QoL: Photo Mode - New Features

The idea of a photo mode for AoE is great! But as we saw this is in Beta and lacks some features that would enrich the screenshots made by the community, so I have decided to make a concept of how this tool would be ideal in its final version :slight_smile:

First, I have decided to make a box where all the hotkeys are instead of being a long strip at the bottom.

Second, I elaborated the tool panel by adding the following features:

  • Scenario Skies: The possibility to check a box that allows you to choose any type of skybox that is in the game, whether they correspond to cinematics, campaigns or home cities, unchecking this box would only enable the option of a day and night sky.

  • Scenario Lightnings: Exactly the same as the previous point, but this would cover all the lightning in the game, as this is somewhat more extensive and advanced since the game having so many can be confusing, by default the box would be unchecked, being able to choose only day or night, but when enabled, it would cover an extensive content of atmospheres.

  • Render Snow and Render Rain: Enable the feature available in game triggers, the ability to place snow or rain on your screenshot, as well as choosing the percentage.

  • Hide Hitpoints Bar: disable units health bar when you press ALT.

  • Hide Unit Outlines: Disables the player color shadow of a unit behind an object, without requiring going to options and manually removing it.

  • Arrows: Here you would have the chance to move the camera in a more delicate and not so gross way, for very precise details. It would also include the zoom distance, the horizontal camera rotation and the camera rotation by degrees either right or left.

This is all I have come up with for photo mode, I have even more improvements to post in the future like more advanced hotkey settings and much more, I hope you like it and we will see something similar officially in the future! ^^

10 Likes

Disabling the hitpoint bar, obscured unit alpha and selection circles is very much needed. I have taken some really great shots that weren’t as great as they could be because of hipoints bars! :frowning:

1 Like

Isn’t that something you can disable in the settings menu?

1 Like

I would like to take screenshots after the game is over, and I would like to have the ability to remove the fog of war from the entire map.

1 Like

I’d like to too, but it’s still a cheatcode. A note like “warning: this option is a cheat that will disable achievements” can be added.