A thought attacked my mind violently, and I''m here to relieve it. While walking stairs, I thought: why, in FPS games, doesn''t the view (ie. players''s head) slide smoothly while walking stairs? It justs "jumps" up every time you walk up a step. That''s horrible. Then I thought about solutions. In FPS games, ladders have to be treated as special case objects, because normal "you can only step 32 units up" rules don''t cover ladders. Stairs could also be treated as special case, but that wouldn''t be a nice solution. Instead, for all movement in an FPS, you could implement a "step searching algorithm", which would seek the most proper place for the player to place his/her foot on. Then it would smoothly animate the foot to that position. It would of course involve inverse kinematics, but that isn''t impossible to do. This solution would also solve the ladder special case problem: the algorithm could see that the next step of the ladder is a valid position for a foot. This was just a thought, and I''m not making an FPS, and I don''t know how to implement this, but I think it''s still worth investigating. -Jussi "She is the dark The nightmares you hide The pain you feel The suffering inside" - My Dying Bride

Well i guess this would be good if the only reason you put stairs into a FPS was for the asthetic value other wise it would make more sence to just replace all stairs with ramps.

"So you're the one that designed that game are you?"
*Gulp* "Umm, yeah"

I think that''s a bit extreme. It''d probably be easier just to smooth out the players viewpoint so that it doesn''t jump as much.

Didn''t Turok2 on the N64 handle ladders in exactly the way you''re talking about. It''s been awhile since I played it, so I could be mistaken.

-Prairie

quote: Original post by The Senshi

I think that''s a bit extreme. It''d probably be easier just to smooth out the players viewpoint so that it doesn''t jump as much.

I don''t think that''s extreme. It''s only natural that games move away from preanimated stuff, especially if they are intended to look realistic (eg. Rogue Spear). That solution doesn''t solve only stair and ladder problems, it could also conveniently handle tripping, climbing and many other unusual situations.

FPS games haven''t developed so much from Wolfenstein 3D (and Catacomb Abyss ) in terms of gameplay. It''s just better graphics and more complex environment. The only real new ideas in FPS controls since W3D have been looking up and down, jumping , crouching and in a few games, leaning. The player''s viewpoint doesn''t have to be still, and I don''t mean simple bobbing. The player character (PC) doesn''t have to stand or crouch straight. And why is the gun sticking out from the PC''s abdomen?

Come to think of it, controls in games generally haven''t evolved much. Yes, there are fancy new effects and good-looking menus, but what has really changed?

-Jussi

"Thy every look and every grace
so charm whenever I view thee,
''til death overtake me in the chase
still will my hopes pursue thee"
- My Dying Bride