MXFive Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 I noticed that in Star Wars: The Old Republic, Star Trek: Online, and Champions Online: Free For All, all of the environments are vastly over-scaled. The buildings have extremely-high ceilings, and the spaces that the buildings enclose are gargantuan. Especially in the case of STO, the bridge of the 1960s USS Enterprise is much too big, and the ceiling is much too high, compared to the sizes of the people who inhabit it; it does not, at all, match the scale of the bridge that is shown on the television-show. In SWTOR, I understand that Coruscant and other planets have ultra-tall skyscrapers, but even these edifices are out-of-proportion in-relation to the characters. These environments also do not match the scale that is shown in the Star Wars films. Is this MMORPG-design-protocol? Is there a technical-reason that the environments in SWTOR and other MMORPGs are tremendously over-scaled? I thank you, in-advance, for your insight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowcaine Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 From what I understand the reason for this is camera collision. If the ceilings were not that high you would spend alot of time looking at the top/back of your character's head. There was a thread on this on the STO forums a couple years ago and I believe that was their reasoning for them. Same thing happens in WoW and most other 3rd person MMO's. Your camera sits above your character and the higher ceiling allows for more depth of field when exploring indoor areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sippelmc Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 It is so that you have space to view your char with the camera in the 3rd person view. Otherwise you will have the camera too close, or have it clip through walls and ceilings if they are in proportion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzina Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 I have noticed this as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MXFive Posted December 25, 2012 Author Share Posted December 25, 2012 From what I understand the reason for this is camera collision. If the ceilings were not that high you would spend alot of time looking at the top/back of your character's head. There was a thread on this on the STO forums a couple years ago and I believe that was their reasoning for them. Same thing happens in WoW and most other 3rd person MMO's. Your camera sits above your character and the higher ceiling allows for more depth of field when exploring indoor areas. Thank you for your answer, Crowcaine. STO's reason is confusing, however, if it is also BioWare's reason. For example, in the Mass Effect console-games, which also are of the 3rd-person perspective, the environments have the correct scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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