First-person perspective

[OurJud]

I've never quite understood what it is about games with a first-person perspective, that sometimes makes it feel as though the character is about three-feet tall. Rockstar seem to have done quite a good job scale wise, such as the position of your eye-line as you approach vehicles (about a foot above the car roof on saloons, as it should be) but sometime the impression is that you're almost crawling along the floor.

 

It's most notable when you're scrambling over rocks on the beach or walking among the tall trees in the north of the map. For instance, if you approach a rock that looks about 4 feet high from a distance, you'll find when you get right up next to it, it's towering above you.... but not because it's a big rock, but because it feel like you're 12 inches off the ground.

 

Trees are another. Walk right up to one, and you'll find yourself staring at the trunk at about 18 inches from the ground.

 

I also notice this when walking along the sand. The ground seems to be so close that it feels as though I'm crawling along on my hands and knees.

 

Does anyone know why this happens so often in FP games? It's like they can't get any perspective of height, in relation to the ground.

 

The only game I've ever seen, with a FP view that gives you a correct impression of 'height' is this:

 

 

Edited March 8, 2015 by OurJud

[killahmatic]

Would like to see examples of what you mean. I understand what you're saying, but would like to see it.

Edited March 8, 2015 by killahmatic

[TheTechPoTaToCHIP]

Well, they managed to get the "height" perspective correctly because they literally put the camera inside the characters heads... well not really their heads. But the camera is around the characters neck area. Most other FPS games that actually put a camera in a 3D model instead of just having floating arms, put the camera around the chest or stomach area. The worst culprit is Portal. The character shoots the gun from the hip but in the first person perspective, you could see the gun in arms length. That means they actually put the camera inside the characters abdomen.

Edited March 8, 2015 by TheTechPoTaToCHIP

[OurJud]

Would like to see examples of what you mean. I understand what you're saying, but would like to see it.

 

The best way, it to simply switch to FP (if you don't play in that mode already). Try walking along the beach with your head level, looking straight ahead. You'll see the sand in the bottom of your view, but it just seems very close, like you're on your hands and knees instead of 6 foot above it.

 

I know that part of the problem is that in real life, we see in three-dimensions - this means we can 'see' the space and distance between objects. In a video game, everything we see is in 2D, so that 'space' cannot be properly simulated.

 

However, the example video I posted, shows that the illusion can be achieved. The floor of the corridor the character is walking along, genuinely appears to a good six-feet below the eye-level. Unlike in other FP games, where it appears to be inches away.

[Ixnay]

I know what you're talking about; I've seen it in quite a few games. Don't have a PS4 so haven't experienced it in 5 yet, but yeah, in some games when I switch to first-person I've thought "Why does it seem I've become a midget?" Sometimes I'll even look around, see where things are, and then switch to first-person and suddenly I've lost a few feet of height.

[OurJud]

I know what you're talking about; I've seen it in quite a few games. Don't have a PS4 so haven't experienced it in 5 yet, but yeah, in some games when I switch to first-person I've thought "Why does it seem I've become a midget?" Sometimes I'll even look around, see where things are, and then switch to first-person and suddenly I've lost a few feet of height.

 

I read a very interesting article on the subject once, and TheTechPoTaToCHIP is correct in what he says. I'm not quite sure I understood it, but they say that if the first-person camera is positioned in the head of the third-person model, things don't look right, so to compensate they put the camera in the chest.

 

The first time I played Bad Company and walked up to a vehicle, it was really weird, because the truck's wheel was taller than me!

 

This doesn't seem to be the case with GTA V, though, as your eye level feels right when you approach vehicles. It's just under certain circumstances.

 

Here's the article - it's a bit academic, but interesting if you have the same obsession and fascination with FP games as I do.

 

http://blog.wolfire.com/2013/04/GDC13-Summary-Animation-Bootcamp-Part-5-6