Well. That was off to a great start.
Java was cancelled. Didn't know until I got on campus. Email was sent out 16 minutes after I had already left the house.
Also didn't expect a quiz worth nothing the first day back in GAM532 either. Oh well.
Got 3 classes today. Wonder if they'll go any better.
Wednesday 8 January 2014
Friday 3 January 2014
Cameras
If there's one thing I absolutely hate about cameras, it's how they're implemented sometimes. I really don't like them acting like solid objects within the game's world. Been playing inFAMOUS a lot lately, and that series' camera irritates me at times.
I understand that there's a near and far clipping plane to work with. Maybe something to do with face culling as well? I wonder how hard it is to implement a camera system where the camera isn't an object. It getting stuck behind something, not knowing where to go if the actor gets stuck in something (this happened a few times already, resulting in me mashing X trying to jump out of the structure), or its movement being restricted because you've hit a wall or corner. A few of the things that have happened over my (relatively) long gaming career. Then again, it's quite an issue when you're running around in a game with 3D environments.
I remember Romancing SaGa's camera being pretty weird. It's always angled a certain way and you can't really move it (it rotated by 90 degrees based on where you were). That one I didn't have too much of a problem with, until there are objects that obscure your view. Like pillars, foliage, and the like. Because there might be monsters hiding around and it makes sneaking around some of them that much harder (depending on the type, it's based on sound or line of sight; game's kinda funny like that). But enemy placement was fair enough that it wasn't too much of an issue. Pretty sure that 3D Dot Game Heroes was much the same, although being a Zelda "clone", it wasn't exactly an issue. Camera implementation in Last Remnant was decent. No real wonky angles to deal with, although it does sometimes zoom in on Rush too much if you're standing right by a wall and try to move it a certain way.
Devil May Cry's fixed camera angles were interesting, something that it "inherited" from biohazard. They were placed in a way that gives you a decent view of everything in that section of an area. It does sometimes move with Dante depending on his movements, although it was relatively rare. It did have the side effect of screwing with jumps, sometimes mid-jump, since movement is relative to the camera, although it does maintain the original direction for a bit after the angle change. Still screws with direction if you're not used to it (4 had a bit of an issue with this during their platforming sections, and it had a mostly adjustable camera).
I wonder how to implement a camera that could be placed within a object (say... a building) and still see the rest of the world from its determined distance. Admittedly it would look pretty weird (you're looking through the building as if it's a void!), but so does a camera that's practically on the character itself. I don't think I've encountered a game in a while where the camera is so close to the character, and yet it remains rendered as solid colours. In the games I've played recently, they go transparent, which is nice.
There's not much of a point to this post. Just ranting a little bit on something that has always annoyed me. Because I don't like cameras that either get confused or stuck in something.
I understand that there's a near and far clipping plane to work with. Maybe something to do with face culling as well? I wonder how hard it is to implement a camera system where the camera isn't an object. It getting stuck behind something, not knowing where to go if the actor gets stuck in something (this happened a few times already, resulting in me mashing X trying to jump out of the structure), or its movement being restricted because you've hit a wall or corner. A few of the things that have happened over my (relatively) long gaming career. Then again, it's quite an issue when you're running around in a game with 3D environments.
I remember Romancing SaGa's camera being pretty weird. It's always angled a certain way and you can't really move it (it rotated by 90 degrees based on where you were). That one I didn't have too much of a problem with, until there are objects that obscure your view. Like pillars, foliage, and the like. Because there might be monsters hiding around and it makes sneaking around some of them that much harder (depending on the type, it's based on sound or line of sight; game's kinda funny like that). But enemy placement was fair enough that it wasn't too much of an issue. Pretty sure that 3D Dot Game Heroes was much the same, although being a Zelda "clone", it wasn't exactly an issue. Camera implementation in Last Remnant was decent. No real wonky angles to deal with, although it does sometimes zoom in on Rush too much if you're standing right by a wall and try to move it a certain way.
Devil May Cry's fixed camera angles were interesting, something that it "inherited" from biohazard. They were placed in a way that gives you a decent view of everything in that section of an area. It does sometimes move with Dante depending on his movements, although it was relatively rare. It did have the side effect of screwing with jumps, sometimes mid-jump, since movement is relative to the camera, although it does maintain the original direction for a bit after the angle change. Still screws with direction if you're not used to it (4 had a bit of an issue with this during their platforming sections, and it had a mostly adjustable camera).
I wonder how to implement a camera that could be placed within a object (say... a building) and still see the rest of the world from its determined distance. Admittedly it would look pretty weird (you're looking through the building as if it's a void!), but so does a camera that's practically on the character itself. I don't think I've encountered a game in a while where the camera is so close to the character, and yet it remains rendered as solid colours. In the games I've played recently, they go transparent, which is nice.
There's not much of a point to this post. Just ranting a little bit on something that has always annoyed me. Because I don't like cameras that either get confused or stuck in something.
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