As a long time developer, the default camera projection isn’t always enough in some scenarios when working with geometrical assets in the world space, for design purposes or for other niche cases.
I would like the ability for being able to switch between camera projection types, I’ll list a few that is sometimes needed when modelling things.
Having camera styles like these would introduce a whole new world of experiences, like orthographic 3D platformers, or isometric RPG games.
You can currently simulate these styles, but it’s very hacky (setting the cameras FOV to 1 and being VERY far away). The issue with this is shadows don’t render from afar, so you sacrifice graphics. Would be awesome to see it supported natively.
Support, it would open up a lot of doors for people to further stylize and customize how players see the world, something I believe makes this feature both necessary and useful.
Edit: I should add that I support this feature request because I myself would love to use this, I’ve wanted to make platformers before using orthographic projection and have tried simulating it using the same trick @uglyburger0 mentioned, FOV 1 and being very far away, I scrapped that though because of the same issue he mentioned with graphics.
I also support a feature that allows us to switch between camera modes, but my ideal scenario would be one in which we can control the foreshortening of the viewport through a number value. There already is a post that explores this concept here that was made a few years ago.
I am aware that orthagonal views are not the same as isometric, and a mode specifically for isometric views would also be greatly appreciated.
A use-case for orthogonal and isometric views is a game I’m currently working on, in which I’m going to include a spectator mode. It’d be awesome if I could allow spectators to optionally view the map and players within through these modes for cinematic purposes.
Other use-cases include perspective-based puzzle games that would not otherwise be possible with the traditional perspective view using foreshortening.
I just got a game idea and an orthographic view is essential to it. Since it doesn’t exist yet, I’m stuck with using the hacky low field of view method or maybe a hacky viewport method. The use case is quite rare, but it would be cool if we eventually get it.
Bumping this because this is still a very useful feature for many games.
As of the moment our only way to emulate Parallel projection is to lower the FOV to absurd numbers, and put the camera far away, but that results in objects in the workspace disappearing over further distances, ruining the illusion, or there still being a perspective effect visible, which can ruin the intended effect.
Some examples of use cases for Parallel/Orthographic Projection include:
Top Down Games, or Side Scroller Games, such as RPG’s, City Builders, Platformers, etc.
You can also use Parallel Projection to create an Isometric view perfectly, as Isometric is just Parallel Projection at a certain angle.
Two great games that use this view:
Project Zomboid - An open world survival game that leverages an Isometric View, which keeps the player deeply immersed by combining it with other tricks.
Hades - A rogue-like dungeon crawler that leverages the unique view, and pairs it with a unique art style.
If developers are given more power to have an additional camera view, who knows what innovating games could come to light
Bump, my latest project needs this and the current solution of setting the camera’s FOV to 1 and moving the camera back thousands of studs is giving me unwanted results, especially on lower graphics settings where the entire map just disappears.
