What is best to show superhuman speed in a game? Is it to slow down the environment while the player''s character still moving at a normal speed or to actually show the character travelling at a fast speed?

The "actual fast speed" is more action-oriented, but depending on your game, it can increase the difficulty.

The "slow environement" (Bullet Time!) is quite popular since Max Payne and the Matrix.

Me I say, when in doubt, let the player decide! If you have the time, why not do both? Let the player run at increased speed, then when he hit a key, slow the environnement instead.

Depends on the situation. If you want an effect like Bullet-Time (TM), you''d want to temporarily slow down the rest of the world to allow the player for more precise control. If you just want to display the ability without any positive effect but speed itself, you can make the player character speed up; that will make controll less exact however.

I would think slowing down the environment, otherwise, the player may have a difficult time with control. Although, i would possibly SLIGHTLY increase the players speed, that way he IS moving a bit faster, and still slow the envirenment down also. I think this would yeild the best results, because the player would be moving faster, but still be controlable. Say a player gets super human speed, yet it still takes him 25 seconds to walk to the same place... that''d be useless. If you sped them up a little, it would only take say... 20 second, which isn''t a huge difference, but while playing a game, it feels much faster .

I like the last suggestion, sounds like it offers the biggest effect and the most control.

But what of multi-player ?


I think JK solved that by having sp be bullet-time, mp be racing-time

~V''lion

Bugle4d

The real question is in the actual mental and physical abilities of the main character, because the player is seeing things from the perspective of that character.

If the player character is a superhero who has the ability to speed up his physical actions, but not necessarily his mind, then the character should be very fast, causing control to become more difficult. This is the case in Jedi Knight 2.

Effectively (perhaps not intentionally), Max Payne demonstrates a character's mind operating at superhuman speeds while his body is still subject to normal physical limits. This is why Max himself is very slow when in bullet time, but the slow-motion effect allows for extraordinary precision.

If the character has the ability to speed up his mind as well as his body, then from the player's perspective, the environment (including enemies) is slowed down, while his/her own actions seem to take place as normal. I haven't seen this in a game yet, probably because it doesn't look quite as cool as your character going super fast or super slow. It still surprises me though because I think this is conceptually the coolest combination of the two.

Edit: A good example of the latter is the recent movie Clockstoppers. Its a bit cheesy, but nearly as much as one might think, and its a great source of inspiration for someone considering slow motion or high speed effects in a game.

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Brian Lacy
ForeverDream Studios

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brian@foreverdreamstudios.com

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[edited by - irbrian on May 1, 2003 6:42:42 PM]

In general, I think it''s better to preserve the speed of the game and just make the character faster. The reasons not to:

1. You lose control and are reduced to vain flailing to hit buttons - undesirable for everyone, and probably akin to riding a rocket or somesuch, as realistically, people are able to control themselves quite well within their own powers, great or small, and if not, they should have a chance to train up to it.

2. You want to allow the player time to think and react as well, like in Max Payne, the Matrix or with some superhero comics where super speed allows the character to spend "days" of slow time scouting, infiltrating, or defending areas when it''s really just an hour or so.

I''d have to go with the half-and-half. The Matrix thing has become a gimmick as of late (being its just slow motion that maintains a stable framerate).

quote: Original post by AcRiD_aCiD
What is best to show superhuman speed in a game?

Is it to slow down the environment while the player''s character still moving at a normal speed or to actually show the character travelling at a fast speed?

Okay, first, and trust me on this, accellerate the environment and apply a slight blur effect, and make the character have motion blur around the arms and legs.

Make sure not to go overboard with the blur, or it will cause slowdowns and make the environment too hard to see. Oh, and making it so the player can run over water is a good idea too

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