If you’ve ever found yourself squinting to spot a rare fauna half-buried in alien grass, or struggling to line up a perfect base build shot because your camera is stuck too close to your traveler, you’re not alone. I’ve spent hundreds of hours jumping between star systems in No Man’s Sky, and nothing kills my immersion faster than a camera angle that works for space combat but is terrible for scanning for ancient ruins. Learning how to change camera in No Man’s Sky isn’t just a small quality of life tweak – it can completely shift how you experience every part of the game, from high-stakes pirate fights to quiet moments of terraforming your dream planetary home.
How to Change Camera in No Man’s Sky for In-Game Scenarios
Before you dive into tweaking settings, it’s important to know that camera controls are standardized across all platforms, though the exact buttons you press will vary slightly based on whether you’re on console, PC, or handheld. The core toggle for camera mode is mapped to a single input by default, so you don’t have to dig through menus mid-fight if you need to switch fast.
Many new players don’t realize that camera modes work differently on foot, in your starship, and when operating exocraft or mechs, so you’ll need to adjust them separately for each use case. That means you can keep your starship in third person for easier asteroid navigation, and your on-foot view in first person for more immersive resource scanning.
Here are the most common use cases and the camera settings that work best for each:
- Exploration and fauna scanning: Stick to first person if you want to spot small details like buried technology or rare flower variants, or third person far if you’re covering large open areas and want to watch for hostile creatures sneaking up behind you.
- Combat (on foot or in space): Third person close is ideal for most combat scenarios, as it lets you see incoming fire from all angles while still keeping your target front and center. First person works for precision shots with a boltcaster or railgun, but you’ll lose peripheral vision.
- Base building and photography: Third person far, paired with the free photo mode camera, gives you the most flexibility to line up shots, place building pieces accurately, and make sure your entire base fits in the frame.
- Exocraft and mech operation: Third person far is almost always the best pick here, as the large size of these vehicles can block most of your view in first person, making it easy to crash into cliffs or miss resource deposits.
You can switch between modes at any time, even mid-action, so don’t feel like you have to stick to one setting for an entire play session. I regularly toggle between first and third person when I’m exploring, switching to third to check for threats in the area then jumping back to first to scan a rare mineral deposit up close.
Custom Hidden Camera Tweaks You Might Have Missed
Most players only use the default camera toggle, but there are a ton of hidden customization options in the game’s settings menu that let you adjust everything from field of view to camera shake intensity. These tweaks work on all platforms, and you don’t need mods to access any of them.
Field of view (FOV) sliders are the most underrated camera adjustment in the game, in my experience. Cranking up your on-foot FOV by 10 to 15 points will let you see more of your surroundings without distorting the image too much, which is a huge help for exploration. Just don’t crank it all the way up if you’re prone to motion sickness, as the fish-eye effect can be disorienting.
You can also adjust the third person camera offset to move the camera closer or further to the left or right of your traveler. I like to shift mine slightly to the right so my character doesn’t block my view when I’m aiming down sights with a ranged weapon, which makes on-foot combat feel far smoother. You can also adjust the default distance of the third person camera if you prefer it closer or further away than the default setting.
If you hate the way the camera bounces when you run or ride an exocraft, you can turn down camera shake intensity all the way to zero in the accessibility menu. That’s a game-changer for players who get motion sickness from fast movement, and it makes long runs across rough terrain far less jarring. You can also turn off head bobbing entirely if that’s a trigger for you.
One thing to note: these settings will save automatically, but you will have to readjust them if you start a new save file or switch to a different platform, as they’re tied to your local save data rather than your cross-platform account.
Fixing Common No Man’s Sky Camera Glitches
Even with the latest updates, No Man’s Sky still has a few common camera bugs that can pop up at the worst times, usually mid-exploration or right when you’re about to take a perfect screenshot of a nebula. I’ve run into almost all of these myself, so I’ve tested every fix out there to find the ones that actually work without you having to restart your entire game.
The most common glitch is the stuck first person camera that won’t toggle back to third person, even when you press the camera switch button. This usually happens after you exit a starship or use a portal, and the fix is surprisingly simple: just hop back into any vehicle (starship, exocraft, even a roamer) and exit again. That resets the camera state almost every time, no menu digging required.
Another common issue is the camera clipping through walls or your character’s model when you’re inside a base or tight cave. To fix this, you can adjust your third person camera distance in the settings menu to pull it slightly closer to your character, or switch to first person temporarily until you’re back out in open space. If clipping happens regularly in your base, you might also want to rearrange some tight hallways to give yourself more room to move.
If your camera keeps randomly jumping when you’re moving your mouse or using a controller stick, that’s usually a sensitivity issue rather than a bug. Head to the controls menu and turn down your camera look sensitivity slightly, and make sure you don’t have controller drift if you’re playing on console. That will stop the random jerky movement almost immediately.
For rare glitches where the camera is stuck in photo mode after you exit the menu, just fast travel to a nearby point or save and reload your game. That takes less than a minute, and it will fix almost any persistent camera issue you run into.
Modded Camera Options for PC Players
If you’re playing on PC and want even more control over your camera than the base game offers, there are a handful of well-supported, safe mods that let you tweak your view far beyond the default settings. Just make sure you only download mods from trusted sources, and back up your save files before installing any new mods to avoid data loss.
The most popular camera mod for No Man’s Sky lets you unlock the free camera movement in photo mode to use it during regular gameplay, so you can move the camera anywhere around your character while you’re exploring, building, or fighting. That’s ideal for content creators who want to capture dynamic gameplay footage without pausing the game to use photo mode. It also works great for checking out details of your base from angles you can’t access with the default camera.
Another popular mod lets you set custom camera presets for different activities, so you can switch between your preferred exploration, combat, and building camera settings with a single key press, instead of having to adjust sliders every time you switch activities. It cuts down on menu time significantly, which is a big win if you jump between different play styles often. You can even set presets for different exocraft if you use multiple vehicles regularly.
Keep in mind that if you play multiplayer with friends, some camera mods may be disabled on community servers to prevent cheating, so always check the server rules before joining a public game with mods installed. Most private friend groups will allow camera mods, as they don’t give you any competitive advantage, just better quality of life. You can also easily disable mods if you want to join a public server without losing your custom settings.
At the end of the day, the best camera settings for No Man’s Sky are the ones that feel most comfortable for you, whether you prefer immersive first person exploration or wide third person views that let you take in every alien landscape. Taking a few minutes to learn how to change camera in No Man’s Sky and tweak the settings to fit your playstyle will make every hour you spend in the game feel far more enjoyable, no matter if you’re a new player just finishing your first warp or a veteran interloper with hundreds of systems under your belt. You don’t have to stick with the default settings – play around with them until you find what works, and don’t be afraid to adjust them on the fly as you switch between activities.
