Perfect Top Down View

[Teonnyn Ornitz]

I'm trying to get a perfect top down view -so that a square looks like a square from above, as you might draw one in Photoshop. However, the camera controls are very clumsy by using the default advanced..basically, would like to align the camera to the building grid from top down. Is there any way to do this at all, even if it takes writing a small script?

[Rolig Loon]

This was asked and answered in http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Controls/Is-there-any-easy-way-to-line-up-the-camera-to-the-building-grid/qaq-p/1042365.  

"If you want took straight down, that's quite easy. 

First, center your camera on the object you want to look at by holding down your Alt key and left clicking on the object with your mouse.

You can always rotate your camera using combinations of the Alt, CTRL, and Shift keys and your arrow keys.  To rotate your camera UP, use CTRL + Alt + UP_ARROW.  There's an stop to keep it from rotating past the vertical, so when you reach that point, you will be looking straight down.

Rotate around the view by using CTRL + Alt + either your LEFT_ARROW or your RIGHT_ARROW keys.

Once you learn these camera controls, you can do anything.  Experiment!

BTW..... If you really want to be freewheeling, experiment by using your mouse instead of the arrow keys.  That's fast and really easy once you get the hang of it.  Scary for a novice, though. "

If your object moves and you want to keep the camera in that orientation, just Alt + left-click on it.  That will make the camera track it until you hit ESC or make some other change.



[Teonnyn Ornitz]

I know how to look down, but it's the alignment that is the issue. Unless the view is perfect, a top-down square will still look more like a rectangle then square.

I'm trying to take photographs of rendered top-down buildings in SL, and trying to avoid more then a three-pixel deviation from a square.

It's probably a silly thought, although the curiosity on if it's at all possible got me asking.

[Rolig Loon]

But if you rotate your camera as far UP as it will go, it stops looking exactly straight down.  The only time your view will look anything other than perfect is if the object isn't centered on your screen.  That's why you use Alt + left-click, to center it.

[Torley Linden]

Squares looking like "rectangles" may be dependent on field of view curvature: try pressing Ctrl-8 and Ctrl-0 to adjust, or Ctrl-9 to reset.

I've had similar "bird's eye view" photography needs in the past, there are premade scripted tools that can help, such as https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Dvandva-Region-Snap/1361808