.”
- Use slider to change to High.
- Hit Okay.
Ya, ya - but how much will this help? You might even be asking why Terrain Distance? Rather than telling you why terrain distance, seeing is believing:
The difference is night and day. And if you’re interested: Terrain Near Full Image and Terrain Far Full Image.
The exact same location taken with three different camera distances. Camera low is obviously the left end of the slider in Interface Options and High is obviously on the right end, but how do you get high x4? Simply type “/console cameraDistanceMaxFactor 4” into chat like any other slash command. You can enter any number, but I don’t really see a point in going beyond 4. Oh, and for those curious, full versions of the camera zoom images: Low, High, High x4
Are you Serious?
The overall aim of this post is simply to create greater visibility of your surrounding environment. I know this is rather mundane for the more advanced users out there and I apologize. I’m going to stick with fundamentals for now and then start examining some more complex topics in future posts.
-JM
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
I think something interesting you could add would be how effective or memory intensive this process is on your computer.
Some people might not be able to do the increased zoom option because of lag.
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6164252/p-2.html
According to that article, it is a fairly intensive process. To compensate, I would lower some of the other settings. For example, I can see the entire length of WSG. To me it’s worth sacrificing in other video settings. In fact, I did just that for nearly 2 and a half years.
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Unfortunately, compensating with the other settings for me means moving them off the slider :D
January 4th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I have a terrible vid card or I’d max my terrain distance. On a different note, do you know anything about widening the field of view? Quake had commands that gave you a field of view wider than 90 degrees, which would be astounding.
January 4th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
The only thing I can think of would be to utilize the /console command I have listed above to give you a larger viewing area. I don’t know if you clicked on the links below the comparison to see the difference in images.
There was an addon called oTweaks that would increase how far you could zoom as well as increase the frontal cone and radius for tab-targetting. I’ll see if it’s still around and/or if that is indeed what you’re looking for
January 4th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Just found an article focused on oTweaks: http://www.pvpsource.com/2007/10/05/mods-and-pvp-otweaks/
It hasn’t been updated in quite some time but apparently (as of 10-5-07) still functions.
January 5th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Woah, you can adjust what tab targeting can do with oTweaks! I’m sold. Also, I do believe I’m gonna go with a higher camera distance than what I had before (DEFAULT OF COURSE) in lieu of increasing fov, as that seems to be the best mixture between being able to easily mouse target and more input.