Idea for controling an FPS

[EliteRetard]

Instead of using the mouse to turn your character it will esentially control where you look. You will turn and run forward/back with the keyboard. Your view will always stay focused where the mouse is pointing and your body will move independantly up to a certain point. You can only turn your head so far, so if you turn your body to much it will then turn your view. Basically the mouse controls head movement based on real human range an not your body movement (like all standard FPS's).

This way you can be running and jumping over stuff ect and stay focused on what you want just like you would in real life. Like say your sprinting for a door but theres a bad guy off to the side, you can look and fire at him without turning and running towards him.

And if you set some rules on terrain/debris/whatever to cause you to stumble a certain percent and trip/fall another percent depending on how far away from center your looking it could really add some realism. Like pavement you could probably run forward but look to the side an still keep your footing fine. But try that while on a gravel slope and your more likely to loose track of your footing and stumble or even fall on your face (try looking up while running...thats really disorienting) This way youll need to slow down or even stop to look/fire depending on what your standing on. If you stumble a lot you can let go of the sprint key to catch your footing and if you still stumble you may need to stop (which makes you an easy target, so you may need to just book it for cover and then resume firing or whatever). Mostly this would make it easier to strafe and move around junk laying on the ground in front of you without losing site of what your really aiming for while also making you a harder target to hit without making it harder to aim (though you do still get jolts/gitters while jumping/doging and your arms dont stay focused as well as your head does so your aim should be reduced the faster you move).

Now there may need to be a little bit of an auto snap to help keep your head centered when you want it...but it seems like this would all be pretty easy to setup.

Seriously, who runs around with a neck brace on and their head glued in the straight on position? I think this change would makes thing more realistic and more fun...has a game been done like this before?

 

[Dumac]

EliteRetard strikes again.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Operation Flashpoint did this if I remember correctly, only the limits of how far you could look without turning your body were very limited.

 

[BladeVenom]

This wouldn't work with consoles so it won't be done. Microsoft wants all PC games to be able to work with an Xbox controller.

Check out TrackIR.

 

[smackababy]

This would seem like a good idea, except for that fact that it would be a bad idea to run in combat while not looking where you're going. If they didn't have some sort of trip, or hang up, mechanism in the game it would be far too easy and if they did, you'd almost never get to where you're running. Overall, bad form.

 

[Gunbuster]

I could only see this if you had a space-ball type controller for movement and view, with the mouse reserved for aiming.

 

[bobross419]

MW4 Mercs has the ability to look left/right and shoot the weps mounted on that arm.

 

[JTsyo]

Some games, mostly when you are in a vehicle, allows free look by holding down a button.

 

[Ika]

Mass Effect's rover controls are like this. It sucks, horribly hard to control. Give me a true strafe any day.

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: BladeVenom
This wouldn't work with consoles so it won't be done. Microsoft wants all PC games to be able to work with an Xbox controller.

Check out TrackIR.

This.

You can be looking at anything within normal head turn range in comparison to your body movement in any game that supports it.

Gran Turismo 5 will feature head tracking utilizing the Playstation Eye (PS3 camera)
So at least one console is capable of doing it, as Sony is extensively using the PS Eye with special software for 1:1 motion tracking by tracking 3D motion of the globes on the motion controller prototype. So it's just software based feature, because the PS Eye is literally just a camera, just capturing frames. Sophisticated software can handle all the rest apparently. Probably track the location of the eyes (not following the pupil movement, rather, shifting your head slightly to the left and right, maintaining focus on the display).

That's far cheaper than the TrackIR thankfully. I was thinking of TrackIR for the SimBin racing games, then realized, screw it, just wait for GT5 and pick up the PS Eye for far cheaper.

 

[pontifex]

its called strafe....

 

[brblx]

Originally posted by: pontifex
its called strafe....

basically.

sounds like the OP is requesting something between tank controls and a simple animation change. the former isn't needed if you know how to use a KB and mouse to play an FPS, and the latter just doesn't matter.

 

[Sureshot324]

Originally posted by: brblx

Originally posted by: pontifex
its called strafe....

basically.

sounds like the OP is requesting something between tank controls and a simple animation change. the former isn't needed if you know how to use a KB and mouse to play an FPS, and the latter just doesn't matter.

Yeah, if you look at the strafe animation for most games they already do this. Your character isn't side stepping, he's running forward and twisting his head/upperbody to the side. In some games moving the mouse a little bit DOES only turn your head and gun, and the rest of your character\s body will only turn if you move the mouse far enough. Forcing the player to use the keyboard to turn is a very bad idea, since it's not analog, and thus far inferior to the mouse for turning.

What I really would like in FPS games is true analog movement. What I have in mind is kind of a half gamepad. You hold it in your left hand and the mouse in your right. It has an analog stick for movement and lots of buttons so you wouldn't need a keyboard (the buttons would have to be mostly for your fingers since your thumb is in the analog stick). I've been waiting for years for someone to make this but it hasn't happened. Peripheral makers just keep making useless 'gamer' keyboard replacements that no one buys.

