I'm creating a Flashbang grenade for my game, ROBLOX. The most common way people play is in over-the-shoulder 3rd person mode. If a flashbang grenade goes off, you should be blinded if: A. Your character has line of sight to the grenade B. Your camera has line of sight to the grenade Is there a standard for this in 3rd person action games? I haven't played any recently.

I think it would be much more user friendly to do juset B. How is the player supposed to know if the character has a line of site to the flashbang? The only way they can tell is if they can see it themselves.

Are you saying A AND B or A OR B, or just one?

I don't think I've ever played a 3rd person game with flash bang grenades before, but I imagine I'd be pretty annoyed if I had my avatar stand behind a wall (like right near the edge), and I still got flashed because my camera had line of sight to the grenade. That's an argument against the A OR B approach, I guess.

I imagine A AND B could be problematic if the player gets in a position where there's something between the camera and the player (sounds like he shouldn't), and doesn't get flashed, even though he should. From most 3rd person games I've played, this should be a rare occurrence, and probably not something the player can do on purpose at-will, but I don't really know what your game is like.

If you're just trying to choose one condition, then if the camera is really bound over the shoulder of the avatar, just doing character line of sight might be best (for the reason I mentioned earlier). If the camera has a lot of play, it might be best to do just the camera line of site, for the reasons capn mentioned.

Work out a system based on where your character actually is, and partly simulate how a real flash bang works.

If you are in a dark room, and one goes off at eye level: You're blind, for a good while.

If you are in a bright room and one goes off somewhere to your side, you're blinded, but not for long.

Balance things out so it is mostly affected by what the model would see. I would be rather annoyed if one went off basically behind my character, but had the same effect as if it had gone off beside him. What the camera itself can see might have some effect on if you are temporally blinded, but it should be very minor. After all, most third person shooters have the camera fairly focused on what the character could likely see by moving their eyes/head a little.

A is most likely better,

I wouldnt treat this any different from a nnormal explosion, i.e. if the player ducks behind a pillar etc for protection, then theyre safe

I vote B if the camera is directly controlled by the player. You likely don't have a button that makes your character squinch his eyes shut, roll his head to the side and hold his ears between his free hand and his shoulder, which is what I'd likely do if I became aware of an impending flash grenade detonation. As a player, all I can do in that case is point the camera somewhere else, which is the gameplay move that indicates that the player has anticipated the flashbang and is acting to mitigate its effect. Reward that action with a mitigated effect, and it'll feel right.

Does the flashbang have to white out your view? What if you used method A but instead it temporary ruined your accuracy or remapped your movement control directions.

A allows you to take cover intuitively. Everything else is going to attack the character, not the camera, so why would one type of weapon suddenly completely change that?

B requires "managing the camera" which carries notoriously bad connotations.

Why dont you do A and B. If its not in the camera then it doesn't do it, but if it's in the camera and not in LOS of the player, then it still doesn't do it.