Just another, First Person Camera thread

[Tanzubbora_Adran_Quzx_pon]

I looked on here at other First Person Camera threads to kind of gather my wits but instead of posting again on one of those, I’ll create my own post.

I don’t use the First Person Camera mode, but I would very much like to, if only it were better.
I find the First Person Camera mode to be incredibly janky and near imposable to use to navigate. I like the idea of there being a First Person Camera mode in EVE, but the fact that it is an active feature and is in its current state boggles my mind.

The other forums about the First Person Camera mode all had at least two things in common. One, being that it needs some work to done on how the camera works when attempting to look at other things in space, and the second is that not a soul would dare to use it in a PvP scenario. When attempting to move the camera to look anywhere other than directly in front of you the directional range of the camera is very limited, and the camera doesn’t stay where you left it, but jolts back to center. This results in a lack of awareness. This combined with what I can only describe as visual glitches when turning or pitching renders this feature without any practical use and would put anyone at a severe disadvantage in a PvP scenario.
I’d like to see further development to the First Person Camera mode, it is and active feature that desperately needs some work. Though, I’d also hope that development on this feature would exceed expectations, making it an equally viable counterpart to the Orbit Camera mode and the Tactical Camera mode.

An example of my highest hopes for the development of this feature would be akin to the dramatic changes to Upwell Hangars. First Person Camera mode has the potential to be a beautiful masterpiece. Though, unlike Upwell Hangars, prior to their beautiful changes, they were perfectly and acceptably functional. The First Person Camera mode as it is currently, is not.
Another example, and perhaps I’m wrong to draw this comparison but, both Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous have gorgeous First Person Camera mode’s. Now, I don’t want EVE Online to imitate or try to be either of these games. But to ignore or deny that there is competition would be ignorant (there was a Lego challenge between the EVE community and the SC community). And to ignore or deny that the First Person Camera mode in EVE has significant flaws is wilful blindness. After all, it is one of seven equally sized buttons on the H.U.D. I can imagine how making the First Person Camera mode more visually desirable could be done in a uniquely EVE way. However, visual appearance is secondary to function, and it is really the lack of functionality that is the issue here. I merely want to see CCP develop EVE Online’s First Person Camera mode, and I would hope the changes would include some visual updates.

I anticipate that a counter argument to what I’ve said is that EVE Online isn’t meant to be played in First Person Camera mode. There may be some merit to this… but, I would ask, why then is it even a feature?

If you use the First Person Camera mode, or even if you’ve only looked at it once or twice, please share your experience of it with me. Do you find it to function without flaw? What changes would you hope to see? Would you like to see it removed all together? What are your thoughts?

• Just another capsuleer. o7

[Rail_J_kar]

@Tanzubbora_Adran_Quzx_pon

why then is it even a feature?

It was tacked on at a later date so that’s why it feels a bit janky to you. The engine itself is a bit of a relic of the past, you’ll notice this if you fly straight up or down, and then stop. Your ship will then try to reorient on the galactic plane.

In other words, some of your complaints would have to be addressed by using a new game engine. Or at least severe rewrites to what it currently in use. I don’t think the latter will happen though, since the devs are pretty scared to touch any of that old code. (Things tend to break in terrible ways when they do. Like when they tried to make use of the billboard code to let players advertise on them, and it turned off concord.)

Even in the normal view, you don’t have a huge degree of control over how the ship flies when you use the orbit function. The game does not take your current trajectory into account when calculating an orbit path, which causes your ship to slow down before it can adjust to the path and to path into objects you could otherwise avoid if it took your intended path into consideration. .

There are a few things that could be done to make fpv better, mainly in relation to target selection, but I’m not sure it’s worth the dev time. The reason for that is: first person will never be as good as the default in eve, purely from a spatial awareness standpoint. (This is a large reason why third person cameras exist in games.)

You used the example of star citizen, but you have to realize the engagement ranges in EVE are much larger (and more realistic.) The only reason we can hit targets at over 10km is because the computer does it all for us.

I would suggest you try out Valkyrie but it’s been shut down. Which is kind of sad to me… but personally I think the main issue both Valkyrie and Dust had, were that they weren’t integrated into the main game. (Bombardment doesn’t count as integration.)

Dust was competing with a plethora of shooters that have deep successful roots. And Valkyrie had f2p competitors that were generally pretty decent (such as star conflict.)

Time will tell if CCP’s new shooter will be successful, but I hope they learn more toward an open world destiny / warframe, than a match making game. Or at least if they use a match based game mode, that it actually has impact on the larger game world.

A final thought: based on some of the cinematics we’ve gotten with the minmatar and caldari trailers, we might see some first person flying in the shooter. With it being a different game engine it should be pretty enjoyable. Infinity battlescape is another game you could check out. It would be absolutely awesome if we can fly into the atmosphere from space like you can in that game. I would love it if I could fly a fighter in a fleet with all the rest of you EVE nerds.

[Gerard_Amatin]

Due to the way EVE combat happens (in 3D space, where you need to be able to see everything that’s happening around you, in front and behind, and need to be able to quickly switch camera angle for various reasons like for example to see where hostile ships are jumping or warping to, to do directional scans or simply to look at different ships on the battlefield), I can never see the First Person Camera ever become more than a fun but useless gimmick.

Unless you want to severely limit your gameplay for roleplay reasons or for nice cinematic shots for a video, there’s no reason to use First Person Camera, even if it were somehow improved. A first person view simply isn’t sufficient to play EVE.