The other problem with this is games would have to be made to support true anolog movement, so that your character can move in all directions (not just 8 directions) and all speeds (not just run/walk). Mario 64 implemented this perfectly like 10 years ago, but these days even console games designed to work with analog sticks only have 2 speeds (run walk).

 

[Chaotic42]

Heavy Gear had that. It was annoying.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Sureshot324

Originally posted by: brblx

Originally posted by: pontifex
its called strafe....

basically.

sounds like the OP is requesting something between tank controls and a simple animation change. the former isn't needed if you know how to use a KB and mouse to play an FPS, and the latter just doesn't matter.

Yeah, if you look at the strafe animation for most games they already do this. Your character isn't side stepping, he's running forward and twisting his head/upperbody to the side. In some games moving the mouse a little bit DOES only turn your head and gun, and the rest of your character\s body will only turn if you move the mouse far enough. Forcing the player to use the keyboard to turn is a very bad idea, since it's not analog, and thus far inferior to the mouse for turning.

What I really would like in FPS games is true analog movement. What I have in mind is kind of a half gamepad. You hold it in your left hand and the mouse in your right. It has an analog stick for movement and lots of buttons so you wouldn't need a keyboard (the buttons would have to be mostly for your fingers since your thumb is in the analog stick). I've been waiting for years for someone to make this but it hasn't happened. Peripheral makers just keep making useless 'gamer' keyboard replacements that no one buys.

The other problem with this is games would have to be made to support true anolog movement, so that your character can move in all directions (not just 8 directions) and all speeds (not just run/walk). Mario 64 implemented this perfectly like 10 years ago, but these days even console games designed to work with analog sticks only have 2 speeds (run walk).

what about those fragfx things for consoles? sounds similar to what you want

 

[Sureshot324]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Sureshot324

Originally posted by: brblx

Originally posted by: pontifex
its called strafe....

basically.

sounds like the OP is requesting something between tank controls and a simple animation change. the former isn't needed if you know how to use a KB and mouse to play an FPS, and the latter just doesn't matter.

Yeah, if you look at the strafe animation for most games they already do this. Your character isn't side stepping, he's running forward and twisting his head/upperbody to the side. In some games moving the mouse a little bit DOES only turn your head and gun, and the rest of your character\s body will only turn if you move the mouse far enough. Forcing the player to use the keyboard to turn is a very bad idea, since it's not analog, and thus far inferior to the mouse for turning.

What I really would like in FPS games is true analog movement. What I have in mind is kind of a half gamepad. You hold it in your left hand and the mouse in your right. It has an analog stick for movement and lots of buttons so you wouldn't need a keyboard (the buttons would have to be mostly for your fingers since your thumb is in the analog stick). I've been waiting for years for someone to make this but it hasn't happened. Peripheral makers just keep making useless 'gamer' keyboard replacements that no one buys.

The other problem with this is games would have to be made to support true anolog movement, so that your character can move in all directions (not just 8 directions) and all speeds (not just run/walk). Mario 64 implemented this perfectly like 10 years ago, but these days even console games designed to work with analog sticks only have 2 speeds (run walk).

what about those fragfx things for consoles? sounds similar to what you want

Interesting. Too bad it doesn't come without the mouse, and being a PS3 controller, it doesn't have many buttons on the nunchuck end. If I was a PS3 COD4 player though I would be all over that.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

So...you want Mech controls. It's hard to make this work in a regular computer setup for an FPS, though. The reason a person can multitask like this is because they have peripheral vision to track obstacles and movement in multiple directions, but computer screens don't have that.

 

[DarkForceRising]

Yeah, this definitely sounds like Mech controls. Independently aiming the torso while the legs trundle off in another direction.

Alternatively, any vehicle with a controllable turret in any game ever.

 

[JoshGuru7]

Originally posted by: EliteRetard
This way you can be running and jumping over stuff ect and stay focused on what you want just like you would in real life. Like say your sprinting for a door but theres a bad guy off to the side, you can look and fire at him without turning and running towards him.

The bit I emphasized leads me to believe that you are not familiar with the concept of strafing.
Very few people run the direction that they are in looking in when they're in a fire fight but instead use strafing to separate their movement from their view as you describe.

Here's what a side look from North to East might look like while maintaining movement North:
- Mouse-look pointed north, movement forward (W)
- Mouse-look pointed NNE, movement forward (W) with taps left (A)
- Mouse-look pointed NE, movement forward (W) and left (A)
- Mouse-look pointed ENE, movement left (A) with taps forward (W)
- Mouse-look pointed east, movement left (A)

An experienced player will be doing that pretty much all of the time in multiplayer games and very rarely have their view pointed along with their direction of motion. This is for the reasons that you noted, namely that keeping eyes on as many places as possible while moving is a good way not to get shot in the back.

 

[schneiderguy]

TrackIR if you have some money, or FreeTrack if you don't have money and can wire together 3 infrared LEDs and attach them to a baseball cap

 

[Sureshot324]

Originally posted by: schneiderguy
TrackIR if you have some money, or FreeTrack if you don't have money and can wire together 3 infrared LEDs and attach them to a baseball cap

Or get a Logitech Air Mouse and tape it to your headphones . I know someone who actually did that and plays flight sims with it.