Saturday, March 12, 2011

Camera angles revisited

  • Switches now can be linked to doors, lights and events. This will add a new layer of puzzling to the game.
  • I decided to revisit the camera, as I have never been 100% happy with it. I spent some time doing research, playing other games and seeing what they do. I saw that the cameras seem to fall into 2 styles (I will name them based on the games I saw them in):

    GTA3 -
    Mouse rotates camera AND player. This means you always look at the back of the player's head.
    UP=walk away from camera
    DOWN=Walk backwards

    Tomb Raider/Just Cause 2/Red Faction: Guerrilla -
    Mouse makes the camera orbit the player. Player only changes direction when moving.
    UP=turn and walk away from camera
    DOWN=turn and walk towards camera

    The advantage of the latter method is that you can have action happen behind the player. Even chase the player. I have recoded the camera to work this way. Looks and feels way better. Unfortunately, it highlights an issue with the actors: They still use BasicEffect and not my custom point lighting. Hence, no pictures today...not until I address that.

  • I have rigged DEMII's model up for animation. Hopefully, my Deled3D to MilkShape to XNA animation path will work issue free. Fingers crossed on that.

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