Planet Zoo Photo Mode

[Babitos]

Something that is really missing from Planet Zoo is a Photo Mode. It's honestly a bit surprising that a game which puts a large emphasis on visuals (Animal models, building etc.) doesn't have a mode like this. Right now ingame you can get some alright screenshots with the base camera, but it's very hard to get up close and personal with an animal without flying to the other side of the map or having perspective problems. The guest camera offers more tools and chances for better screenshots (Better Field of View control, a really good zoom etc.) but it's still limited. A dedicated photo mode would be amazing. It's not out of the question to ask for something like this, as nearly every big budget AAA game has a photo mode these days (Red Dead Redemption 2, Marvel's Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War and more), and in my opinion the best photo mode template we have is the one in Prehistoric Kingdom. You have all of the basic photo mode options with some really cool new features (change time of day, run the animation is place).

Right now, the game just dones't have the tools to allow you to get some really good pictures and make you feel like you're in the zoo, which is a huge shame becuase (for me at least) a huge part of going to the zoo is taking pictures. Right now the only way you can get decent screenshots is using NVIDIA Ansel, but not everyone can use that, plus an offical Frontier one would be greatly appreciated. If you're still not convinced, I reccomend checking this guide. If you're intrested in this concept, let other people who you think might be intersted know. If Frontier sees we're serious we could stand a good chance of getting this. The dev team has really been amazing with taking suggestions to make the game better and interacting with the player base, so if this could be implemented it would be a dream come true.
Here are some screenshots Goblin, the author of the aforementioned guide took ingame with Ansel, to show the potential of a such a mode.

Reddit user Leondespotter also has a cool series of photos of animals in their natural habitats.

 

[wowman]

love this idea

 

[Leaf Productions]

Hey, that first picture looks familiar! Lol

Yeah, Planet Zoo desperately needs a helping hand when it comes to the photo mode. Specifically with light angle and direction. Many a time I've designed a zoo with a specific layout in mind, but once I finish the habitat I look at it, and the sun doesn't line up correctly. It's infuriating, and it's probably one of the only benefits that PK has over PZ in terms of a sandbox builder (scaling ain't all that good I'm gonna be honest lol), it'd be a great thing to have, but I don't see it coming in a PZ update any time soon.

 

[MicHaeL MonStaR]

As someone who is big into Virtual Photography: Please don't do it, Frontier, don't give me more options to waste a thousand more hours on.
(I'm not even entirely joking.)

But on a more serious note... Yea, I'd like to see at least a few more features.
I'm quite envious of the Ansel-thing, or at least a bit annoyed that I don't get to use it since I went all-AMD in late 2019. (I really don't like Nvidia as a company either.)
And I'm also quite surprised there isn't a bit more for an actual Photo Mode in a game from 2019. I mean, in my view this game isn't one of those "lookers" to the extent that it's just screenshot-material, but of course people like to play around with it and show off their creations as well.
I'd expect at least like some depth-of-field, or say a little more "tweakability" for the already-existing filters. You can already add and tweak the vignette-effect for example, so why not a little more for say brightness and contrast and such?...

Myself, I wouldn't really ask for much. I actually don't mind a bit of challenge trying to use the limitation of the (ultimately) two camera-modes, getting a nice composition that way, using the limited visual settings, then doing the rest in post if needed. I photograph in real life as well, I can improvise to make it work. - Also, while it might seem contrary for creativity, if something like a game is a certain way, it gives you a limited set of options, it will also form a certain way of working with it that gives it a certain character.
But, in the end, it might be a bit tóó limited and rather bland, especially with the lack of depth-of-field (though you can kinda fake it) and things like that.

So, the point being, even if they don't add a proper photo-mode, I would suggest just adding a few more features to the effects.
For example, I often find myself going back and forth between a few of them, as one is often too saturated, another is too high-contrast in a lot of cases, and so on. I just wish I could tweak the intensity, for example, even that alone could help in my experience.

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While thinking of this, I had another idea to create more incentive to do so.
But while brainstorming, enough ideas came up that it might as well be its own topic for a suggestion, so I'll link that here.