Okay guys, Me and my team are debating the following: Should we give the player the option to use the 1st person AND the 3rd person in our game. The game is a 3d Action/Adventure/RPG.. It will have both large indoor and outdoor scenes... etc, etc etc anyways.. I think the game should be MAINLY 3rd person, and no choice for 1st person. This is not a quake/doom style shooter. It is mostly rpg/adventure. The camera should stay 3rd person and allow for 1st person, only to allow the effect of the player looking around. I do plan to have certain areas in the game where the camera does change, but it is not the player choice. This is meant to create some dramatic effects, and such. I''d like your opinions on this, and the use of the camera. President

If you have freedom with the 3rd person and 1st person view, you may run into a problem with consistency when you do 3rd person dramatic. Unless it''s compelling (say, like a special action mode), I think the user might feel that you''ve suddenly taken control away from them.

What are your team-mates reason for wanting 1st person? Breathtaking views? Ranged attacks? Or is it just to be competitive with other genres? There should be a compelling gameplay reason for 1st person, IMHO.

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Just waiting for the mothership...

That''s exactly the way Tomb Raider''s camera works. You''re normally in 3rd person. You can change to a semi-first person view when having her look certain ways, (it is 1st person if she''s backed up against a wall) and when she approaches cliffs, jumps over some deap areas, etc. the camera will move away to give you a wide angle view, often accompanied by music.

I like it. I like it a lot. I''m planning on using a similar method with my game.

The important thing to remember is, don''t have the camera suddenly appear in the new location, have it instead move quickly there. Otherwise, the player might loose track of which way they were moving.

E:cb woof!

But sometimes when you would like accuracy and 1st person view to make an accurate jump on a ledge oppposite you the camera would turn and point at Lara''s face,screwing up every accuracy efforts.

Tomb raider''s camera sometimes really pissed me off!

But it helped in having a real view of the world around you.
Not just in front of you(1st person - Doom style) or on top of you(3rd person - Classic RPG top view style).

The disadvantages of the pre-referenced views are:

RPG 3rd person shows no sky and so you lose atmosphere.
And the Doom style 1st person view''s difference from real 1st person view(everyday life) is that the screen is a RECT but your eyes'' view isn''t.

So i agree that your camera should work like TRaider''s but please make it work accurately for the player.

Voodoo4