[FEATURE REQUEST] Rotate around mouse click in the viewport

General Feedback & Requests
1

Please make possible to rotate around a clicked area. This would make a great difference when dealing with big terrains and sculpting.

Currently we can rotate around objects in the editor, but not around a clicked specific area of the object, so we need to rotate and pan , rotate and pan, always adjusting with pan while rotating, to have that specific area you need on center, and this is not efficient. Because the camera is rotating around the object and not that point you are focused on.

Would be so nice if we click on any point of a big terrain and rotate around the mouse point when you click . Like in Zbrush and Cinema 4D. You get precisely where you need with a click.

Where your brush touches, becomes your pivot for the camera, because you are focused on that point, so you rotate around it making sculpting terrains a lot faster and more natural. Every sculpting software is like this for a reason.

Not my intention to be arrogant, I love UE4, but this would be A LOT faster than this rotate, pan , rotate, pan mast**bation just to get to a point of interest when editing it or sculpting a big terrain etc

Other than that. UE4 is great, Thanks Epic for UE4 and being free.

Regards

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2

I see what you are asking for, and it may be useful, right now you can hold alt+LMB and drag and it will orbit whatever the focal point of the viewport is, and it doesn’t have to be a selected object, or it can be. You want to be able to orbit around the mouse, but I am not sure how you would determine the depth of the orbit point in the viewport.

What I do is select an object, hit F to focus on it, then orbit around that. Not sure if this helps you at all though.

3

Lumbering, yes , if you want to rotate around an object that you want entirely fitting on the screen, you just click on it and hit F and the camera goes immediately to that object. That is fine.
And then you rotate around it using alt+LMB. That is also fine, I know that.

But imagine you have a big terrain, and you are sculpting a specific small area of that terrain, then it is just part of it on the screen, that small area of interest you are working on.
So you want to click on that area only and where you click the point of your mouse is exactly where you want to zoom to or rotate around.

And that is the problem. And I explain.

You click, rotate and yes you get to that point, but say it is a peak, and you want to edit behind it or just need a specific angle. If you continue to rotate without panning and adjusting, do you get behind it ?
No, it passes it and it rotates the whole terrain. Because it is actually rotating around the center point of the terrain.

Like a caroussell. Your horse of interest passes and then comes the next ones you dont need.

Meaning, you don’t have a whole 360 degrees around that point where you clicked on if you dont pan+rotate, pan +rotate a few times to finally get to that specific angle you need.
It does not need to be that hard.

Programs that are specifically for modeling and sculpting such as C4D and Zbrush, know that. you click and where you click becomes automatically the pivot for the camera
and you move fast like the object is in your hand.

In sculpting and adjustment of details in big objects this is a HUGE time saver.

Please Epic implement that. Alt+click and where you click becomes the pivot for the camera to rotate around. And F returns to the usual way.
Or at least in sculpting mode it should be that way. Like in sculpting softwares where you touch your brush becomes the pivot point for your camera
to rotate, so you dont even think about it.

Now if that already exists in UE4 and I am missing, please somebody tell me. I didnt find any setting to apply that.

2 Likes
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In few words … if you are drawing a head on paper and you are drawing the ear, your eyes are focused on the ear not on the nose, and if you rotate the paper for a better angle for your hands to draw , you rotate the paper looking at the ear, not the chin.

How can you sculpt efficiently, if you are sculpting a ear but your eyes are focused on the nose?

Where your pencil touches, that is your focus, and thats where your eyes are on and around.

Same the sculpting tools should be. Since the camera are your eyes.

3D artists understand that clearly from my first message.

1 Like
5

I’d think of the software as a workshop.

Could you add proxy elements that you can hook onto (using the methods discussed) to achieve what you’re asking for. Being able to book mark anchors throughout your scene might even have other advantages.

If you group them logically, you can make sure they’re hidden / removed as necessary when the time comes.

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I am very late to this post but I hope to have this feature as well. Most major 3D animation softwares’s like Maya and C4D have this feature built in. Whatever you mouse hovers over, you orbit around. It’s so much better than a permanent orbit that I have zero idea why Unreal wouldn’t have it built in.

2 Likes
7

I totally agree - it makes working with unreal a real pain not having orbit around cursor

1 Like