Improving the use of First-Person view in games (experience)

So, first person games are supposed to make the player "feel" like the character, whereas your average movie or third person game is basically a "view" of what is happening. That being said, there are certain things that make the use of the first person perspective more engaging.

1) [Lack of] motion blur. Motion blur is a purely cinematic effect. It only occurs due to the limitations of viewing/recording devices like cameras. In a true first-person view, motion blur is extremely subtle unless someone is having vision problems for some reason (either as a result of medical problems or being drunk or whatever). In fact, the human brain shuts off your optic nerve many times a day during periods of high motion because it simply does not like blurriness. This is called saccadic masking. Therefore, in order for a game to provide a good first-person experience as opposed to a cinematic one, shouldn't this be used much, much less? Think about it. If there is a lot of motion on screen anyway, your vision is automatically going to focus on certain parts and blur others. Doing it in game **for the purposes of providing a first-person experience** is actually less realistic and wastes processing and other hardware resources which would be better used elsewhere.

2) HUD bobbing: This isn't really very realistic in many implementations. There aren't really a lot of HUDs in real life, but as a proof of concept take a pair of cheap work goggles. Draw a little ammo counter, health meter, whatever on it. Put the goggles on and make sure they fit reasonable well. Now shake your head around. The images on the goggles shouldn't move much relative to your view. If they do that means your goggles aren't tight enough. At the most they should only move like a few millimeters. In games where super soldiers have power armors, etc. that explain the ammo counter, etc. then wouldn't you think that their helmet would be fitted reasonably well since it is used in combat scenarios? For first person games where the HUD is just there to assist the player and there isn't an in-game reason for it then the HUD bobbing is completely pointless and just makes it harder for the player to see the extra information that the HUD exists solely to show them.

3)Six degrees of freedom: In most games with a first person perspective, there are only 4 degrees of freedom. You can look up, down, to the left (turn to the left), to the right (turn to the right). However, in real-life there are two other ways in which you can look: to the left (*rotate* to the left) and to the right (*rotate* to the right). This is in games like ARMA, flight sims, and vehicles in games like Battlefield, but wouldn't it be more immersive if this was present in more games. For example, in an FPS, you are running towards a certain area. However, just to be safe, you turn around every so often to make sure nobody is following you. With 4 degrees of freedom, you have to stop running, and turn to the left or the right and backpedal. Then you turn around again and start running in that direction. Instead, what if there was a button to hold that would allow you to only rotate your view left or right? In the scenario above, this would allow you to look behind you or to the side but still keep you running forward and have your weapon/item pointing forward. In most scenarios turning your view is just as fast as rotating your view, but it would be more immersive and, in very specific scenarios like above be useful. I don't know about you, but it annoys me to have to quit running, turn around and backpedal, then turn around and start running again, especially if you are playing a game where this kind of cautious behavior is needed.

4) Minor view obstructions

So, in games with a first-person view, the view often contains no obstructions. For example, if you are playing a game where the main character wears glasses, the only way you would ever know that is if there was a cutscene.. they do not appear in your view of the game world.

In real-life, most everyone "sees" their nose all the time, but their brain sort of tunes it out. That would explain why you don't see first person views with a nose obstructing the field of vision.

However, I noticed while playing Halo 4 at the end of 2012 that you could actually see Master Chief's helmet in your field of vision. You could see the "bill" of it as well as the sides, etc.

See here: http://www.gamertheory.com/uploads/games/halo4campaign5.jpg

I remember thinking this was pretty cool, especially when running or looking up, etc.you could see more of the "bill" in your field of vision. It didn't obstruct your view too much so it wasn't annoying. Wouldn't it be cool if more games did this? What if the Half-Life games had had Gordon Freeman's glasses in the field of vision like this:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/10/01/article-0-154A31EE000005DC-185_634x423.jpg

If there was an explosion, or you fell from a high distance or some other jarring event, the character might automatically reach up and adjust them. Looking up or down would make more or less of them come into your field of vision (looking left and right would not, in first person games you never actually turn your head, just rotate your body.. unless you're playing a game like ARMA or a flight sim where you get 6 degrees of freedom where you can hold a button down to look around). Or, say your character was wearing googles for some reason. Maybe he is skiing or going scuba diving. Having them visible in your field of vision would be more immersive.

Thoughts, comments?

I think you should be able to see your feet when you look down. There are some modern games that don't do this.

Oh by the way good post I agree with a lot of it

Oh, yeah, you should definitely be able to see your feet, legs, etc. when looking down. Agree 100%. I remember watching the pre-release interviews for Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway back in the day where they had you being able to do this, and this was actually the way that you checked how many grenades and magazines that you had left if you opted to turn off the HUD for a more realistic experience (something I did in the two preceding it... no suppression indicators, health, crosshair, etc.. made the game much more fun)

I find these quite interesting ideas. Add the ability to see the rest of your body when looking down. If done right, it can further increase immersion. These things are gonna keep us covered until actual VR can be implemented.

I also agree with most of the points you make. I think a certain amount of motion blur is needed, though I agree, it should be minimal. I freaking hate view bobbing, and I turn that shiz off whenever I can. I'm not sure about looking backwards, I don't really see the usefulness of it. View obstructions are the WORST, and I agree, Halo is a notable offender for view obstructions.

Oh, and on the subject of Halo, that game has an unacceptable fov. Any game designer that make a FPS with a fov lower than 90 should be shot into the sun. I HATE low fov in fps'. I know on PC this isn't an issue at all, but for Halo, you had no choice. A high fov isn't acceptable either as it horribly distorts the game. 90 or GTFO.

@EPICCOMMANDER: Haha, I was saying that I like reasonable view obstructions in games (single player only). Halo 4's seemed reasonable and I thought it was cool to actually see the edges of the helmet. If a game had you wearing a helmet that gave you tunnel vision though that would be annoying. I actually have this issue with some of the vehicles in the Battlefield games, especially the attack helicopter and the buggies. It is like they restrict my FOV to like 50

Oh wow. I meant to say I DISagree, and that halo is a notable offender for view obstructions. I'm not sure how I did not notice such a glaring mistake in my post. I do not like the helmet and the fact that it sort of obscures your view, but I'm sure if the fov was higher in halo it may be better. I sort of got distracted talking about the fov because that's my biggest complaint about that game for me.

The only reason I liked it in Halo 4 was because it didn't seem to take that much away from the view, at least for me. My guess is that Halo's overall low field of view is what you dislike, as it is a console only game and many of them never go beyond 60 degrees. That is one reason why some people prefer PC games because that is more often adjustable.

I would say that maybe an option to toggle off these kind of view obstructions would be good.

I don't know if you have ever played Battlefield 3 or 4, but the DPV buggy in that game.. if you drive it in first person view, the metal bars of the frame jut into your field of vision at like 30-40 degrees so you have like no peripheral vision at all. It would be like if a foot on each side of the windshield on your car had black bars on it. That is an example of an annoying view obstruction to me (although you *can* drive in in third person, unless you're playing hardcore mode). Having the very edge of the screen show the metal part of the Spartan helmet seems tame to me.