Usually, people tend to say that 1st person perspective is way more immersive than 3rd person because it is closer to reality and things like that.
But today, when I started Cyberpunk 2077 and when I was walking around I noticed that this could not be further from the truth (for me at least). As it turns out, when my view seems to be perfectly centred and a person is standing in front of my, I’m looking at their chin. Thus, it follows that my eyes are roughly at chin height and I’m apparently either playing as a dwarf or an oompa loompa or something like that.
From my perspective this ruins immersiveness because the perspective is totally wrong. While a 3rd person view has an even wronger perspective, I think this wrong 1st person perspective just hits uncanny valley.
Maybe it is exaggerated because I’m on the taller side myself 1.88m (6.16ft), but I cannot understand why developers keep doing this. Or am I the only one annoyed by that? It would be interesting to hear your thoughts…
That is definitely a thing I have experienced too but I cannot point to any specific game off hand. It is silly when you actually see it but most of the time in games I am not standing right next to someone to notice it.
But why can’t there be different height people in game that is what really breaks immersion for me, everyone is part of this perfect race of exact same height people in games.
Multiple reasons.
As a start I can bet a lot of those models are anatomically incorrect. The proportions and what not are more artistic than actually realistic.
Then we have the misconception of the camera. The camera is never at the eye level. It’s more of a general head level, which again is not anatomically correct.
At conversation mode my understanding is they literally destroy the rest of the body so they can use all the body joints and animation capacity as facial expressions. Using all available resources for face only. That’s why most games have conversation mode where you see only the face. There is only face and all joints and animation capacity is concentrated on the face. And since the shoulders can also help express body language they keep them in the frame, and that pushes the head a bit up.
And then there is the assumption you can just look up…
To be fair this I don’t care. I don’t really play FPS games and Cyberpunk is a game I particularly don’t give a damn about, but I can see your point… My guess is at this point it’s probably a default thing in general, just like shoulder mounted camera, despite the fact you lose quarter of your view and you have to design your other systems around the camera. But here we are…
Massive, massive animation issues. They need to make a bunch of animations, that won’t work properly on different height skeletons. Like taking something or placing something on a shelf. Different height means different hand movement for everyone. Otherwise you can be done with a single generic skeletal movement and be done. Sitting on a chair, leaning on a bar, etc etc…
I’ve yet to see a single game that got it right…at least for me.
Exactly my thoughts!
Well, many 1st person games don’t have animations beside weapon holding and in even fewer you can see your body when viewing down. Besides, NPC wouldn’t have to be reconstructed at all and the question is if the couldn’t just leave the default model for animation related things.
I don’t particularly know which game you are referring to. CP2077 doesn’t leave 1st person perspective, and Witcher 3 (3rd person) has a different camera for conversation. But here, the model is not destroyed or something like that. I have checked^^
What’s left is something like Deus Ex (HR or MD) where both use a different camera for animations and I here I am quite sure that the body is not rendered when it is not seen. But also in Deus Ex, you don’t see your body. (Another issue I have with 1st person games, but at least in CP2077 there is a body )
I’m talking in general… But to give you an example, Fallout 4 have that exact conversation mode, Mass Effect also have that face to face conversation mode.
That’s the thing, many animations won’t work the same for 1.60m and 1.90m tall people. You can’t just use the same animations. There are certain things, that can be done, like the leg work in Dark Souls for example, but that won’t work on many things…
I don’t know, I am an amateur developer, so I am just saying what I have heard and me guessing…
Ok I get what you mean know, but this shouldn’t interfere with a higher camera perspective for 1st person.
- To be honest though, assuming that in games you usually play an average person. (Which is wrong, have you seen them abs ) it is safe to assume the character has an average height as well. Thus, the character should be at eye level with every other character.
But this is almost (in my experience never) the case.
Im still scared game companies will remove invert y axis.
I like to fight in a well build game in 3rd person because the combat area is better. Seeing behind yourself etc. But I love 1st person for immersion. Especially on a 43" display. I find myself leaning when looking around corners.
WOW, I checked some gameplay footage and now I can’t unsee that It’s really weird once you see it… If you lower the camera a tiny bit you are looking at people’s chests. Damn…
Great that the immersion aspect in this regard is working for you!
And yeah, a good enough monitor contributes profoundly (you need to click on the image, otherwise you don’t do it justice XD):
Different subject, but it seems to be one of the few games where the story is really important and comes before anything else. Which makes it for me one of the most rewarding and interesting games I’ve played since Witcher 3 (there might be a pattern ;-))
Yeah, Witcher, finished first two, but still have to play third one. But if i even have the time, then usually those pesky Kerbals get in my way
Also Epic just gave away Pillars and Tyrany, so…
I will just wait until they finish CP, maybe GOTY or something.
)
- To be honest though, assuming that in games you usually play an average person. (Which is wrong, have you seen them abs 
) it is safe to assume the character has an average height as well. Thus, the character should be at eye level with every other character.
It’s really weird once you see it… If you lower the camera a tiny bit you are looking at people’s chests. Damn…
